The Virgin's Revenge: Rancho del Cielo, Book 4

by Dee Tenorio

  Why wasn’t he there?

  Of course, when that question wasn’t hovering in her mind, one of her brothers was distracting her. This week had been a blend of strangeness she still hadn’t quite figured out how to process. Once they realized she knew about their plot to get Cole to marry her—a plot they all claimed Locke had come up with on his own, as if that excused their agreement to it—it occurred to them that she might be mad at them too. More surprising, they were all determined to get back into her good graces.

  Five guys with no sense of tact and no leader turned out to be a frightening thing. With the exception of Locke, all her brothers had at some point lain in wait for her.

  It started with Peter and Steven coming to her door on Sunday, armed with the most unexpected things guaranteed to get her talk to them—out-of-state college acceptance letters. Always studious, they hadn’t been content to go to one of the local UCs or state universities, so they snuck their admissions applications behind everyone’s back. Peter had even enrolled The Brainiac, cousin Spencer, to help them out with letters of recommendation. Smart plan, really. Though the science community apparently considered his teaching high-schoolers an eccentricity, the big nerd was still something of a rock star in his field and he could keep a secret like no one else in town. Now they’d been offered scholarships to three Ivy League schools, which appealed to their joint desire to go to medical school. They faced only one insurmountable problem.

  “Can you talk to Locke for us? He’ll never let us go if you don’t,” Peter had asked, his nearly brown blond hair falling into his eyes. Steven had given her his best dimpled beg-face. “He listens to you.”

  Which was laughable, but she’d told them she’d try. Because she always tried for them. Because they’d shared their secret with her, and she’d known when they told her about their scholarships that they wanted her to be proud of them. Needed her to be.

  That was when she understood. When their parents died, the boys were only six. Little more than babies, sensitive kids who’d latched onto the only mother they had left—her. The same way all of them had latched onto Locke.

  So she gave them what they needed. The support, the love and yes, even the pride she felt that they’d accomplished this huge step in their lives. But the ache in her heart at the thought of them moving across the country? That she kept to herself.

  Even before the boys had gone home, the guilt had started setting in about Locke. The things she’d said. The hurtful way she’d thrown everything in his face…If he never forgave her, she wouldn’t blame him. He had to learn limits but most of what she’d said wasn’t about setting limits. It had been simply to hurt him. After all he’d done for her, for all of them. She wasn’t sure she could forgive herself.

  And, it seemed, her brothers weren’t sure she could forgive them either.

  Andrew had come into the shop during a break at the sporting goods store the next day. He’d brought a card, one all five of them had signed, apologizing. “You know we’d just make a mess of it if we tried to tell you at the same time,” Andrew pointed out when she opened the card. “We figured if we said it with this, we stood less of a chance of pissing you off.”

  The front read, “So Sorry…” over a picture of a flying dove. The inside had a rainbow and in somber script read, “Thinking of you in this difficult time.”

  She stared at it, then up at her only slightly younger brother. “This is a bereavement card, Andrew.”

  He nodded, smiling for a few awkward beats before glancing at the card more carefully. “What’s bereavement?”

  “Andrew?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Get out.”

  He’d kissed her cheek and hightailed it back to Locke’s store. Where Locke wasn’t. Where Cole wasn’t, either.

  At least the elder twins had brought her dinner. Sort of. They’d apparently spent all day sitting on her porch, hoping to talk to her. Unfortunately, they hadn’t thought to check her shift times and spent all that time waiting for nothing. By the time she got there, half the pot pie they’d brought her from Shaky Jake’s was gone and the note on the bag told her they were sorry. Considering either Dean or Daniel would normally bite her for snitching any of their food, the half-pie was a sweet concession.

  So far today, none of her brothers had come or called.

  Especially not Locke.

  She couldn’t even think about Cole…

  “Still no sign of him?” Susie asked, her loose curls pulled up into a ponytail, walking out of the back room with yet another packed box for the mailman to take. She put it down behind the register. If anything had paid off, it was that catalog they’d made. Susie’s designs had been in steadily increasing demand for weeks from individual buyers, and she’d just gotten her first boutique order online the other day. Happy as she was for her friend, Amanda hadn’t had it in her to celebrate much.

  Strangely enough, neither had Susie.

  “Nope.”

  “You still not going to ask your brothers where he is?” Susie’s gaze felt like a laser on the back of Amanda’s skull.

  “Nope.”

  “Why? And I want the real reason this time. Not that bullshit you tried to shovel me yesterday.”

  Amanda sighed and laid her hands flat on the counter in front of her. Then she stared at them for as long as she could before Susie cleared her throat pointedly.

  “Why does this matter to you so much?” That’s right, Mandy. When ashamed of yourself, always strike out. No one will know what’s really going on.

  Man, she hated her conscience some days.

  “Because you’re my friend.” Susie leaned over the counter on her forearms, her gaze direct. Almost cutting, actually. “Because obviously you’re worried about him or you wouldn’t have been staring at that window all week long, looking for him. Possibly because your brother is a good man. A pushy, obstinate one, I admit, but still one of the best ones I’ve ever met. I’d hate to think something horrible happened to him because his sister was too stubborn to ask her own siblings where he is.”

  “Nothing happened to him.” Except her.

  Susie’s mouth quirked hard to the side. “So why am I getting the distinct scent of shame wafting off you in waves?”

  Amanda scrunched her face but she could still feel Susie next to her. Waiting. “We had a fight.”

  “Would this fight be the same one that turned Cole black and blue?”

  Amanda straightened. “You’ve seen Cole?”

  Susie shook her head. “No, but he was seen fleeing the scene of the crime at your house looking like someone had pounded the hell out of his face, and everyone in town knows it.”

  “What crime?”

  “The same one that had your brother storming out an hour earlier, if Kelly Marchand can be believed. The deflowering of the town virgin. You didn’t see the news at eleven?”

  Amanda dropped her head down onto her hands, whimpering when her forehead knocked her knuckle like a hammer.

  Susie patted her shoulder. “Hey, look at it this way—no one thinks you’re the only virgin in town anymore.”

  “I hate you so much right now.”

  Susie’s laugh didn’t exactly ring with regret. “Tell me what you did to Locke, Amanda. It can’t be that bad.”

  “I broke a vase on his head, told him he wasn’t my father, that he has no right to try to run my life and that he’s alone and scared all of us are going to leave him.” Since she didn’t lift her head to speak, her mouth way too close to the counter, she wasn’t sure if Susie actually made out the words. “And I called him an uptight monk.”

  The long silence just made Amanda feel worse.

  “Boy, when you’re an ungrateful shit, you really take it to the hoop, don’t you?”

  Huh. Who would have guessed the silence was better?

  “I broke up with Cole, too.”

  Susie’s nails tapped the counter in loud clacks. “Maybe you’d better start at the top.”

&
nbsp; “I really shouldn’t.” But Amanda did. It took twenty minutes, with Susie only interrupting a few times with a clarifying question or two. When it was all out on the table—every confused, unflattering moment—they just sat there. Listening to the digital clock change numbers.

  Susie put her hands down on the counter and pushed herself to her feet. “Be right back.”

  Amanda frowned. “But—”

  “I said,” Susie intoned, the sharpness of her glare making Amanda lean back on her stool, “I’ll be. Right. Back.”

  Amanda watched her walk out of the shop, check the nonexistent traffic, then stalk over to the sporting goods store with that hip-swaying walk of hers that caught the elder twins’ attention immediately. Amanda stood up, watching the way Susie walked in, gesturing to Daniel and Dean with her hand. The twins looked at each other, shuffled a little, then—if their mouths moving at the same time meant anything—proceeded to tell Susie something she didn’t like. All of a sudden, Susie reached out and got both of Amanda’s brothers by the ear. She had to have been twisting pretty hard, because both of them bent down until they were nearly on their knees. She must have gotten what she wanted out of them because she let go, turned around and came right back.

  The bell above the door rang again as Susie swept in. She stopped in front of Amanda, blew out a breath and took hold of Amanda’s hands.

  “What I’m going to say to you, I’m saying because I love you as a friend.”

  “Okay.”

  “You’re an idiot.”

  Amanda blinked.

  “And you know why you’re an idiot, don’t you?”

  She didn’t want to, but she nodded.

  “Why?

  “Because I said things to Locke that I shouldn’t have.”

  Susie rolled her eyes. “Do you really think that? Seriously?”

  “No,” Amanda sighed. “And yes. I’m confused.” About everything. One glance at her friend proved Susie was willing to stand there forever until she figured it out. “I know I was right to tell Locke the truth. I know it, down in my gut. I’m not sorry for standing up for myself. He was wrong, and I had every right to be angry at him.”

  “But…” That was the thing about Susie. She really knew how to drag out a word in that way that stretched it into an entire sentence demanding explanation.

  “I hurt him, Susie. I really hurt him.” She’d been angry but she hadn’t meant to cut so deep. “If you had seen his face…”

  “Yeah, well, maybe if he had listened to you before.” Susie’s voice lacked its usual conviction.

  “It’s not just that. He’s made his whole life about taking care of us and we’ve all grown up on him. Mostly,” she added, thinking of the elders and Andrew. And herself. Obviously, she had a lot of growing up still to do. “Everything he sacrificed for us. I think it bothers him more than he’s ever said, and I didn’t realize how much until I dug into him. That’s why he’s gone. That’s what I feel guilty about.” She’d gone to the house to try to talk to him, but his truck wasn’t there, and since no one else in the family touched it under pain of death, he had to have taken it somewhere. “I keep checking, waiting for him to come to work. He isn’t even answering his cell phone.”

  “Because he’s out of cell range. According to Huey and Dewey over there, he’s at that cabin of his up in the mountains.” The one he used for absolute seclusion for a week out of the year so he didn’t “beat the living shit out of every living thing on Earth”, according to Andrew. Most everyone agreed it was a better explanation than the vastly understated “vacation”. “Which gives you a few days to get your act back together. Which leads to a way more important question. What are you going to do about Cole?”

  Cry? Argue with herself for another five days? Admit she had screwed everything up so bad it probably wasn’t fixable? “I haven’t figured that one out yet.”

  “You know…” Susie settled onto her stool. “When we first met, I thought you had everything together. Smart mind, good heart, a little under-experienced for your age, but overall, you know, a good egg.”

  Amanda faced her, laying her head on her hand. “You change your mind?”

  “No, but I have to admit, when it comes to men, you remind me more of a teenybopper in her older sister’s clothes.” And that would be Susie’s pull-no-punches friendship at work. “Why is that, do you think?”

  “Because I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.”

  Susie poked her in the shoulder. “That’s not true. Stop looking for copouts.”

  Amanda sat up, rubbing her arm. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I’m talking about you, pretending you’re an idiot when you’re not. You’re scared. Pure and simple. You’re scared and you’re hiding, just like you accused Locke of doing. Well, let me tell you, little pot, it’s a good time to try looking in the mirror.

  “You came up with this ridiculous plan to seduce Cole because you didn’t want to put yourself out there for him to reject. You never once gave yourself the chance to believe that he could ever love you. Locke might have been wrong about what he did, but he wasn’t wrong about why. You put yourself on hold, Amanda. Maybe you have been kicking out of the box. You’ve come a long way toward standing on your own two feet and I’m proud of you for it, but it’s time you started taking risks, just like everyone else. If it doesn’t work, then at least you tried.”

  Tears stung Amanda’s eyes, but she knew Susie was right. Absolute terror at just the thought of Cole turning away from her had her chest so tight she almost couldn’t breathe. The same as it had every time she’d faced telling him she knew about his deal with Locke. She hadn’t been able to put herself out there, but rather than accept that she didn’t have the confidence, she’d played a stupid game with Cole’s feelings. With her own.

  He’d had the courage to get past his own fears and offer his heart to her.

  She hadn’t.

  Why are you alone? The question she’d asked Locke. She should have asked herself.

  “So what do I do now?” How do I fix it?

  Susie sighed and stood up, moving toward the rack in the front of the register, probably to straighten something that caught her eye. Just as quickly as she’d ducked down, she popped up and slapped a thong into Amanda’s hand. “Big girl games have big girl consequences, kiddo. Figure it out.”

  Yeah, okay. But… “What are these for?”

  “They’re big girl panties. Pull ’em up and deal. If I were you, I’d start by finding the really great guy who had the balls to not only fight your marauding hulk of a brother, but tell you that he loves you. If you can’t figure out what to do when you get there, I’m officially disowning you.”

  Amanda checked her watch, dismayed to see there were hours yet until she was off.

  “Oh, geez, get the hell out of here already. There’s no one coming today and I have some business to take care of myself. We’ll just close the shop early for once.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Go, before I come to my senses.” Susie endured Amanda’s hug, grumbling the entire time. But she held on tight a few extra seconds before Amanda grabbed her purse and ran for the front door.

  Maybe it was the bell ring echoing in her ears, but Amanda was almost positive she heard Susie wishing her luck as she left. Which was good, because she was absolutely going to need it.

  Chapter Fourteen

  It had been the crappiest week of his life, Cole decided, waking up in his bed to the unappreciated rays of late afternoon sun pouring all over his bed. It had been too hot to close the windows last night, and by the time he’d dragged himself to bed at seven in the morning, he hadn’t cared about closing the curtains. He’d have to remember to give a crap tomorrow. Waking up to blinding orange glare sucked.

  Of course, if he just crashed on his couch, he wouldn’t have to worry about it. Definitely going with the couch next time. The couch didn’t make him comfortable enough to have dre
ams about a certain long-legged blonde who smelled like lilac and smiled like sunshine. The good kind.

  He stumbled into his bathroom, taking care of the necessities in that half-asleep, maybe dreaming way he usually liked. Distantly aware of his mind making plans for the day while his consciousness dozed and kept dreaming. Of course, all of that ended when he splashed water on his face. Wide awake then, brain ringing in displeasure, he brushed his teeth and gave shaving a solid thirty-second consideration before deciding he didn’t care.

  That had been the problem all week. He didn’t care about hardly anything. His projects bored him. He kept screwing up work, couldn’t seem to focus on the code and spent more time than he should daydreaming about Amanda knocking on his door.

  Amanda in his arms when he woke up, her hair spilling all over his pillow…

  Amanda kissing him as he fell asleep, her soft body warm and molded to his…

  If ever a man could be haunted by a woman who was still flesh and blood, it was him. And if he thought it would do an ounce of good, he’d be right there on her doorstep, forcing her to deal with him. To see him. But if he had learned anything from his parents’ disaster of a marriage, it was that you couldn’t make someone else see you. Couldn’t make them love you. Couldn’t make them do a damn thing except hurt you more.

  Amanda wasn’t the kind to hurt people on purpose, and he wasn’t about to have any part in making her into one. He could bide his time for a while. Lick his wounds. He had plenty of those. The black eye Locke had given him hadn’t even finished forming yet, leaving a purple bruise across his cheekbone and the side of his face, to say nothing of the various colors still darkening on his eye itself. The split lip was just a line now, though his cheek was still a mess on the inside. The bruises on the back of his neck were hard to see, so he told himself they weren’t too bad, as long as he didn’t poke them. Easily done.

  A clinking noise in his kitchen caught his attention before he could settle into his chair and turn on the game console. He almost thought he imagined it, but there was also the impossible smell of cooking food coming from the same area.