by Aimee Carson
Matt rubbed his eyes and let out a self-directed scoff of ridicule.
“Sorry, Tommy. I got distracted.”
Matt’s mind drifted back to Callie
Yep, very distracted.
Tommy’s huff sounded more amused than annoyed. “Yeah, well, when my worrywart of a big brother didn’t check in like usual, I got concerned. And with every unreturned call, I thought you’d been mugged and knocked unconscious or something.”
The bark of laughter held more bitterness than humor. Hopefully Tommy wouldn’t notice.
“Sorry, Tommy. Long story. Wound up making a trip to the E.R. last night.”
“You okay?”
“I’m fine. Just...helping out a friend.”
“A friend?”
Matt ignored the implied inquiry beneath his brother’s tone. “I’m heading back home tomorrow.”
His return to Manford was long overdue.
“Good,” Tommy said.
The relief in Tommy’s voice had Matt sitting up right. For the first time, Matt noticed the tension underlying his brother’s voice, a tension that didn’t relate to his brother’s worries about Matt.
“Are you, uh...?” Being a moron meant Matt’s question came out incredibly lame. “Okay?” Matt finished.
Okay, of course, meaning many different things.
Are you sleeping all right?
Having trouble at work?
Using again?
Matt bit back the groan and dropped his head into his hand, phone still pressed to his ear. They’d been skirting the edges of this issue since the last time Matt had picked Tommy up from a thirty-day stint in rehab. And the two years of tiptoeing were tiresome. Because, seriously, how many ways could two men have the same conversation?
If you don’t quit, you’re going to wind up dead, Tommy.
I’ve given it up for good, Matt, I swear.
And in Tommy’s defense, Matt knew his brother meant the words every time he repeated them.
Tommy’s voice brought Matt back to the conversation. “No, everything’s fine.”
There was an awkward pause. “Good,” Matt said, wondering what Tommy was really thinking.
“Penny and I will have a couple of steaks on the grill waiting for you when you get off the plane.”
As always, Tommy managed to bring a smile to Matt’s lips, despite the tension. “Sounds perfect.”
Matt signed off and leaned his head back against the couch, closing his eyes. Wishing he could recapture that feel-good, peaceful moment this morning when he’d first woken up. The lingering pleasant buzz from a night of fantastic sex. The lack of the ever-present uneasiness eating away at his stomach. He was too young to feel this damn old.
The residual panic-induced adrenaline still coursed through his limbs. Normally he needed several cups of coffee before being fully awake in the morning. Today, the scare had left him supercharged, and the tension in Tommy’s voice still weighed on Matt’s mind.
Something had upset his little brother. And if Matt didn’t get back soon and get to the bottom of whatever was going on, he might wind up dragging Tommy back to rehab again.
His gut clenched and he felt sick to his stomach.
Jesus, don’t throw up.
Callie’s voice broke through the unpleasant thought.
“So you’re heading out tomorrow?”
Matt opened his eyes and spied Callie leaning in the living-room doorway. She didn’t look fully awake, with her honey-colored hair tousled and her eyes sleepy. She was in a T-shirt that just covered her bottom, her long legs bared—legs that had spent a good portion of the night wrapped around him.
Longing surged through him. The urge to pick her up and carry her back to bed was strong.
“Sorry.” She pushed the hair out of her face. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”
“No problem. And, yeah,” he said. “I have several shifts I have to work this coming week.”
And a brother to check in on.
Callie tipped her head. “Will you be coming back before the wedding?”
Six weeks without seeing Callie again seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. But Matt knew the tightness in his chest wouldn’t ease completely with just a quick check on his brother, not with the tension he’d heard in Tommy’s voice.
The playful light in Callie’s eyes eased the tension until Matt had to fight a smile as he tried to sound serious. “Depends.”
Clearly, she caught the underlying tease in his tone. “On what?”
“On whether or not you’ll make it worth my while.”
“Does a good party hold any merit?” Callie said. “I was hoping you would come to my family reunion with me. You can sit back, relax and enjoy the loaded comments bestowed upon me by some of my relatives. And if that doesn’t tempt you—” her lips twisted wryly “—there’ll be some great food, too. I just happen to be related to the woman who makes the best shrimp étouffée in two counties. Nice and spicy.”
Matt laughed, enjoying the way Callie’s dry humor eased that residual tightness in his chest. “That’s not the kind of spicy I was hoping for.”
Her warm gaze lit with mischief, Callie uncrossed her arms and came closer. And with each step she took every cell in Matt’s body became tighter and tighter, focused on the enticing expanse of skin, the tension now of a different sort. And far more welcome.
She came to a stop in front of him. “So will you do a girl a favor and come back for a visit before the wedding?”
Matt looked up at Callie. He’d be crazy to plan a return visit when he had so much on his plate already. Two weeks of work at Manford Memorial, with a four-day stint in one of the busiest emergency rooms in Miami in between. Between travel, the need for sleep and the upcoming wedding, there wouldn’t be much in the way of spare time. Adding in an unnecessary trip back to New Orleans clearly bordered on insane.
“I promise you can crash here during your stay,” Callie said.
Hell, who could say no to that kind of offer?
Matt gave up, the grin creeping up his face as he reached for Callie’s thigh, pulling her into his lap. “I’ll do my best to make it happen.”
One week later
At ten o’clock in the evening, Matt let himself into the split-level house he’d grown up in and now shared with Tommy and Penny. Matt tossed his keys on the kitchen counter and rolled his shoulders to ease the tension of a long, boring shift in the E.R. Heading toward his side of the house, he was careful not to wake the sleeping occupants located at the other end. The arrangement had worked out better than he’d originally hoped.
One side of their shared home belonged to Tommy and Penny, providing them plenty of room for privacy. The space contained a bedroom, a family room and a guest-room-turned-gaming-room. The latter had been Tommy’s childhood bedroom and, years later, served as his retreat during the worst of his getting-clean stages.
Matt had spent years tiptoeing past the room and hovering outside the closed door, watching and wondering and worrying about Tommy. Even if Tommy had moved out, there was no way Matt could ever enter the room without feeling that sick churn in his stomach, a nausea that always left him longing to vomit, just to purge himself of the feeling. During the worst times, darkness and despair had seemed embedded in every nook and cranny, oozing from the walls and carpet. The lingering echoes of those emotions still pressed in on Matt. Even now he felt the hair rise on the back of his neck every time he glanced up the hallway.
Matt lived on the other side of the house where he had a bedroom and an office large enough to afford him some private space of his own. The kitchen and living room provided a common area in which Tommy, Penny and Matt could choose to hang out together at the end of the day. Since Matt traveled so much, he rarely spent more than a week
at a time at his home base.
Clearly the current living situation wasn’t a permanent solution, but for now the arrangement worked. When Penny had joined the Paulson household, Matt had offered to move into one of the nicer apartment complexes up the street. But Tommy had refused to kick Matt out of his home. With Tommy’s track record, most of the decent rental properties would refuse to take him on as a tenant. Unfortunately, Penny’s history ruled out even some of the shadier places in town. In truth, Matt hadn’t fought the setup, mostly because the two couldn’t hide much if Matt occasionally occupied the same home.
So they existed in this state of limbo, a lot like the limbo of his and Callie’s relationship.
Sighing, Matt entered his bedroom and toed off his shoes. He gripped the hem of his scrub top and wearily pulled it over his head before reaching for his pants. He needed a shower, food and a good night’s rest. But mostly, he needed to see Callie again.
Yesterday’s sketchy night of sleep had started with dreams of her in a wet T-shirt, Matt’s hands roaming freely over the thin cotton, tracing the lace of her bra. As if by magic, then he’d been stroking the bare curves of her breasts. Tasting her skin. Reaching for her shorts. And because everything came easy in a dream, suddenly she’d been naked, squirming beneath him with an endless amount of enticingly silky skin, and he’d been licking his way down her flat stomach and to her inner thigh...
He needed to get a grip.
Last week’s flight back home had been delayed and he’d been stuck in the Minneapolis airport for twelve hours and, instead of catching a much-needed nap, he’d spent the entire time fantasizing about being back in Callie’s bed. Not exactly the way to encourage grabbing some shut-eye on the plane, either. By the time he’d arrived home in Michigan, it was almost 3:00 a.m. and he was dead-tired, frustrated and ready to turn around and head back to New Orleans. Instead, he’d dropped into bed and tossed and turned, missing Callie even more. He’d finally fallen into an exhausted sleep and slept until nine in the morning, which meant he’d missed seeing Tommy before his brother left for work.
An anxious twist in Matt’s chest had him clutching his dirty clothes, and he dumped his scrubs into the wicker hamper with more force than necessary.
At first glance, everything had seemed fine at home. Tommy looked good, Penny looked good and both appeared to be continuing on the path of the straight and narrow. Dinner that first night together had included steaks on the grill, as promised, but Tommy’s behavior seemed off. The nagging feeling wasn’t anything Matt could put a decisive finger on. There was a distance Matt wasn’t used to, especially since they’d been living in each other’s pockets for the past two years. And the tension had now been gnawing at Matt’s insides for days.
Matt pondered the possible causes as he showered and dressed in sweatpants and a T-shirt. He padded into the kitchen. Standing at the kitchen counter, he ate delicious leftover pasta, thanks to Penny, who knew how to cook. Adding her to the mix had definitely improved the cuisine in the Paulson house.
Two of his three requirements met, and with sex with Callie disappointingly out of the question, he knew sleep was still a long way off. Matt headed for his office and dropped onto the leather couch, turning on his laptop on the coffee table.
An icon popped on his screen, indicating Callie had just flipped on her computer. With her a time zone behind him, the late hour wasn’t quite as bad for her as for him. He hesitated for a moment and then hit the call button.
The moment Callie’s image appeared on screen, he felt his tension ease. She was sitting cross-legged on her bed, wearing pajamas. Unfortunately, the fifteen-inch screen on his laptop didn’t do her beautiful eyes justice.
“This is a surprise,” she said.
“A pleasant one, I hope.”
“Absolutely.”
He couldn’t see the playful light in her gaze, but he knew of its presence because of her tone. And for a moment, all he wanted was to climb onto a plane and fly back to New Orleans where everything seemed so much easier and simpler.
And certainly a hell of a lot more fun.
“Did I interrupt anything?” he asked.
“Nothing exciting.”
Files and small patches of fabric samples surrounded Callie on the bed. A silk robe clung to her shoulders but remained open in front. Matt spied a lacy tank top and what looked like a feminine pair of...
“Are those boxer shorts?” he said.
“You can take the tomboy out of the country, you know, but...” Smiling, she finished the sentence with a shrug and reached for her bedside table, picking up a glass of white wine. “At least they’re hot pink and edged with lace. Besides, I haven’t had to entertain company this late at night since you left.”
A twinge of possessiveness flared, and Matt tamped it down and concentrated instead on the twinkle in her eyes on the monitor.
Her hair hung in a gentle loop at the nape of her neck, gathered in some sort of casual twist that managed to look comfortable and pretty and sexy, all at the same time. An empty plate on her nightstand suggested she’d just finished her dinner. Clearly she’d eaten in bed.
He wished he’d eaten in her bed, too.
Matt glanced at the files scattered on her comforter. “What are you working on?”
Her smile held more than a hint of mischievousness. “Just sitting down to compose my reply to an Ex Factor reader for my blog. Actually, you’re the perfect person to help me with my response.”
Matt let out a soft scoff. “I doubt that. I thought this was Colin’s department.”
Callie laughed. “He’s responsible for the man’s view, yes. But I wanted your thoughts before I replied.”
“What’s the question?”
Two seconds ticked by before she answered.
“A bride-to-be asking for advice on how to convince her future brother-in-law to walk her down the aisle,” she said.
The one-two punch to his conscience came out of the blue, shocking the hell out of him.
Matt let out a groan. “You’re making that up.”
Callie shifted some paperwork and fabric swatches aside, settling back against her headboard with her glass of wine in hand. She stretched those toned, silky legs in front of her, bringing to mind when they’d been wrapped around his waist. The inside of his chest grew hot, heating the blood shooting through his veins.
When would he get a chance to hold her again?
He pushed the hopeless thought aside and concentrated on Callie, who was currently eyeing him over the rim of her wineglass. An expression like that meant trouble for sure.
She took a sip and carefully set her drink on the nightstand. “I had a long talk with Penny yesterday.”
Of course she had.
“She was desperately trying to come up with someone to walk her down the aisle,” Callie said. “And I told her she should ask you again.”
Matt shifted uneasily on the couch, propping his feet on the coffee table just to the left of his laptop. Might as well get comfortable for the conversation ahead.
“Yeah?” he replied in his best noncommittal voice.
He knew Tommy was disappointed Matt hadn’t told Penny he’d give her away. His brother hadn’t come out and said as much, but Matt knew. The closer they drew to the date of the wedding, the tenser things had grown. Still, compared to all the other issues brewing between them, Penny’s request seemed minor in comparison.
Callie’s lighthearted tone was long gone. “Matt, you said yourself that I should be grateful for the family I have. That I should get over myself and go to that reunion because wasting the family I have was stupid.”
His brow crinkled. “Those are not the words I used.”
“No,” she said, her chuckle drifting over the speaker. “You were definitely more tactful. But that’s what you
meant. And you were right. Going to the reunion is the right thing for me to do. I have a family. One that wants to see me, even if they do make the occasional callous remark.” Callie sat up a touch, her brown eyes earnest, her voice soft. “You don’t have that choice because your parents are dead, and that’s a tragedy. But Penny doesn’t have a choice, either. Her parents refuse to have anything to do with her.” She paused before going on. “And that’s a tragedy, too.”
“I know.”
Several beats passed by before Callie went on, tipping her head. “Do you not like Penny?”
He resisted the urge to bring the video chat to a close. He could sign off and close the lid to the laptop and be done with this conversation. But no matter the topic, the sight of Callie in her sexy boxer pj’s was impossible to resist.
“It’s not that.” Matt wearily scrubbed his hand down his face. “Penny’s fine.”
And he meant the words, he seriously did. They weren’t just a platitude he pulled out of his ass when convenient. He admired anyone who could fight an addiction and win. He knew better than most just how hard that battle could be. Penny was bright, capable and, if nothing else, she clearly loved Tommy.
“Are you against this marriage?” Callie asked.
“No.” He winced at the force behind his words. He dropped his hands into his lap, and his voice dropped several octaves, as well. “Maybe.”
In response to Callie’s hiked brow, Matt let out a sigh. “Yes.”
Despite the harsh word, it felt good to get the sentiment off his chest. From the very moment Tommy had introduced Penny to Matt, Matt had been fighting the part of him dying to find a way to send the woman packing. He let out a soft scoff at the thought. As if he held that kind of power in his hands.
But the overwhelming urge had nothing to do with Penny personally and everything to do with the need to protect his brother, no matter what.
Matt felt like a dirtbag for admitting he didn’t want Tommy and Penny to marry, but Callie’s gaze remained free of judgment. And as he studied those beautiful brown eyes, relief slowly washed over him because he knew he could be absolutely, brutally honest with Callie. No matter how ugly his feelings, she wouldn’t hate him for the truth.