“Oh. My. God!” JJ exclaimed. “It’s like arguin’ with a two-year-old.”
“Tell me about it,” Brantley bit out, reaching for her.
When he did, JJ hopped up from her seat, sidestepping him and putting the chair between them.
“I’m not goin’,” she hissed, circling to keep him on the other side of the chair. “And you can’t make me.”
Aw, crap. Why did she go and say that? Like it was a dare or something. Brantley would never back down from a dare.
He cocked his head to the side, studied her momentarily. She could practically see the hamster wheel spinning in his head. No doubt he was devising a plan to get her down those stairs with the least amount of damage done to her, the building, and himself.
“Let it go, B,” she warned, hoping to disrupt his thought process. The man was a former Navy SEAL; it wouldn’t take much for him to come up with a plan and implement it before she even knew what happened.
His eyes narrowed.
For a second, she thought he was going to let it go. She should’ve known better.
Before she could think about which direction to go, the chair slipped out of her grip, rolled across the room, and then Brantley was spinning her, his big, muscular arms wrapping tightly around her from behind. When he lifted her so her feet came off the ground, JJ did the only thing she could…
She rammed her heels into his shins.
“Son of a bitch,” he ground out, setting her back on her feet, instantly reaching down to rub his shin. “Are your feet made of steel? That fuckin’ hurt.”
He was lucky she’d taken her shoes off.
“I’m serious,” JJ said, keeping her voice low and without an ounce of mirth so he would know she really was serious. “I can’t go out tonight. And even if I could, I wouldn’t go to Moonshiners.”
No way would she risk running into Baz. She couldn’t.
When Brantley looked her in the eye, JJ held his gaze, ensuring he saw her sincerity. He of all people knew how difficult the past month had been on her. It didn’t matter that she was at fault, that she’d brought her little world crashing down all on her own. It still had been hard to walk away from Baz.
“Fine,” he said through clenched teeth. “We’ll go out and you can stay here. I’ll spend the night worried about you. If that’s what you want…”
“You arenotgonna guilt-trip me, Walker. No way, no how.”
“Then I guess you’ll have to go with us.”
JJ shook her head. “Can’t.”
“Can.”
“Brantley.” She dragged out his name in warning.
Surely he understood. He’d been there for her this past month. He and Reese both. Ever since she stood Baz up on Thanksgiving, she’d been in a bad place, and they hadn’t given her shit about it. It had been doubly hard on her considering she worked with the sexy blond detective she was doing her best to avoid.
Plus the holidays, being alone for them. Or rather, the third wheel since Brantley was determined to drag her around with them so she wasn’t completely alone.
Needless to say, JJ didn’t want to relive the month of December.
Brantley clearly got the message, because he held up his hands in a sign of surrender. “Fine. You win.”
JJ exhaled, a little surprised but overwhelmingly grateful he was giving up.
“But you have to call me when you leave here,” Brantley insisted. “And when you get home. That way I know you made it safe.”
“I will.” JJ looked past him at Reese. “You want me to take Tesha to my house tonight?”
Reese was immediately shaking his head. “No. I’d like her home with us. We’ll be back around midnight.”
