by Carrie Elks
Her soft breasts pressed against his hard, firm chest, and he moaned against her lips, as though she was torturing him. His tongue was soft against her, and without hesitating, she parted them. Their tongues moved together, and another bolt of pleasure flew through her body.
Then she felt it. Him. Hard against her stomach. Was that what she thought it was? Dear lord, it was bigger than she’d thought.
Embarrassment mixed with desire, making her blood boil beneath her skin. Her breasts felt tender, as though a simple touch would make her cry out loud.
Tanner pulled back, cold air rushing between them, making goosebumps pepper her skin. Van blinked, trying to work out what happened. Because that kiss wasn’t something a friend would do.
It was too real, too skin tingling.
“So that’s your first kiss.” Tanner’s voice was full of grit. “You don’t need to worry about Nathan Daniels now.”
She ran the tip of her tongue over her lips and looked up at him. There was a twitch in his jaw, and from the corner of her eyes she could see his hands curled into fists. For a moment, in the moonlight, he didn’t look like her best friend at all. He looked like a stranger.
A tall, dark, sexy stranger. The big screen hero kind she saw seven times a week.
Her heart was still racing, her blood still rushing, the bleating sound of invisible cicadas filling her ears. She felt like a door had been opened inside her, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t close it. It was too stubborn to move. Like her.
Breathing in softly, she straightened her back and looked toward the lights of Hartson’s Creek. “I should get home,” she told him, starting to walk down the road again.
And though her best friend walked beside her, it felt like he wasn’t there at all. As though the kiss had killed him and left somebody completely different in his wake.
She had no idea how to deal with that at all.
Chapter Nineteen
Tanner wasn’t kidding about the construction workers. He pulled his car onto the overgrown gravel track that led to the payment booth – or the box office, as Mr. Chaplin used to call it – veering to the left to park on the grass. They climbed out and walked over to where the huge construction team was standing, huddled around a man wearing jeans and a dark t-shirt, along with a yellow hard hat.
“That’s Rich Kelsie,” Tanner said to her, walking around the front of the car to where she was standing. “Let me introduce you.”
“Sure.”
From the corner of her eye she saw Tanner’s arm freeze, as though he was planning to put his hand on her back but thought better of it.
“Rich, let me introduce you to Savannah Butler. She’s in charge here. Savannah…” He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, as though he expected her to look mad. She grinned at the fact she was disappointing him. “This is Rich. His team is going to landscape the drive-in and rebuild the structures.”
“It’s a pleasure.” He reached for Van’s hand, and she shook it.
“Likewise.” She grinned at him. “What’s the timeline for completing the project?”
“If the weather stays fine, I think we can get it done in a month.” He held out his clipboard, flipping through the papers he had fixed there. “I emailed this over to Tanner last night. It just needs signing off.”
Tanner nodded. “Van’s in charge of the reconstruction. She’ll sign off.”
“Van?” Rich looked at him, confused.
“Savannah.” Tanner bit down a grin. “Sorry, old habits.”
“You can call me Van,” she said to Rich, her grin widening when she saw Tanner’s brows crinkle up. “And let me take a look at these, if that’s okay. I like to know what I’m signing.”
“Of course.” He handed over the clipboard and Van scanned through it, occasionally looking at the area of the drive-in that day’s work would take place on.
“You really think you can get it done in a month? There’s a lot to do.”
“Yeah. The landscaping and construction are the easy parts. The audio visual and electrical installation are going to be trickier, but we can get it done.” He gave her a faint smile. “Especially since there are penalties if we don’t hit the deadline.”
She glanced at Tanner, who shrugged. “It’s business.”
Another reminder of how different he was to the boy she once knew. As if she needed it.
“Who’s doing the audio visual installation?”
“We’ve got a subcontractor coming in from Richmond. Virginia Sound.”
“I know them. They’re good.” She nodded and pulled a pen from her bag, signing the statement of works before handing it back to him. “I guess you can get started,” she said with a smile.
“Thank you.” He nodded. “And this is your number, right? In case of any problems?”
“Yeah, but I’ll be here when you are as much as possible. That way we can minimize delays if you have any questions.”
“Great. Okay then,” he said, clapping his hands together. “Let’s get to work.”
The men followed him to the construction vehicles parked on the grass, climbing inside and starting them up. She turned to Tanner, who was looking at her with a smile playing at her lips.
“A month?” she said, raising an eyebrow. “That’s ambitious.”
“I want it up and running. Hit the summer season. Otherwise we’ll have to wait a whole year to make money from it.”
“You.”
“What?”
“You’ll have to wait a year to make money from it. I’m just a salaried employee.”
“You haven’t read your employment contract, have you?” The ghost of a smile passed his lips.
“Of course I have. I gave you my signed copy.”
“So you read section six, paragraph eight?”
He was teasing her, she could tell by the way his eyes crinkled up. “What does it say?” she asked, her voice low.
“You must know. You read it.” He looked like he wanted to laugh.
“Stop it.” She shook her head. “Tell me.”
“It says that you own thirty percent of this land. Not in so few words. There’s a lot of legalese.”
She was dumbstruck for a moment. Unable to form any words on her tongue. His eyes didn’t waver from her face as he waited for her to finally say something.
“I didn’t see that.” Her voice trailed off. So lame. “What does it mean?”
“It means that a third of this whole place is yours.” He threw his hand out at the field where the vehicles were driving. Somebody had already unloaded a giant lawnmower and was cutting the grass.
“I don’t understand…”
“I can’t expect you to do everything without getting some form of compensation.”
“You’re paying me.”
“It’s not enough.”
She shook her head. “I can’t accept this, Tanner. It’s too much.”
“You already did. You signed on the line. You want me to get it from the car and show you?” His voice was full of humor.
Her eyes shot to his. “How much did this cost you?”
“A lot less than you’d think. Old man Chaplin was desperate to get rid of it. And land around here isn’t worth a whole lot.” He shrugged. “Renovating it is costing more than the land itself. Then there’s the running costs, but I figure we’ll make a profit if we play it right.”
“And if we don’t?”
“Then I’m the most benevolent man in Hartson’s Creek.” He shrugged. “Stop looking so worried. It’s peanuts.”
“Not to me.”
“Read the contract when you get home,” he urged. “You have no liability. That’s all on me. And the land itself will be leased to the company I’ve formed.”
She let out a mouthful of air. She still couldn’t work out why he’d given her thirty percent of this field. Yet there was a tingle inside her. A frisson of excitement. The construction workers weren’t just remodeling a field.
They were remodeling her field. Thirty percent of hers if you wanted to nitpick.
“I’ve never owned land before.”
He eyed her steadily. “I know.”
She tipped her head to the side, amusement curling her lips. “So what’s in this for you?”
“For me?” He raised an eyebrow. “I guess I get to have fun with my best friend again. We can sit on top of the ticket booth and watch movies together like the old times.”
“You’re a lot heavier than you were back then,” she told him with a grin. “You might fall in.”
He laughed. “Then it’s your job to work with Rich to make sure the roof is reinforced.”
“I guess it is.” She still wasn’t sure whether to laugh or hide. This was so damn crazy. It felt like something she would have thought up as a kid to tease Tanner. Yet here he was, grinning down at her, giving her something she’d never had before.
She owned land. Probably the first Butler in history to do so.
“I’ll work my damn fingers off to pay you back,” she told him. “I’m no charity case.”
“I’m counting on it.” His eyes were warm as their gazes met. “I always give my employees a stake in the business. I’ve learned it can make the difference between failure and success.”
Okay then. So now she owned part of this earth. What the hell did she do next?
“Hey!” she called out to the man steering the lawnmower across the expanse of overgrown grass. “You missed a bit over there.”
And if Tanner was grinning widely as she stomped over to the construction team, her arms folded across her chest? Well he could do that. He was the boss, after all.
Hey, bro. I hear you didn’t come home last night
Tanner sighed as he read the message from Logan, his fingers curling around his cellphone. Damn Becca. Nothing stayed secret around here for long. Thank god Johnny Fairfax had found a few houses for him to look at, even if they were rentals for now. The sooner he moved out the better. His family relationships depended on it.
T - I didn’t realize my sex life was so interesting to you.
L - So you were having sex? Interesting ;) Which poor girl am I going to have to console this time?
T - Mind your own.
L - Oh come on. Hartson’s Creek isn’t that big. I either know her or know of her. Who was it?
T - Get out of here.
L - Was it Van?
Tanner stared at the question. Why the hell did his brother have to be so perceptive? Logan probably knew him better than anybody. Right now that made him feel uncomfortable as hell.
Before he could tap out a reply, his phone started to ring. Sighing, Tanner answered it.
“Van? Seriously?” Logan asked. “Didn’t you learn from the last time?”
“I never said it was her.”
Logan laughed. “Your silence told me all I need to know. So what’s going on? Is she over what happened? Everything you did?”
The question made Tanner’s stomach lurch. He leaned back on the bed. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “We haven’t talked about it.”
“What?”
Tanner frowned. “Maybe it’s better to forget it all, you know? Leave it in the past. What I did… it was bad. And I learned from it.”
Logan’s voice turned gentle. “You’ve been paying for it for years, bro. I still remember the day you called me from Duke. You were broken, she was broken… and all because neither of you knew how to talk to each other.” Logan sighed. “I hated hearing you like that.”
“Is that why you drove down from Boston to see me?” The ghost of a smile pulled at Tanner’s lips. The one enduring thing in his life were his brothers. And when everything had got messed up, he knew that any one of them would have dropped everything to help him. But with Gray taking the music world by storm, and Cam neck deep in the football season, it had been Logan he’d turned to.
“Yeah, that’s why I turned up at your dorm room at the asscrack of dawn,” Logan said, humor in his voice. “We were worried about you. You and Van… man, you were like twins.” He chuckled. “And as much as Cam drives me crazy, I can’t imagine life without him.”
“Yeah, well apparently life still went on.”
“But did you?”
Tanner frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing,” Logan said quickly. “Ignore me. I’m grumpy because two of my staff quit today. And the guy who supplies my meat decided to run off with another restaurant owner without making sure I’m stocked up.” Logan sighed.
“Come on. You obviously meant something. I want to know.” Tanner leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
“We’re all messed up in our own ways,” Logan said, his voice quiet. “Look at Gray and Dad, constantly at each others’ throats. And there’s Cam who only seems to come to life on the football field.” He let out a sigh. “You and me, we deal with the crap life throws at us by being workaholics. For the past five years whenever I’ve spoken to you, you were either at work, coming home from work, or heading there. And I get it, man, I do. Because I do the same. Work is safe. It’s our haven. It doesn’t hurt us, and we can’t hurt it.”
“You think I work hard because I’m avoiding emotion?” Tanner shook his head. “That’s bull. It’s just the way we were brought up.”
“I’m just saying it like I see it. Mom’s death was like an explosion in our lives. There was before and there was after. Two completely different lives. And there’s a part of us that’s desperate to have the before again, but its scary as hell. So we bury our heads in work and cling to the after.”
Tanner was quiet for a moment, his brows pulled together as he pondered his brother’s words. “Logan?” he asked.
“Yeah?”
“Have you gone to therapy?”
Logan coughed, though it sounded suspiciously like a laugh. “I might have.”
“Did it help?” Tanner was curious now. He remembered his own experience with therapy as a child. It was scary and made him want to run away.
“It did. For a bit. And then I stopped going.” Logan sounded sheepish. “Because work got too busy.”
Tanner laughed, because it was so damn typical of his brother. But at least he’d tried. “I love you, bro.”
“Ah, stop it with the emotional crap. Tell me, how is the whole employer employee thing going with Van?”
“It’s only been a couple of days. But it’s fine.”
“So it’s not just business? Oh boy.” Another whistle.
“I don’t know what it is,” Tanner admitted.
“Well, you need to work it out. Because work, friendships, and relationships don’t mix. Ask me how I know.”
“I don’t need to ask. I know your track record. How did Cam describe it?” Tanner mused, running a finger along his jaw. “Sleeping his way through the wait staff, was it?”
“Three girlfriends,” Logan said. “Three. And I made sure they weren’t kitchen staff.”
Tanner laughed. “And you’re trying to give me relationship advice?”
“I’m trying to protect you, because you’re my little brother and I love you.”
“Who’s being emotional now?” Tanner’s throat was tight, his breath captured inside.
“I’m telling you the truth, bro. Something that not many people do. When everything went down with you and Van, it broke you. And I’ve watched you fight against that brokenness, the same way you did when Mom died. If this thing… whatever it is… between you and Van implodes again, I’m not sure you’ll make it.”
The tightness in his throat felt like more of a chokehold. Tanner took a ragged breath in, feeling the oxygen inflate his lungs. “I’m not going to mess things up this time.” He couldn’t. Because Logan was right, he’d lost too much already. His mom, Van, the life he always thought they’d have. She was his best friend, his permanent companion, and then she was gone.
Just like his mom.
Logan laughed. “Take it easy. An
d don’t do anything stupid.”
“I won’t.” Tanner ended the call, letting his head fall back against the padded board behind his bed.
Logan was right. He’d spent most of his life avoiding the kind of pain he’d felt the night his mom died. And then when things went south with Van, it had come back tenfold.
But not this time. He was older, wiser, and more determined. And since he couldn’t hide himself in work, he’d bury himself in Savannah Butler instead.
Chapter Twenty
Tanner, Age 17
It had been two weeks since their kiss. She’d been avoiding him, and maybe he’d been avoiding her, too, because the awkwardness between them was palpable. On the night after the kiss he’d turned up at the drive-in to walk her home, only to find she’d left an hour earlier with a headache.
Even his brothers had noticed he was quieter than usual. Cam had caught him after football yesterday and walked home with him, obviously primed by Aunt Gina to ask Tanner if there was something wrong. And for a moment Tanner had thought about telling him.
But this was Cam, and if he told him, then soon Logan would know and neither of them would ever let him hear the end of it. They’d tease Van, too, and it would drive her crazy.
Better to keep quiet and wait for everything to go back to normal.
“Hey, Hartson, you coming or what?” Brad Wilshaw asked him. Like Tanner, he played defence.
Tanner looked up from his bag, stuffed with his dirty practice clothes. “Yeah.” He zipped it up and slung it over his shoulder, turning his back on the slatted bench that always smelled of sweat, no matter how many times the janitor scrubbed it.
“We’re heading over to the diner. Some of the girls are meeting us. You wanna join?”
He thought about Van, who was probably at home working on the English assignment Mr. Draycott had given them today.
“Sure,” he said. “Sounds good.”
“Great. I’ll give you a ride.”
Everybody knew Tanner was still saving for his first car. Like his brothers before him, their dad had refused to give him a penny toward it, so he was working weekends at the hardware store. He’d put a downpayment on a rusty old Camaro, but he still had at least three months before he could pay it off.