My Mistake (Stories of Serendipity #7) (3 page)

“You know. I thought I was reading the signals right.” She said it softly, he almost didn’t hear her.

Not knowing what to say, he didn’t answer.

“We are both adults, Brent. If you don’t want anything serious, we could just have a little fun, if you want.” He felt her fingertips on his collar, and willed the machine to work faster.

He couldn’t deny that he was turned on. But not by the woman standing behind him, her fingers crawling up his collar to the back of his neck. He was turned on by the woman he’d kissed that afternoon. Turned on beyond belief.

The memory of her soft body under his, her warm wet tongue twirling around inside his mouth, her fingers in his hair, the glimpse of pink lace he’d gotten. He could feel his erection push against the zipper of his pants, and he wanted nothing more than for Lindsey to go away.

“Um. I don’t think it’s a good idea, Lindsey,” he croaked out through clenched teeth. Her fingers had made it to the hair at the nape of his neck, reminding him he needed a trim soon. Oh shit.

Her hands went from his neck to his shoulders, and as she pressed against his back, her hands climbed down his chest. He had to put a stop to this.

He stood abruptly and spun, clasping her hands in his, as he pulled her towards him. Glaring down at her, he repeated. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

Her smile was that of a child with a secret, and his stomach plummeted. “I’m friends with Cara Mason from Jacksonville. Real good friends. She tells me everything,” she purred.

Brent didn’t know anybody from Jacksonville. Not by name anyway. The only times he ever went there were when he was looking for a night’s release. Realization dawned. It must have shown on his face because her smile grew broader.

“So, you see, Brent. I know you like it quick and dirty. And I like it too.” She pressed up against his groin, grinding against it. Panic shot through Brent before succumbing to something inside him. He lowered his mouth to hers and let go of her hands, willing them to perform miraculous mind-erasing tricks. He needed to do something to get Casey out of his mind. And Lindsey seemed as good as any other options he had at the moment. She would certainly save him a trip to Jacksonville.

He closed his eyes as his mouth crashed against Lindsey’s. Her mouth was wet and warm and tasted of stale cigarettes. He tried in vain to replace Casey’s image with Lindsey’s, but when his hands went straight to her breasts for a squeeze, one thought overrode all others.
This isn’t Casey. She’s not a closet smoker, and her tits are real…

He broke off the kiss with a gasp as Lindsey’s hands went straight to his belt buckle. “Stop.” He managed the words, even though he was disgusted with himself. He was so weak. He did and didn’t want her to stop.

“I-I can’t do this.”

Her eyes went to his crotch. “It looks to me like you can, Cowboy.” Her hands were still on his belt, but thankfully, they’d stilled.

“Okay.” He breathed in deeply. “I don’t want to do this.”

“Again, it looks like your little partner is begging to differ.” Her voice was grating on his nerves.

“Look, Lindsey. I was trying to be nice, earlier. I gave in to you for a minute, but this isn’t going to happen. I don’t do relationships. At all. I’m sorry.”
Not really. Get out.
He was trying desperately to retain some semblance of composure, but it was rapidly dwindling.

She finally pulled away, a pouty look on her face. “Okay.” She straightened her shirt before finally stepping back. He thrust the papers that had finally finished copying at her. “I’ll be back to check the horses in a couple of days.” She winked as she sauntered out to her truck, swaying her hips.

Brent watched the dust trail wind down his driveway. He was about to turn to go back to the barn for the evening chores when he saw a second dust plume rise on the driveway. Mooch barked with recognition.

As the plume grew larger, he saw it was Max’s dually pick-up. He grimaced to himself. “Good eye buddy.” He absently scratched the dog behind his ears as he watched Max drive up.

Max was his oldest friend, had known him forever, knew of Brent’s obsession with Casey Stewart, knew of his heartache. Max knew about the pills. He’d thought when Lindsey left, he could just work himself into a stupor and fall into bed, but seeing Max’s truck, he knew he would be reliving the day’s events again. Soon.

“Hey man! How’s it going?” Max’s quick grin was almost infectious as he got out of his pick-up and slammed the door, walking around the front of the truck and up the porch stairs. He held out his hand and pulled Brent in for a back slapping, one-armed hug.

“Pretty good, man. How about you?”

“Aw…can’t complain. Claire’s being all hormonal and stuff, so I thought I’d come help out a little.” The twinkle in Max’s eyes said he was loving all the hormonal stuff that came with pregnancy. Brent knew that Max would do anything for Claire, and if anything, she’d made him leave because he was driving her crazy.

He just rolled his eyes and started out to his truck. “You feel like helping me muck?”

“Sure.”

Back in the barn, the two men made quick work of cleaning out the stalls and putting the old straw into the wheelbarrows before taking it to the compost bins outside the corral. The horses noticed and trotted up to the barn door to wait, Mooch using strategic barks to keep them out of the stalls, while Max and Brent put out clean straw. Brent went inside the feed room, as Max forked hay into the feeders. When Brent emerged with buckets of feed for the horses, they nickered softly in anticipation.

“Nice to feel needed, isn’t it?” Max asked quietly, so as not to spook the horses lined up at the gate.

“Yeah. I guess.”

“You seen Casey yet? Haven’t you been working down the street from her mama’s place?”

“Do you read minds now?” Brent ground his teeth together. He’d just been thinking about how nice it would be if Casey needed him the way these horses did. Max always knew which buttons to push with him.

“Naw, just faces. So, what happened?”

Brent poured the feed into troughs in the stalls and turned to go open the gate. “Too much. I made a mistake going over there.”

“Why? She not interested?”

“No, she’s interested.”

Max’s features screwed up in confusion before they leveled out. “You still thinking about the—”

“Yeah. I am. And I don’t want to talk about it.” As the horses came into the barn, Max and Brent worked together to get them into the proper stalls with their feed. The Colonel was a pushy glutton and could easily eat his own feed as well as the others’, and Sugar was timid enough to let him. The others hadn’t yet figured out how to deal with his aggression. He hoped Sugar’s timidity didn’t rub off on them and they figured out a way to keep the Colonel from dominating them all. The greedy stallion needed a good mature alpha mare to put him in his place occasionally.

After the horses were in their stalls and bolted in with feed for the night, they turned to walk back to Brent’s truck.

“So, you got some more today?”

“Yeah, the Sheriff’s department brought out three neglect cases. Those piss me off.”

“Yeah,” Max agreed. “Horses are a huge commitment. If you can’t handle it, people shouldn’t get them.”

Brent grunted.

“Vet checked ‘em out yet?”

Brent looked at his friend squarely, trying to determine if Max was messing with him or not. Max raised his eyebrows. “What?”

“Yeah, she came by.”

Max prodded. “She still giving you play?”

Brent nodded. “We kissed.” He hadn’t planned on telling Max that, but he needed help.

Max nodded, thoughtfully. “So you gonna start something with her? Instead of Casey?”

Brent exhaled in exasperation. “I don’t want to start anything with
either
of them.”

“Why the hell not? You’ve been carrying a torch for Casey since birth, and Lindsey’s willing. I don’t understand why you don’t believe you deserve anybody, man.”

Brent didn’t answer, because his friend was right. Max didn’t say anything else for a while, they just stood at the fence, looking out over the pasture. Beads of sweat from the residual heat of the day cooled between his shoulder blades as he watched the night sky. He loved this place, and had dreamed of having a woman here to share it with him. Casey, even, but how could he?

Quietly, Max said, “You should just tell her, see what she has to say about it.”

Brent knew exactly who he was talking about. The same woman he was thinking of. “Tell her what, man? I was a prick in high school? I was a prick later? I’m just like her old man? What, exactly, should I tell her?” He was managing to control the spike of rage, but just barely. He fisted his hands against his thighs.

“You’re not her old man. She knows that.” Max’s soft voice had a calming effect on Brent, and he relaxed his hands before climbing into the cab of his old truck. Max slid in on the other side. “Just talk to her. She’ll understand. It’s been a long time, I bet she’s got some demons to exorcise too.”

“I’m still not good enough for her.” Brent walked over to the truck sat inside, effectively ending the conversation. “I’ve got to go check on the new horses.”

“Sure.” Max said.

“H
ey! I brought burgers!” The bell over the door tinkled, as Brent walked into his sister’s bookstore, A Summer Place. She was nowhere to be seen. “Hello?”

He found her on a couch in a back room, laying under a blanket. His normally vivacious, put-together sister was a mess. Her hair, which last month had been a bright blue pixie cut, was now grown out and faded to a putrid green color with brownish roots. Her face was puffy and her eyes red as she peeked out from behind her blanket.

“Not greeting customers today?”

“Haven’t had any.” He was really worried about Summer. This was so out of character, he almost wanted to take her to a doctor, except he knew exactly what was wrong with her. Her heart was broken.

He picked up her legs and put them on his lap as he sat down on the couch. “Have you heard anything from her?”

The tears pooling in his sister’s eyes were enough answer for him. If her heart had been broken by a dude, Brent would hunt him down and beat him to a pulp for hurting his little sister. But Brent’s Nana had raised him to never hit a girl, so this time, his hands were tied.

He’d never had a problem with his sister’s sexual orientation. In fact, when he’d gone to college, Summer had visited a couple of times and they’d gone bar-hopping, making bets on who could pick up which chicks first. Nobody ever said anything to him for picking up chicks, but Summer had spent her short lifetime justifying her attractions to anybody who felt the need to criticize her. To Brent’s astonishment, it had been a lot of people. He hated to see her rise to the bait, but she did it every time.

Bo, on the other hand, had gotten tired of it. She couldn’t stand the small-minded mentality of the Serendipity residents and had dropped an ultimatum on Summer: either she moved out of the back-woods town to a more metropolitan area, or they were through. This was Summer’s home, and she felt surrounded by family here, so she’d told Bo she wouldn’t move. So Bo had broken it off.

Brent knew that both women were shocked by the outcome. Bo was looking out for Summer, trying to protect her from the vicious rumors that Serendipity tended to spout. She didn’t seem to think that Summer would want to stay, but Bo’s pride wouldn’t let her back down. And neither would Summer’s.

“She’s gone.” Summer’s face disappeared behind the blanket again, and Brent reached out to stroke her hip.

“Where?”

“Scotland. There’s a haunted castle there she’s checking out.”

“So y’all are still talking?”

“No. I heard it from some friends.”

“How long will she be gone?”

“At least a couple of months.” A broken sob came through the blanket.

Brent could hear the pain in her words. Bo had been so good for Summer. When his sister had finally met her, Brent had felt like he could relax. Summer had been a little wild, partying and travelling back and forth to Dallas. When she’d met Bo, she’d seemed to relax into the relationship and it had given a sense of acceptance that she hadn’t found before.

“You remember what Nana told you?” Brent pulled back the blanket and grabbed Summer’s hand, pulling her up to a sitting position. “She told you to go get exactly what you want. Life’s not going to deliver it in your lap.”

He could still remember it vividly. He’d been drinking milk out of the carton, eavesdropping shamelessly when Summer “came out” to Nana, a tiny seventy-six year old woman with a kewpie doll collection. Summer had been terrified, staying up all night the night before with Brent, playing the what-if scenarios with him. Summer had inherited their grandma’s diminutive frame, as well as her indomitable personality, which was why she was so nervous about the talk.

Nana had said, “God don’t drop what we want in our laps. We got to go out and get ‘em ourselves. If you want women, you’re gonna have to go get ‘em, just like Brent.”

He’d spent the next five minutes cleaning up the milk he’d spit all over the refrigerator door.

Now, as he handed Summer a hamburger, she looked at him. “You think I should go to Scotland?”

“From what I can tell, Bo just wants you to live somewhere you don’t have to justify yourself at every turn. She’s trying to protect you. As much as I hate her for hurting you like this, I can sort of see her position.” He watched as Summer took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. “You need to talk to her. If you can afford it, go talk to her. Y’all need to reach some sort of understanding. And I’ll bet she’s hurting just as much as you are. She probably feels rejected too.”

She didn’t say anything else as she ate, but Brent was optimistic because at least she’d eaten. For that, he was grateful. She’d been losing weight, and she couldn’t afford to lose much. He ate along with her in comfortable silence, before leaving to go take his own advice.

C
asey was finished with negative emotions. After spending the night re-living the kiss with Brent, as well as his brush off, she’d spent too much time reliving old memories. Pulling scabs from old wounds that should have been left alone. When she woke up this morning, she’d decided she was done.