Maybe This Time (3 page)

“I’m the man,
sweetheart. You’re my sister, I'll take care of you,” he tells me
earnestly, his eyes now serious.

“I need to
find a job, Xander, what else am I gonna do around here all
day?”

“You could
study something, find something you like,” he offers.

“I do wanna
study something, but I’m gonna work, too,” I tell him, taking a
seat on the bar stool.

“You’re
stubborn,” he says with a sigh. “Another thing we have in
common.”

“Really? And
here I was thinking the only thing we had in common was our
extremely good looks,” I wiggle my eyebrows at him.

He tilts his
head back, laughing. “That too, Summer, that too.”

“What’s so
funny?” Reid asks as he walks into the house. I instantly stiffen,
aware I’m wearing only short shorts and a cami.

Great, just
great.

“Does no one
knock when they come to this house?” I ask. No one answers.

“Go get
dressed, Summer,” Xander says quietly, his tone demanding. I roll
my eyes, but walk to my room, grabbing my clothes to change into. I
head for the bathroom, taking a quick shower and brushing my
teeth.

I dress in a
figure hugging pair of jeans and a peach knit sweater, giving my
hair a quick iron so it stays in place. My hair is neither straight
nor curly, so I choose to go with one or the other.

When I walk
out, conversation ceases. I see Dash is now here as well, leaning
against the wall, knee up.

“Where’s
Ryan?” I ask, since he seems to be the only one missing. I see Reid
scowl, his eyes flashing.

“Don’t worry
your little head, he'll be here,” he snaps, his expression
shuttered.

Okaaaaaay,
then.

“Charming,” I
mutter to myself as I walk towards my brother.

“Morning,
Summer,” Dash says, his eyes roaming all over my face and body.

“Hey, Dash.” I
offer him a small smile. He looks hot wearing a pair of dark jeans
and a black T-shirt.

“I’m gonna do
some grocery shopping,” I tell them, searching through my handbag
for my car keys. The pantries are practically bare and the fridge
only has leftover pizza, beer and some limes.

Which I assume
are for tequila shots.

“Wait, I’ll
come with you,” Xander says.

“I think I can
handle going to the store without a babysitter,” I tell him, giving
him my best ‘I dare you to say otherwise’ look.

“Yeah, but do
you know where it is?” He smirks, leaning back against the
fridge.

“Surely it
can’t be that hard to find,” I say, rolling my eyes. I finally find
my keys and pull them out.

“I can take
you,” Dash offers. My eyes find Reid, who looks delicious himself
in a snug pair of worn jeans and a black sweater. I swallow hard.
His body is just phenomenal. Broad shouldered and lean hipped, the
man has the perfect amount of muscle. When I glance up into amused
blue eyes, I cringe. The last thing I want is for him to think I’m
interested in any way.

I clear my
throat and tear my gaze away from him. “I’ll be fine, but thanks,
Dash,” I say, waving to them before walking out of the house.

I glance
around the neighbourhood quickly, before getting into my car.
Pulling out my phone, I look for the nearest supermarket, which
turns out to be only about five minutes away. I frown when I see
the neighbour peeping over the fence, blatantly staring. He quickly
ducks when he sees me looking. I shake my head and drive off,
deciding to detour and get familiar with the area.

“You sure it’s
safe for her to go out alone?” I ask Xander, not so sure about it
myself.

“She’ll be
fine, it’s just down the road and no one knows who she is.”

“Yet,” I say,
knowing it’s what everyone else in the room is thinking.

“No one will
mess with her,” Dash says confidently. Too confidently, and that’s
his weakness. I try to keep one step ahead, while Dash relies on
his reputation way too much. It’s true, I’m probably being
paranoid. But we do have enemies, and it’s always better to be safe
than sorry.

“That a gamble
you willing to take?” I ask the room. Xander curses, and instantly
goes into his room, coming out minutes later fully dressed.

“I can go keep
an eye,” I offer. The minute the words come out of my mouth I
regret them. It’s not my job to babysit her. Nor should I want to.
Fuck.

“I got it,
she’s my sis, my responsibility,” he says, but he’s wrong. She’s
all of ours, because Jack made her be. Xander leaves in a hurry,
now worried about Summer. I’m sure she’s fine, there’s just a few
things she doesn’t know about this town.

About her
father.

About us.

I think
someone needs to update her, and quick. But hell, what do I know?
This is their decision to keep her in the dark, and it’s not really
my business. I suppose if she was mine, I’d want to keep her safe
and away from all of this, too.

Then why do I
feel slightly guilty?

“Where’s Ry?”
Dash asks, looking up from his phone, pulling me from my
thoughts.

“At the gym,
I’m heading there now before work.” Ryan and I own our own bar,
Knox Tavern. It’s just a small pub, but it’s ours and we do okay
for ourselves. I’d like to think my mother would be proud of us if
she were around.

“Alright. I’m
gonna stick around and wait for Summer.” He's trying to appear
casual, but I see the way his eyes flicker to mine before he looks
back down at his phone.

“You know
she’s off limits, right?” I can’t stop myself from asking.

“Do you?” he
replies.

“Not my type,”
I answer without hesitation. Dash mulls my comment over, before
nodding in agreement.

“You’re right
about that. Summer’s a good girl,” he says, a wistful smile on his
face. It pisses me off. Fuck! She’s only been here one night and
she’s fucking with my head already. With my control.

So what if
she’s hot? I’ve had a lot of hot. Sweet, not so much, but only
because I generally go for women who know what they're getting into
with me. They have no misconceptions of love, romance or forever.
They use me, and I use them. We both have a good time, no harm, no
foul.

Summer seems
like the romance kind. The kind of woman who would try to change a
man like me.

I’m not
changing for a pretty face.

No matter how
stunningly beautiful that face is.

Summer Kane
isn’t for me.

“What’s up
with your neighbour?” I ask curiously, as we carry the last set of
bags from the car. I might have gone a little overboard with the
groceries, but I figure I'll end up cooking for all the guys
anyway. They seem to be a permanent fixture in the house.

“What do you
mean?” Xander asks. I found him in the car park of the supermarket
I was at, and he said he wanted to make sure I found it okay. My
brother is turning out to be a really sweet guy. How wrong my
mother was.

“I dunno.
Nothing,” I tell him, looking over the fence. Xander shrugs. The
only person still in the house is Dash, who is texting on his
phone, a movie running in the background.

“I’m gonna
head to the gym. You gonna see Jack today?” Xander asks, his tone
nonchalant, but his eyes plead with mine.

“What’s the
big deal?” I ask, wondering why everyone’s being so pushy.

“Come on, he
hasn’t seen you in two years. He wants to see you, Summer.”

“And a few
more days won’t kill him,” I say, before leaving the living
area.

My father is a
tough subject for me to discuss. I don’t know him at all. Sure I'd
seen him over the years, once a year to be accurate. My mother let
him visit every year on my birthday and then I wouldn’t see him
again until the next. Even when he did visit, the look on my
mother’s face made me wish he'd just leave. She'd get angry and
moody, but mainly bitter. My mother hated my father, but she loved
him, too. I know that, because so much hate had to stem from
somewhere. When he cheated on her, he turned her love to hate.

Her adoration
to scorn.

My mother
loved me, but she also loved to remind me daily what a piece of
shit my father was for what he did to her, and what a menace Xander
was. I don’t know where my mother got her information from, but she
always had news for me about my brother and all the trouble he was
getting into. It used to hurt, a lot. I don’t think my mother knew
how it affected me, because she was consumed by her hate. But it
hurt me every day to have her say cruel things about my own flesh
and blood, about the brother I hadn’t even met but already loved.
She let her bitterness take over and control her, and then she
passed away without loving another man.

Jack Kane was
it for her.

Apparently he
was
it
for a lot of other women, too. I sigh heavily and lie
down on my bed on my stomach. I need to find a job, and stat. I
have a bit of money saved away, plus what's left of my mother’s
insurance money, but I can’t rely on that for long. I was saving it
for a rainy day. My father had also opened a bank account for me,
with all the child support he paid over the years, but I hadn’t
touched that. Not one cent.

To be honest I
don’t really know how to feel about it. My mother came from a
wealthy family and money was never an issue growing up. She used to
tell me that the best thing a man can do for his children is love
their mother, and he didn’t do that for me. He didn’t love her, at
least not enough, and I paid the price.

I turn on my
e-reader and continue to read about my book boyfriend of the week,
Jake Andrews. If only there were men like Jake Andrews in real
life. A knock on the door pulls me from my book. I puff out a
breath before calling out, “Yeah?”

The door
opens, and in walks the man of the hour. Jack Kane, my father. I
sit up on the bed, surprised.

“Hey, Summer,”
he says softly, his eyes bright.

“Hey, dad.” I
stand up and walk over to give him an extremely awkward one armed
hug.

“You are so
beautiful, baby girl,” he says, shaking his head in awe.

“Thanks,” I
answer shyly. He looks the same. Tall, standing at about 6’1, with
light brown hair and dark eyes, my father is one of those men who
will always be handsome. He must be about forty five now, but apart
from a few laugh lines, he looks younger than his age. He's wearing
jeans, and a leather jacket over a black T-shirt. He probably rode
his motorcycle here.

“You didn’t
wanna see me?” he asks, looking worried.

“Just wanted
to settle in,” I say, blushing. Trust my dad to get straight to the
point.

“I didn’t even
see you last year for your birthday, Summer, it’s been two years
since I’ve seen my own daughter,” he says, brows furrowing.

I shrug,
because I have no idea what he expects me to say to that.

“How’s Xander
treating you?” he asks, thankfully changing the subject.

“He’s
wonderful,” I say, a smile forming on my lips. My brother makes me
feel welcome here, and I feel like I’ve known him my whole
life.

“He loves
you.” I nod, giving him a forced smile. He tells me Xander loves
me, but not him. Again, I have no idea what to say. He exhales, a
look of regret and sadness flashing in his eyes.

“If you ever
need
anything
, you come to me, okay?” he says, his dark
brown eyes staring into mine.

I nod and
force a smile. He scowls, and stares at me like he wants to say
something else, but doesn’t. He gives me a pained smile, and then
leaves.

As soon as the
door closes, I sag onto the bed, relieved. I didn’t have a father
my whole life, and I don’t intend on having one now. Not that I
don’t love him, because I do. But it hurts, even after all these
years.

Truth be told,
I’m scared to let him in. He wasn’t there for me, no matter how
much I wished for it. I didn’t want any money or gifts from him, I
just wanted him. I wanted him to be there for my graduation, for my
sports carnivals and dance recitals. I used to imagine him being
there in the audience one day, watching me, but it never happened.
He let me down each time, because he never came. That was the
hardest, starting to believe what my mother told me, that it was
true - maybe he didn’t want me.

After
everything, it’s just a little unnerving being in his presence. I
still feel like that little girl who wants his attention. If Xander
wasn’t here, I wouldn’t have come at all.

I wouldn’t
have felt that I was welcome.

The next day,
I open the door, surprised to see Reid standing there. And that he
actually knocked for once.

“You knocked,”
I say, stepping aside for him to enter.

“Yeah, well,
it was locked for once.” He grins at me. Oh, right.

I walk in
front of him to the kitchen. “Xander’s not here.”

“Where did he
go?” he asks, opening the fridge and helping himself to a bottle of
water.

“Gym.”

“Right, I’m
heading there now so I’ll catch up with him then,” he says, his
eyebrows scrunching together.

“Are you
okay?” I ask.

“Yeah. How are
you settling in?” he asks, looking like he genuinely wants to
know.

“Great,
actually. Feels like I’ve known Xander my entire life.” I smile
fondly, thinking about my brother.

“Yeah, he
can’t stop talking about you,” Reid says, running his finger
absently along his scarred jaw line. “Do you maybe want to…” he
trails off, staring at me.

“What?” I ask
warily, when his gaze doesn’t budge.

He clears his
throat. “You look… beautiful today.”

Wait, did he
just say that? “Umm. Thank you,” I reply, looking down at my frayed
denim shorts and white singlet top. I glance up to see his eyes on
my thighs.