the other end of the couch, picked up the phone and bellowed, “Hello!” His face went from angry disgust
to cold fear. Jay sat straighter in his seat, ready. Anything that could put that look of terror on his
brother’s face was a matter of serious concern. Brad didn’t shake easily.
“Lisa, baby, stop crying I can’t understand you,” Brad said, and Jay was stunned when his brother’s
usual calm voice fell flat. “Tell me what hospital.” Brad held himself still as a statue. “I can be there in ten
minutes, just hang tough, baby.”
“That was Lisa,” Brad mumbled, staring at the phone in his hand as if it were about to bite him.
Jay quirked a brow at him. “Yeah, I gathered that much. What’s up?”
“She’s been in a car accident. She’s at Mount Carmel West.”
“Is she going to be okay?”
“Yeah, I think so.” He scrubbed a hand over his face and muttered, “Fuck, I have to get there and fast. I
don’t want her dealing with all this alone.”
Lisa Quick was Brad’s… Hell, he didn’t really know how to describe Lisa and Brad’s relationship. She
was younger than Brad and Jay both. She was also the only woman Brad had ever referred to as Lisa
baby . Or baby, for that matter.
He’d met Lisa some years back when she came to work for him at his office. She’d taken the job as file
clerk temporarily, but somehow Lisa and Brad had bonded. By the time Lisa quit working for him,
they’d already established a regular weekend ritual. Every Saturday was their day. They’d spend it
together doing silly things. Lisa’s idea, no doubt. Brad wasn’t much of a silly sort of guy. But for Lisa
he’d do just about anything.
Then a thought occurred. Women came in and out of Brad’s life, but Lisa Quick was always there. And
seeing the devastated look on his brother’s face now, Jay didn’t think what Brad felt for Lisa was mere
companionship. There was something more going on in that genius head of his, but Jay was pretty damn
sure his brother was clueless about it.
“So, what about Mara?”
Brad frowned at him, pausing in his mad scramble around the living room as he searched for his
discarded shirt and socks. “Who?”
Yep, just what he thought. Lisa calls and Brad forgets all about Miss. Pom-poms. So, he didn’t think
he’d ever fall for a woman, huh? In a way he was right. He hadn’t fallen, he’d slowly descended. So
slowly in fact, that even he didn’t realize it was a done deal.