Love, Tussles, and Takedowns (11 page)

“But the will—”

“I’ll hire a lawyer to attend as my proxy if needed but it would save me a lot of money if you could just take care of it and send me the papers to sign.”

“If you took even a fraction of what great-grandfather left you, you wouldn’t have to scrimp and save for a good part of your adult life.”

Hudson shrugged. “I like working for my money. And like I said, while ‘great-grandfather’ may have been great to you and your dad, he was apparently pretty awful to mine. I’m not taking money built off the grave of a broken relationship that was apparently unfixable. Please offer my condolences to your family, and respect my wishes on this. We don’t have to make this into a big joint-family thing.”

“This
is
a joint-family thing.”

Hudson was surprised at how deflated Ben looked at the moment.

“Ben, what’s the big deal? Your dad and my dad are the sons of estranged half-brothers. I know stray puppies with stronger blood ties than what we have. It was nice to be included in something from that side of the family for once but you’re not going to change my mind on this.”

“I thought this would finally be a way for us to reconnect,” admitted Ben, quietly.

Hudson did a double take. “Are you serious?
That’s
why you’ve been hounding me all these months?”

“Well…yeah.”

Hudson couldn’t help but grin over that just-barely-a-slang-word that managed to slip through.

“Dude, you’ve been going about this all wrong. All you had to do was call me up and ask to go catch a game—not golf—or get some beers—not cognac. Did you
really
think starting off every voicemail with a line about how much money the relative my dad hates left me was the best way for us to reconnect?” He tsked. “What are they teaching you in those Ivy League schools?”

The crack in Ben’s composure widened even more as he frowned in embarrassment. “I guess that was rather presumptuous of me to think money would be the only way to convince you.”

“Hell, I’m a cheap date. I’d take two ten-buck pitchers of beer and some bottomless peanuts over several million dollars of antiques any day.”

Lia approached the table again at a snail’s pace. “Is it okay for me to sit now?”

“Sure,” said Hudson. “Ben and I were done catching up.”

Ben tilted his head at the not-so-subtle suggestion that he leave, and Hudson was positive he didn’t like that new little gleam in his eyes.

“Actually, I can stay for few bites,” replied Ben with a grin. “These noodles look delicious.”

Of all the days for the man to finally grow a pair.

Hudson grunted and proceeded to sit through what was no longer a nice date, thanks to his annoying cousin and his elephant-like memory.

A half hour later, Lia was shooting Hudson another playfully scandalized look. Her fifth one of the night. “I swear, you and Gabe need to exchange notes. The pranks you’ve pulled on your cousin are kind of legendary.”

“To be fair, I only pulled pranks on Ben,” he defended. “And they were all just to get him to loosen up a little. Get dirty and color outside the lines for a change.”

“Speaking of getting dirty…” began Ben.

Hudson didn’t stick around for the story he knew would be causing scandalized look number six from Lia. He grabbed their water cups to go refill them at the cooler on the other end of the pavilion. The story was kind of a long one.

He was just sitting back down when one of the truck vendors hollered out,
“Owner of a silver Mercedes with a St. Joseph Hospital license cover, your lights are on.”

Ben’s shoulders started shaking. “I’m flattered you could pick out my car out of a full parking lot.”

Hudson tossed him an innocent look. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. But if that’s your car, you’d better go take care of that. You wouldn’t want to have a dead battery tomorrow before your tee time. Those early morning balls aren’t going to hit themselves you know.”

Lia just shook her head and sipped at her refilled water cup.

Ben leaned down to give Lia a polite peck on the cheek. “It was lovely to make your acquaintance, Lia.”

Hudson felt his back molars grind together.

At the twinkle in Ben’s eyes, he’d noticed. “I’ll call you later, Hudson,” he promised. “You’re right. It was way more fun catching up like this than over some stuffy antiques.”

It actually had been sort of, kind of,
semi-
fun getting to know his cousin again.

Not that he’d ever admit to such a thing without a court order.

“I like him,” commented Lia after Ben and his Mercedes were out of sight. She gathered up their empty plates to dump them in the trash. “He brings out a different side of you.”

“Ben was always a good kid. I just used to mess with him every once in a while to make sure he kept loose.” Even though he was parked in the opposite direction, he followed her as they strolled through town.

“He mentioned you always used to defend him whenever other kids would pick on him.”

“Yeah well, he used to be a scrawny thing. If he got beaten up, I wouldn’t have anyone to mess with anymore.”

“He says you taught him how to ride motorcycles.”

“Strictly to piss off his parents.”

She chuckled. “Do you still ride?”

“Yes and no. I have a Triumph Rocket Roadster back in California. But I can’t take her out much anymore.”

Looking down at his hands, she frowned sympathetically. “Right, because of your hands. I’m sorry, that must be tough. I’ve noticed you flex them a lot like they’re in pain.”

He liked how she didn’t tip-toe around it. She was direct and to the point, without bashing the point through with a big ole mallet like Fiona did.

“My left one is usually in pain. My right, I think I flex to try and feel pain.” He didn’t give her the whole sob story, just the highlights of how one didn’t work right and the other didn’t feel right. “So yeah, braking and working the clutch on my bike isn’t exactly easy.”

They stopped walking and he noticed finally that they were at the stairwell that led up to her apartment.

“You can ride double with me,” she offered. “I could help you work the throttle and the brake.”

Imagining Lia either in his lap or plastered to his back with her arms around him on his bike had him admitting without thinking, “Honey, if I were riding double with you, I can guarantee you that any control over braking and the throttle whatsoever would not be a possibility.”

She got quiet.

Him and his big mouth. “I was kidding, sweetie. We can ride anytime.”

The feeling of a hand on his arm stopped his words.

“Hudson?”

Her dark, expressive eyes were as good as an open book at the moment.

“Yeah, sweetie?” He had to actively try not to reach out and drag her into his arms.

“Where were you planning on staying tonight?”

Good question. He’d just been focused on seeing Lia; he hadn’t thought about it at all. He shrugged. “I can go find a hotel, or worse comes to worse I keep a sleeping bag in my jeep so I can just roll it out at the campgrounds a little north of here.”

“That’s silly. Just stay at my place again.”

He grinned and teased, “If you think you can keep the sex noises down this time, sure. Your couch
was
pretty comfortable.”

She turned and walked backward up her stairwell then, giving him a look he couldn’t quite decipher. “After all the flirty little things you’ve let slip in at the end of our phone conversations, you’re seriously telling me that
my sofa
is where you want to sleep tonight?”

Suddenly, he was jumping out of a chopper without a parachute, her innocent questions taking on a bigger meaning he’d missed entirely. His gaze tangled with hers. “We both know the answer to that, sweetheart. Just like we both know why the couch is where I’ll be staying firmly planted until morning.”

“Is this about the whole virginity thing?” queried Lia with a fierce little frown that told him she was ready to go to the mat on this one. “Because you know, there
is
a very obvious remedy for that.”

“Not going to happen, Lia. You deserve so much better for your first time.”

She gave him a look that said he’d just given her a non-answer…and one she considered not very bright, at that.

“I’m trying to do right by you, honey. Yes, it’s been impossible not to flirt with you these past few weeks—you’re just so sweet to tease. But I’m leaving in a few months. You don’t want to lose your virginity to a guy who’s not going to stick around.”

“Becaaause…” she stretched out the word, brow raised in challenge, “every virgin in the history of time has stayed with the person he or she lost their virginity to?”

He shut his mouth. Criminy, she was going to fight him on this.

This was one battle he absolutely was not prepared for.

“Face it, Hudson, there could be far worse ways for me to lose my virginity. Like having my first time be with a man who has all the geographical qualifications…only to later wish it’d been you all along.”

Honestly, give him a knife fight with dull blades over a battle of wits with a sharp woman determined to get her way.

He tried a different tactic to make her see reason. “I like you, Lia. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. Truth is, even if you weren’t a virgin, you’re just not the sort of girl that guys like me usually pick up at a bar for stateside sleepovers and temporary hook-ups between tours. You’ll end up getting hurt and I’m just not willing to let that happen.”

Irrefutable argument, right there.

“Why would you automatically think it would be a temporary hook-up?”

Okay, irrefutable to
his
gender, at least.

“The mere fact that I’m leaving in a few months would make this the exact definition of one.”

“
Or
could it be just the type of relationship that ends on schedule in a few months?”

He sighed. Her cuteness carried some serious firepower.
“Lia, that’s not an actual thing.”

“Tons of relationship don’t even last that long,” she argued as if he hadn’t spoken.

True.

“So unless you’re telling me that our being together would be just about sex, I still disagree with you. Is that what you’re trying to say?” she asked with a slight waver in her bravado. “That all you want from me is just sporadic bouts of sex for the next few months?”

Hell no, he didn’t want
just
anything from her, he wanted…
everything
. Therein was the problem. He sighed. “No, it wouldn’t be just about sex, Lia. I don’t think this thing between us has ever been only about sex.”

A radiant smile hit her lips in response to that, before she concluded, “So then it wouldn’t be a temporary hook-up for us. More like a…relationship with a shelf life. A ‘best by’ expiration date, if you will,” she teased lightly.

“Are you comparing a relationship with me to a can of soup?”

He kind of hated that.

“You said you had a few months before you have to go back to California, right? Then definitely not a can of soup.” She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “More like a box of Thanksgiving stuffing—my favorite.”

He liked stuffing too, loved it actually. For him, it was the best part of Thanksgiving. “Do you make good stuffing?” he asked for no logical reason.

Her burst of laughter was a clear ‘no.’ “Out of the box, sure. I can follow cardboard directions like no one’s business. But otherwise, my brothers will tell you I’m not that great of a cook.”

Well, thankfully for them, he was. He’d have to show her this Thanksgiving.

What the hell?

“We’ve gone horribly off track here,” he muttered more to himself than her.

“You’re right, we have. You were still in the middle of making up more reasons why the next few months can’t constitute a relationship for us.”

“You don’t go into a relationship knowing it’s doomed to fail. If it fails on its own after a period of time, that’s different.”

“Why would it be a failure? Just because it ends? Can’t it be a successful relationship that was shorter than others?”

Damn her and her twistedly logical reasoning…which was even starting to make sense to him.

“Fine.” She crossed her arms in a this-is-my-final-offer pose. “We can call it a prototypical ‘friends with benefits’ relationship if that makes you feel better. But no more excuses. Hudson, you and I both know that our futures can change with the speed of a bullet.”

Did he ever.

“Expiration dates are a part of life. I’d never let something like a shelf life hold me back from something potentially great. If I did, I’d never buy corned beef and marble rye from the deli.”

Shoot, now he didn’t know if he was hungry or…well, he was definitely hungry, and now the woman has managed to tie herself to his all-time favorite sandwich.

Judging from the twinkle in her eye, she darn well knew it too.

He’d have to keep his wits about him for the next few months—

Criminy
. She got him. He exhaled gruffly and mentally looked around for a white flag. “So ‘friends with benefits’ for the next few months? That’s really what you want?”

She grinned. “Is that a yes?” More eye dancing.

He leaned in and gave his fierce little negotiator a hungry, but brief kiss. “Yes.”

She beamed and jumped up into his arms.

Smiling, he conceded that maybe she was right. Not having her in his arms for the next few months no longer seemed like an option. Maybe they
could
just enjoy each other’s company and not have it be such a big deal.

“So now about these ‘benefits,’” she pressed.

Aaand
they were back to it being a
very
big deal.

“I’m still not taking your virginity. You’ve held onto it this long.”
You’re not wasting it on me.
He kept the last statement to himself but the darkening of her eyes made him wonder if she could hear his thoughts.

She studied his not-up-for-argument expression for a bit before revealing quietly, “To be clear, my virginity isn’t something I’ve been ‘saving’ or anything like that. I told you I’ve dated. But there was never a real connection with anyone. Beyond that, you and I have talked on the phone enough these past few weeks for you to see that I’m mostly just busy with work.”