The Rented Husband (Southern Nights Series)

Chapter 28

“The Rented Husband”


2012 Copyright All Rights Reserved


Chapter 28


    “Alright,” Brody said cautiously, “Exactly what are you wanting to talk about?”  He settled his shoulder up against the wall and stared back at Olivia’s brother.  The two siblings looked similar but they had there differences as well.  They both shared the same golden shade of blond hair but Cane was a good six inches taller than Olivia and where as Olivia had that coffee brown eye color; her brother’s was of a deep rich brown; almost black in color.

    “So you and my sister are married?” Cane plainly stated to which Brody just simply nodded. He paused then continued with an intrusive gaze that made Brody feel slightly uncomfortable. “When?”

    “Three weeks ago,” Brody recited.  “We went down town, filed for the marriage certificate and then went over to the magistrate's office to finish the job.  Liv didn’t want to make a big deal about it because of Caley’s upcoming wedding so we kept it all on the down low.”  He shrugged his shoulders, saying his piece just the way they had rehearsed it before getting on the flight to come over here.

    Cane still wasn’t buying it.  Not taking his eyes off of Brody, he cocked his head to the side and simply asked, “Why?”

    “Why?” Brody repeated his question, not sure what he meant or was looking for.

    Cane nodded.  "Yeah, I would really like to know why."

    “Well,” he started and looked down to where his fingers were blindly fidgeting with a string that hung off the bottom of his tee shirt.  “Because I love her and she loves me." He took a deep breath and then continued.  "I asked her to marry me and she said yes.  Isn’t that a good enough reason?”

    Cane stayed silent as he studied Brody trying to decipher his response.  After a long minute of insufferable silence he finally spoke.  “Under normal circumstances I would say yeah, that would be plenty for me but we both know this isn’t normal circumstances now, is it Brody?”

    He snapped his head back up.  “What do you mean by normal circumstances?”  As soon as the question was out of his mouth, he realized what he had left out and had to think quick to recover.  “I  take it you mean the pregnancy?”

    A smile kicked up at the corners of Cane’s lips.  “Now you see, that’s the funny thing.  I had a nice little talk with Seth this morning before the two of you arrived and I have reason to believe that you are both lying about Olivia’s condition, so to speak.”  Cane held up his hands as he added finger quotes when he referred to her ‘condition’.

    Brody glanced away unable to meet his all too watchful gaze.  “Now, why would we do something like that?”

    “That’s what I want to know,” Cane replied.  “Why would either of you do something like that? I know my little sister.  And there are certain things that I happen to know she would never do, this being one of them."

    Knowing that he needed to get her brother off his back, he turned to him and schooled his face into an emotionless mask.  “Because we....,” he stopped when he realized that he had snapped a little too loudly and they had started to draw an audience.  Re-focusing on Cane, he lowered his voice and added, “We didn’t plan for it to happen, but I’m not going to say I’m sorry that it did happen.”

    Cane stared at the man who was obviously hiding something and he wanted now, more than ever to fetter out what that something was.  “Brody, look at me,” he ordered.

    Brody obediently lifted his head.

    He pinned him with his gaze.  “Just because my eyes are brown, doesn’t mean I’m full of shit.  Seth told me that Olivia was blitzed last night and the one thing that I know about my baby sister is that if she had any inkling that she might be pregnant, she wouldn’t drink anything stronger than orange juice.  So,” he said, pushing himself off of the wall, closing some of the distance between Brody and him, “Do you want to try that answer again.”