Bent Not Broken (A Cedar Creek #1)

by Julia Goda

  So I was good. Better than I had been in a long time actually.

  No. Better than I had ever been.

  I tried to communicate this to Cal by relaxing and giving him reassuring smiles and being affectionate throughout the afternoon. Every time I did, he smiled back at me, but the worry in his eyes didn’t dissipate completely.

  Business was steady until it was time to close the store down for the day. I walked around making sure everything was the way it should be. Chairs were back in their spots, floor cushions spread throughout the store, shelves organized and clean, counter wiped, candy jar filled up, receipts stored in the office, bank deposit by the register ready to go. With one last look around I turned off the music, switched off the lights, and grabbed my purse and the deposit on my way to the front door where Cal and Tommy were waiting for me.

  “Ready?” I heard Cal ask when I was close enough for him to throw an arm around my shoulders. “Absolutely. Let’s go,” I answered him with a nod of my head and a smile on my face.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Tim Tams and World of Warcraft

  Ivey

  Before we went to the grocery store to get the ingredients for Tacos that Cal said proudly “would blow my mind” we stopped at the bank to drop off my deposit. We were standing in line with Cal’s arm still around my shoulder keeping me close, Tommy in front of us, when I heard a female voice from behind us.

  “Well, well, well. Look who it is. The town stud and his new piece.” Cal’s body tensed beside me as he looked over his shoulder. I did the same. When my eyes hit the person that belonged to the voice, I recognized the woman that had glared at me from the bar when Cal and I went to dinner last night. And just like last night, her face was twisted in jealousy. “Gina,” Cal said tersely.

  “Good to know you remember my name,” Gina said snidely.

  “Nothing else worth remembering,” Cal replied in a low voice, his meaning clear.

  “You dick!” she hissed in Cal’s face.

  Cal twisted his head to Tommy, who had come to stand beside us, his eyes staying on Gina and told him to go and wait outside for us. Tommy looked up at his dad, then moved his eyes to Gina as well and they narrowed. He moved closer to me until his shoulder touched my side. He was making a statement, a statement that Gina did not miss. She narrowed her eyes on him, moved those eyes to me, and I saw hatred in them. A lot of it. I involuntarily flinched. Cal felt the flinch and squeezed my shoulder reassuringly while Tommy moved in even closer. This also didn’t go unnoticed by Gina, as her hatred filled eyes were now directed at Cal.

  “Bud,” Cal said quietly. “I’ll take care of Ivey. Go wait outside.”

  Tommy looked up at me with concern in his eyes. I nodded at him in reassurance, he gave his dad a look that said “You better”, then turned around and headed to the door. When I looked, I saw he had obeyed his father, however, he was standing right in front of the bank’s glass doors, arms crossed on his chest, watching us.

  My eyes turned to Cal when I heard and felt him talk in a deep growly voice. Combined with him leaning towards Gina in a threatening way, that could only be interpreted as exactly what it was. A warning. “I have made myself clear. When that didn’t penetrate, I ignored you. But now I’ll lay it out for you one last time. I fucked you. Once. Years ago. It never occurred to me to go back for seconds. If I hadn’t been drunk off my ass, I would’ve never touched you. It wasn’t memorable. It wasn’t even good. Add your bitchy attitude and skankiness, and you are someone I don’t wanna know. Why in the fuck you would think we would ever be more, I have no fucking clue. You’re obsessing over something you will never have. I am not yours. There is no us. There never has been. Get that out of your head and move on.”

  Ouch. That was harsh.

  Gina’s face had gone pale. She had leaned back in reaction to Cal leaning in and her eyes had filled with tears.

  Wow.

  If it was as Cal said, she must be extremely obtuse. Who acts like that? Her eyes came to me. “You bitch! What is it about you? I’m the only woman in this town he’s been with since high school,” she hissed at me and moved her face close to mine. My eyes went wide.

  Seriously? I was stunned.

  “Eyes to me,” Cal growled, and her eyes went back to him.

  “Ivey has not one thing to do with this. I fucked you years ago, woman. I haven’t called. I haven’t come back. When I see you in town, I turn the other way. When you waltz into Cooper’s or the diner, I leave. Get. A. Hint. You don’t exist for me. Now get gone.”

  Ouch again.

  Gina looked shredded. Still, she kept coming at me, “This is not over, bitch!” With one last baleful look at me she turned around and stomped out the door.

  “Wow,” I mumbled, “what the hell was that?”

  “The reason why I don’t tap local ass,” Cal muttered angrily under his breath. “Fuck!” He turned me in his arms so we were front to front and looked down into my eyes, searching.

  “That was harsh,” I said.

  “Baby, fucked her years ago. And by that I mean five of them. She wasn’t my girlfriend. I got smashed at Cooper’s one night and hooked up with her. Biggest mistake of my life. She thought we would be an item after that, though I had made myself very clear. Left her place before the sun was even up. She takes every available and sometimes unavailable dick in the county. Before me and after me. She is the town skank. Why she keeps trying to latch onto me, I have no clue. I never gave her any indication I would go there with her. Never even talk to her. She is whacked.”

  Yes, that definitely sounded whacked.

  For clarification I asked, “You slept with her once five years ago, she fucks everything that moves and everyone knows it, you’ve made yourself clear about your non-intentions more than once, and she still thinks you’ll come around and be with her?”

  “That about sums it up,” Cal confirmed.

  “You’re right. She is whacked.” I could feel Cal chuckle in my arms. “That’s what I said, baby,” he said in amusement. I started to giggle. Cal’s eyes on me turned warm and he brushed his lips against mine.

  “Let’s get this done, so we can get to the grocery store and I can feed my boy and my woman.”

  “Okay,” I breathed against his lips. He brushed them again, then turned me around to face the teller so I could make my bank deposit.

  At the grocery store, Tommy took charge of the shopping cart and followed Cal and I through the aisles. Cal was cooking and thus, was responsible to get what was needed, so I just wandered the aisles checking things out and trying to keep my eyes off of Cal’s great ass. I failed a few times, but hey, a girl can only handle so much. When a very attractive man with a very nice ass was walking in front of you, you had to look. It was in the rulebook.

  When we made it to the cookie aisle, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I stopped and stared.

  Oh. My. God.

  I could not believe my own eyes.

  Tim Tams!

  They were selling Tim Tams!

  I came out of my freeze and rushed to the shelf, grabbing two boxes of cookies of all three kinds. Then I made it three. My arms were so full I had to squeeze two boxes between my chin and chest to keep them from sliding out and falling to the floor. I turned around and dropped my bounty into the shopping card, then looked at them lovingly, a big smile on my face.

  “Uh, what’s with all the cookies? I thought we were going to bake some,” Tommy asked.

  “We’ll bake cookies. Don’t worry. But these are Tim Tams! You cannot, not ever, pass up Tim Tams!” I educated Tommy excitedly. “I had no idea they sold them here now! This is great! Do you think I got enough? Maybe I should grab more before they run out! Who knows if they’ll get them back in!” I was mostly talking to myself now, lost in my Australian cookie frenzy.

  At the devastating thought of the store possibly running out of the best cookies in the whole wide world, I wheeled around to grab more boxes. Or better yet,
all of them. Right before I made contact with the cookies, someone grabbed my wrist and stopped me. My head whipped around, ready to take on whoever was keeping me from cookie heaven.

  “Baby,” Cal said in an amused voice. His eyes were dancing.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Don’t you think nine boxes of cookies will last you for a while?” He was very amused.

  “No, Cal, you don’t understand! They are Tim Tams!” I had no idea why he was amused. This was serious business!

  Cal threw his head back and burst out laughing. He pulled me towards him by my wrists, put his arms around me, and shoved his face into my neck where he continued to laugh.

  Wow. That felt nice.

  Very nice.

  I had never been held by a man while that man was laughing. Actually, I didn’t think I had ever made a man laugh like that. His head came out of my neck, and he looked down at me still smiling, his eyes still dancing. All I could do was stare up at him in wonder, cookies forgotten.

  “My woman is funny. And cute,” Cal said quietly and slid his nose against mine.

  “I wasn’t trying to be funny. Or cute,” I said quietly back.

  “I know. That makes you even funnier. And cuter,” he gave me a peck on my lips, then let go of me and grabbed my hand.

  “Got myself a sweet woman who loves her sweets,” he sounded pleased.

  “I’m not sweet.”

  “Yeah, baby, you are.” He leaned in closer and whispered in my ear, “and later tonight I will taste just how sweet you are.”

  Instant shiver.

  My legs turned into goo and my female parts were spasming.

  Holy. Shit.

  Seeing my reaction Cal’s eyes filled with hunger and heat. All I could do was stare up at him, holding on to his hands, because my legs clearly could not support me on their own. He read my body language and smiled a dangerous smile.

  Oh. Good. God.

  That was even sexier.

  My hands twitched in his at seeing that smile, which made Cal chuckle low and sexy. He kissed my forehead, then turned and led Tommy and me to the checkout while I was trying to regain control over my body by taking slow deep breaths.

  *****

  Cal’s house was fantastic. If I weren’t already living in the best house in the universe, I would want to live here. It was built on a slope, so it overlooked the town just like my house did, but from the other end. From here, you also had a direct view to the mountains looming over the town, whereas my house was surrounded by giant trees, which blocked the view of the mountains.

  It was beautiful and took my breath away.

  Cal’s company must be really busy and good at what they were doing, judging by the looks of his house.

  It was simply perfect.

  It looked like it was meant to be right here with its big A frame gable that was made up of one huge window. The rustic western style porch had strong beams and a railing that made you look around in anticipation, because you expected to see a group of cowboys riding up on their horses, tying them to said beams, tipping their hats, and smiling in your direction. Swoon!

  Two steps lead up to the big double front door. When Cal opened the door and waited for me to walk through, I was stunned by what greeted me.

  “Wow. That view is spectacular,” I breathed when I entered the living room and could see through the floor to ceiling windows.

  “Bought the lot ‘cause of that view,” Cal agreed.

  I had stopped in the middle of the room and felt Cal right behind me. His hands came up to hold me by my waist and I leaned into him. “Gonna start dinner. Take a load off and make yourself at home,” he kissed the top of my head and moved away from me toward the kitchen.

  I looked after him, then behind him to set eyes on a kitchen that was both manly and gorgeous at the same time. Pine cabinets, stone counters, stainless steel appliances. Where my kitchen was airy, bright and warm, Cal’s kitchen was dark, masculine, but no less warm. I instantly saw myself baking cookies and cakes there with Tommy.

  I turned around and my eyes went up, trying to take in the floor to ceiling stone front fireplace without drooling. It had a big comfy looking leather couch with loads of dark toss pillows in front of it. No TV, which made this living room a place to hang out and relax, talk, enjoy a beer, maybe read a book. And all that right by that massive window wall facing the mountains. A perfect mountain dream house with the perfect view.

  From down here, I could also see a big loft with a huge desk and lots and lots of shelving filled with books.

  Wow.

  I looked back down to the living room and decided to sit on that big comfy couch and enjoy the view while Cal was cooking in the kitchen behind me. My plans were thwarted when Tommy came running out of a room that I assumed was his bedroom and slid towards me on his socks. That looked like fun, and the thought of me doing that with him made me giggle.

  He grabbed my hand and pulled me in the direction he had just come from, informing me excitedly, “I am giving you a tour! Let’s start with my room.” I sure as hell wasn’t going to say no to that. I was very curious about how Cal and Tommy lived.

  As promised, Tommy showed me his room first. It was just like I imagined, but better. He had a bunk bed with a couch underneath it, books strewn all over it. The wall opposite his bed was covered with built-in bookshelves and cabinets, and they were filled with books and picture frames. He had a deep window seat with cushions on it, and seeing as his window also faced the mountains, this made it the perfect spot to curl up in with a book. On the other side of the room there was another door, which lead to the en-suite bathroom. Nothing fancy, but everything a boy growing up would need. His room was spacious, and I was surprised I didn’t see a mess of toys or a game console anywhere. No TV either.

  “Do you have a separate toy room?” I asked, looking around.

  “Ivey. I’m eleven. I don’t play with toys anymore,” Tommy responded, He sounded a little insulted.

  “Oh. Sorry,” I apologized and smiled sheepishly at him.

  He grinned back at me. “We have a game room in the basement that has the TV and game console in it. And a pool table and darts.”

  “Oh,” I said again. “That sounds fun.” And it did. Sounded like Cal and Tommy knew how to occupy themselves in the midst of winter when it was too cold and snowy to go anywhere if you didn’t have to.

  “Next on the tour: kitchen and bathroom down here,” Tommy took me out of my reverie. He led me back out of his room, through the living room and into the kitchen where Cal was chopping peppers and onions. He looked up and gave me a small smile without interrupting his chopping.

  Impressive. I was a pretty good cook, but I would totally chop my fingers off if I ever tried that.

  Cal looked extremely sexy chopping the food in his kitchen. I had no idea men could look sexy while cooking, probably because I had never really seen a man cook in real life, no less cook for me. Seeing Cal chopping veggies and giving me his sexy smirk, made my belly go all gooey. It was so sexy it was unreal.

  “What would you like to drink?” Tommy asked me with his head inside the fridge. “We got water, pop, juice, milk—”

  “The wine on the bottom shelf, bud,” Cal answered for me.

  “I don’t really drink wine,” I informed Cal.

  “No?” I shook my head. “What do you drink?”

  “Seeing as we’re living near the Napa Valley of Beer, which Lloyd referred to as ‘a place where the beer flows like wine’ that’s what I’ll have.” I was a simple girl. “A dark Lager if you have one.”

  “Lloyd?” Cal’s eyebrows went up.

  “Yeah. Lloyd. From Dumb and Dumber.”

  “You know Dumb and Dumber?” he sounded incredulous. Why he would sound incredulous at the idea that I had seen one of Jim Carrey’s funniest movies, that every time I watched it made me laugh through the whole movie in sheer hilarity, I had no idea. “Uh, yeah,” was my response, but it sounded like ‘u
h, duh,’ which made Cal burst out laughing.

  “A woman after my taste,” he said, grinning, “I have a Black Lager. That work?” He went back to the topic at hand. Yes, that would absolutely work. Actually, any beer from the New Belgium Brewing Company would work. “Absolutely,” I said, nodding my head and smiling at him in appreciation for his good taste in beer. His response was a grin. “Son, you got it?”

  “Yeah, dad. You want one too?”

  “Yeah,” he answered, then focused his attention back on making dinner, though I could tell he was still laughing silently. I gratefully accepted my beer from Tommy and took a long gulp, then hummed as the liquid ran down my throat. Delicious. At the sound of a grunt coming from my left, I turned my head that way to see Cal staring at me with hungry eyes.

  “What?” I whispered, confused as to how his mood had shifted so drastically and what I had done to make him look at me like that. He narrowed his eyes at me and said in a voice that could only be interpreted as a promise, “I’ll show you what. Later.” His voice was far from amused now. It was deep and growly and sexy and hot.

  “Okay,” yes, I was still whispering and now even more confused.

  “I’m showing Ivey the house. How long until dinner?” Tommy rescued me from his dad’s piercing stare and me trying to figure out what was going on. “You got about a half hour,” Cal responded.

  “Cool. Come on, Ivey, let’s go upstairs.” I pulled my eyes from Cal’s, which, to be honest, took some effort, and followed Tommy to the stairs that lead up to the library slash office.

  It was the library slash office of my dreams. Being a loft, there was a lot of light streaming in through the big windows. The furniture was heavy but warm with its rich dark brown leather, desk matching the floor to ceiling shelves against the far wall. It was tidy in the way that you could still see that the office wasn’t just for show, but was actually being used to work, with papers on the desk, but organized in neat piles and stacked at one end, a laptop open, but turned off in the middle of the desk, pens and pencils next to it on top of a notebook. The shelves held all kinds of different books. It looked like even the books were all organized, not only by genre, but also by ownership, seeing as one of them held all kinds of architectural books and crime novels and the other one held what seemed to be Tommy’s books, from children’s books to YA literature to classics. Tommy was standing proudly in the middle of the room with his arms stretched out at his sides. “What do you think?” He asked me.