by Cora Brent
“He’s almost eighteen?” Cord asked.
I nodded. “Less than two months.”
“In that case even if you report him as a runaway they won’t really bother to look for him.”
“I know.” I paused and looked up at the sky. It was a dazzling storybook blue. “He’s not a bad kid. I think he’s just mixed up right now.”
“Then there’s a good chance he won’t stay mixed up forever,” Cord said. “Take you, for example. Only a good man would give up his own plans and start over in order to look after his brothers.”
Suddenly I had the same feeling again, like I was internally sinking. I didn’t want to burst into idiot tears while sitting there on the curb with my boss watching me. I lowered my head and tried to think of something good. The only thing that came to mind was Cassie’s smile.
Cord cleared his throat. “Curtis, I know what it’s like to go through tough times. I want you to know there’s no shame in asking for help. But since I don’t believe you’d ever ask, I’m going to offer. You and your little brother don’t need to live on the street or in shitty motels for the next few weeks. We have a home with an empty room. Saylor and I would really like you and Brecken to stay with us until you can move to your own place.” He patted my shoulder. “It’ll give you a break, a chance to breathe.”
The offer was extremely generous.
I almost turned it down anyway.
Then I thought about Brecken and how happy he’d been this morning in the company of the Gentrys. I had to push aside my feelings of pride for his sake. There was nothing more important than keeping that kid safe and protected.
“Thank you,” I told Cord. “I can’t even tell you what that means to me and to Brecken. I promise we won’t be any trouble while we’re staying with your family.”
“I know you won’t, Curtis.”
Cord stood up and went to unlock the front door of Scratch. A crunch of gravel nearby signaled the approach of a car. Not surprising since it was almost time for some of the staff to show up for their regular working hours. While I waited for Cord to unlock the door I tried to look like I hadn’t slept in my car last night. I didn’t want to start the day like this. I told Cord I’d be right in and ran over to my car to get a change of clothes from the trunk. I’d feel more normal after getting cleaned up in the restroom.
My trunk was still open when a compact Toyota pulled in beside me. I recognized that car. Had it really only been a few short weeks ago that I first saw the girl it belonged to?
Cassie Gentry stepped out of the driver’s side looking as wholesome and beautiful as a field of daisies. She even looked like a daisy herself, all yellow and white in a sundress that reached just above her knees. In spite of all the horror and fatigue of the last twelve hours my brain veered instantly to sex, the dirtiest kind, a hardcore fucking desecration of this pristine duchess of sunshine and flowers.
Down, boy.
Cassie cocked her head and regarded me with puzzlement. “Do you keep your clothes in your car?”
I closed the trunk. “I do today.”
She started to come closer. “Curtis-“
I cut her off before she could get too close. “I’ve got to get to work,” I said and left her behind because something kind of terrible had occurred to me.
“Cord, you can get a ride home with either Cassie or Curtis…”
I wouldn’t just be staying with Cord and Saylor. Their house was also Cassie’s house. Running into Cassie at work was one thing. Running into Cassie in some flimsy pajamas en route to the bathroom would be something else entirely. She’d quickly become my fantasy of choice when I was beating off and she had no idea. The thought of being so close to that kind of temptation almost made my knees buckle. I had to admit to myself something I’d known since the first time I saw her.
I wanted that girl bad, and not just as a fantasy fuck toy.
I couldn’t remember when I’d wanted anyone more.
I also couldn’t think of one good reason why I deserved to have her.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Sorry, Dad. I’m not sure I understand. Curtis is going to be doing what?”
My father looked up from the sketch he was working on absently while he talked. Five minutes ago he’d called me into his office because he said he had something to talk to me about.
“Staying with us,” he said.
“Like in our house?”
My dad shrugged. “I guess I could ask him to sleep outside on the patio furniture.”
“I don’t get it.”
He sighed and set his sketch down. “He and his brother need a place to crash for a few weeks.”
“What brother? I didn’t know he had a brother.”
“He has two. They’re minors and he’s been their guardian ever since their mother was arrested and then fled the country while she was out on bail. The seventeen year old ran off the other day but Deck is asking around to see if he can track him down. The youngest, Brecken, is only thirteen. They were living in a cruddy motel but the place got shot up last night and I found them in the parking lot this morning.”
“Oh,” I said. I stared down at my hands, trying to match this new version of Curtis the caregiver with Curtis the former gang member.
“Cassie?”
“Yeah, Dad?”
The expression on his face was sad and serious. “It’s just for a few weeks, just until they can move into their new apartment. These boys have had a really rough time and Curtis is doing the best he can but I can tell he’s ready to break. They don’t have anyone else. Your mom and I feel like we ought to help since we’re able.”
I grimaced as I recalled the sarcastic comments I’d made to Curtis about partying all night when he arrived in the morning looking exhausted. Of course he was exhausted. He was all alone and trying to provide for two young boys.
“I get the impression you and Curtis haven’t exactly hit it off,” my dad said. “But do you think you can make an effort to get along with him while he and Brecken are staying with us?”
“Of course, Daddy,” I said quietly.
He smiled. “Thanks, honey.”
My mind was still racing to catch up with this unexpected turn of events and I thought of something else. “Where exactly are they going to stay?”
“I figure one of them can stay in Cadence’s room since she’s not using it this summer. You know Cadence, she won’t mind. And then the couch in the family room is a pullout so we’ll make it work.”
“Okay.” I stood up. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”
He peered up at me. “I guess Conway got your car all fixed up?”
“Yes. He was nice enough to drop it off right after you and Mom left this morning. He said it was the alternator.”
“Yeah, he texted me. Mentioned you were sitting with a guy when he pulled up with the tow truck last night.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh my god. I’m not fourteen, Dad. It was just some guy from my class who didn’t want me waiting alone in a dark parking lot.”
He nodded approvingly. “Well then, I guess I like him already.”
I knew his opinion would change in a ferocious hurry if I mentioned the name ‘Parker Neely’ so I left that piece of information out. Anyway I really hadn’t given Parker any thought since last night. The sound of his name no longer set my teeth on edge and Parker had been nothing but friendly and respectful since I found him sitting there in class nearly five years after he decimated my life. But he wasn’t someone I would ever think about as I drifted off to sleep at night.
No, the guy I was always thinking about instead was someone I shouldn’t be thinking about at all. Especially not now that he was going to be moving into my house.
The idea that Curtis was going to be crashing on the couch where I lounged around watching television made me feel a little weird. He would never need to know that though. He didn’t need to know that any more than he needed to know that I’d thought of hi
m once or twice while putting my vibrator to good use.
“So I hear we’re going to be roomies,” I said to Curtis when I found him getting a cup of water in the break room.
He looked at me a little blankly and then tossed the cup into the garbage. “I won’t get in your way, Cassie.”
I leaned against the wall beside the water cooler. “Come on, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that, well, I’m sorry I didn’t know what you were going through before.”
Curtis rubbed his neck and winced. “How could you have known?”
“I don’t know. But I feel like I didn’t give you the benefit of the doubt and I should have.”
He stared at me for so long I started to wonder if I’d managed to offend him somehow. I felt compelled to do something to fill the silence so I started talking again.
“Curtis, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that I’m probably not your favorite person here but I hope we can find a way to be friends. Maybe. Or something like that.” I dug my nails into my palms in the hopes it would make me stop talking. That way I could stop cringing over the dumb words that kept pouring out of my mouth.
He raised an eyebrow. “Why do you think that?”
“That we can be friends? I didn’t mean to assume-“
“No. That you’re not my favorite person here.”
I shrugged. “I guess because it seems like we argue a lot.”
“Are we arguing now?”
“I don’t think so.”
“I don’t think so either.” Curtis leaned a few inches closer, like he was trying not to be overheard by anyone outside this room. “You’re not my least favorite of anything, Cassie. I’m always happy to see you.”
Then he left, which was a good thing because I was probably blushing up a storm. Worse than that, a shock of electric desire was still surging through my core and left me flattened against the wall for support.
“I’m always happy to see you.”
He didn’t mean anything, at least nothing more than civility. I wasn’t even sure I wanted him to mean anything more than that. Sure, I’d caught him looking at me a few times but I was used being checked out by men. He obviously wasn’t planning to do anything about it. Besides, getting involved with Curtis Mulligan was out of the question, especially if he was going to be staying at my house. The fact that he had turned out to be much more than careless party animal made the idea even more impossible. Curtis had a world of responsibilities that I couldn’t relate to. Plus we worked together. Being with him would turn messy for a variety of reasons. I’d avoided that kind of drama for so long. I’d avoided everything for so long; hookups, dating, sex of any kind. Curtis wasn’t the guy to wade into those complicated waters with.
And yet I knew that if I kept my vibrator in my purse I would absolutely be excusing myself and heading to the ladies’ room to do something constructive about the ache between my legs.
Instead I returned to the front desk and tried to look like a girl who wasn’t fighting the urge to run to the bathroom and have a masturbatory fantasy about the man who would be sleeping on her parents’ couch tonight.
I thought I did a pretty adequate job.
But I felt like a damn idiot.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I didn’t know there were families like this outside of sappy holiday movies. Large tribes of loyal people who joked and teased and knew each other’s histories and celebrated every life event together. Maybe there really weren’t too many families like the Gentrys. If I hadn’t been living in their midst for over a week now I would have insisted they were too good to be real.
“My dad’s got you cleaning the grill, huh?” Cassie asked.
I hadn’t heard her exit the house and open the gate to the backyard. As always, something inside of me skipped a beat at the sight of her. I couldn’t control it anymore than I could control the rising of my dick.
“I volunteered,” I told her and switched on the hose to give me an excuse to turn away from the long legs packaged in a pair of cutoff shorts that would look a lot better puddled around her ankles.
“This thing is ancient, by the way,” Cassie said, peering down at the grate I’d removed from the gas grill and set on the patio tile so I could hose it off. She was closer now, close enough for me to inhale the floral scent of her shampoo. “I think my dad bought it when we were in kindergarten. It’s got a lot of history though. I can’t even guess how many family gatherings this bad boy has hosted.”
I turned off the hose and took my time rolling it back up. “Have you seen Brecken?”
“He was helping my mom set the table.” Her voice now sounded weirdly high and distant. I looked up and was surprised to see her scaling a ladder and reaching for the roof.
“What are you doing?” I asked, trying not to notice that I had a damn fine view of her ass as she climbed even as I had to remind myself it was out of my reach. Cassie and I ate meals together at the Gentry family dining table, we shared a bathroom, we worked together and we might be sort of friends at this point. She was the beloved daughter in a household I was lucky enough to be a guest in.
But she still had a hell of a great ass.
Cassie reached for a string of lights. “The patio lights got tangled up during the dust storm last night.”
“I’ll fix it.”
The ladder wobbled. “It’s fine, I’m already up here.”
I moved to hold the ladder steady. “You’re making me nervous.”
Cassie loosened the tangled lights and smiled down at me. “Why?”
I swallowed, unable to tell if she was flirting or not. Sometimes Cassie could be sarcastic, witty and even a little moody. Other times I would glimpse this wistful innocence about her that I wanted to protect.
Or corrupt.
God help me.
“I’ll finish that for you if you get down,” I offered.
“I’ve got it.” She shifted her weight and began straightening out the light string, in the process leaning back more than I was comfortable with. I was strong enough to catch her if she tumbled off the ladder but that was a level of contact I’d rather avoid.
Cassie got the light string sorted out and reattached to the hooks that had been screwed in along the eves of the roof. She looked down at me with a triumphant grin.
“Curtis?”
“Yeah?”
“I need to climb down and you’re in my way.”
I backed up only a little while still holding onto the ladder because I didn’t trust it not to shake and cause her to slip. Unfortunately I held on a little too long and when Cassie hopped off the last few steps her body skidded into mine, that ripe little ass sliding over my hard cock in a way that produced an involuntary groan.
“Oh shit.” She spun around and we were face to face, so close my chest was practically grazing her nipples. “Did I step on your foot or something?” she asked breathlessly.
Human willpower was an incredible force. It had to be because there was nothing else on earth that was stopping me from seizing her and getting my hands, mouth and cock all over every inch.
“No,” I said, letting go of the ladder and backing away. “I just thought you were about to fall.”
She tilted her head and gave me an odd look. “I wasn’t.”
The sound of squeaking hinges caught my attention and I swiveled around to see someone was entering through the backyard gate. She was someone I’d seen once before in the parking lot of Scratch but barely noticed because my attention had been focused on her sister at the time.
Cami Gentry, Cassie’s twin sister, looked amused as she put her hands on her hips and sized me up. “So you’re Curtis,” she said.
“Guilty,” I replied and accepted her handshake. It was surprisingly firm.
Cami was different from her twin sister. It wasn’t just because they didn’t look alike. Cami bore a strong resemblance to her mother, Saylor. Even the style of her long brown hair was the same. Cami also possessed a certain
shrewdness that came across as she peppered me with questions and carefully weighed the answers. I couldn’t blame her for the scrutiny. Here I was, some rough looking dude with a sketchy record, living with her family and standing too close to her sister. I’d heard she was a reporter. After five minutes in her company I’d have to say the occupation suited her well.
“Make way, everyone,” said a man’s voice and a tall dark-haired guy strolled into the backyard carrying a platter of raw meat. I gathered that the guy was Cami’s boyfriend, Dalton. Cord had told me a little bit about him when he mentioned that Cami and her boyfriend were coming over for dinner tonight. He used to be a pro athlete and I found that easy to believe. Judging by the muscles on display I’d guess he still hit the gym pretty often. Years ago he’d suffered an injury that led to the decline of his sports career. These days he owned and operated a baseball facility for local youth. I could tell from the way Cord talked about him that he had enormous respect for the guy. I had to admit that Dalton sounded like he was as close to a saint as a man could hope for when it came to his daughter’s boyfriend.
Dalton was gracious when he set the plate of meat down and shook my hand.
“Good to meet you, Curtis.” He looked me over carefully. “I can see you’ve got good taste in ink.”
My arms were a mess of shapes and skulls and black tribal tattoos. I knew the letters on my neck would have some people guessing I had a history of gang activity. Dalton’s friendly smile said if he knew anything about my past he wasn’t going to hold it against me. I appreciated that. A lot of people were far more judgmental.
Cami sidled up to her boyfriend and he put his arm around her. “Don’t tell me Dad’s letting you grill the meat. That’s a task he usually insists on performing himself.”
“Because he says he’s only one who can grill a perfect hamburger,” Cassie added.
“And by perfect she means burnt to a crisp,” Cami smirked.