We’d bonded the first week of sixth grade, during a family tree project in social studies, when we discovered that both of our mothers had passed away when we were young. The parent-died-when-you’re-a-child club was not one that anyone wanted to belong to, but it was oddly comforting to know someone else who was in it. It was just one of those things that only people that had experienced it could relate to.
“What are you doing here?” we both blurted out at the same time, then chuckled.
“I’m from here,” Cheyenne explained.
“You are?” That was strange, I’d thought she was from Greenwich.
“Yes. I was born here, but I moved to Connecticut after my mom died.”
“Oh, that’s right.” She’d told me that she lived with her grandparents, but I’d never asked where her father was. Not because I hadn’t been curious, it was just a byproduct of that pesky social awkwardness.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
Other than having hot sexual encounters with a mystery man?
“I’m visiting someone.” I started to tell her who, but I stopped myself, thinking she wouldn’t care what I had to say.
That was another thing I decided I wanted to work on. All my life, I’d felt like no one had any interest in anything I had to say. I was sure that most of that stemmed from my relationship with my parents. My mother was always just so sad, and seemed to be in her own world. And my father…well, he really didn’t seem to care about anything I had to say.
“How long are you going to be in town?” she asked.
“I’m not sure.” I hadn’t made any concrete plans. Mrs. B had invited me to her mahjong game tonight, and I was thinking I’d like to stick around for the festival that was in just a few days. And if I run into Jimmy again, all the better…
“Well, I’m actually on my way to my family’s bar. I’m meeting my brothers—”
“Brothers?” She’d never mentioned anything about brothers.
“Yep.” She beamed with pride. “Three of them. Two older and one younger.”
“Wow.” I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy. I’d always wanted siblings. Someone that I could share a familial bond with. I’d never felt like I had that with either of my parents.
“They called a family meeting.”
Family meeting. That was the second time I’d heard that phrase since I got into town. Jimmy had mentioned that he had his own family meeting the day before. Maybe it was a thing people did down in the South. Or maybe it was just a Firefly Island thing.
She checked her watch. “Actually, I’m running late.”
“Okay, well, um, let me get your number.” I dug my phone out of my purse. “I’ll text you later and maybe we can grab a drink or—”
“Nope. I’m not letting you out of my sight.” She hooked her arm through mine. “Do you know how many years I’ve waited to hang out with you outside of school premises? You’re coming with me.”
“I thought you said it was a family meeting.”
“I did.” She nodded as she dragged me along with her.
“I don’t want to intrude.”
“Are you kidding me? Intrude? I’m going to get soooo many brownie points for bringing my hot Yankee friend to meet them.”
Hot friend? Was that honestly how she saw me? I’d always thought of myself as plain. She was most likely just being kind.
“In fact, I’m probably going to have to mop up the drool from the ground. Plus, it’s not like we have anything that private going on. Unless… maybe Reagan is pregnant.”
“Reagan?”
“She’s my brother’s fiancée. Or, I guess I should say he wants her to be. She hasn’t said yes. Yet. He’s doing his best to put a ring on it, and I wouldn’t put it past him to knock her up and try to trap her.”
I stared at her, unsure of what to say to that.
“I’m kidding.” She smiled. “Sort of. My brother, or I guess brothers, all strike me as the possessive types. In the best, non-threatening way possible, of course,” she assured me. “They are just all really…alpha. All in different ways, but alpha just the same.”
“Oh.” I nodded.
“My oldest brother barely says anything, but he just sort of radiates this quiet authority. And my middle brother is a little broody, but he’s a charmer. His nickname was Panty Dropper before he met Reagan.”
“The girl that he wants to put a ring on, and who may or may not be pregnant.” I was trying to keep it all straight in my head.
She pointed at me. “Exactly.”
“And my younger brother, well, he’s not broody at all. He’s the most easygoing, laid back guy you’d ever want to meet. But I don’t know, he has this way about him. This sort of intrinsic capableness. Guys want to be friends with him, and women want to be with him. He just makes everyone around him happy all the time. He puts everyone at ease. People gravitate toward him. I don’t think he’s ever had a long-term relationship, but whoever he ends up with is going to be a very lucky lady.”
“Wow.” He sounded like quite the guy.
If I’d been in the market for a relationship, a real relationship that is, not just one to mark off my list, he sounded exactly like who I’d want to be with. Actually, he sounded a lot like Jimmy.
“I can’t wait for you to meet them. And who knows? Two of them are single.” She wagged her eyebrows.
I doubted that either of them would get my mind off of Jimmy. I couldn’t stop thinking about his eyes. His hands. His smile. His scent. His walk. His voice. His neck. His arms. His dick. It was a problem.
“So, come. Please,” she begged.
If I’d been in this situation last week, there was no way I would have. Decorum wouldn’t have permitted me to. But then again, I would’ve never been in this situation last week because I still would’ve been in my high-rise apartment in Manhattan. Lonely. Bored. And sad.
“Yes. I’d love to meet your brothers.” And it was true. Even though I had a feeling they wouldn’t hold a candle to Jimmy.
CHAPTER 7
Jimmy
A yawn claimed me as I pulled into the back parking lot of Southern Comfort. After Bella’s second disappearing act yesterday, I’d spent the night tossing and turning until my alarm went off at 4 a.m.
I was trying not to take it personally that she kept taking off without so much as a goodbye. It was easier to do when it had only been the one time.
The second vanishing act definitely stung. One second she was there, right beside me, and the next she was nowhere to be found. I’d stayed on the pier looking for her for almost an hour before I gave up and went home. I told myself it was because I wanted to give her earring back to her, which I’d completely forgotten about when I’d seen her out of the blue, but the truth was, I’d just wanted to see her.
I was actually glad that I’d forgotten to return the jewelry. I felt like that gave me an excuse to track her down, which I planned on doing after this meeting. Firefly Island wasn’t that big, and I knew everyone. Someone, somewhere knew something about where she was and who she was, and I planned on finding out. After that, it was anyone’s guess.
I had no clue whether she would welcome me in or shut the door in my face if I showed up on her doorstep. I couldn’t get a read on what was going on in that beautiful head of hers. We had a connection, that much was obvious. I was convinced that it wasn’t one-sided, considering the activities that we’d engaged in.
So why did she keep leaving without a word?
The mystery was driving me crazy. I hadn’t been able to think about anything else. Not even food. I’d forgotten to eat breakfast before I left the house for my sunrise charter at five in the morning. That was a first.
As my shoes hit the pavement, I exhaled loudly, trying to shake off the uneasiness that had been stirring in my chest for the past few hours. I wasn’t sure if my anxiety was because of Bella, or if it was because of the letters that Billy had discovered. It could really have been ei
ther.
In just a few minutes’ time, we were going to be telling Cheyenne about our suspicions. I hoped that this wouldn’t make her feel any less a part of this family. It was bad enough that she’d grown up away from us, but we’d just gotten her back and I wasn’t ready to let her go.
I tugged open the heavy oak door and walked inside to find my brothers seated at the bar. They both gave me the same looks that they had the day before. Yesterday they’d said it was because I hadn’t asked about the food. Well, as far as today went, there was no way that they’d be able to say that since I’d literally just shown up.
“What?” The question came out sounding a lot more defensive than I’d meant it to.
“You’re…” Hank started to explain.
“Cranky,” Billy supplied. “I’m guessing it has to do with the unnamed woman. The one you’re so all-fired sure I don’t know because she hasn’t come into the bar.”
All my life I’d been an open book. Growing up in a house with an alcoholic, non-functioning parent and two older brothers that had been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt didn’t leave a lot to the imagination. No one really cared what shit I got up to, so I’d never had to hide anything.
But there was something about Bella that made me protective. She wasn’t just some girl I’d hooked up with. She was a girl that I’d hooked up with twice, both times ending with me practically sending out a search party for her.
“Did you see her again?” Billy questioned.
The town was too small for me to get away with lyin’. I was sure that our brief but scorching hot interaction had been tracked on somebody’s radar. Chances were, word would get back that I’d been at the pier with someone—and a gorgeous someone, at that.
“Yeah.”
“And?” Billy prodded.
“Since when did you two turn into Pastor Roberson?” I pulled up a barstool and sat down.
“Who?” Hank’s eyes narrowed at me.
“He’s from Married at First Sight,” Billy explained, then did a classic brother pit maneuver to shift the spotlight to someone else when the heat got too much. Turning to me, he infused his voice with a disgust/pity combo. “I can’t believe you watch that trash TV show.”
“Me?” I pressed my hand to my chest. “You’re the one that started playing it at the bar on Wednesdays.”
“It was requested,” he defended himself.
“Really? I don’t recall anyone requesting it last week. Or the week before that.” I didn’t mention the fact that I’d come in to have a beer last Wednesday night, and the Wednesday before, because it felt weird to watch the show at home by myself.
Billy shrugged, leaned his hands on the bar and came clean. “I had to find out if Zach cheated with Mindy’s friend.”
Hank exhaled through his nose. It was the way our eldest brother communicated to us that he was irritated. It had been the same move since we were kids. He didn’t have to say anything to communicate his annoyance. His face said it all.
“Where’s the food?” I changed the subject, satisfied that Billy had revealed himself as a down-low MaFS fan.
“Ray’s got some wings in the smoker.” Billy checked the clock on the wall. “Should be comin’ out ’bout now.”
“I’ll go grab ’em.” I’d volunteer to do anything to get out of this conversation.
“You’re only prolonging the inevitable. We will find out about her,” Billy promised.
His statement hung in the air as I walked through the double doors and down the hallway to the back patio where Ray was manning the smoker.
My brothers and I co-owned this bar now, but it had been in the family for decades, since Pop’d bought it thirty years earlier. Ray had been here even longer than the Comfort men had. He lived above the building and took care of everything from maintenance to bouncing to bartending to cooking. Anything that needed doin’, he got done. Besides Hank, he’d been the man that I’d looked up to as a father figure. Not that mine had been gone. Physically, anyway. He’d been around—just not present.
I found Ray standing next to the smoker in his “uniform.” Backward baseball cap, jeans, and a white T-shirt. In all the years I’d known him, I’d only seen him wearing different clothing on two occasions: my college graduation, and my father’s funeral.
“How’s things?” I asked, following the sweet smell of BBQ chicken.
“No complaints. What about you?” Ray moved his hat off his head and wiped his forehead with a rag. “I heard you had quite a trip on the wheel last night.”
That was exactly why I hadn’t tried to lie to my brothers about seeing Bella again. This town was too fucking small. “Ya did, huh?”
“Yep. Ran into Calvin at the Piggly this mornin’.” Ray opened the door of the smoker and started pulling out the wings with long tongs.
“Hmm,” I made a noncommittal noise as I grabbed the platter and set it down close to him.
“He said you were lookin’ mighty cozy with a pretty brunette. Said he hadn’t seen you that cozy with a girl…hell, ever.”
“He said all that, huh?” Calvin had a big mouth.
“Sure did.” He closed the smoker as the last two wings plopped onto the serving dish. “So, who is she?”
“I don’t know.”
He didn’t respond but his right brow lifted, the way it had back when I was in sixth grade and told him I hadn’t ditched school and gone to the beach and smoked weed, or when I was in high school and promised him that I hadn’t broken into Knox Montgomery’s parents’ liquor cabinet and drunk half the contents. He hadn’t believed me those times, for good reason, and he didn’t now.
“I really don’t, I swear. All I know is her first name, and that’s the God’s honest truth.” I lifted my hand and gave him the three-finger scout’s honor salute.
“Boy, you were never no scout.” Ray chuckled as he swatted the dishtowel he kept hanging from his belt at me. “I only brought it up because I don’t want to see you messin’ things up if she’s special.”
“Messin’ things up?” Ray had never talked to me about my love life. Other than saying I “did good” when I’d landed Ember Culpepper as my prom date senior year. “How?”
“Meanin’ I don’t know where your head’s at with all the malarkey about the curse.”
He’d definitely never brought the up curse before. “I don’t put much stock in it,” I answered honestly.
“So that’s not why you haven’t settled down yet?” Ray questioned.
“No.” The reason I haven’t settled down was because I hadn’t met Bella yet. That thought came out of the blue, and I wasn’t sure what I felt about it.
“You sure ’bout that? You might not even know that was the reason you’ve been keepin’ ladies at arm’s length.”
Arm’s length? Had I been doing that? I didn’t think so.
“Don’t give me that look.” Ray pointed at me, most likely because of my expression of disbelief. “You know good and well that you’ve entertained plenty of women that you’d be lucky to take off the market. But you never did. I figured you were as messed up in the head about the curse as your pop, your uncles, and your brothers. Well, at least until Billy met Reagan. I was scared you were gonna die an old bachelor like me.”
“You don’t need to worry. I’ve never been hurtin’ for female companionship.”
“That’s the point, son. You got plenty of women to do things with. I’m just worried you’re not gonna find the woman you want to do nothing with. And if you do, will you get your head out of your ass and do somethin’ about it?”
Damn. That was a deep bomb to drop before noon.
“Jimmy!” Hank’s deep voice bellowed from inside the bar.
“Sorry, Ray, I’ve been summoned.”
“Alrigh’ kid.” Ray slapped me on the shoulder before slathering BBQ sauce on the next batch of wings he was gonna smoke.
My mind was still stuck on what Ray had said when I walked from the back of the bar ca
rrying a platter of wings, so it took me a second to recognize that there was a familiar voice coming from the front of the bar. My brain had just figured out what my ears were telling me when I walked back into the front of the bar and confirmed what I’d heard.
Bella was here. She was at Southern Comfort. She was standing next to my sister.
“There he is!” Cheyenne held her arm out toward me. “And this is my youngest brother, Jimmy. Jimmy this is Isabella, we went to school together.”
If I wasn’t mistaken, there was panic in Bella’s eyes. I may not know her that well, but I could clearly see that she was silently communicating to me to keep our past interactions to myself.
“Hi Jimmy, it’s nice to meet you.” She lifted her hand awkwardly.
“Nice to meet you too, Bella.”
A faint blush rose on her cheeks when I said her name, or at least the nickname I had given her.
“Isabella,” Cheyenne corrected.
“Sorry. Isabella,” I corrected, grinning from ear to ear.
The color on her cheeks darkened.
Damn, this was going to be fun.
CHAPTER 8
Isabella
My father had a poker face like no other. It had helped him become the titan of industry that he was. My entire life I’d observed people trying to decipher what he was thinking when they interacted with him, myself included. And all my life I’d seen people, myself included, fail to do so.
I would give anything to have inherited that trait. Sadly, I did not. The opposite was true for me. If I thought something or felt something, it was broadcast on my face in HD.
Still, I was doing my best not to let the roller coaster of emotions I was experiencing show in my expression. It was difficult considering the waves of embarrassment crashing over me. I felt like I was drowning in them.
All of the confidence, the boldness, the lack of inhibition that I’d possessed when I’d been alone with Jimmy had vanished. I realized now that it had only been there because I thought I’d never see him again. At least not in a real way. Randomly running into him in town, sure. But that still felt anonymous.
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