He shakes his head. “I couldn’t turn her away, you know? She was kicked out of my mom’s and didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Your mom kicked her out?” I ask, surprised. From what I remember of Mrs. Olsen, she was always a good mom who loved her kids. Hell, she couldn’t even ground them without it breaking her own heart.
He nods. “Yeah, things really changed after our dad died. We’d only been living in Denver for about a year before he passed. It was up to me to help support the two of them. Mom was working three part-time jobs to try and stay afloat, but it wasn’t enough. I dropped out of school and started working at a tire factory. Then a few years later, Mom started dating the guy she’s with now. He’s a total asshole, but he got hurt on the job and got a huge settlement. He was at least able to provide money, a home, and put food on the table. But he and I, we clashed big time. I was used to being the man of the house. He didn’t like the way I did things and I didn’t like the way he was doing things, so I left the day I turned eighteen.”
“And what lead to Deven being kicked out?”
He shrugs. “Who really knows. Deven”—he shakes his head disapprovingly—“I guess she really went off the rails after I left. She turned thirteen and without any real supervision, she started getting into a lot of trouble: going to parties, drinking, doing drugs, getting arrested for stealing. Mom said she was sneaking out her window and running around with local drug dealers and gang members. She’s a bit wild, but I think she’s starting to settle down now that she’s here. Just be patient with her. She’s had a rough life. I was pretty much the only real parent she had after Dad. And after I left, I think she was left to fend for herself in every aspect of the word. It’s hard to do right when there’s nobody there to show you, you know?”
I nod and press my lips together. Deven doesn’t seem like she’s all that troubled. She seems to mostly have a good head on her shoulders. However, using a fake ID to get into a bar doesn’t exactly scream responsible. Neither does going outside with a guy you don’t know for a quick fuck.
It’s hard for me to believe that their family ended up the way it did. I always pictured them as any normal family. Brad’s dad worked hard at a local farm. Mrs. Olsen stayed home with the kids until they were in school, then she got a job as a cook at the grade school. She volunteered for all the school events and donated her time and baked goods. She was the head of the PTA, for crying out loud. And Brad, he was always at the top of our class. I guess all this answers my first question about why he’s back here covered in tattoos instead of running some big corporate business.
“I’m sorry to hear all this, man. Sounds like things have been rocky for your family since you left here.”
He nods. “It has. Things totally went to shit. But that’s also the reason I decided to come back. I have good memories here. Memories of my dad, our family when everything was good, us and all the trouble we used to cause.” He laughs out.
I nod along with him. “Yeah, we did have some good times.” I finish off my beer and stand. “Well, I guess I’m going to get going. I’ll pack all my things and head back over tomorrow with my half of the rent.”
He stands and walks me over to the door. “Sounds good, man. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He holds out his hand and we shake before I leave the apartment.
As I head down the stairs, I can’t help but think about everything Brad told me about Deven. When I look at her, I don’t see some troublemaking kid. She seems grown and mature, but I’m sure that’s because she’s been taking care of herself since she was a kid. More than anything, I can’t help but imagine the time we spent together. Her plump lips tease me. One look from those dark eyes causes goosebumps to race up my spine. And those long-as-fuck legs felt good wrapped around my hips. Why couldn’t she have been anyone else? All the women in this town, and I have to go and fall for her, my best friend’s little sister?
Being in the military and traveling the world, I’ve been with my fair share of women. But none of them had the lasting effects that Deven has had on me. Just thinking about sliding into her causes my pulse to spike. Just from seeing her again, there’s a yearning in my gut that’s pushing me to reach out and touch her, take her, make her mine.
I’ve never had to fight with myself over anything. I either wanted it and took it, or I didn’t want it and I had no problem leaving it alone. But now, now I want something I can’t have. My brain is fighting between right and wrong, taking what I want or doing the right thing and leaving her be. I have no idea which side will win out, but I know one thing for sure. This won’t be easy for me, but I’m ready to fight my hardest if it means doing the right thing and keeping my distance.
I pull back into Drake’s driveway and find him in the barn with a power saw going. I park the truck and climb out, heading inside. When the door opens, he looks up and shuts off the saw.
“Hey, what are you working on so late out here?” I ask, leaning against the work bench.
He sets the saw down and removes his safety glasses. “Oh, just fixing up the loft. What have you been up to?”
“I found me a place to live.”
“Oh yeah? That was fast.” He takes off his gloves and grabs a beer out of the cooler.
“Yeah, I ran into one of my old buddies from high school. He’s looking for a roommate. He actually works at the brewery. Brad Olsen?”
“Oh yeah, right. He’s a good worker. I didn’t know you two used to be friends. It was my understanding that he moved here from Denver.”
I nod. “Before he and his family moved to Denver, they lived here. He just came back.”
“Well, good for you. So, what’s the plan?”
I shrug my shoulders as I fall into a chair. Drake comes to sit next to me. “I was going to focus on finding a job, but my head isn’t in it right now. I kinda fucked up last night.”
“You? No!” he teases. He knows that I’m a perfectionist who’s always trying to do what’s right. I don’t make any decisions until I’ve thoroughly thought them through. I don’t do anything on impulse—until last night, that is.
I nod. “I was having a few at the bar here in town, and this gorgeous woman comes walking in. She has legs a mile long, olive skin, chocolate-colored eyes, and smooth raven-colored hair. I couldn’t resist—it’s been so long.”
He laughs and shrugs. “Well, you are a man. How did you fuck up though?” His brows pull together as he watches me, trying to figure me out.
“Well, she seemed into me, so after a drink and a dance, I took her outside and we went at it in your truck.”
He laughs, his dark eyes lighting up. “Okay, but I’m still not understanding how you fucked up.”
“Well, I went to check out the apartment today. He showed me the place and I agreed to move in. Then his sister comes home…”
“Ohhhhh,” he says like he already knows the punchline to the joke.
“Turns out the woman from last night is his kid sister. She just turned eighteen and moved in with him when she got kicked out of her mom’s house back in Denver.”
“Ouch,” he breathes out, taking a drink of his beer.
“Yeah. Now, I’m stuck moving in because I already told him I would, and he needs the help with the rent. Plus, if I back out now, I’m sure he’ll ask why. But I can’t tell him that I treated his kid sister like a slut and fucked her in a dark parking lot. I mean, he’s always been super protective of her. Like, he helped raise her and shit.”
Drake laughs and shakes his head. “Did you not recognize her last night?”
“No, I hadn’t seen her since she was in grade school. And she didn’t give me her first name. She gave me her middle name. Had she given me her real name, I would have gotten it right away. There aren’t not many women named Deven.” I roll my eyes as I take a long drink.
He whistles. “Damn. So what are you going to do?”
I laugh and shake my head as I rub my eyes. “I’m stuck moving in, so I guess I’m just going
to try avoiding her and ignoring her when she’s around. I don’t know what else to do.”
“I’m glad I’m married and don’t have to worry about shit like that anymore.”
“Must be nice,” I mumble. “Of all the women in this town, I had to go and fuck the one I wasn’t supposed to touch. How does that even happen?”
He lets out a deep chuckle. “Welcome to the Slade family curse. If something can go wrong, it will.”
“So, what’s been new with you and the guys? Distract me,” I nearly beg.
He sits back and thinks things over. “Nothing that I can think of. We’re all just living and working, raising our families. It’s been rather boring around here. Good thing we have you back for some comedy,” he jokes.
I laugh. “Yeah, fuck off.”
He only laughs harder.
I stand up. “Well, guess I’m going to go in and crash. Got a long day of packing tomorrow.” I head for the house.
In the morning, I grab my duffel bag and toss it into the truck that Drake is letting me use until I buy one of my own. I have the money for one, I just need to actually go. It takes all day: you have to test drive every one, then settle on a price because I never give asking price. Then, there’s the hours of paperwork, going to the DMV, and getting insurance. I also hate making large purchases. It’s all just more than I want to deal with right now, especially with all this Deven shit on my mind.
I make the drive into town and to the apartment. I park and grab my bag to carry it up to the room. When I get up to the second floor, I jiggle the handle, but the door is locked. I knock a couple of times before realizing that Brad is probably dead to the world right now after working his midnight shift last night. I bend down and check to see if there’s a hidden key under the welcome mat, but I’m out of luck. I reach up and feel along the door frame, but I come back empty-handed. Not wanting to wait in the hallway for him to wake up, I remember Deven mentioning getting a job at Destiny’s boutique. I grab my bag and pull it up on my shoulder before heading back down the stairs and to my truck.
The boutique is in the center of town, smack-dab in the middle of Main Street. It belongs to my brother, Wyatt, and his new wife, Destiny. I haven’t been there yet, but I’ve heard Drake and Celeste talk about it. I park the truck and head for the door. Pulling open the glass door causes the bell above it to jingle.
“Welcome to Destiny’s,” a woman says from somewhere in the store. I look around at various items, running my finger over them as I walk down the aisle and toward the counter, finding Deven.
When she looks up, her eyes widen with surprise. “I can’t right now, Hudson. I’m working,” she teases.
“Haha,” I deadpan. “I’m supposed to be moving in today, but the door is locked and your brother must be asleep. You got a key I can use?”
She laughs “When he’s asleep, you could have a freaking Metallica concert in the next room and he’d never know it.” She pulls her bag out from under the counter and places it on top as she digs through it. “Looks like we’re going to be roomies for a while,” she says, pulling out a set of keys and smiling up at me as she works it off the loop.
I force a fake smile onto my face. “Can’t wait.”
“You know, there’s no need to be afraid of me, right?” She holds the key up.
Instead of taking it from her, I hold out my hand, not wanting to touch her. “I’m not afraid of you.”
She drops it into my palm. “Yeah, right. You have fear and guilt written all over your face. It was just a thing that happened. No sense in dwelling on it…well, not unless you want to do it again. I’m down.” Her dark eyes sparkle with mischief as she offers up a grin.
I shake my head. “Forget about it.”
She sticks out her bottom lip in a playful pout. “You can’t tell me you didn’t have fun. I know you had fun.” She leans on the counter, giving me a peek down her shirt. Two big, beautiful breasts greet me, sending a shock right to my dick. It twitches, but I mentally talk it down.
“I had fun jumping off a 250-foot cliff, but I’d never do that again. I like fun, but I don’t have a death wish.” I take the key and turn on my heel for the door.
“Oh, come on! Brad isn’t that bad,” she shouts at me, but I ignore her and walk out, heading back to my truck and back to the new apartment I have to share with my one-night stand and her overly protective big brother. How I get myself into this shit is beyond me.
I let myself into the apartment and take my bag back to the room that Brad showed me yesterday. Luckily for me, there is already a bed, dresser, and nightstand, so unpacking is a breeze. After everything is put away, I sit down at the kitchen table and write him out a check for the first month’s rent. I tear it out and leave it on the table, next to his lunch box, so I know he’ll see it. Then I take the key and head out to get a copy made and to stock up on some needed items.
There’s a blonde girl working the counter at the hardware store, and she smiles and flirts with me as she uses the key-copying machine. I’m tempted to ask her out in an attempt to get Deven out of my head, but I don’t want to be forward. Instead, I just talk pleasantly with her and flirt back, priming her up for the next time I see her. She introduces herself as Ashley, and I tell her my name before paying for my key and leaving for the next stop, the grocery store.
Inside, I stock up on bathroom essentials: soap, shampoo, body wash, a new toothbrush, and razors. Then, I decide to go ahead and stock up the fridge. I know Brad could really use the help, and I have more than enough to spare. I have more than enough to build my own damn house, but I’m not in the place to do that just yet. I’d like to see where life takes me, where I’ll end up. A house here won’t do me any good if I decide to move to another state.
It takes me three trips, but I finally have the truck unloaded and everything into the apartment. I put away all the groceries and then place Deven’s key on the coffee table so I will be reminded to give it back to her when she gets home. Brad wakes up around three in the afternoon. He comes out of his bedroom and straight through the living room to the kitchen. I hear him pop the top on a can and take a long drink before he walks back into the living room where I am.
“Oh, hey man. I didn’t see you there.” He’s holding a can of soda in one hand while scratching his bare stomach with the other.
“I thought you were sleepwalking. You do that often?”
He laughs as he sits down on the opposite end of the couch. “Deven tells me I do, but I don’t know. Sometimes I’ll have these dreams of things happening, and then when I wake up, I find out that it wasn’t a dream. I eat entire meals in my sleep. These midnights are really screwing with me.” He laughs out.
“Well, I’m all moved in. I got all my stuff unpacked and I stocked the kitchen up with groceries. Your check is on the table by your lunchbox.”
“Cool, man. Thanks.”
“Thanks for offering me a place to crash,” I reply. “Oh, I should probably warn you. Ever since I joined the military, I’ve been having these nightmares. It’s not a big deal or anything, and I don’t sleepwalk, but if you hear me talking in there, or yelling, or even some banging sounds, just ignore it.”
He laughs. “Got it.” He shakes his head. “We’re really a pair, aren’t we? I sleepwalk and you sleep-fight the enemy,” he jokes.
I offer up a smile and nod in agreement, but I don’t find it funny. It’s a part of myself that I just have to get used to now. I’ve talked with many therapists over the years and it never seems to help. They all just wanted to give me drugs to make me sleep better, but I’m not a fan of drug use so I’ve always avoided going that route.
“Well, I gotta get cleaned up for work.”
“What’s your schedule like? So I know when I need to be quiet around here.”
“I work Sunday night through Thursday night. I have Fridays and Saturdays off normally. There’s been a few times when I’ve swapped with guys from work, but that’s my normal. I’m gone all ni
ght and I sleep most of the day, usually waking up around two or three. But I sleep like a baby, so you don’t have to worry about waking me,” he says, heading toward the bathroom to shower.
I doze off and on the couch for the next couple of hours. Brad leaves for work and Deven makes it home from work. The door closing jolts me awake. I open my eyes to find her standing at the door.
“Why you sleeping in my bed? Don’t you have your own?” she asks with a smile as she moves farther into the room.
I sit up. “Sorry,” I mumble, wiping sleep from my eyes.
“Don’t be. I’d like to have you in my bed more often,” she teases, heading for the bathroom.
I shake my head. I don’t know how much torment I can take. Is this what every day is going to be like? Her teasing me and joking around about our night together? Fuck, I hope not. I can’t take the constant reminders. All I want to do is forget that it ever happened.
I make my way toward the kitchen to make myself something for dinner. I search through the fridge and cabinets but don’t find anything that I’m craving. I’m still feeling a bit tired and not in the mood to cook a full meal, so I end up settling with a can of soup and two grilled cheese sandwiches. I place the bowl of soup on my plate next to my sandwiches and take everything back to the couch to watch TV while I eat.
I take a bite of my sandwich. The bathroom door opens, and steam comes flowing out. My mouth drops open when Deven walks out of the bathroom, water dripping off her beautiful body, which is wrapped only in a tiny, damp towel.
“Sorry, I forgot I don’t have a room anymore. I’ll just grab some clothes and go get dressed. Ignore me,” she says, bending down to dig some clothes out of a box in the corner of the room. “That is, if you can.” She looks over her shoulder at me with a smile.
I take a deep breath and push away the urge to pull her against me. I talk my body down, piece by piece: no arms, you can’t pull her closer. No feet, you can’t walk over to her. No dick, you’re not going to be sliding into her again. It doesn’t matter what I tell my body. It seems to have a life of its own.
The Slade Brothers: A Complete Small Town Contemporary Romance Collection Page 81