It became very clear when he walked over to his iPod and started playing the song from Dirty Dancing, “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.”
So, standing in Brantley’s living room, me in his shirt that’s so big, it stops mid-thigh on me, and him in nothing but sweatpants, I’m about to get my lift.
“Ready, baby? Here it comes. One, two, three!” On his three, I start running at him only to chicken out halfway there and stop.
“I’m scared!” I giggle while I jump around to get my nerves under control.
“I swear, baby, I won’t drop you. Now, get your sweet ass over here and come jump in your man’s arms.” He laughs. My stomach fills with butterflies when he refers to himself as my man, but I ignore them as I walk back to my spot across the hardwood floor.
The music starts over again. Brantley’s facing me, I’m facing him, and both of us are smiling huge, waiting for our cue. When it approaches, I shake out my arms in a weak attempt to settle my nerves.
“Be brave,” Brantley says when our cue comes. “One, two, three!” This time, I take off at a full sprint and don’t stop until I reach him. He grabs my hips. “Jump, baby,” he says right before he lifts me in the air.
It takes a second to reassure myself I’m not going to face plant, but once I feel confident that I’ll be fine, my arms go out wide just as the chorus plays. Brantley starts spinning in slow circles, and I can’t contain the laughter that bubbles out of me.
“One, two, three,” he says again before lowering me until he’s holding my thighs right under my butt. He slowly brings me down the rest of the way, making sure every inch of my body caresses every inch of his.
Once I’m on my feet, Brantley softly cups each side of my face. “I’m never letting you go, Eva,” he says softly before crashing his lips down on mine. I’m really happy he says that because I don’t plan on ever leaving.
As our tongues tangle, Brantley grabs the back of my thighs and lifts me up, wrapping my legs around him. He takes us down to the floor one knee at a time until I’m flat on my back.
He sits up long enough to grab a blanket off the couch nearby. In no time at all, my shirt and his pants are gone and he’s lining himself up at my entrance. “You’re so fucking beautiful,” he says before pushing inside of me.
Right there, in the middle of Brantley’s living room floor, in front of the huge windows where fresh snow is falling, while “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” plays on repeat, the man of my dreams spends the rest of the night making love to me.
Chapter Fifteen
THERE’S JUST SOMETHING ABOUT
THOSE SMITH BROTHERS
“His ass better be here. He was supposed to meet me at my house an hour ago,” Brantley fumes a week later.
Last night, Brantley told me him and James had to go to Snowridge for business. How any kind of business with The Tavern would require a night away and a business suit is beyond me, but I didn’t want to ask because Brantley was especially moody last night and didn’t seem to want to talk about it.
This morning, his mood did not change. In fact, it got worse. I tried to stay out of his way, but when James failed to meet him at the house, he about lost it, which is why we are now storming into The Tavern on a hunt for James so he and Brantley don’t miss his very important meeting.
I close my eyes and wait for the explosion as soon as we walk in. Why do I do this? Well, as soon as we enter, the only sound we can hear are moans and grunts coming from the back room.
“I think we found James,” I whisper meekly.
I can feel the rage coming off Brantley in waves. I look at him to see his jaw clutching so tight, it has to be painful. “I’m going to fucking kill him,” he growls before stomping over to the back room door. I follow.
My stomach churns as the noise gets louder. Poor Charlotte. Brantley doesn’t even bother knocking. He just turns the knob and whips the door open, revealing James’s very naked butt. A nice one too. He didn’t hear us come in because he hasn’t stopped pounding into a very naked…Charlotte?
“Charlotte?” I squeak. Her head whips up and her eyes resemble a deer caught in the headlights. Thankfully, her chest and other areas are covered by James and the backside of her is pressed against the wall.
“Oh my God!” she yells.
“What the fuck, bro?” James yells. I realize I’m staring, so I whip my head to Brantley, and not even he can keep the smirk off his face.
“You were supposed to meet me at my house this morning,” he says, cool as a cucumber.
“Uh, you think we could talk about this later? Ya know, when I’m not giving it to my girl?” James snaps.
My grin transforms into a full-on smile. “Your girl, huh?” I squeal, then clap. Charlotte’s face reddens and she smiles, but doesn’t deny it. She buries her face in James’s neck and her shoulders start moving, giving away the fact that she’s laughing.
“You mind hurrying this along?” Brantley laughs.
James, however, has had enough. He picks up a stapler that was sitting on a nearby bed and chucks it at Brantley. Thankfully, my man is quick to jump out of the way. “Get the fuck out!” he roars.
We step out of the doorway and shut the door. Now, normal people would take someone walking in on them as a mood killer, but not those two. It’s not a second later when moans begin to fill the air again.
Brantley and I look at each other with wide-eyed ‘you can’t be serious’ looks before laughter erupts between us. Brantley grabs my hips and pulls my front against his front. “I’m gonna miss you,” he says once his laughter has tapered off.
He has no idea how good that is to hear. “I’m gonna miss you too.”
“I’m sorry I was a bastard this morning.”
“You’re forgiven.” I smile and stand on my tippy toes to place a quick kiss on his lips. When I start to pull away, Brantley holds on tighter and takes the kiss deeper.
All too soon, the door to the back room opens and out walks James buttoning his pants with a scowl on his face. “In the future, try knocking,” he snaps at Brantley.
“In the future, do her at your own place.”
“Already did.” James smiles triumphantly only to lose it two seconds later when Charlotte slaps him lightly in the stomach with the back of her hand.
Brantley grabs me up in a big hug. “I’ll call you later, baby. We’ll talk about this meeting when I get home, yeah?”
I nod my head. After a quick kiss, he pulls away and heads for the door. “Bye, Sweet Eva.” I wave.
Once he’s out the door, I watch James give Char a heated kiss before following Brantley out. Once it’s just the two of us, I give Char a smartass smile. “You got some explainin’ to do, lady!”
“I know.” She groans. “He’s relentless. I couldn’t say no. Plus, he’s so cute and funny. He’s also really fucking sweet, Eva. Like, the sweetest.”
“I’m happy for you, Char. You deserve that.”
“Thank you. I mean, it’s not anything serious, but…” She trails off, clearly at a loss for words.
“I get it. There’s just something about those Smith brothers.”
“Exactly.”
“That’s why I’ve made the decision to move here,” I say, shocking us both. I know I was thinking it for a long time, but I never planned on telling anyone anytime soon. “It’s not just for Brantley. I love it here in Alaska.”
“I hear that. I never thought I would ever wanna live somewhere cold, but this place is growing on me.”
“And here I thought I’d never find a place where I would feel like I belong,” I muse out loud.
“Sometimes the last place you think you don’t belong is exactly where you need to be.”
***
I walk through my cabin door at ten at night to see Charlotte already passed out. Since Brantley isn’t in town, I didn’t have anything to do other than avoid phone calls, so I stuck around The Tavern to help Gilbert out.
After a long shower, I cl
imb into bed and lay down, only to sit back up when something crinkles underneath me.
I reach underneath me and pull out the manila envelope, the one with my adoption paperwork inside of it. With Brantley out of town and Char asleep, now is as good a time as ever to read these, so I pull them out.
The first thing I read is that I was born in South Carolina, where I was raised. Then I see my mom’s name. My heart pauses, then beats rapidly. Maria. Maria Garcia.
“My mom’s name is Maria,” I whisper thickly to myself. I now have a name to put with the face. Why that is such a big deal to me, I have no clue, but it is.
At first, I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Closed adoption to Pearl and David Jones.
It’s the last paper that makes me jump out of bed and run down the stairs. “Char! Char, wake up!” I say frantically while shaking her.
Once she notices the tone of my voice, she jumps off the couch. “What? Eva, what’s wrong?”
“She was murdered,” I croak.
“What?” Char gasps as she grabs the papers I hold out to her. She sits down on the couch while reading through the report. “How did you get this? This a police report. Why would it be in with the adoption papers?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know, but she’s dead. Someone ran her over with their car and then drove off,” I say as I sit down next to Char. I stare blankly ahead while processing this information. I should be crying, right? Goddammit, why can’t I cry? “I wanna know who did it.” Char wraps her arm around my shoulders and pulls me to her side.
“We will, babe. We will call this detective guy and get all the info we can, okay?” She says.
At a loss for words and completely exhausted, I settle for a nod as an answer.
***
I wasted no time the next morning getting on the phone and calling the lead detective listed on the report. No surprise, he’s retired. The ‘accident’ took place when I was just over five years old. I was directed to the lead detective for cold case files, Detective Turner.
This all feels surreal. Last week I was living my dream of being lifted in the air like Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing, and now I’m calling South Carolina to learn about my mother’s unsolved murder—my biological mother, a woman I have never met. That last part doesn’t make a damn bit of difference to me.
Maria could have chosen a different route. She could have not had me at all. No matter her past mistakes, she is my mother and I will never stop trying to figure out what happened to her. If this whole experience has taught me anything, it’s that not everyone or everything is as it seems. I owe it to Maria, Robert, and myself to solve this.
“As I said before, I can’t share all the details with you. Even though it’s a cold case, it is still an open investigation,” Detective Turner says on the other end of the receiver.
I barely bite back a growl. “Well, what can you tell me, then?” I ask through clenched teeth. I look across the table to see Charlotte giving me sympathetic eyes.
“Not much, ma’am. It was a hit and run. The reason it wasn’t put down as accidental was because witnesses said it seemed like the driver went out of his way to hit her.”
Bile creeps up my throat, but I swallow it back. “And there was never any suspects?”
“We had one eye-witness who got a really good look at the male driver. We had him meet with our sketch artist and then we distributed his picture in local and national news, but nothing ever came of it. I’m sorry, ma’am, but I really can’t say much more.”
“Can you email me the photo?” I ask before he tries to rush off the phone.
“I can do that.” He sighs. We exchange information and I ask him to call me if he learns anything else and we disconnect.
“Nothing, huh?” Char asks.
“Not much more that we didn’t already learn from reading the report. He is going to send me a sketch of the suspect. Not like I’d know him.” Just as I finish my sentence, the email notification sounds on my laptop. I take a deep breath and open it.
I suck in a breath when I lay my eyes on the sketch. Not because I’m staring at the man who killed my mom, not because, even in a sketch, his eyes have this creepy emptiness to them. It’s not because of his overgrown hair, which gives him a homeless look. It’s because the man I’m looking at looks so familiar.
“I know him from somewhere,” I say as I lean in closer to the pic.
“What? You know him?” Char asks.
“I don’t know. I just feel like I know him, Char.” I zero in on the big mole he has underneath his left eye. I know that mole. “Shit, I think I know the man who killed my mom.” I gasp. “That mole.” I point to the picture. “I’ve seen it. God, why can’t I remember,” I yell out of frustration.
“Look at me,” Char commands. “You’re trying too hard. You need to relax. Give it time. It will come to you. Right now, you need to get out of this chair and away from the computer and phone. Our men are coming home in thirty minutes. Let’s go get them. Give your brain a rest, okay?”
“Shit, I really have been here all day. You’re right, I just need a break.”
I walk toward the front door, now very eager to get to Brantley. I need to be in his arms.
Chapter Sixteen
BECAUSE I KNOW WHAT LOVE IS!
“Christ, baby. I don’t even know what to say to that. They couldn’t tell you anything else?” Brantley asks.
As soon as he got off the plane, I was in his arms. It took us no time at all to get to his place, tear off our clothes, and make love to each other like we hadn’t seen each other in years.
Now, lying in bed in the afterglow of our love-making while he plays with my hair, I just finished telling Brantley about everything I learned while he was gone.
“Not much. They sent me the sketch, and it was the craziest thing, Brantley. As soon as I seen it, I felt like I knew him. I just wish I knew how,” I trail off.
“Give it time, baby. You’re thinking too hard.”
“That’s the same thing Char said.” I laugh.
“She’s a smart girl.” He chuckles.
“That she is.”
“You should talk to my mom,” Brantley says. I give him a quizzical look. “I don’t know too much, but back in the day, I guess our moms were pretty close. Maybe she knows something. Just a thought.” He shrugs.
Honestly, I didn’t even think about that, but now that he mentioned it, I remember Kim saying something about how close she was to my mom when I was staying with them after my accident. “Yeah, I think I will talk to her.”
“Good.” He kisses me on the top of my head before flipping me on my back and laying on top of me. “So?”
“So?”
“My brother is doing your best friend,” he says.
Laughter bubbles out of me. “My best friend is being did by your brother.”
“It’s weird.”
“I think it’s cool. Char really likes him.” I smile.
“Well, if James not being able to shut up about her the entire time we were gone is any indication, I would say he digs her too.”
“He talked about her the whole time?” I say in my swoon voice.
“Yes.” Brant scoffs. “It was awful. I missed the shit out of you.” My stomach flips.
“I missed you.”
“Yeah?” he asks softly, right before peppering kisses on my neck and collarbone.
“Yeah,” I answer breathlessly. My eyes flutter close. My body heats as Brantley runs his hand down the side of my body. He makes a trail from my collarbone to between my breasts with his kisses, ending the trail of kisses when his lips reach my right nipple.
He pushes one of his fingers between my wet folds while he sucks my nipple. I emit a pleasure-filled hiss as my back arches off the bed. It only takes one simple caress from this man to make me wither underneath him.
He releases my nipple with an audible ‘pop’ as he plunges his finger deep inside me. He quickly pulls his finger back out a
lmost all the way before thrusting it back in harder. He repeats this motion until I’m screaming out his name. “That’s it, Sweet Eva, come all over my hand, baby.”
I moan when Brantley lines his erect dick with my pussy and slams inside. “Brant!” I gasp.
“Home,” he says. “This is fucking home. Nothing and no one will ever feel as good as this. Watch us, baby,” he commands. I swing my eyes down to watch as his wet dick pulls out and pushes back in in long, fast strokes.
“See how stunning we are. Never, baby. You will never fucking leave me. You are my fucking home.” His words tip me over the edge and I’m moaning out his name before I know it.
“Fuck, I’m right there with you,” he calls out right before pulling out at the last second. I watch him stroke himself before he comes all over my lower stomach.
As he empties the last of himself, he takes his pointer finger and runs it through the cream. “What is it about seeing my mark on you that makes me already ready to fuck you again?” he muses almost to himself, but I answer anyway.
“I don’t know, but it’s the same for me.”
He chuckles. “My baby’s horny again?” I nod. “I should fix that then, huh?”
“Yeah,” I whisper.
“You got it baby.”
He fixes the problem…two more times.
***
“Eva,” I hear Brantley whisper, but I ignore the voice and fall back to sleep. “Eva, baby.”
“Hmm?” I grunt this time, coming fully awake.
“I gotta go to my parents and help Dad. Go back to sleep but come see me at the bar when you get up, yeah?” Brantley asks while tenderly kissing my shoulder.
“Mm, bye,” I mumble, already drifting back to sleep. I hear Brantley laugh.
“Bye, Sweet Eva,” he whispers right before I fall back into my deep sleep.
Its mid-morning when I awake again, this time to Brantley’s phone ringing. I race down the stairs but don’t make it in time. I’m about to head up stairs to get dressed for the day when there’s a knock on the door.
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