Cherishing Brianna [Fate Harbor 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Caitlyn O'Leary

  “But, I don’t know how much time I’m going to be able to give you.” Charlie reached out and pulled her finger out of her hair. No wonder her head was beginning to hurt again.

  “You’ve done your due diligence, I’ve been warned. But I’ll take whatever time you can give me and be happy with it. I don’t want to horn in on the time you spend with your family, Brianna. That’s too important.” It was like a rock lifted off her shoulders. She hadn’t even realized that she had been tense.

  “You’re quite the puzzle, Ms. Spencer. Just when I think I have you figured out, you throw me a curve.” Brianna quickly took a gulp of coffee. She’d prefer that Charlie didn’t look too closely. This was nothing more than a fling.

  “Three months, Charlie. Just three months, and then I’m leaving, so let’s just enjoy one another and not bother trying to solve any puzzles, okay?” He gave her a long look and finally smiled and nodded.

  “Okay, we’ll play it your way, baby. I’ve got to get going. I have a pissant I want to check in on. So is tomorrow night okay? Even if it’s later, I would still like to see you.”

  “That will probably work. Tonight I’m going to be over at Chance and Sam’s house, and tomorrow I promised to spend the day with Butch. He wants me to go with him to his Food Pantry. Olivia told me it’s a rite of passage. Then he, Mom and I are going to go to dinner.”

  “Brianna, I’m not looking for a booty call,” he said seriously.

  “I never thought you were.” She wanted to wipe that look off his face. She set her coffee mug onto the counter and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Charlie, I might not have known you long, but you’re an honorable man. That just comes off you in waves.”

  “Brianna, you’ve got that all kinds of wrong. I’m a grumpy bastard, ask anyone.” She liked the way he rested his cheek on her head. “As for honor…well you were in the backseat of my patrol car, and I was not seeing you as someone that needed to be taken in, but rather as someone who needed to be taken.” She laughed into the red and blonde curls on his chest. She might end up missing this combination of laughter and sex as much as she would her family. She pushed him away.

  “Now don’t you have to get to work?”

  “Yes. Give me your cell phone.” She went over to the couch and bent to get her purse. She could actually feel him staring at her ass. She looked over her shoulder.

  “My God, man!” She marched over and slapped the phone into his hand.

  “You have a great ass. I love those panties. Do you ever wear thong underwear?”

  “Charlie, please just put your number into my phone, and put mine in yours. I need to take a shower, and you need to get to work.” As he handed her back her phone she looked up at him. “All men aren’t like you, are they? You’re just an anomaly, right?”

  This time Charlie burst out laughing. “Chance and Sam are your brothers, right?”

  “Well, yeah.” She looked up at his sparkling blue eyes.

  “Sweetheart, I was around when they were courting Josie, if you could call it that. They took one look at her and that was it. They were like two targeted missiles, and you can be damn sure they were crazy stupid around her. Hell, Sam even cold cocked Dane Johansen when he thought Dane was poaching.”

  “That did not happen.” Charlie didn’t look like he was kidding.

  “Rumor has it that Josie doesn’t do any clothes shopping for herself, that Chance does it for her, because he likes buying her pretty things.”

  “Now I know you’re pulling my leg.” Brianna hit Charlie’s chest, but it was like hitting granite. She grinned up at him, knowing she was being played for a fool.

  “Sorry, baby, but your brothers are gone over their beautiful wife. I went out to dinner with Leif and Kara and her partners. Kara has been in Josie’s closet. She told me.” Brianna didn’t know who the hell he was talking about, but she could tell Charlie was serious.

  “So you guys all go crazy over tits and ass?” She was having a real hard time wrapping her head around this. The few guys she had been with in the past had been really kind of boring. That’s what she had wanted, she wanted safe, she wanted to make sure her emotions and passions weren’t going to be really involved. And in the four days since she had arrived in Fate Harbor she had found herself getting worked up about two—holy hell! She’d been attracted to veterinary boy, too!

  “That’s right, baby, when we find a woman who can fill out a dress like you did yesterday, damn right we lose our minds. You bending over in those pink panties? Well, if I wasn’t the boss, I’d call in sick. Come give me a kiss good-bye.” She looked at Charlie, and felt terrible. She’d enjoyed every hour, minute and second of their time together until she remembered she had been attracted to another man as well. What was going wrong with her mind?

  * * * *

  “Nothing is going wrong with your mind. Everything is going right with your libido. Finally.”

  “You shouldn’t be calling, you’re on your honeymoon.”

  “You’re only going to stay for three months, and I’m going to be gone for half of that time, damn right I’m going to be calling my little sister.”

  “I can’t believe you got me to talk about this. How’d you know I left the reception with Charlie anyway? How’d you know I was attracted to Zac?”

  “I am your big sister, and it is my job to know these things.” Olivia’s smug tone would have been downright irritating if Brianna didn’t also hear the care, concern, and love. Olivia softened her voice. “Honey, I saw you dancing with Charlie, and I saw the two of you leaving the tent. I also saw the connection between you and Zac when we were over there.”

  “So basically I’m a—” Brianna couldn’t believe the word she had been about to use. There was nothing but silence on the other end of the line. Olivia knew what she was going to say. “Liv, please don’t be mad, I didn’t mean it.”

  “I’m not mad, Bri. I understand that you’re conflicted. I really do. You know you don’t have to do anything about this. You could just be with Charlie.” As soon as Olivia said that Brianna had a feeling like she was missing out on something, which was amazing. She hadn’t even kissed Zac, and she had had the most incredible sexual experience of her life with Charlie Meade. There was no comparison, but there was this sensation of loss.

  “Bri, are you still there?”

  “I’m here. I just don’t know what I’m going to do.”

  “Honey, you have all the time in the world.” Olivia could always make her feel cared for, cherished. But, she knew that she needed to keep herself separate. She didn’t want to drag anyone down with her, she just refused to do that, she knew how devastating that could be. But Olivia’s love was like rain to parched earth, her soul soaked it up.

  “Liv, I’m leaving in three months.” Again, a long silence.

  “If you’re leaving, then go for the brass ring, baby sister. You deserve it.”

  * * * *

  Brianna mulled over what her sister had to say all the way over to her brother’s home. In the end she just couldn’t wrap her head around it. It wasn’t a matter of judging having a ménage. Hell, three of her siblings were involved in ménage relationships, it was just her. She knew she was incapable of multi-tasking at that level. She’d implode if she tried to juggle two men at the same time. Charlie was the fourth lover she had ever had, and in some ways he was really her first lover. How could she possibly take on Zac? With that decided, she was smiling as Chance opened the door and gave her a big hug.

  “Welcome, baby sister.”

  “You’re only a year and a half older than me. What’s this baby sister crap?” She smiled into his chest. Chance was another touchstone from her childhood.

  “You’re always going to be my baby sister, just deal,” he said with his trademark charm. He pulled her into the house, and she could smell something wonderful coming from the kitchen.

  “What is that?”

  “Josie is baking. Let’s get you some while they’r
e fresh from the oven.” Brianna almost bumped into him as she trailed him through the living room. “Josie, look what the cat dragged in.”

  “Brianna! I’m so glad you made it. I was worried that Charlie was going to keep you all day.” Brianna found herself enveloped in a huge hug by her little dynamo of a sister-in-law. She looked over her head and saw Sam grinning at her as he sat at the kitchen table. Brianna closed her eyes and hugged the woman back. Finally Josie eased back and looked at her. “Yep, I can see that you had a great time last night! Come on, and you can have my pastries and Chance’s cooking.”

  “Trust me, Bri, you don’t want it the other way around, or you’d end up with food poisoning,” Sam called from the table. “Come sit down.”

  Brianna sat and Josie put a plate in front of her as well as a huge glass of milk. Sam dumped a cinnamon roll on the plate from the pan in the center of the table, and Brianna knew she was in heaven. Then she had to amend that thought, because she felt chubby little hands grabbing on her jeans, and she looked under the table and there was Lissa pulling herself up so she join the fun.

  “Lissa’s been coloring under the table. I guess she’s done now, and she wants to play with her aunt.”

  “Hi, baby, do you want up?” Big brown eyes looked at her, and then she just plopped back down on her butt and crawled back over to the coloring book. Brianna saw that they had taped huge pieces of butcher paper under the table, so that the little girl could color all over the floor under the table. Clever parents.

  “She’ll be back,” Sam promised. He motioned to the pastry in front of her. “Eat up.” Chance brought over another plate filled with eggs, sausage and potatoes.

  “I can’t possibly eat all of this.”

  “Whatever you don’t eat, Sam will,” Josie assured her, and then giggled as Sam pulled her down into his lap.

  Brianna soaked in the boisterous and loving atmosphere as she ate her brunch. It was so different than the quiet life she had lived in Dallas.

  “So give me details about Charlie,” Josie coaxed.

  “No!” Sam and Chance said simultaneously.

  “It’s okay, guys. Suffice it to say, he was a perfect gentleman.”

  “Okay, I can handle that detail,” Chance said as he snagged a cinnamon roll straight out of the pan. Hearing her Daddy’s voice, Lissa came out and held up her arms, and Chance swooped her up onto his lap.

  “So what’s next on your agenda when you leave here?” Chance asked as he fed his little girl a small bite of the pastry.

  Brianna didn’t really want to get into it, knowing that would just lead to another disagreement. “So she’s eating real food?”

  “So you’re sidestepping questions?”

  “She’s a grownup, she doesn’t need to answer your questions, Chance.” Brianna watched as Josie took a dainty bite of her food. Lissa looked at her mother’s plate, and immediately held out her arms to Josie. Josie went to grab her and both men lurched forward.

  “Whoa,” Sam said, coming from the kitchen and he swung Lissa up and gently deposited her in Josie’s lap. “We talked about this. If we’re here, you let us do the heavy lifting.”

  “Don’t pull this caca again, Zee, or there will be punishment,” Chance said in a harder-than-normal voice.

  “Caca? Punishment?” Brianna asked.

  “We’re not allowed to swear around Lissa,” Sam explained. “Caca means Chance is making a point with Josie that her back doesn’t need the strain of lifting Lissa, especially at such an awkward angle. If he says fluff you know he is really mad.” She was loving this. She had never seen her brothers so happy. She looked at the woman who was now nestled beside Sam, holding their child, and felt such gratitude. Did she have any idea what she had done for these two men?

  “What about punishment?”

  “What are you planning on doing when you leave here?” Chance asked.

  “How about we agree not to answer each other’s questions?”

  “How about you tell us why you quit your job in Dallas? I think something is up,” Sam said. She looked from one stony face to another. They were not going to leave this alone, she was fluffed.

  “Brianna, have I shown you around the house?” Josie went to jump off Sam’s lap, but he stopped her.

  “Carefully, Josie. You’ve been carrying Lissa a lot. Let’s not injure your back.” Brianna watched as he carefully helped his wife off his lap and settled her onto her feet. She gave him a lingering kiss and then turned to Brianna. “Come on, I’ll show you around, then we can see the property.” Brianna couldn’t resist Josie’s grin. Oh she could learn to love her sister-in-law.

  Chapter 10

  They were halfway through hamburgers that Sam had grilled, when his phone rang.

  “Hey, Bri, it’s for you.” She handed her niece back to Josie and took the proffered cell phone.

  “Hello.”

  “Hello, Brianna, this is Zac Carmichael.” An immediate picture of melting brown eyes and warm brown skin drifted into her mind. She had to pause before she could answer.

  “Hello, Zac.” When she heard her breathless tone, she became more abrupt. “Why are you calling?” She melted at the sound of his laugh. She remembered that about him, there were many things about him that made him soothing and attractive.

  “I’m calling about your dog.”

  “She’s not my dog. How is she? There’s nothing wrong with her, is there?”

  “I promise, she’s doing fine. The only thing wrong is that I’ve checked every place, and nobody has posted about a missing dog. She’s lonely, and she could really use somebody to spend some time with her, but I’ve been slammed with work. As a matter of fact I have to go on a complicated call with Emily right away. It’ll likely be overnight. We have to leave right away.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “A horse went into early labor, and the owner thinks it’s breech.”

  “Is the horse okay?”

  “Probably not.”

  Brianna looked out over the yard to the lake. She so wanted to see the dog, but she didn’t want to get involved. She couldn’t afford to be emotionally attached. She shouldn’t have gotten involved with Charlie. Then there was her attraction to Zac.

  “Brianna, are you there?” What had he said?

  “Yes, I’m here.”

  “Seriously, can you come over? I’m probably going to be gone overnight with Emily. My assistant has another vacation day. I would really appreciate if you could cover for me, and Beauty would love to see you. I could call a temp agency, but that could take more time that I just don’t have. What’s more, I trust your competency.” God she loved his accent, and she had really wanted to see the dog. It was so stupid, but she could feel her eyes welling up. It was the idea that soon she wouldn’t be in any shape to have the responsibility of a pet.

  “When do you need me?”

  “When can you get here?”

  “I’ll leave now.” She looked over at the family seated around the outdoor table. What a happy scene, and she was part of it, this was her family. She blinked fast, so the tears wouldn’t fall.

  “Hey guys, I’m off to the vets. I’m going to go check on the dog I rescued. I also promised I would babysit, while Zac and Emily are delivering a baby horse.”

  “I think that would be a foal.” Sam grinned up at her as she kissed him good-bye and handed him back his phone. She gave hugs all around, and kissed Lissa’s tummy, who giggled.

  “Do you have to spend the night?” Josie asked.

  “Probably. Maybe.” Josie got up and went to the kitchen and put some brownies into a plastic container.

  “Here, take this with you.” She hugged Brianna. “I’m so glad you came over. I hope to be seeing a lot of you, while you’re in town. Sam and Chance have talked about you often, so this time means a great deal to them.” Brianna bent down to hug her diminutive sister-in-law, once again happy to know that her brothers were blessed in the woman they had chosen to bring int
o their lives and hearts.

  “I promise I’ll be back, I had a great time, Josie. By the way, where are your sisters?”

  “They talked the Johansen brothers into taking them out dancing in Seattle.”

  “Aren’t they a little old for them?”

  “Definitely. The girls just wanted to go out to Pioneer Square and listen to some of the indie bands and dance. When Sam suggested Dane and Eric go along to watch out for them, they jumped at the idea. They had a crush a couple of years ago, but now it’s like they’re just another set of big brothers.”

  “That’s really great.” Brianna took the brownies and left. She felt a little guilty about still using Sam’s truck, until she looked out in the driveway and realized that there were four other vehicles for the three people in the house. Chance sure did like his cars. She had meant to ask Charlie when she was going to get her bike back, but part of her didn’t want to ask. She didn’t want to admit it to anyone but in retrospect, that last few miles on the motorcycle had been a little scary. But it was kind of like a horse, she should get back on it. She’d ask Charlie about it tomorrow.

  After she picked up an overnight bag, she arrived at the veterinary clinic. As she put her car into park in front of the barn, a tall brunette came out of the house at a full run toward her.

  “Thank God you’re here. We’ll call you after we get to the Anderson’s farm and let you know what you need to do.” She shoved some keys at Brianna, and that was when she saw Zac in the truck in front of her. As the woman raced away, she called over her shoulder. “I’m Emily, by the way. Thanks, Brianna.” She barely had the door of the truck closed before the vehicle was in motion. Brianna sat in Sam’s SUV, just perusing the gravel drive between the house and the barn, until she saw Chaos walk up toward her.

  “Hi, boy!” She jumped out, and he ran up to greet her. “Let’s go see Beauty.” It was if the dog understood her, because he walked directly to the barn door and waited for her. It wasn’t locked. When she opened it, Chaos again aimed straight for the clinic door. “Hey, wait for me.” When she got that door open, Chaos barked, and there was a bark from within and the black dog trotted on back toward the pens. Brianna was delighted to see that Beauty was in a large open area that was surrounded by chicken wire, instead of the cage she had last seen her in. She was still wearing the cone.