Kristen Blooming (22 page)

“Not this time…but you might get wet,” Brandon warned her, leaving Kristen even more confused on what they planned, but they weren’t spilling any more details.

No matter how much Kristen probed and prodded, they only teased her back. In the end, it really didn’t matter. Kristen knew, whatever they planned, she’d have a good time. After all, she’d be with them.

First, though, they dropped her off home with the promise that they’d be back in an hour to pick her up. That gave Kristen more than enough time to get ready. Just as she’d expected, Gwen didn’t mind lending her an outfit. The hard part was making sure she didn’t go off the deep end and leave her half-naked. The bikini she had no intention of showing off did a good enough job of that.

Of course, if it were just Dylan, Brandon, and her, she might change her mind. Just the thought of being that close to naked with them had her remembering how good it had felt to feel Brandon skin-to-skin when he’d kissed her at the pool party. It had been electrifying.

And he’d said it wouldn’t just be kisses.

A sense of such excitement flooded her with such strength she couldn’t help but giggle. This was going to be the best day of her life. She could just sense it.

“Oh God. Look at you. You’re glowing.” Normally that would have been a compliment, but the way Gwen bit out the words, it was clear she was disgusted. “You’ve really got it bad for those two idiots, don’t you?”

“They’re not idiots,” Kristen countered, allowing her defense of them to say it all.

She did have it bad, bad enough to consider dating both men at the same time. Kristen wasn’t sure how it would all work out, but she was willing to try and to trust that Dylan and Brandon would know how to manage things.

“You are in for quite a shock,” Gwen warned her. “Men are only in love for as long as they’re hard.”

“I wish you wouldn’t be so cynical.” Kristen frowned at her cousin. “There is reason to hope.”

Gwen shot that down instantly. “No. There isn’t. Men are never loyal. It’s against their nature.”

“That’s not true. Just think of my father,” Kristen insisted, certain her father had never strayed. He was an honorable man, a family man, but Gwen’s smile sent a cold tendril winding through her.

“Yeah, look at your daddy.”

“What do you mean by that?” Kristen demanded to know, puckering up instantly in defense of her father, but before she could lecture Gwen on her father’s finer attributes, a knock echoed through the house.

“Your lover boys are here.” Gwen’s smile turned more mischievous as she slipped back out of Kristen’s bedroom and headed for the front door.

Kristen raced after her, worried her cousin might ruin her date, again. She got distracted, though, by the sight of Brandon in his shorts as Gwen opened the front door. They hung down low along with his oversized shirt, but there was no hiding the power of the muscles beneath. He was long, hard, and so damn hot he made her knees weak.

“Gwen.” He greeted her cousin with a scowl that lightened immediately as his eyes skipped over Gwen to settle on Kristen. “Hey, beautiful. You ready?”

“Where you guys headed?” Gwen asked as she slipped past Brandon. “Oh, I see. It’s lake day, huh?”

That question drew Kristen’s attention past Brandon to where Dylan’s truck idled by the curb. There was a fast-looking boat hitched up behind the truck that left Kristen unnerved.

“It’s a perfect day,” Brandon shot back, his smile growing as his eyes remained locked on Kristen. “But any day with my princess is bound to be perfect.”

“Oh please.” Gwen groaned as she fished out a pack of cigarettes from their hiding place behind the sconce that hung near the door. “You’re going to make me sick.”

Kristen blinked, her attention turned by the sight of her cousin snapping the pack against her wrist. “You’re still smoking?”

“Yeah.” Gwen paused to cast Kristen a pointed look. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because…it’s not healthy.” Kristen quickly caught herself before she revealed the truth.

Gwen still hadn’t mentioned her pregnancy, and Kristen didn’t know what she intended to do about the matter. Still, smoking was a horrible habit that she didn’t approve of, whether Gwen kept her baby or not.

“Please.” Gwen snorted. “Next you’ll be nagging me about not going to church.”

“Well, I’m sure Pittsview has some lovely churches,” Kristen insisted, telling herself that wasn’t nagging.

“Yeah, Gwen, maybe next Sunday we could all go check out First Citizens Baptist,” Brandon suggested a little too eagerly, causing Kristen to frown up at him.

She knew her parents were a little much, but he didn’t have to be so gleeful about trying to avoid another service with them. A second later Kristen realized that wasn’t his intent.

“I’m kind of wishing we’d gone there today.” Brandon directed that at Kristen, but she could tell by the sparkle in his eyes he was taunting her cousin. “After all, there was quite a spectacle with the sheriff and Heather Lawson all but announcing their engagement. Everybody is talking about it.”

Kristen froze as those words trickled out of Brandon’s mouth. She felt gut-punched and could only imagine how Gwen was feeling. Actually, she didn’t have to imagine. Gwen’s response was instantaneous.

“Bullshit!”

“Sorry, Gwen.” Brandon apologized wearing a smile that made a mockery of his words. “The sheriff is officially off the market.”

“No way!” Gwen chunked the pack she was crushing in her hand down, and Kristen would have loved for her to stomp on it, but Gwen stepped over them as she wagged a finger at Brandon. “No fucking way! You’re lying!”

“Maybe you better go make a few calls,” Brandon suggested, but Gwen was already shoving past them.

Only Kristen, though, saw the tears in her eyes. The door slammed shut a second later, and Kristen felt torn. She knew just who to blame for that. Turning a frown on Brandon, she glared at him hard enough to have him holding up his hands.

“She was going to find out sooner or later, beautiful, so don’t give me that look.”

Kristen figured he had that right, but that still didn’t excuse his smile. “Yes, well, you didn’t have to enjoy it so much, did you?”

“Yes, I did,” Brandon answered honestly, grabbing on to her hand and beginning to tug her down the steps. “And since you’re on the wrong side of the door to slam it in my face this time, you might as well forgive me and agree to come and have some fun.”

“Yes, well, I should probably still go check on her,” Kristen murmured, glancing back at the house as Brandon all but pulled her across the small yard.

“Don’t waste your time. I can tell you how that conversation would go.” Brandon paused by the truck door to shoot Kristen another quick smile. “But I wouldn’t want to offend you with the obscene language your cousin is spewing right about now.”

He was probably right on that point. Gwen was no doubt raging, and when she finally calmed down, she’d either lock herself in her room or go out. There really was nothing for Kristen to do, so she let Brandon lift her up into the cab, but that didn’t mean she stopped worrying.

“Hey, princess.” Dylan greeted her with a smile as Brandon followed her into the cab. “What’s with the frown?”

“Gwen’s upset,” Brandon answered for her.

“Oh.” Dylan didn’t sound as if he cared, but Kristen did.

“And Kristen, being such a sweetheart, is upset for her,” Brandon tacked on.

“It’s just a…delicate time for Gwen.” Kristen hesitated over her words, not certain if she should be honest about Gwen’s condition.

It really wasn’t her business and certainly not her business to tell, but she wanted to talk about it, wanted to know what her men thought, and she could trust them, couldn’t she?

“Delicate? Gwen?” Dylan snorted over each word and shook his head. “Honey, you’re wearing some seriously rose-colored glasses if you buy that crap. Gwen is as hard as most nails.”

“She’s pregnant.”

Those two words popped out without permission from her mind, but Kristen didn’t regret them. She knew this was a big step, but if she was willing to give them her heart and body, she might as well risk her secrets would be safe along with them.

“Holy shit!” Dylan’s jaw dropped as Brandon started shaking his head.

“No way.” Brandon rejected her words without any hesitation. “Gwen knows better than that…unless, of course, it was intentional.”

Brandon and Dylan shared a look over her head that had Kristen frowning.

“Pity that fool,” Dylan muttered, and Kristen started to pucker up.

“There is no reason to pity a man for having to share a child with my cousin. Gwen may be a little wild, but she’s got a good heart.”

“And you got a big one if you believe that,” Dylan shot back.

How was Kristen supposed to argue against that? “Okay then, but it was an accident.”

“You’re certain?” Brandon asked, clearly not in agreement.

“If Gwen was going to get intentionally pregnant by anybody, then it would be the sheriff,” Kristen pointed out. “He’s the one she loves, and clearly it’s not him.”

“That’s for sure.” Dylan nodded. “Alex wised up a long time back. He hasn’t touched Gwen since.”

“What do you mean? Wised up?” Kristen demanded to know, ready to defend her cousin once again, but she was blindsided by Dylan’s next revelation.

“She had the sheriff, okay? She had her chance,” Dylan corrected himself. “But then she tried to play one of her games, tried to make him jealous by sleeping with those idiots, Killian and Adam.”

“That was so stupid,” Brandon grumbled with a roll of his eyes. “I don’t know why women think stupid games like that will get a man to admit to loving them. If a man loves you, he’ll tell you.”

There was a grim finality to those words that had Kristen glancing up at him in wonder. “But you said you’d fallen in love with me.”

Brandon’s face lit up with the kind of smile that shined pure warmth straight into Kristen’s soul. Then he was kissing her, a gentle rub of his lips at first, but as usual, things spun a little out of control, and it was only the need for air that finally broke them apart.

Their lips were still almost touching as Brandon’s thumb rolled slowly across her cheek in a sweet caress that had her leaning into the hard strength of the palm cupping her jaw.

“I do love you, beautiful,” Brandon whispered. “You’re funny and sweet and innocent, and yet you have the strength to stand up for what you want, for what you think is right. Your light shines from within, Kristen, and I am captivated.”

He said the sweetest things, and she felt the tears flood her eyes. She choked on a breath that she didn’t dare release for fear it would shatter this dream. Then she feared her silence would kill it. Kristen wanted to tell him she loved him, but something just wouldn’t let her.

Brandon seemed to understand. He smiled, a slight hint of sadness tinting the twist of his lips as his thumb rolled across her cheek once again. “I know. It’s okay. I can wait.”

That was the sweetest thing any man had ever said to her. Overcome by the moment, Kristen leaned up to brush a kiss across his lips before pulling back and giving him all that she could in that moment.

“I never dreamed I’d meet a man like you.”

“And what about me?” Dylan broke in, causing Kristen to glance back over at him. He might have sounded a little sullen, but he was wearing a grin that left no doubt of how good he was actually feeling. “You ever dream about me, princess?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Kristen retorted tartly, not about to confess to the silliness of her own dreams.

“You can show me later, princess.” Dylan shot a wink in her direction as he pulled off the road and into a landing that was already maxed out with trucks and trailers. “Right now we’ve got something more important to teach you.”

“How to swim?” Kristen took a guess, not thrilled by the idea at all.

“Swim?” Dylan snorted as he began to turn the truck around, backing the boat toward the drive that led down into the lake. “Please, this is much more important. We’re going to teach you how to fish.”

Fishing turned out to be fun, despite Kristen’s hesitation to actually keep the fish. It wasn’t as though she didn’t like eating the fish, but she felt a little sad for them as they banged around in the cold storage. Dylan had the cure. He just turned the music up in a gesture that touched her heart.

They did a lot of that through the afternoon. The first was when they’d tucked her safely into a life vest and made her swear not to take it off. Then they’d produced a cooler full of Popsicles and juice, which was just perfect for her.

What else was perfect for her was Dylan and Brandon.

They made her laugh. They made her think. Sometimes they even made her frown and argue. Most of all, though, they set her free. When Kristen was with them, she felt unrestrained, allowed to express her feelings and thoughts without censure or worry that she’d draw disapproval from either of them, even when they disagreed with her.

They didn’t do that much, all three of them seeming to like and dislike the same kinds of things and holding similar opinions, though both Dylan’s and Brandon’s tended to be harsher than hers. That just made things more lively as they battled to corrupt her and Kristen fought to remain open-minded.