“Hey Bracken,” he says, walking in. “Thanks for taking care of my woman for me.” He slaps me on the back as I lead him to my mom.
George is her new husband – as of a year ago. After I found out about my dad’s affair, I went home and broke the news to my mom. The sad part is that she already knew. She’d gone through my dad’s phone one day, saw their messages, and confronted him. He told her he was filing for divorce. That’s why she’d been even more distraught over the break. She was dealing with having a failed marriage and no one to turn to.
We ended up packing our shit and spending the rest of the holiday at a bed-and-breakfast a few hours out of town. She got an apartment with her spousal support, and I got a job to pay for my apartment until I graduated. I opened up a dealership with Jasper, and she started working for us. That’s where she met our finance manager, George.
I give her a kiss on the cheek and tell them goodbye.
Now it’s time to get my shit together.
chapter twenty-eight
nautica
It’s after five o’clock when I pull up to Simon’s house. It’s been a long day, but it started to look up after I settled myself down from the whole Bracken showing up at my front door fiasco. A smile grew on my face when I walked into my classroom and found an array of flowers and cards from my students and other faculty members.
I’m in my first year of teaching at the same school I attended as a child, and I love it. I also coach the dance team.
My heels click against the driveway as I make my way to the front door. For the past year, Simon and Macy have had dinner at their house every Wednesday night. It’s a nice way for us to catch up since we all have busy lives.
I walk into the living room, but stop dead in my tracks as my breathing quickens. “What the hell are you doing here?” I ask, trying to keep my voice low incase Annabelle is around.
Is this some kind of set-up?
I perch my hands on my hips, waiting for his explanation. He laughs at my cold glare, pissing me off more.
Bracken is sprawled out on the leather couch, looking like it’s an everyday occurrence, with a beer in his hand. My brother looks over at me from the recliner in the corner. His eyes move to Bracken while we both wait for him to say something.
He tips his beer my way with a grin. “I’m here for dinner, just like you.”
“And who invited you?”
“I did, sis,” Simon finally says. I turn to glare at him, ignoring the arrogant smile on his face. He snatches the remote from the table to turn down the volume on the TV. “We needed to catch up on some shit. Plus, I thought everyone would like to visit with him.”
Everyone but me, apparently.
“You needed to catch up on some shit?” I repeat. He nods. “Can’t you do that over the phone.” He shakes his head. Bracken is smart and decides to stay quiet this time.
I roll my eyes and let out a long, exaggerated huff. I probably look childish as I storm out of the living room and into the kitchen, but I don’t care. I’m pissed off and annoyed. I collapse down onto a chair at the island and blow out a harsh breath.
“I take it you saw our new dinner guest?” Macy asks, looking at me as she stirs something on the stove.
“Sure fucking did,” I mutter. “And I’d like to kill him.”
She shakes her head. “I’m sorry. Simon invited him without even asking me. He just showed up here. I guess they talked after the funeral and made up.” She opens up the oven, checks on the food, and turns back to me. “Do you want me to sprinkle some extra cayenne pepper on his food? Maybe dissolve a laxative in his drink? You know I have your back, girl.”
“No, just stay by my side. Don’t leave me alone with him. I’m sure Simon is going to try to pull some underhanded move to get us to talk about things.”
“Got it.”
“Hi girls,” my mom calls out, strolling into the kitchen. Her eyes go straight to me. “Did you invite Bracken?”
“Negative,” I answer. I get up, pour a glass of wine, and chug it down. “Your other traitorous child did.” I smack her side when I noticed her thin lips twitch into a smile. “It’s not funny, mother. I’m going to disown him.”
Her smile doesn’t budge. “It’s cute. He wants you to be happy.”
I pour another glass of wine and snort. “Let’s not even go there.”
“Come on, sweetie. You’re all older and more mature now. You need to talk to him.”
“I wouldn’t say all of us are more mature,” Macy mutters, with a laugh, resulting in me shooting her a dirty look. Her face turns serious. “As bad as I want to smack the cocky bastard, I agree with your mom. You need to talk to him. I’m not saying jump back in his bed or anything, but at least clear the air.”
“That is terrible idea,” I answer.
“What’s a terrible idea?” Annabelle asks, rushing into the kitchen with a doll in her hand. Her blonde pigtails, topped off with bright pink bows, bounce as she skips over to me and wraps her arms around my legs.
“Oh nothing,” I say, wrapping her in my arms and kissing the top of her head.
“I like that nice guy out there,” she says. “He’s really funny.”
I hold back the curse words on the tip of my tongue. He’s trying to win my niece over now. The guy never did play fair.
* * *
I’m sitting on the top step of the front porch while everyone else is in the house. I’d been watching Annabelle show me her cartwheels, but got ditched for bath time. I stayed behind, wanting to get some fresh air. I look back when I hear the door squeak open and frown as Bracken takes a seat next to me.
Dinner was awkward, to say the least.
Everyone was apprehensive about Bracken and me. The conversation stayed along the lines of how everyone else’s day went. I stayed quiet, but was silently plotting out my revenge on Simon, who wouldn’t stop throwing in hints that I needed to talk to Bracken.
He stretches out his legs and swings the beer bottle back and forth in his hand. “So what grade do you teach?” he asks.
“Seventh.” My response is sharp, and I stare straight ahead.
“You were always good with kids.”
Speaking of kids …
I need to keep my mouth shut, but I can’t.
“So where’s yours?” I can’t hold the question back any longer. My mind goes back to what I walked in on that day. The sobbing redhead, the pregnancy test, and the terror on his face when he saw me.
“She uh … had a miscarriage.”
Damnit. Now I feel bad for bringing it up. This is why it’s a bad idea for us to talk. Anything will blurt out of my mouth.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
I know miscarriages can be hard. Macy and Simon have been trying for baby number two for a while now, and she’s had two miscarriages. Neither one of them have taken the losses well. There’s something hard about getting your hopes up and it all falling apart.
He lets out a long, deep breath. “Rachel was before you. I’d been having sex with her for about a month, but didn’t touch her after our first night together. She’d been blowing up my phone, and showed up in hysterics that day, claiming she was pregnant, and the baby was mine. She brought the test, which you saw. You came in at the same time the results showed up. I was in shock, terrified, and lost in the moment. I overreacted and was an asshole to you.”
“That’s for sure.” I want to tell him what a pussy he was for letting Jasper be the one who ran after me, but I stay quiet.
“And I’m sorry for that. I know being overwhelmed isn’t an excuse for my behavior, but I was. The whole situation with my dad and me, and Simon and his accident, and then losing you was tough. I was still trying to figure out how to make shit right, and she shows up. The dream of working for my dad was gone after I found out about the affair, and now I needed to find a new way to support a kid. My life was a fucking mess. Rachel ended up miscarrying, and losing the baby was hard on us.”
Wow. We both stay silent for a few minutes, looking at the colorful sunset.
“Are you still together?” I finally ask.
“No. We were never technically together. We’d agreed to co-parent, but after the miscarriage, we eventually lost contact. We touch base every now and then. She’s married now, and has twin boys.”
“That’s good.”
“What about you?” I don’t say anything. “Married? Dating? Kids?” I shake my head. “What about your engagement to Quinton?”
I finally look over at him with a raised brow. “Have you been stalking me?”
He fights back a smile. “You were engaged to an NFL player who signed a forty million dollar contract. You were all over the news as the perfect couple, attending your ESPY awards, and all that shit. The football player and the teacher, you were America’s Golden Couple. Yes, I was keeping tabs on you, but it wasn’t hard to find my information. All I had to do was look at a magazine in the checkout aisle at the grocery store.”
“Perfect couple.” I roll my eyes and snort. “Don’t believe everything you read.”
“So you’re not together anymore?”
I shake my head and take a swig of wine. “We tried to make it work. It was too complicated with his football, my job, everything. It was too much.”
Quinton knew about what happened with Bracken, and he knew Bracken had a place in my heart that he could never fill. There was also the problem of him being in the NFL. That involved lots of traveling, and lots of jersey chasers. After the second ‘incident’ I handed him back the five-carat engagement ring.
“My dad left the dealerships to me.” His statement is thick with emotion, and I can hear his guilt.
The fact that Randy left him the dealerships doesn’t surprise me. I knew my mom didn’t want them and felt like they belonged to Bracken.
“What are you going to do? Keep them? Sell them?”
He runs his hand through his beard and shrugs. “I’m trying to figure that out.” He finishes off his beer. “I started a few dealerships with Jasper. They do pretty well, and I’m not sure this is where I want to be.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t know if I can stay in this town, live here, with you hating me. There’s no fucking way I can know you’re only a few miles down the road, so close I can throw a rock at your window, and not have you be mine. There’s no way in hell I can be here and watch you be with another man. That will drive me up the wall. Why do you think I never came back?”
I wince. His words are like a stinging smack in the face, leaving a mark. “You said it years ago,” I hiss. “You and me, we’re a bad idea.”
“I was a stupid fucking kid years ago who didn’t know shit.”
“Too much has happened.” I run a hand through my hair. “Why now, Bracken? You show up five years later, after a tragedy no less, and expect me to forget everything? You can’t just snap your fingers and think I’ll fall right back into your arms. It doesn’t work that way. I’m not that young, naïve college freshman who’s obsessed with you anymore. It’s not that easy.”
He turns me to face him. His eyes meet mine underneath the porch light. “Then tell me what I have to do?”
“There’s nothing.” I jump up from the step before I lose it. “It’s too late.”
“It’s never too late,” he says, looking up at me. “And I’ll prove it to you.”
chapter twenty-nine
bracken
“With the exception of inventory, not much has changed,” I say, walking alongside Pamela as we make our way through the showroom loaded with shiny new cars. We’ve already done a lap around the lot, and now it’s time to talk specifics. I have to decide whether I want to take over or not.
There are more cars on the lot, but other than that, it looks the same as the last time I was here – at the holiday party with Nautica. I glance at the room where I’d taken her over the desk and fucked her. My dick stirs just thinking about it. The room is empty, and I know which office will be mine if I decide to stay.
“Randy thought the last remodel was enough,” she tells me, leading me into an office with my dad’s name on it. I gulp. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to take it off.
She takes a seat behind the desk while I shut the door. “How are the numbers?” I ask, sliding my hands into my pockets.
Her lips form a proud smile. “The best they’ve been in years. Most of our competitors have gone under after the recession. We’re getting all of their business.”
“That’s good to know.” I gesture out the window to the showroom. “And you don’t want this? This thing is a vault of money and success.” She’d be dumb to not take this opportunity. It would set her up for life.
When I first found out she was fucking my dad, I’d been convinced she was a gold-digger who’d been playing my family from day one, waiting to sneak up on my dad and take his money. But I was a dumb kid. I know now that wasn’t the case. She loved him, he loved her, and I’m an asshole for even thinking that.
She shrugs. “Car sales and running a company aren’t necessarily my thing.” She taps her fingernails against the desk. “Plus, I think it’s rightfully yours. Your dad’s plan for years was for you to take over. I’m giving both of you that.”
“You have a house payment and bills. How are you planning to pay for that shit?”
“Randy left me with enough money to live a comfortable life, and I still have my job.” The sound of her sliding open a drawer echoes through the room. I’m caught off guard when a set of keys come my way and fall into my lap. “So what do you say? Are you ready to be the CEO of Casey’s Auto?”
I play with the keys in my hand. “I’ll think about it.” I don’t want to sound like a dick, but I’m not sure about this.
“Are you not sure because of my daughter?”
I snort. “Am I that obvious?” Do I look that damn desperate?
“This might be hard to believe, but she’s been waiting for you.”
The keys almost fall from my hand. “What?”
“She’s been waiting for you.” She goes on before I have the chance to disagree. “I know what you’re probably thinking. She was engaged to Quinton, but she wasn’t planning on marrying him. She knew that. He knew that. I’m pretty sure anyone who knows her knew that. She was trying to force herself to move on, but every time he begged her to pick a date, she’d delay it.”
“Maybe she just didn’t want to get married. Trust me, she hates my ass.”
She lightly laughs. “No, she doesn’t. She’s angry at you, but can you blame her?” I shake my head. “You finally let her in and then walked away when she was the most vulnerable, after promising you wouldn’t hours before. My daughter is a stubborn woman. Getting her isn’t going to be as easy this time around. You have to work for it, but the best things in life aren’t easy.”
“I know.” I knew it’d be a challenge before I even got here. “But I can’t commit to taking the dealership yet. If she denies me, I can’t see her with another man. I’ll have to leave town.”
“Take the dealership. It will be harder for her to stay away if she knows you’re here for good. If she sees you everyday, she’ll come around.”
She has a point. I have to show her that there’s no getting rid of me, and I’m not leaving again. She needs to know that she’ll see my smiling face everywhere she goes.
“I’ll take it,” I say. “I’m staying.”
She responds with a grin.
* * *
I stroll down the locker-filled hallway after checking in at the front office and head straight towards the room number Pam gave me. The chances of her talking to me are higher here, considering she can’t scream and kick my ass out without making a scene.
The classroom door is wide open. I take a step back and stare at her for a few seconds. She’s parked in front of her desk, concentrating hard on a stack of papers, and marking them up.
I lightly knock. She frowns, the pen
in her hand dropping, when she notices me.
So far, not so good.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she snarls, annoyed. “You’re showing up here now.”
I grin, holding up the greasy bag filled with cheeseburgers and fries, and walk in further. “I brought you lunch.”
She slides the chair out and pushes herself to her feet. My eyes stay on her as she sneaks past me to slam the door shut. She whips around to face me, her face red with anger, and rests her hands along her hips.
“This has to stop,” she says. “You can’t just show up at my job.”
I toss the bag on the desk behind her. She lets out a gasp when I grab her hips and press her against the side of it. “Why are you fighting this?” I ask. She shivers in my hold as I run a hand across her warm cheek. “Why are you running away from me?
“I learned how to run away from the best,” she spats, trying to pry my hands off, but I only tighten my hold.
“I’m sorry. I’ll say it every day if that’s what you want. Leaving you is the biggest regret of my life.” I twist a long strand of her hair around my finger and fix my eyes on her. I lower my voice to an almost whisper. “Tell me what I have to do.”
She lets out a breath. “It’s irreparable.”
My lips go to her mouth, slowly and carefully, and I press them against hers. I stay still, waiting on her reaction. She pushes into me and slides her tongue into my mouth. I suck on the tip as my hands travel down her back.
Her leg hitches around my waist as I grind into her roughly. A rush of air escapes her lips as I grab her ass and pull her harder into me.
“Irreparable my ass,” I say, tearing myself away.
I have to stop before things go any farther. As hot as it sounds, I can’t lean her over the desk and fuck her right here, right now. I don’t feel like getting her fired, or getting arrested. I straighten out her skirt and give her a peck on the cheek. “Now that we know you’re still fucking mine, let’s eat. I’m starving.”
Bad For You: (An Older Brother's Best Friend Romance) Page 14