Undone

by Shannon Richard

  Chad was four years behind Brendan in school. He’d dated Grace for a couple of months when she was a sophomore. Chad had been a senior and Brendan hadn’t been a huge fan of Chad ever since. Not that Chad had ever done anything to Grace…well, not that Brendan knew of, because he would have hurt the little shit. But there was something about him that just got under Brendan’s skin.

  Bennett saw Brendan first. He stopped hammering and pulled his mask to the top of his head. Chad stopped too, his eyes narrowing on Brendan from above his mask.

  “Long time no see,” Bennett said, holding his hand out for Brendan.

  “It’s definitely been a while,” Brendan said, grabbing Bennett’s hand and slapping him on the back with the other. “How you doing?”

  “Better these days,” Bennett said.

  “Good. Man, you should really come out and play on the league next year. It would be like old times.”

  “Maybe.” Bennett nodded.

  “You should come down to Shep’s sometime. He’d love to see you, so would Jax.”

  “Maybe,” Bennett repeated.

  “Right.” Brendan nodded. “Hey, Chad,” Brendan said turning to him. “Things going good?”

  “They’ve been going. I met your girlfriend today,” he said, letting his lips curl up. “She’s something.”

  “Yeah, she sure is,” Brendan said cautiously. He really didn’t like the fact that Chad had met Paige.

  “Beautiful. She doesn’t seem as scandalous as people say. But I guess looks can be deceiving. The only way to find out is to test it out. You tested her out yet? Which reminds me,” he said, snapping his fingers together as a wide smirk spread across his face. “How’s Grace doing? She been doing, I mean seeing anyone these days?”

  If Brendan didn’t walk away this second he was going to hurt the snot-nosed little prick.

  “That’s enough,” Bennett said, taking a step toward both men. It was probably his years in the military that helped him sense danger, or maybe just his years knowing Brendan. “Walk away, Brendan.”

  “Gladly,” Brendan said, taking a step back. “Stay away from my sister and Paige.”

  “I’m going to be working here for the next couple of weeks.” Chad shrugged. “I can’t make any promises.”

  Brendan took another step back, shaking his head. Chad wasn’t worth the energy. Brendan turned and headed up the stairs, his shoulders so tense he thought they were going to snap. Paige was going to be around that asshole and he wasn’t okay with that in any way.

  “Hey.” She smiled, looking up from her computer.

  She stood up as he walked into the room and he closed the distance, grabbing her and kissing her before she could say another word. She made a startled noise but relaxed into him after a second, her hands coming up to cup his jaw.

  “You okay?” she asked, pulling back and looking at him.

  “Yeah.” He nodded. “Just needed to do that.”

  “You sure?” she asked, reaching up and tracing the space between his eyebrows.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the door.

  “Hold on a sec,” she said, pulling him to a stop. “Let me grab my bag.”

  Paige reached back and as soon as the straps of her purse were securely in her hand, Brendan pulled her out the door and as far away from Chad as he could get her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  A Stuffed Elephant and a Scheming Weasel

  Every year during the third weekend in October, Mirabelle hosted a fall festival. It was the biggest event of the year. The two small hotels in Mirabelle were always booked solid and every single beach house and condo was rented out. Even the very expensive resort on the beach had no vacancy. A lot of the people stayed north of Mirabelle in Tallahassee or west in Panama City and they’d make the forty-minute drive into town every day.

  There was a huge craft fair. People from all over the South came to set up booths for the weekend, selling hand-stitched quilts, baked goods, jams and preserves, jewelry, antiques, clothes, and about a hundred other things. Harper had a booth where she sold her homemade lotions and massage oils. It was the same ones that she used on her clients. She’d make the products year-round, and her supplies were completely depleted by the end of the festival.

  Restaurants from all over the Panhandle came, cooking their specialties and keeping everyone full of good food. There was a cook-off each day. The main courses changed every year. This year it was gumbo on Friday, barbecue on Saturday, and pie on Sunday afternoon. Grace and Lula Mae didn’t set up a booth to sell their food, because they were competing in the cook-offs. Contestants were allowed to enter only one competition. Lula Mae was making gumbo. Grace was making pie.

  The fair came into town that weekend too, complete with a funhouse, a haunted house, a carrousel, a Ferris wheel, a couple of small roller coasters, prize booths, and a petting zoo. Parents lined up with their kids to ride around on the many horses and ponies from the area. Shep’s aunt and uncle owned a horse farm in Mirabelle, and they were the ones who provided the four-legged entertainment. There was a pumpkin-carving contest on Friday and a pumpkin-throwing contest on Sunday, both equally messy. And on Saturday night, there was a dance.

  Brendan picked up Paige on Friday night and they headed over to the festival. He led her through the crowd to the entrance, her hand in his. But the second she saw the craft booths, she was the one leading him, and he happily followed. Paige wanted to see as much as possible because she was working at the festival the next morning. Mel had roped her into doing face painting at one of the booths for the high school.

  Paige bought some organic honey and apple butter, wind chimes made of large antique keys, and a box of Italian lemon mousse chocolates. She lingered at a booth that made jewelry from spoons for a couple of minutes, eyeing a ring that was a bit on the pricey side.

  “Why don’t you get it?” Brendan asked, sidling up behind her and pressing his nose to her hair. He couldn’t help himself; she just smelled so damn incredible.

  “No, it’s too expensive,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t need a sixty-dollar ring. Come on,” she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him to the next booth.

  After they finished with the craft booths, Brendan took all of their purchases to his truck before they got in line to buy tickets for the Friday cook-off. Each night the people eating the food would vote for their favorite. First place got a thousand dollars; second, seven hundred and fifty; and third, five hundred. The high school ran the cook-offs, and to keep the cooks anonymous and bias out of the voting, the students served the food. There were twenty different types of gumbo to taste, and to make sure that everyone had enough room to try everything, they served just a sample into the bowls. The contestants had to make enough for two thousand samples, and at fifteen dollars a ticket, the high school made a pretty penny.

  The cook-off was held in a massive old barn that had been restored years ago. Colorful paper lanterns hung from the rafters and white Christmas lights were wrapped around the pillars and strung up along the walls and around the doors. There were over a hundred tables set up around the floor, and most of them were filled with people.

  Jax was on patrol that night so that he could get Saturday night off. Shep was manning the makeshift bar that the Sleepy Sheep set up. And Harper was at her booth selling her merchandise. So it was just Brendan, Paige, Mel, and Grace for dinner. Brendan and Paige got four trays of the twenty samples, while Mel and Grace got a couple of beers. They found a table in the corner and all sat down to eat.

  “So the real test here is if you can figure out which one is Lula Mae’s,” Grace said, handing Paige a beer.

  “Under normal circumstances, I’d say that Lula Mae and Grace always win when it comes to cooking, no questions asked,” Brendan said as he grabbed one of the samples. “But they’ve got pretty stiff competition when it comes to these cook-offs. I’ve not voted for them many times because I had no idea w
hich was theirs.”

  “Did you help her make this?” Paige asked.

  “Nope, I was busy making the pies. I had to make forty of them.”

  “Jeez,” Paige said as she grabbed a sample and took a bite. “Oh my gosh.” She moaned as she swallowed.

  “Just you wait. They’re all going to be amazing,” Mel said.

  “Mmm,” Paige hummed as she took another bite.

  Paige making those sounds was doing nothing to help Brendan keep up his promise of being patient. He wanted to hear her moaning like that while she was underneath him and he was inside of her.

  They made their way through the gumbo, and as predicted, Brendan had no idea which one was Lula Mae’s. They all voted for their favorite and then Mel and Grace went to hang out with Harper while Brendan and Paige moved on to the fair. They went to the funhouse and then the haunted house, Paige pressed up against Brendan’s side the whole time. Every time something went bump in the dark, she somehow wrapped herself around him tighter.

  He had absolutely no complaints.

  “Come here,” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the prize booths. “I’m going to win you something.”

  “Oh are you?” She smiled.

  “Yup, this is how men show their women they’re cared for.”

  “With stuffed animals?”

  “Yup, the bigger the better.” He nodded.

  “Well then, let’s see what you’re made of.”

  Brendan picked the booth with the water gun. He had to shoot all fifteen frogs off their lily pads to get the biggest prize. Piece of cake.

  Or so he thought. The first round he hit only nine; the second, fourteen, but the third time was the charm and he knocked all of those damn frogs off their pads.

  “Ooh, big manly man,” Paige said as he shot the last one.

  “And don’t you forget it,” he said, turning to her and grinning. He leaned toward her and kissed her. “Pick your prize,” he said above her lips.

  “Hmm,” she hummed, turning to the booth and looking over her options. “The elephant,” she said, pointing to a giant green one in the corner.

  The guy behind the booth handed it over to her, and Paige hugged it close to her chest. The thing was huge, probably about the same size as Sydney.

  “I can carry it,” he said, holding out his hand.

  “I don’t think so,” she said, shaking her head. “I want to show people what my man won me.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yup,” she said, grabbing his hand and leaning into him. She pressed her lips to his and sighed. “Thank you.”

  “Anytime.”

  Their last stop of the night was the Ferris wheel. They loaded up into the cart, green elephant in tow, and made their way slowly to the top as the other carts loaded. Paige snuggled into Brendan’s side. She was wearing a jacket but she shivered slightly.

  “You cold?” he asked, pulling her closer into him.

  “Only a little,” she said, turning as she looked out at the view. The festival was set up very close to the beach. The lighthouse could be seen in the distance. The moon and the stars reflected off the water. “It’s so beautiful here,” she whispered. “So quiet.”

  “So you’re beginning to like it here in Mirabelle?”

  Paige looked at him, a smile turning up her mouth. “I’m way beyond like, Brendan,” she said softly.

  She reached up, putting her hand to his face, and brought her mouth to his. Kissing him deeply. It was then that the Ferris wheel plunged them down toward the ground and Brendan wasn’t sure if it was the ride or Paige that sent an exhilarating thrill through him.

  His money was on Paige.

  * * *

  On Saturday, Paige got up early and headed over to the festival. It didn’t open until nine, but there was already a crowd of people at eight thirty waiting around for the vendors to set up their booths. Paige found Mel at Harper’s little booth, both of them talking while they sipped on coffee.

  “Here you go,” Mel said, handing Paige a to-go cup. “Grace told me you’re a caffeine junkie like the rest of us. So I thought I’d show you some appreciation for helping out.”

  Paige had already had two cups that morning, but she was never one to turn down coffee.

  “Thanks,” Paige said, taking a sip. “It’s perfect.”

  It was a little chilly outside that morning, and the coffee was nice and hot.

  “So,” Harper said, “things with you and Brendan are getting serious.”

  Mel choked on her coffee. “Harper, stop being nosey. Just ignore her,” Mel said, looking to Paige.

  “No, it’s okay.” Paige laughed. “Things are getting serious.”

  “It’s really interesting to see him fall all over himself around you.” Harper grinned. “I’ve known him for years and I’ve never seen him like this. You sure do put a spark in that boy.”

  “Fall all over himself?” Paige asked curiously.

  “Oh yeah,” Mel said. “I mean he isn’t nearly as stoic as, say, Jax.”

  “No one is as stoic as Jax. Well, except when he’s around Grace. Then that boy’s all over the place.” Harper grinned wider. “But Brendan has very rarely been ruffled by anyone. He’s always been Mr. Calm, Cool, and Collected in the relationships I’ve seen him in.”

  “That’s not the case with you,” Mel said.

  “Well…” Paige smiled. “That’s good to know. Very good to know.”

  At nine, Paige and Mel said good-bye to Harper and went to the face-painting station that was closer to the fair. Mel had already admitted to having no artistic ability whatsoever.

  “If it was a paint-by-numbers thing I could so do it, but if I were to try to paint a lion or something on a kid’s face it would look jaundice. No one wants to pay for that.”

  “I’d say that’s probably true.”

  Mel was in charge of the money and organizing the kids between the three volunteers who were painting faces. The first kid to sit down in front of Paige was Jamie Rodgers. He was five years old, with big blue eyes and curly blond hair.

  “I want a dragon. Can you do a dragon?” he asked, looking up at her.

  “Jamie,” his mother said sternly. “What are we forgetting?”

  “Pleeeease,” he begged, bouncing up and down in his seat.

  Paige laughed. “I can do a dragon,” she said, grabbing her paintbrush and dipping it into the green paint.

  Paige worked almost nonstop. She painted unicorns and fairies, flowers, rainbows, bears, tigers, snakes, sharks, and so many other things. It was an endless line. Paige felt a great amount of satisfaction that the kids walked away beyond happy. She’d also met a lot of the people in the community, talking to the parents as she’d painted the kids faces.

  At one, Paige started to clean up her stuff. She’d signed up for only four hours. Brendan was going to come down and they were going to get lunch and do a little bit more exploring.

  “So is there an age limit?”

  Paige looked up to see Chad Sharp standing in front of her. He might be considered attractive but his smile was smarmy and an uneasy feeling settled in Paige’s stomach. Chad was almost as big as Brendan. But he wore his T-shirt a size too small so that the muscles of his arms and chest looked bigger than they actually were. There were two other guys with him. One had brown hair and wore a sneer. The other had dark blond hair and scary eyes.

  “Aren’t you a little old to get your face painted?” Paige asked.

  “Well, I was thinking that you could put some lipstick on and paint it with your mouth.”

  “I don’t think so,” Paige said, shaking her head. That uneasy feeling getting just a little bit worse.

  “Oh, come on,” he said, coming in close so he could whisper in her ear. “If I like what I see, we can move on to you painting other places on my body.”

  “Excuse me?” Paige said, standing up and taking a step back from him.

  “You heard me,” he said, taking a ste
p toward her.

  Paige jumped as two hands came up around her waist from behind and she was pulled back into a hard body. But she knew that body. Knew that chest and those arms. Knew the hands at her waist, how they circled her and held her.

  Brendan.

  “What exactly did she hear?” Brendan asked, his voice more menacing than Paige had ever heard it.

  Chad just smiled wide as he took a step back, his hands in the air. “Oh, nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “Just curious how talented your girlfriend here is.”

  “Curiosity can be a pretty dangerous thing, Chad. So how about you stop wondering.”

  “Yeah, problem is, once I get an idea in my head, I’m pretty damned determined to figure it out. Bye, darling,” he said, waving at Paige before he walked away with his two friends.

  Brendan’s hands tightened on Paige’s waist, not painfully, just possessively.

  “What did he say to you?” he whispered low in her ear.

  Paige turned in his arms and looked up at him. He was furious.

  “It’s okay,” she said, placing her palm on his chest.

  “What did he say to you?” he repeated.

  Paige took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “He wanted me to kiss him,” she said, simplifying it. And that was basically what he’d said, though Chad’s proposition had been a little bit more specific.

  “I really hate that guy,” Brendan said. “Did he touch you?” he asked.

  “No.” Paige shook her head. “I’m fine, Brendan. Don’t worry so much.”

  “Yeah, that isn’t going to happen,” he said, shaking his head, his eyes softening as he looked at her.

  “When did you get so protective of me?” she asked, reaching up and touching his face.

  “The day I met you.”

  Paige just looked at him, a little shocked.

  “If he comes near you again, I want to know about it.”

  “Alright,” she said and nodded.

  “Promise?”