Not only could I not believe she was back in my life, but I was struggling to keep my emotions in check after everything she’d told me. As soon as she mentioned Marshall, I knew who she was talking about. She tried to just gloss over it when she was talking about her ex-boyfriend. She didn’t want to get into the conversation with me about who he was.
She knew exactly what I thought of him. There was no ambiguity, no question about how I felt about Marshall or the idea of the two of them being together. It was hard to imagine that she spent three years of her life with that prick. I would have had a hard time believing she would have willingly spent three hours of her life with him.
Even back in school, I couldn’t stand Marshall Brinkley. He was an entitled, rude, spoiled jackass who reveled in treating other people like shit. Especially the people he thought were below him, which were most people. Marshall came from the Brinkley family, one of the most well-to-do families in Shelby.
Not that they were anywhere near as affluent as the Freemans, but for Shelby, they were at the top of the food chain. And Marshall knew it. He didn’t just take having money as a privilege or a blessing. To him, it was a sign from the universe that he was above everyone else.
I had to imagine he wasn’t like that when Maya got with him. They hadn’t known each other well in school. She didn’t realize it, but I had put effort into keeping her away from him. Right around our junior year, he started making noises about being attracted to her, but I knew he would hurt her if he got a chance. So, I made sure to stay between them until he got bored and lost interest.
Apparently, that didn’t last for long. They met up again sometime after I left Shelby, and he managed to weasel his way into a three-year relationship with her. Despite my efforts to keep her safe, he still got away with breaking her heart. I was angry for Maya. She deserved the world.
So, as I lay there in bed, thinking about her sleeping on the couch in my spare room, I tried to stop myself from getting up and going back to Shelby to punch Marshall right in his smug face. It might not have done a lot of good in fixing the situation, but it sure would have felt good in that moment.
It took a long time for me to finally will myself to sleep. When I woke up the next morning, my apartment smelled like fresh coffee and bacon. And I found Maya in the kitchen, making us breakfast. She always teased about not being good at the domestic stuff, and I would be the first to admit she couldn’t bake to save her life. She once tried to make me cupcakes for my birthday, and they ended up like doorstops.
Now she was standing in my kitchen cooking up eggs, bacon, and pancakes. She couldn’t bake to save her life, but she had always been a good cook. It was nice to see all that homemade food getting piled up onto platters and plates to be put on the table. I was used to starting my day going through a drive-thru for breakfast and hoping Minnie would have something waiting in the kitchen at the compound.
Maya seemed to be in better spirits and feeling a bit stronger until I mentioned I would get in touch with my landlord and ask about him adding her onto the lease. Of course that’s when the tears dripped down her cheeks again. I didn’t mean to make her cry. All I wanted was for her to feel like she had a home, and somehow convince her that I wasn’t going to just toss her out after a few days.
She fought the tears and brushed them off her face. I decided to breeze on past that part of the conversation and move on to something less emotional for her.
“I have to go to work. What do you want to do while I’m there? You can come with me. Or you’re welcome to just hang around here and relax a bit,” I said.
“Actually,” Maya said, scooping up another bite of cheese-covered scrambled eggs, “I think I’m going to go try to find a job for myself.”
“Really?” I asked.
She straightened a bit and looked at me strangely. “Well, yeah. I mean, I can’t just expect to mooch off of you. If I’m going to be here for a little while, I need work. Unless you’ve changed your mind and don’t want me staying here.”
“Of course not,” I said quickly. “I want you here. For as long as you want to be here. I just thought maybe you would want to take some time to relax and deal with everything before you dove right back into another job is all.”
“No,” she said. “I don’t want to sit around because that’s when I start thinking sad thoughts, and both of us know that’s not something I need to be doing right now. I would rather just pick myself up, dust myself off, and try to move ahead. Getting a job will make me feel secure again.”
“Well, if that’s how you feel, then I’m happy to help you however I can,” I said. “You said you were working at Marshall’s dad’s place when you were in Shelby?”
“Yeah,” she said, sounding regretful. “When we got out of school, he got me a job there at the warehouse. I thought it was a fantastic idea for the two of us to be able to work together. And it was an opportunity to move up through the company. I was hoping to eventually get to design cabinets, then move on to designing furniture. Obviously, I didn’t get that far.”
“Well, unfortunately, you probably won’t be able to find work like that around Charlotte. I can’t think of any cabinet factories or warehouses around here,” I said.
“I don’t need to do the same thing,” Maya said. “As I’m starting over here in Charlotte, I might as well start over completely. Try something new and see where it takes me.”
I gave her the rundown of the area and a few businesses she might want to try. In the back of my mind, I thought of Vince Freeman. His main job was acting CEO of Freeman Racing, but he also owned several other businesses throughout Charlotte. Restaurants, bakeries, a nightclub, and a couple of little shops made up his portfolio. He didn’t have a lot to do with the day-to-day running of most of them but stayed in control and kept them profitable.
I didn’t want to immediately mention him to Maya. I didn’t want to build her hope up if there wasn’t going to be any position available at his places. I also didn’t want to take advantage of the closeness I had with the Freeman family to start promising help to other people. I would wait until she did some exploring on her own, then if she didn’t have any luck, I would see what I could do.
After breakfast, I got dressed and ready for work. When I came back out to the living room, she was also dressed and was sitting in the living room putting on makeup. She looked at me out of the corner of her eye as she held up her compact and put on mascara.
“I hope you don’t mind. The lighting in the bathroom wasn’t very good. If I’m looking for a job, I want to make sure I don’t look crazy,” she said.
I laughed. “I don’t mind, but we can get better lighting in the bathroom if you want. We can just change out the light bulbs. That might help.” I handed her a sticky note. “There. I wrote down my work cell number and the number to the garage. Call me if you need anything at all.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Hopefully, I’ll be okay.”
“You will be, but if you need me, don’t hesitate to call. And if you really need me, you can always come by the compound.”
“I wouldn’t want to upset your boss,” she said. “I didn’t come here to cause any trouble for you.”
“You wouldn’t be causing any trouble,” I said. “Quentin, the brother who actually owns the company, doesn’t mind at all. And neither does Gus. Or Vince. Or Darren.”
Maya laughed. “Is that the whole family Gus was talking about yesterday?”
“Yeah. Quentin owns the company; Vince and Darren, who you met yesterday, work there. There’s one more brother, Nick, but he doesn’t work for the company. He’s an investor,” I said.
“It’s nice to see a family that close,” Maya said.
“It really is,” I said. “And you haven’t even met Minnie, Gus’s wife. Merry and Kelly, Quentin’s and Darren’s wives, work there, too. And Nick’s best friend, Lindsey, is engaged to Vince.”
“Wow,” Maya said. “Way to keep everybody together.”
/> “And the best part? They actually all do love each other. They have family dinners every week and are always doing things together,” I said. “They’ve kind of brought me in as an honorary brother, so I get to enjoy it, too. It’s a family like I’ve never known.”
I felt a little guilty saying that, considering how much my mother had gone through to come take care of me while I was hurt. She had always been there for me, but the truth was, she was pretty much it. There was no such thing as the big extended family or the closeness I saw in the Freemans. But I was more than happy to get a chance to experience it now.
As soon as I got to the compound, Darren and Gus both descended on me. For as much restraint as they showed the day before, both we’re brimming with questions about Maya. It wasn’t long before Vince came by, too, checking to see that everything was okay. I was glad they cared, and touched they wanted to make sure she was doing fine, but I tried to detour the conversation back to our bikes. We had a race to prepare for, and I wanted to be at my best.
5
Maya
My new beginning wasn’t off to the best start. I woke up that morning so optimistic and having breakfast with Greg gave me the boost I needed. He was so confident, so settled already with having me there. There wasn’t a hint of hesitation or uncertainty in how he talked to me. He didn’t even seem concerned about saying he wanted to add me on to the lease and have me stick around.
It was like we hadn’t spent five years apart. We were picking right back where we left off like I’d seen him the week before and was just joining up with him and Charlotte. It made me feel ready to find out where life was going to take me next. He even seemed optimistic about me being able to find work fairly easily. The description of the town and the list of businesses he gave me made it seem like there were abundant opportunities just waiting for me to discover them.
I headed out in my daddy’s old truck, ready to scoop up the potential and find the spot that would be best for me. It was waiting out there, and I just had to find it. Grab the bull by the horns, as my daddy would have said.
By the middle of the morning, I was wondering if I was just missing the horns. At lunchtime when I went back by the apartment to get something to eat, I was wondering why the bull was avoiding me. And by the time late afternoon had come along, I was all but sure there was no bull at all.
I had spent all day driving around Charlotte to all the places Greg mentioned, looking for open positions. When none of them panned out, I resorted to checking windows for “help wanted” signs. I found a couple, but, like Greg said, nothing even close to the warehouse.
This wasn’t going to stop me, though. I hadn’t worked anywhere but the warehouse for a few years, but my first job had been at a little shop in Shelby. The “help wanted” signs happened to be on two small stores, so I went in and applied at both. Best-case scenario, I would get both of them and would be able to arrange my hours so I could work both consistently and build up my savings while contributing to Greg’s expenses until I was ready to head off on my own.
Worst-case scenario, I would get neither one of them, and I would be right back where I started. Considering that neither of the shop owners looked particularly impressed by me and put my application aside without even looking at it, I wasn’t feeling hugely optimistic about the whole situation.
What I was feeling was despondent. I had used up every bit of optimism I had and was left feeling empty and crushed. On my way back to the apartment, I noticed a bar. An early dinner and a few drinks were well deserved after everything I had gone through.
I parked along the side of the road and went in. It was still fairly early, so there weren’t many people inside. But I could smell food cooking, which meant I could grab a meal to counteract the drinks I planned on having. Rather than taking up one of the tables and emphasizing the fact that I was completely alone, I slid onto one of the barstools.
Almost as soon as I sat down, a pretty woman with her hair up in a bouncy ponytail and wide, friendly eyes came up to me. She placed a napkin in front of me.
“Can I get you something to drink?” she asked.
“Do you have any good beer on tap?”
“Sure,” she said. “There’s a new local craft brew I just added today.”
“Sounds good,” I said.
I sagged against the top of the bar as she filled a mug and put it on a napkin. She eyed me suspiciously.
“You okay?” she asked.
“It’s been a long day,” I said, picking up the beer and taking a sip.
“You hungry?”
I nodded. “Something smells good.”
“Do you have anything particular you’re in the mood for?” she asked.
I shook my head and took another sip of the delicious craft brew. “No. Just hungry.”
A faint smile curved her lips. It was one of those compassionate expressions, an empathetic look from a woman who could probably recognize my downtrodden expression.
“Let me grab you something. I’ll be right back,” she said.
She left me alone sitting at the bar, and I looked around, taking it all in. This was the kind of place I could see people in the neighborhood wanting to relax and enjoy themselves. It had a good feeling about it. I looked over to the side and something caught my eye. A picture propped next to the cash register looked familiar. I sat up a bit so I could get a better look at it, and the bartender caught me.
She gave me a strange look as she set the plate down at my stool.
“I’m sorry,” I said, sitting back down. “That picture just looked familiar.”
She glanced back at it, then at me. “You know those guys?”
“I just met Darren yesterday,” I said. “But Greg has been my best friend since I was a kid. I don’t know the other guys.”
“Seriously? Greg is your best friend?” she asked.
“Yeah. Right up until he left Shelby. I’m actually here staying with him for a bit.”
She grinned widely and stepped back to the picture. She pointed at one of the guys I didn’t recognize. “This is Quentin. He’s the one who owns the company. This one is Nick—he’s my best friend. And this is Vince. My fiancé.”
Realization settled in. “Oh. You’re Lindsey. Greg told me about you.” I laughed. “I can’t believe I managed to come in here on my own. I had no idea you work here.”
“Greg didn’t send you in?”
I popped one of the perfectly fried French fries into my mouth and shook my head. “No. He doesn’t even know I’m here. He’s been at work all day.”
Lindsey laughed and nodded. “Yep. That sounds like all the boys. Greg might not have been born a Freeman, but he fits right in with them. I think that’s why the only man I could realistically see myself having a future with was a Freeman. I was already so used to them through Nick, I just slid right into the lifestyle.”
I nodded. “I can understand that.”
She was wiping down the counter but kept glancing over at me. I kept eating until she stepped back closer and refilled my beer.
“So, what brings you to Charlotte? Just coming to hang out with Greg?” she asked.
There was a hint in her voice that suggested she had never heard about me and was wondering how I managed to resurface. It didn’t really bother me. He’d left Shelby for a reason, and I could understand him wanting to leave everything about it behind, too.
“Actually, I’m staying for a while. I just went through a pretty nasty breakup.”
“I feel you on that,” she said sympathetically. “Were you two together for a long time?”
“Marshall and I were together for three years,” I told her. “We weren’t engaged or anything. We had just moved in together. Apparently, that pushed him right over the edge. I wouldn’t know, considering he didn’t give me any explanation at all, but one day he just came home and told me it was over, and I needed to leave. I then promptly found out I no longer had a job at the warehouse his father owns that I’ve b
een working at for three years.” I realized what I had just done and let out a sigh. “I’m sorry. You don’t need me babbling to you.”
“I don’t mind,” she said. “You sound like you could use somebody to talk to.” She leaned a little closer. “It’s part of being a bartender. Besides, Greg is a friend of mine, which means you are, too. Feel free to vent however much you want.”
I took her at her word and poured out everything to her. I told her about my relationship with Marshall and how suddenly it ended. Then I told her about losing my job and not feeling like I had anywhere to go, so I ended up here with Greg.
“I’m pretty lucky to have had him to come to,” I said. “Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t.”
“He’s a really good guy,” Lindsey said.
“Yes, he is,” I said, finishing my second beer. Lindsey took the mug and filled it up again. “Which makes me feel even worse.”
“What do you mean?” Lindsey asked.
“I went out today to find a job so I could earn my keep. I didn’t want to just show up at his place and expect him to support me while I figured out what I was supposed to do next. But I haven’t been able to find anything. I filled out two applications, but I’m not exactly running out for work clothes, if you know what I mean,” I said.
“How do you feel about kitchens?” Lindsey asked.
I gave her a strange look. “Just in general? Or a particular kind of kitchen?”
“Like the one here at the bar,” she said. “How would you feel about working here?”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“Is the owner looking for somebody?” I asked.
“Well, let me ask just to make sure,” Lindsey said. She turned slightly to the side and cocked her hip. “Are you looking for somebody to work in the kitchen?” She turned the other direction and talked to the other hip. “Yeah, I think that it would be really good to have some extra help.” She turned back the other way. “Great. I’ll let her know.”
The Freeman Brothers: A Secret Baby Romance Collection Page 87