by Sara Brookes
Allison realized that if things had gone differently, she wouldn’t have met him. She would have never learned so much about herself. Despite her confusion about the current situation, he’d made an enormous impact on her life in a very short period of time. One that left a lasting impression.
She would certainly never look at sex the same way again.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the woman settling herself in a chair beside her. She’d removed the Perfect Shot apron to expose a pair of perfectly cut slacks and a shiny emerald shirt. Bit high class for a simple barista. That thought solidified further when Allison saw the four-inch heels. You don’t pull shots wearing those ankle killers.
The hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach returned. This was the kind of woman Patrick deserved. Not some computer geek who split her weekends between binge gaming and comic book stores. Her wardrobe consisted of cargo pants, logo shirts and sneakers. Not the high-end type of things this woman obviously kept in her closet.
“So, I assume you’re Allison? Elena Mitchell.” Allison choked on her coffee. Elena grinned, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “I see you’ve heard of me.”
Allison used a napkin to wipe her mouth. This was not what she’d expected when Patrick had described the woman who had orgy parties at Sanctuary. “You could say that.”
“Good things, I hope. Now before you grill me any more about what’s going on, the boys are fine.” Elena’s expression softened as she settled back, crossing her ankles. “I don’t know if you’re aware, but their mother took a tumble down her front porch a few nights ago. She runs a boardinghouse up north just outside of Staunton. Takes in travelers who don’t want to stay in a cold, unfriendly hotel room.”
“Is she okay?”
Elena snorted as she tapped her fist against the arm of the chair. “I dare say she is. Fell down and broke her ankle while trying to get frisky with her boyfriend after a date. I can only hope to be as spry and randy as she is at that age. The doctors released her from the hospital today. Alex said they’ll be home in a day or so after they get her settled. As much as I don’t mind doing favors for them—and don’t take this as I’m complaining—I hope they get back soon. I can only handle so much of this foam and steaming. No one ever has a plain old cup of coffee anymore.”
Something about this woman warmed Allison’s soul. Elena seemed to be the type who insisted the brothers go when they probably balked at the thought of leaving their business. “Seems as if you’re right at home.”
“Only because I used to pull the graveyard shift as a waitress to help pay off my student loans.” Elena sipped her coffee from a delicate mug, smiling at Allison over the rim. “What’s wrong?”
“I just…never expected you to be so—”
“Normal? One does have to work to support their indulgences. Especially ones as eclectic as mine.” Elena flipped her hair, leaning forward. “Now, why are you in such a rush to find Patrick?”
“I’m not. I panicked when I saw you. I just wanted to make sure something hadn’t happened.”
Elena tapped a perfectly polished nail against her cup. “But the fact remains that you panicked. If that doesn’t scream love, I don’t know what does. And think very hard before you deny it. That will just dirty what it is the two of you have found.”
Allison stared at the finger now pointed directly at her, seeing the woman Patrick described. Sure, the exterior remained, but there was now an air of authority crackling around them. This woman knew exactly how to garner attention and how to handle it when she got it. “I won’t deny it.”
“Then what is it?” Elena waved her hand in the air in dismissal. “Wait a minute before you answer. I think this conversation is better suited for somewhere else other than the coffee house. Something tells me this isn’t going to be a quick chat. Why don’t you swing by the warehouse tonight? We’ll talk there.”
Allison agreed she’d be much more comfortable discussing this sort of thing without an audience. However, she didn’t want to cause any sort of problems for Elena either. “But it’s your night there. I don’t want to interrupt your…date.”
Elena pushed herself out of the chair, collecting her empty cup. “Oh I don’t have any plans for tonight—at least with anyone else.”
Several months ago, Allison wouldn’t have had a clue what Elena meant. It was obvious now. Still, despite everything she’d learned recently about herself and the world Patrick was in, she struggled to contain her shock. “You have to go to the warehouse for that?”
If Elena was offended, it didn’t show. “Solo pleasure is still about sex. Regardless if I have a partner or not. Occasionally, I take a night for myself. Then I don’t have to worry about telling someone what I want them to do. I already know. Simple.” Elena winked. “I’ll be there around seven.”
Chapter Thirteen
Patrick couldn’t get over the fact he’d screwed up.
For a moment, he’d forgotten he’d spent his entire adult life doing everything he could not to be his father. For that short half hour, standing in Allison’s kitchen, the specter of his father had returned to haunt him. He knew he wasn’t his father, but in those moments at Allison’s, when he’d been so angry he’d seen red, he’d realized he could be. It would have been as easy as flipping the switch.
She’d hit the nail on the head. He’d never done anything to give her any indication of how he truly felt about her, instead relegating her to a good friend who simply shared his mutual interests in sex. Fuck buddies, she’d said. The pain of those words still left a dark stain on his heart.
He’d gotten so swept away by the connection they shared, he’d forgotten she needed to hear the words. Needed to hear from his very own lips how she knotted his stomach every time she came close. Instead, he’d let his anger get the best of him and turned into a complete ass staking his claim over her.
God, what she must think of me.
A quiet sound from the den startled him. He tossed down the kitchen towel he’d been using to dry the dishes, happy for the respite from his own thoughts. “Mom? Are you all right?” He stepped into the front room of the boardinghouse just as she struggled to sit up.
“I’m fine. Will you get me another pillow for my foot? It’s in the hall closet.”
As he retrieved it, propping up her foot, he tried not to let disappointment show on his face. Nearly seventy, with a petite build and steely gray eyes, Sadie Conners was more than capable of handling herself. But just as with the rest of the Connerses, she sometimes took it to the extreme.
Ten years ago, he’d purchased the rundown house and restored it for her. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought she’d turn it into the efficiently run business it had become. While he was proud she’d taken it and made it her own, sometimes she forgot she needed to be taken care of as well. “You know the doctor told you to rest.”
“I broke my ankle, for Pete’s sake.” She ran a hand over her silver hair. “Rest isn’t going to do me a whole lot of good. Besides, there are guests to take care of.”
Leave it to her to think more about the guests than her own welfare. “You broke it in three places. I’d say you qualify for some downtime. Besides, Alex and I are here. We can handle the guests.”
Due to the fact it was off-season, there were currently only three guests in residence, so it wasn’t as if it was an enormous task to take on. He’d been around enough to know the basic work that went into the business and how she ran it with little margin for error.
“I told you not to come.”
“Of course you did. And you knew Alex and I would show up despite your wishes.” One thing he knew, customers wouldn’t take care of themselves. There was a reason the travelers came to stay at the house, just as there was a reason Perfect Shot’s customers came when they were perfectly capable of brewing coffee in their own home. “What would you have done? Tell your guests to take care of themselves? I think we remember enough to know what to do without you looking over
our shoulders.”
“Did you chop up the vegetables for dinner tonight? And extra towels. Did you make sure everyone who needed them had some?”
“Mom,” he stated firmly. “I can handle this.”
“Fine. You’re frustratingly obstinate, you know.”
He kissed the top of her head. “I come by it honestly. Do you need a blanket?”
She blew out a sigh as she shifted on the couch. “Yes, that would be nice. Thank you.” When he returned and settled the blanket over her legs, she patted her hand on the cushion. “Come sit with me for a few minutes. Give me someone to talk to who isn’t going to throw a bunch of medical jargon my way. Damn doctors at the university hospital always talk three feet above your head.”
He hadn’t understood most of the terms the doctors had tossed out either. Six weeks to heal, as long as she stayed off her foot and took things easy. “You do know this just further cemented the fact that the idea of you running this place by yourself scares me. Not with all these people coming and going.”
Her slim fingers brushed a stray piece of hair behind his ear. “I’m not alone. I have a steady influx of guests coming through. Besides, you two were the ones who moved away. I had to have something to do.”
She was right, of course, as she usually was. After he’d moved around repeatedly, he’d wanted somewhere to settle down for an extended period of time. A place of his own to call home. The warehouse had proved too enticing of a property to turn his back on. He’d snatched it up as soon as he’d found it. “There’s something about that town, Mom. I can’t stay away.”
Her gaze softened as her palm lightly pressed against his cheek. “Is that so? Way I hear, it’s a woman you can’t stay away from.”
His heart hitched at the reminder of the bang-up job he’d done in that department. Leave it to Alex to make sure their mother knew everything. “Well, it’s not as if I have to worry about it now.”
His mother snorted, gesturing for the tea he’d made for her. “Nothing a good talk or two won’t fix.”
He picked up the delicate teapot they had purchased on her last birthday, filling an empty cup with her favored hot tea. Earl Grey, screaming hot with one sugar. “Not in this instance.”
“Have you even tried?”
“Once, but I just made a fool of myself.” He was ashamed to admit as much to the other woman in his life.
“Then that’s not the boy I raised. Or at least tried to raise when your father wasn’t butting his damn opinion in with his fists. Tell me what you screwed up.”
The last thing he wanted to do was discuss his love life with his mother. Or how his father played into the equation. “Mom, I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Bullshit.” Sadie had never been one to mince words. She was also very determined and wouldn’t give in until he started talking.
“Fine. I screwed up. Forced my opinion about the company she kept and generally made a complete and total jackass of myself. I became my father.”
Her steely gaze made him feel as if he was a small child again. “Patrick Alan Conners. You are nothing like that man and you never will be. I did everything I could to make sure neither of you boys turned out to resemble anything remotely close to him. And you know better than to attempt to tell a woman who she can and can’t associate with, son. She’ll get in your face every time and put you in your place. Sounds as if she did just that. Good for her. Did you apologize?”
“I haven’t had a chance,” he lied. He’d tried with no success and then spent a few days wallowing in the scotch bottle. It had been the very wrong approach, well out of character. With the alcohol, he’d forgotten about how much Allison had gotten under his skin. At least until Alex showed up at the loft to inform him their mother had fallen and broken her ankle. That had been one hell of a sobering moment.
“Now you listen to me. You march yourself back to that town and do it right this minute.”
He had forgotten the power of her intense glare. “It’s not that simple.”
“And that’s got to be the biggest line of shit I’ve ever heard.”
“You don’t understand. It’s going to take more than a simple phone call.” More than some slurred apologetic voice mail. “I’ll go, I promise. But you’re more important right now.”
“Son, while I did my best to instill a sense of family in you boys despite your father, no mother is more important than the woman he’s fucking.”
He choked on his ice tea. “Jesus Christ, Mom.”
She smiled widely, deepening the wrinkles in the corners of her eyes. “What? You think I’m some angelic prim and proper woman who’s never had a good lay? Your father leaving was the best damn thing that happened to my sex life.”
“I cannot be having this discussion right now.” He looked over to find her hands folded neatly on the afghan he’d tucked around her. He’d known, of course, that his mother was human and had needs. But that didn’t mean he actually wanted to hear about it firsthand. Hell, he didn’t even want to hear his mother even mention the word sex.
She gave him a sweet, innocent smile, a contradiction to her mischievous nature. “After your father was thrown in jail, I had myself a bit of a wild period to celebrate. You boys came first then and I spent more of my time focusing on you two. Nice thing about running this place now? Handsome, single men traveling alone and needing a place to stay for the night. They tend to be lonely and want to have some companionship for one night—”
“Stop, Mom. Just stop, please. I beg of you. Stop.” He rubbed at the spot of tension that had bloomed between his eyes. Maybe he should have asked the doctors to give her something stronger. Then he wouldn’t be put through this particular version of hell.
Alex entered the room. “What’s going on?”
Patrick sat the tea glass on the table, wiping the condensation off his finger with his jeans. “Our mother has decided I needed to hear the intimate details of her sex life because of what happened with Allison.”
His brother settled himself on the arm of the pale blue couch. “If it helps him get over himself, keep talking, Mom.”
Patrick held up a stiff finger to stop her. “No. I do not need to hear anymore. I’m better off not knowing—ever. Got it?”
Sadie pulled the blanket tighter around her body. “Son, I’m fine. Go back to Gatlin Falls and get her back. Women love for their knight in shining armor to come in and sweep them off their feet, no matter how much they say otherwise.”
That was something he should have done long before now. Instead, he’d let his temper get the best of him and been an utter bastard to the woman he loved. If the situation had been reversed, he wouldn’t want to talk to himself. “After what I did, it’s better if I keep my distance.”
“I won’t ask about what happened between the two of you that has you so messed up. That’s something you need to work out with her. Talking is the best thing—it will at least offer closure for the both of you.”
Patrick sneered at his brother. He didn’t need the two of them to gang up on him, yet here they were doing just that. “Take your own advice, Alex.”
Alex sighed as he folded his arms. “I tried. Vivian’s shut me out completely and there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about it. You haven’t even tried with Allison. You said so yourself. That’s a completely different animal.”
“You didn’t try?” His mother’s eyes widened. “You’re not one to give up so easily, Patrick.”
No, he wasn’t. The fact his mother pointed it out just made it even more of a bitter pill. “I know. This time is different.”
“Do you love her?”
“I do,” he answered without hesitation. There was no need to think about it because he knew it with everything he was. Blood to bone. “So much sometimes it hurts.”
His mother’s expression softened as she reached for his hand. “Which is why it’s so damn painful now. I did not raise my sons to let their women get away from them. Alex’s done what
he can. Vivian wasn’t meant for him. I could have told him that from the beginning, but you boys have to make your own mistakes. I can’t tell you what to do, Patrick, but have you told her how you feel?”
“No.”
Her hand closed over his and squeezed. “She needs to hear it. Whatever you’ve done, son, she at least needs to know that you love her. Then you can go your separate ways if that’s the way of things. But my gut instinct tells me otherwise from the way you’re so broken up about her. I’ve never seen you react this way before. You’ve got something special. Don’t throw it away.”
Alex’s hand slid over Patrick’s shoulder. The contact with his family gave him an anchor, reaffirming how important both of these people were to him. They’d all been through traumatic and emotional upheavals in the past, using each other for support to get through tough moments. Coming home allowed him to discover that comforting hold again.
It wasn’t quite complete though—someone was missing from his circle.
Alex gave him a shake. “Patrick, go. I can watch over Mom. Besides, I think I’m going to stay here for a little bit. See if I can’t sort things out in my head. It’s too late for me and Vivian. Don’t let it be that way with Allison.”
* * * * *
Shortly before seven, Allison stood under the awning of the bookstore directly across the street from the warehouse. Rain continued to fall persistently with no hope of ever stopping. The rest of her day had been a disaster because she’d spent most of it vacillating on whether or not to actually come tonight.
However, curiosity got the best of her. If nothing else, she would have someone to talk to about Patrick. Given Elena’s own area of interest, Allison suspected she wouldn’t judge her. Her friends would just laugh and point based on their reaction to her gaming avatar. Not to mention Mark’s crass comments about his date. And besides, they were guys. No matter how much she was one of them, there were some things she’d never discuss with them. Ever. Patrick was an important part of her life she didn’t want to screw up. The discussion of her love life certainly seemed to be in the realm of female conversation.