Caught Up In You

by Jules Bennett

  “Damn, are you going to lose it on me, too?” Zach asked.

  Braxton flipped Zach a silent response.

  Zach returned the gesture, then tipped his head. “Hey, what were you doing here the other night?”

  “Just sitting out by the pond.” Not a lie. “What were you doing?”

  “I didn’t remember setting the alarm system, but when I pulled in and saw your SUV, I figured you would make sure things were locked up.”

  Yeah, locking up the old house hadn’t been on his mind. Getting Cora to open up, getting her to relax and stop fighting all the emotions she didn’t want had been his top priority. Of course then his priorities had shifted when her dress had been all clingy to her curvy body and he’d had to pull up every ounce of willpower he’d ever possessed.

  “When we officially open, I hope you’re not going to continue to take your dates back there.”

  Sophie smacked Zach in the chest. “Leave him alone.”

  Zach raised his brows, jerking his attention toward her. “I don’t want our guests to see my brother entertaining.”

  “You have no idea what I was doing so shut the hell up.” Fine, he was entertaining, but not in the way Zach thought and it was none of his business anyway.

  Before he could say anything else, Braxton was saved by the doorbell, which sent the pups into a barking frenzy, scrambling to the front door. They slid over the hardwood, bumping into one another in a mad rush to greet the visitor.

  Zach came to his feet, placing a kiss on Sophie’s forehead. “That’s Macy. She said she’d swing by once the store closed.”

  Braxton picked up his dirty plate from dinner and set it in the sink. When he went back to get the others, Sophie reached for her own.

  “I’ll get them.”

  “No, you cooked. I can clean up.”

  Braxton actually liked coming by to eat in his old childhood home. He was glad Zach hadn’t sold it months ago when he’d wanted to. Zach had worried about finances with getting the resort started, but once Liam came on board, they all tied their funds together, took out a loan, and went on their way. Sophie had just sold her home, too, so she invested that money back into the resort and moved in with Zach.

  A team effort. It was as if Chelsea’s hands were all over this project in getting everyone working together and forcing them to forge a deeper bond.

  A decade after the wreck that left all of them scarred in one way or another, the peacemaker in Braxton was relieved that they were all starting a new life. But the circumstances around Chelsea’s death were what brought them together and Braxton really wished they hadn’t had to wait so long to come to terms with the past. Chelsea had wanted them all to just forgive and move on, but she’d died before she could see her wish come to fruition.

  Their free-spirited sister had gone off on a ski trip with some friends and died in a freak accident when she’d hit her head after a fall down the slopes. Chelsea wouldn’t have wanted to go any other way than having fun and living life to the fullest. Braxton just wished like hell she could’ve lived that life much longer.

  Macy’s laughter and cooing at the puppies filled the house and pulled him from his thoughts as he loaded the dishwasher. Soon the pups all slid in on the hardwood floors and only two of them managed to stop in time—the others all plowed into the cabinets.

  “They’re getting so big,” Macy exclaimed as she bent down to pet the cluster of pups that congregated around her ankles. They were bouncing all over the kitchen at the new guest. “Where’s the mommy?”

  “She’s on the back porch,” Zach stated. “We had her spayed, so she’s taking a much-needed break.”

  Macy came to her feet and glanced around the kitchen. “Am I interrupting dinner?”

  “We just finished.” Sophie gathered up one of the puppies and tried to pet him, but he wiggled right back down on the floor. “We have plenty left over. Are you hungry?”

  “Oh, no. Dad is cooking for me tonight. I just ran by to talk to Zach about the flooring.”

  “Did you get the samples you wanted?” he asked.

  Braxton shut the dishwasher and hit the start button. When he turned to lean against the counter, one of the pups, Hulk if he was guessing correctly, started chewing on the lace of his sneaker.

  “They’re in my truck,” Macy told him. “I have several. Would you just want to come out and look or do you want me to bring them in?”

  Braxton reached down and plucked up the bundle of fur. Damn, he loved these dogs. He was still on the fence about taking one for his house. He was gone so much when school was in session and since he lived alone, he didn’t think it was fair to the animal to be lonely all day.

  “I’ll come out.” Zach turned to Braxton. “Can you check on Brock? He was having a hell of a time with his algebra.”

  Even though Braxton taught economics and history, math was his first love. “Sure thing. He up in his room?”

  “Yeah. He’d rather have you help him than me. We fight.”

  Braxton snorted. “Imagine that. You two were cut from the same cloth, just years apart.”

  Macy and Sophie tried to cover their laughter, but Zach scowled at both of them. “C’mon, Macy, before I forget we’re friends.”

  “Relax,” she told him, as she followed him toward the door. “It wouldn’t be a proper gathering if someone didn’t get picked on.”

  “It’s usually me,” Zach grumbled. “I’m just used to Liam doing the picking.”

  Macy patted his shoulder and threw Sophie a smile. “We’ll be right back, though I can’t guarantee his mood because I have a lot of samples and I can’t make up my mind.”

  Sophie shrugged. “I’m used to his moodiness.”

  “If you two are done discussing me like I can’t hear you, I’d like to look at this shit sometime today,” Zach called from the living room.

  Braxton shook his head. “I’m out of this. I’ll be upstairs with Brock discussing girls and cars.”

  “Algebra. You’ll be discussing algebra,” Sophie corrected.

  Braxton nodded. “Yeah, some of that, too.”

  Braxton headed down the hall, passing the new master bedroom Zach had converted so Sophie didn’t have to do so many steps because of her limp. When he reached the top of the steps, he smiled. He didn’t know Brock had taken his old room. Lightly tapping on the door, Braxton eased it open with his knuckles.

  Across the room, Brock sat on his bed, back against the old familiar headboard. With a notebook open on his lap and the textbook at his side, Brock looked up and Braxton had to hold back a chuckle. The pleading look in the teen’s eyes was a mirror image of when Braxton had been a teen.

  “If it helps, I hated school, too.”

  Brock tossed his pencil on the notebook and sighed. “Then you’re stupid because now you work there.”

  After crossing the spacious bedroom, Braxton sat on the edge of the bed. Spinning the textbook around to see what they were dealing with, Braxton replied, “It’s a bit different being the professor and not a student.”

  “When will I ever use this?”

  “Probably never, but that’s life. We do things we don’t like because in the end it’s worth it. You’re almost done with high school. Given any thought to college?”

  Brock groaned, dropping his head back against the headboard with a thunk. “I want to be done with all school.”

  “That’s your choice,” Braxton said easily, knowing Zach and Sophie would probably handle this topic differently, but he was the one here now. “You could always get a job paying minimum wage. Hard to save money for a house or a car chicks love doing that, but I suppose you could. Actually, as long as you get a job and work hard, no matter what it is, that’s all that matters. Just take pride in it and anyone would be lucky to have you.”

  “I’ve actually thought about the army.”

  Surprised, Braxton sat back. “Really? I think that would be a great choice for you. Have you talked to Zach?”
/>   The teen shook his head and glanced back down to his notebook. “My dad always told me a pussy like me wouldn’t make it through boot camp so I haven’t thought about it for a while.”

  Braxton wanted to get ahold of that deadbeat dad and throat-punch him . . . amongst other things. No way in hell would Brock not make it with the right support system, and with the Monroe clan all backing him, there was no way this determined teen would fail.

  “If the army is something you want, then you’ll make it.” Braxton eased forward and patted the boy’s bent knee. “Don’t let your dad continue to control you. He’s not around and Zach and Sophie have worked their asses off to help you. They’ll support your decision.”

  Brock gave a half shrug. “Maybe.”

  The boy would learn trust, eventually. Man, weren’t they a skeptical bunch? In some form or another, each one of them, and he was lumping in Cora with this, had issues with giving any control over to someone else. In trusting another person, you were, in a sense, letting them control a portion of your heart.

  Braxton would work on Brock and Cora. They both needed love, and they both had problems that he technically knew nothing about. He had a feeling about both of them, but he wanted them to open up before he said anything.

  “Let me see what you have down,” Braxton stated, nodding to Brock’s paper.

  Brock shoved the notebook toward Braxton. After several minutes of checking the work, Braxton knew how to approach this frustrating topic. After an hour had passed, Brock didn’t look like he was ready to give up completely.

  “Understand that better now?” Braxton asked.

  When Brock nodded with a half smile, Braxton knew the boy would be fine with his upcoming test.

  When Braxton came to his feet and moved to the door, he turned back. “Two more things. Talk to Zach. He’s more understanding than you think and he’d be all for you joining the army if that’s what you want.”

  “What’s the other thing?”

  Braxton smiled. “Call me when you know your grade on that test. If you get below a ninety, you have to hang the porch swings at the new cottages.”

  Brock laughed. “And if I get above a ninety?”

  “Then I’ll do them. A little motivation for you to try your hardest. Those hangers are a bitch to get in sometimes.”

  “Deal.”

  Braxton loved the wide smile on the young boy’s face. It was only months ago that he’d been a runaway, hiding in the basement of the abandoned home and discovered during the renovations.

  As Braxton headed back downstairs, he felt he’d made headway with the boy. It would be a day at a time, just like anything else worth working on. Eventually Brock would see this family was it for him. That they would have his back and support him, that they would be there for him no matter what he feared or worried about.

  Braxton found himself wanting to see Cora, but he couldn’t push her any more than he had. She’d come around too. He just had to be patient, let her call the shots and stay in charge of her emotions. Pushing someone like Cora would only backfire and explode in his face.

  Braxton had learned patience the hard way . . . at the hands of his biological father. He could handle whatever life threw at him. He may not like it, but there was a feeling deep in his gut that told him Cora would be worth whatever he had to face and whatever obstacle he had to battle.

  * * *

  “You could at least hand me the damn drill instead of sitting there looking smug.”

  Braxton stood on his ladder and stared down to Brock, who had aced his algebra exam. This was one bet Braxton didn’t mind losing. He was proud of the boy and Zach and Sophie were beyond thrilled he’d brought his D-minus up to an A-minus this school year.

  Brock leaned against the newly installed post and shrugged as he popped another chip into his mouth. “Don’t be a sore loser. I’m the supervisor.”

  “Supervisor my ass,” Braxton muttered as he climbed down to get the drill from his tool bag. “You know, you may have to put down that bag and help lift the other end of the swing when I’m ready.”

  “If nobody else stops by I will. I was sort of holding out that I’d only be lifting this bag of chips.” He crunched on another chip as crumbs rained down all over his tee. “Zach said he’d be by. He was taking Milly to get her stitches out.”

  Braxton managed to get both hooks screwed into the wood above the porch, without any help from Brock. The teen continued to litter the new porch floor with crumbs, but Braxton wasn’t going to say a word. The world Brock came from had been dark and ugly. If he wanted to eat chips without a care in the world, he’d more than earned that right.

  “Well, looks like you and me.” Braxton climbed down from the ladder and glanced toward the edge of the porch. “I’ll grab this other ladder and you can get one end and I’ll get the other. We’ll have this baby up in no time.”

  Brock grumbled as he came to his feet and brushed the crumbs from his shirt. “There better be some hot chicks that come here.”

  Setting up the other ladder by the edge of the porch, Braxton laughed. “Well, you’ll be in school and I doubt many teenagers will be coming through. But when you’re older maybe you can enjoy the scenery.”

  Braxton grabbed the chain for the swing and waited until Brock had his end before he started up the ladder. “Count five links down. That should be the right height.”

  Sophie’s car pulled up the drive. Braxton glanced that way, then back to Brock’s work. Once the swing was set, Braxton stared at how it was positioned.

  “That’s still too high,” he told Brock. “Let it down one link and then let’s see.”

  Just as he settled the swing back into the hook, he heard familiar laughter that punched him straight in the gut. He hadn’t seen or heard from Cora in four days—not since their escapade in the pond. He’d wanted to call her, to swing by and talk to her. He’d ached to just see her face, hear her voice. He’d been preoccupied with a former student who had texted him over a class he’d been having issues with. Braxton had tutored him a few hours and finally found out the issues at home were the root of the problem.

  Braxton offered his advice, but whether the kid, who was legally an adult, wanted to take it was up to him. Braxton would check in later in the week to see how the kid was doing. But for now, he had a woman tying him up in knots.

  He hadn’t felt this way about anyone . . . ever. The full-on attack of unexpected emotions since Cora had stepped into his life was something he had no clue how to handle. So far he was doing a stellar job of screwing everything up.

  Today she wore another of those little sundresses, this time with a cardigan and flats. Auburn hair tumbled down her back. There was so much he wanted to ask her, so much he wanted to learn about her life. She’d been so determined to be alone and do everything for herself, but how did she get groceries? How did she do her laundry? He had the most random questions that she’d find ridiculous, but the longer she was around, the more he wanted to know every single detail.

  “Can you stare at that lady later?” Brock asked. “We’re working here.”

  “That lady is our new masseuse and I wasn’t admiring her.”

  He wasn’t. He’d been fantasizing. There was a vast difference, but he still didn’t want to be called on it by a teenager.

  “Is that her dog?” Brock asked.

  “Her Seeing Eye dog.”

  Braxton glanced down at the swing once more, pleased now with how it hung. Hopefully, it would last for years and years and he wouldn’t have to do this again.

  “She’s blind?” Brock asked, not bothering to hide the shock in his tone.

  “Yes and don’t make a big deal about it.” Defending her came natural, he didn’t even have to think about it anymore. “She’s amazing at what she does.”

  Braxton hoped Brock grasped the fact that you could do anything in life you wanted if the determination and will to work was there. Obstacles were a fact, but how you dealt with them showed
true spirit and drive. It also set you apart from the rest and Cora was definitely in a class all her own.

  Braxton started to step from the ladder when his foot caught. Before he knew it, the ladder tipped. As if in slow motion, his world turned and he and the ladder went crashing off the porch. The second he landed in the yard, pain radiated down his back and his left shoulder. Letting out a string of curses, Braxton rolled over and tried to get some air back into his lungs. Damn fall knocked the wind out of him and served up a heavy dose of humiliation.

  “Are you okay?” Brock was crouched at his side, his brows drawn down in worry. “Don’t move.”

  “I can move,” Braxton gasped out in short breaths as he started to sit up. The pain intensified, but he pushed up onto his right elbow because he refused to stay down and appear even weaker. “Don’t look so scared. I’m fine.”

  “Braxton,” Sophie yelled as she tried to run, but her limp prevented her from picking up too much momentum. “Don’t move. That was a hard fall.”

  “Are you all right?” Cora asked as she and Heidi neared.

  Great. Just what he wanted—an audience to complete his shame. Clearly, a guy couldn’t fantasize without making a fool of himself.

  “I stepped wrong on the ladder,” he defended, ignoring the pain as much as he could. “Not a big deal. Just let me get up and moving and I’ll be fine.”

  Cora’s face scared him more than anything. She couldn’t see what happened, could only hear what the others were saying. Her skin had paled, her violet eyes were wide with fear. The only look he ever wanted to put on her face was happiness.

  As soon as he got to his feet, which took a bit longer than he thought because his damn back muscles controlled way too much of his body at the moment and everything was hurting, Braxton brushed Cora’s arm with his fingertips.

  “I’m up and fine.” He flat-out lied and hoped the pain in his voice wasn’t coming through his tone. Reassuring her was his top priority right now. When he was home alone he could let the pain win, but not now, not when Cora was visibly shaken.

  “You’re a liar.”

  Brock laughed, but when Braxton shot him a look, he stopped. “This wasn’t my first fall. I grew up with Ed Monroe. Construction was ingrained in us and falls and random injuries were all part of the game. I’m sore, but I’m fine.”