Love Me Sweet (A Bell Harbor Novel) (5 page)

“Please don’t use profanity in my home, young man,” Donna scolded. “That’s a quarter in the swear jar for you.”

Grant ran a hand through his hair, messing it up even more than it had been before. “Add it to my tab. In the meantime, give me the information you have on the cow and the freezer and I’ll see what I can do about getting a refund.”

Donna shook her head. “You’ll do no such thing. That’s my gift to Tyler and Evie.”

Exasperation finally filled his voice and stretched it thin. “Mom, I’m sure that Ty and this Evelyn person will understand the circumstances.”

His mother came forward and pulled out the angry-mom finger point, waving her hand so close to his nose she nearly touched it. “No, you don’t understand, Mr. Smarty-Pants. That house sat empty for months after your grandfather died with no word from you at all. Tyler didn’t want to live there but he did, just so he could do the upkeep on the place in case you came home. He cut the grass and shoveled the snow, and he even painted the whole inside. We would have asked you about it, but you never return calls. Half the time, you don’t answer e-mails. You’re next to impossible to get ahold of, and it didn’t make sense to leave it sitting empty, so I rented it.” His mother stood back up and crossed her arms, defiant, satisfied she’d made her point. “I took this nice young lady’s money in good faith and promised her she’d have a place to live for six months. So you’ll just have to find yourself someplace else to go until her lease is up. Maybe that’ll teach you to call your mother once in a while.”

“That went well,” Elaine said as they climbed back into her little piece of shit Volkswagen that he could hardly fit his legs into. It was dark and cold, just like his mood.

Grant didn’t respond. His ears were still ringing from the shellacking he’d just received from his mother. Apparently there was some resentment built up there, but what did she expect from him? She’d married Hank just months after Grant’s father had died, and Hank, that SOB, had made it perfectly clear there was no room in the house for Grant after that. So he’d left.

Then Hank took off, and Carl showed up. Grant was busy working by then and trips home were harder to schedule. He’d been back a handful of times over the years and hadn’t intended to stay gone for so long, or be so unavailable, but every opportunity to come back to Bell Harbor had gotten trumped by a new assignment. He didn’t get to the top of the heap by saying no to job opportunities. Bad timing and logistics had kept him away from his grandfather’s funeral, but he’d been in Phnom Penh. He couldn’t have gotten home even if he’d wanted to. And sure, maybe he had been a little careless about keeping in touch, but his mother didn’t need to rip on him about that in front of a total stranger.

“So . . . yeah,” Elaine added when he said nothing. She turned the ignition key and the engine reluctantly coughed to life. “We seem to have a situation here. What do you suggest we do about that?”

He clenched his fists inside his gloves.

Shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

What could he suggest?

He couldn’t just evict her. This problem was not Elaine’s fault, and even if she did have a backpack full of money, she was still out six months’ rent. What if she took them to court? That’s all he needed. Her suing him right along with Blake. What a huge pain in the ass that would be. Somehow he had to pay her back, or find one of them another place to stay.

Grant pushed his hair back from his eyes. He was in serious need of a trim. He also needed a suit for his brother’s wedding. And a car. And groceries. And some decent winter clothes. And about fifteen hours of uninterrupted sleep. Now he understood why babies cried when they got too tired. He was miserable. He should have stayed in the fucking jungle. Civilization was too complicated.

“OK, so look,” he finally said as Elaine slowly backed out of the long, snow-covered driveway, “here’s the thing. I’m going to be busy with family stuff for the next few days or so. You probably figured out my brother is getting married soon. So I can try to find a place to stay, or you can look around, or go back to the hotel, but in the meantime . . .”

His voice dwindled away. It was a crazy idea. A crazy, stupid idea. They were complete strangers, after all, but he’d lived in enough cramped cabins and campsites to know that living in close quarters wasn’t that big of a deal. Not for him, anyway. If he was able to ignore Miranda in twenty-five square feet of jungle clearing, he could certainly handle himself around this girl.

“In the meantime, what?” she asked.

“We could both stay at the house.”

“You want to live together?” The car lurched to a halt as she plowed into a snowbank and got them stuck.

“Just for a couple of days until I can figure something else out. I mean, you can move out whenever you decide to, but the truth is your rent money is gone and I don’t have it to give back to you. I might in a week or so but not right now.”

“Don’t you have friends you could go stay with? Or live with your mother?” she asked, punching the gas pedal and digging the tires farther down into the snow.

Figures a Miami native wouldn’t know how to rock a car out of a snowbank.

“Straighten the wheel and tap the brake while you accelerate.”

“What?”

“Trust me. It’ll adjust the torque on the tires and give you better traction. And don’t floor it. Just give it a little bit of gas.”

Three more tries and they were out of the snowbank and slip-sliding down the icy road.

“And no, I’m not staying with my mother and Carl, and I don’t have friends to stay with either. Not around here. In case you didn’t catch on to what my mother was saying, I haven’t really kept in touch with the old Bell Harbor gang.”

“Can’t you stay at a hotel?”

He rubbed a glove over his chin. “I could, I guess, but I have to be honest . . . I don’t want to. That house is mine, so in spite of what my mother said, your lease is no good. If I stay at a hotel, that’s money wasted I can’t get back. It’s money wasted for you too, really. But if we stay together, eventually, I’ll get your full six months’ rent back. That’s actually a pretty good deal for you, don’t you think? You can stay there rent-free until one of us comes up with a better solution.”

Elaine was silent as the car’s wipers scraped icy particles across the windshield. It was snowing again, in big clumps. The wind whipped around as she white-knuckled their way to the next road. Terrible driving weather. Terrible weather for just about anything other than sitting next to a roaring fireplace with a beer in one hand and remote in the other. That’s what he wanted. A fire, a drink, and a ball game. Or better yet, a big, soft bed.

Finally Elaine sighed. “I’m not interested in having a roommate.”

“Honestly, neither am I, but I’m making you a good offer. You’ve got a heck of a lot more money than I do at the moment—”

“That money,” she interrupted him, then stopped and pressed her lips together for a moment. Then her voice went low. “That money has to last me for a while. It’s all I have.”

It’s all she had? It looked like plenty, but there was a lot this girl
wasn’t
telling him, and no matter what her financial situation was, his family still owed her six grand.

“Listen, I want to get you your money back, and I don’t want to be a jerk about this, but I don’t have the time to figure out another place to go right now. Tyler is getting married this weekend, so if we could just share for like, four days, maybe five, then I can figure something else out. But right now I’m going on hour thirty-eight with no sleep and I just want a place to lie down. Stay or go, but give me some time to work out an alternative.”

Her sigh was quiet, a puff of white against the cold air inside the car. The pause hung in the air next to it.

“OK,” she finally answered. “I guess that would be OK. Maybe. But just for a couple of days, and then you have to leave, or get me my rent back. Agreed?”

A warmth passed over him. It was a surprising sensation. What was that? Relief?

Sure, because if she stayed, then he didn’t have to feel guilty about kicking her out, and if
he
stayed, he didn’t have to bother finding another place in the next hour. It was all about taking the path of least resistance. This was the easiest thing, and it would work. For the short term, anyway. She wouldn’t take up much room and didn’t seem to be much of a talker.

“Agreed,” he said.

This could work.

Or . . . it might be a terrible mistake.

Chapter 5

GRANT CONNELLY HAD MADE A
terrible mistake. Elaine Masters was quiet, sure, and he appreciated that. Most women he knew were interested in sharing all the details of their lives, the more insignificant the better, but his housemate was just the opposite. She said almost nothing. In the past day and a half, she’d read, murmured into her phone, and did something with knitting needles and yarn which in no way produced anything recognizable and was typically followed by her mumbled cursing and the sound of something soft being tossed into the trash basket.

None of that bothered him, though.

What bothered him was the yoga.

The yoga that she’d been doing for over an hour now, wearing a miniscule top and clingy pants. He tried not to watch her but the house just wasn’t that big. Unless he was in the bathroom or his bedroom, he could see her. The stretching and the balancing and the arching. Heaven help him, the arching! She was as bendy as a pole dancer and ten times sexier because she seemed so unaware of it.

“Are those my panties?” Her voice broke into his illicit thoughts.

He’d come into the living room to say a pair of her underpants had accidentally ended up with his laundry, then he’d gotten stupidly distracted by her ass. It wasn’t his fault, though. He’d walked in and there it was, perky and round and way up in the air. Come on. What was he supposed to do except appreciate the view?

She stood up and he glanced down at his hand where his thumb was rubbing absently over the silky pink material. God damn it. She was going to think he was a pervert.

He cleared his throat. “Um, I guess so. They were in the dryer, and they sure as hell aren’t mine.” He held them out, dangling the lacy bit on his fingertip, and she snatched them from his hand.

“Thanks. Are you heading out?” She nodded at the coat he had draped over his arm.

“What? Oh, yeah. I’m meeting my brother for lunch.”

She glanced out the window at the blowing snow. “Is he picking you up?”

“No, I was going to walk. It’s not that far.”

She pressed a thumb against her lower lip. She did that a lot, and he wished she wouldn’t, because all it did was draw his attention to her mouth. As if he needed another reason to notice her mouth. It was lush and distracting, and every time he looked at it he wondered what she’d taste like. He’d dreamt about her last night, and that was
before
he’d seen the yoga.

Maybe he’d just been in the jungle for too long, or maybe he was feeling latent rebound effects from being emasculated by Miranda. Women didn’t normally affect him this way. Oh, he appreciated them for sure, but he’d never had to work too hard to capture one’s notice. He’d never much cared if he succeeded or not either. Miranda hadn’t broken his heart, she’d only wounded his pride. But something about Elaine Masters was pulling him in deep, and it was clear she wanted none of it.

This morning he’d accidentally bumped up against her in the kitchen and she’d looked ready to castrate him with a cleaver. She was closed for business, no doubt about that, and it was probably for the best. She carried a secret along with that bag full of money, and whatever it was, an ex-husband or something just this side of illegal, he didn’t want to be a part of it no matter how flexible and bendy she was.

“Do you want to take my car?” she said, seemingly oblivious to his inner turmoil. “It’s about twenty degrees below zero out there.”

He pulled on his coat. “Are you sure? I might not be back for a couple of hours.”

Elaine gave a tight smile. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not going anywhere, but if you could fill up my tank, that would be nice.”

A frat-boy joke about filling up her tank popped into his mind, but since she’d just caught him ogling her ass and fondling her panties, he decided to keep that to himself.

“Yeah, sure. Absolutely. And thanks,” he said.

“No problem. Keys are on the counter. Have fun with your brother.” With that, she walked away, ponytail swinging, spandex clinging, backside round and perfect.

Damn. Elaine Masters was about the cutest thing Grant had ever laid eyes on. He needed to get that rent money back to her, like, yesterday, before his emotions went and did something irretrievably stupid.

He picked up the keys and headed out the door.

Bell Harbor had changed since the last time he’d been home. All the tacky little mom-and-pop stores he remembered had been replaced with art studios, bistro-style cafés, and upscale antique shops. It seemed the world had found its way to Main Street while Grant had been busy avoiding it.

His little brother had changed too. Somewhere along the line, he’d filled out and turned into a man.

“Geez, Ty, look at you, all grown up,” Grant said as they moved in for a clumsy embrace and thumped each other on the back.

His brother’s smile was still the same, though, and similar to his own. “Yeah, six years will do that to a guy,” he answered as they sat down.

Grant pulled off his coat. “Six years. Hasn’t been that long, has it?”

“Since the last time you’ve been back? Yeah.” Tyler’s voice was neutral, and Grant unexpectedly had the sensation of running into an old acquaintance at the airport rather than his own brother. They’d shared a childhood, but few things in their adult lives overlapped. Time lost its meaning in the jungle but obviously it had marched on back at home.

He looked around, taking in the view. The restaurant was small, with a relaxing, homey interior, the dark walls and heavy wood furniture giving it a rustic feel. Big windows looked out over the street where snow continued to pile up. “So, this place is called Jasper’s, huh?” Grant said. “Does that have anything to do with Jasper Baker from Bell Harbor High?”

Tyler’s blond hair was cut short, and his eyes were the same bright blue as their mother’s. “What do you think? How many Jaspers do you know?”

“One.”

“Guess that’s your answer, then.”

They both laughed, sounding like each other, and Grant felt hope they’d find common ground. He’d missed his brother, he just hadn’t realized how much until that moment.

“Jasper opened this place a couple of years ago,” Tyler said, signaling for the waitress. “I even worked here last summer.”

The waitress came over, and they ordered drinks.

“You worked here?” Grant said after the server walked away. “You’re still an EMT though, right?” He hadn’t missed
every
detail, had he?

“Yes, and now I’m studying to be a paramedic. I started that in September.”

“Wow, sounds like you’ve been busy since I talked to you last. Where’d you find time to get engaged?” The question was supposed to sound casual, but Tyler’s expression tightened up.

“Everything with Evie was easy. When you know, you just know.”

“Like Mom knew with Hank?”

Tyler’s smile fell away completely and Grant wanted to rewind. God, sometimes he had the meanest mouth.

“This is nothing like that, Grant. I hated Hank as much you did. Mom made a mistake and she knows that now, but she was scared.”

“Scared? Of what?”

Lines of frustration formed across his brother’s forehead. “Is it really that hard to figure out? She was scared of being a single mom with five kids to feed. You and I probably could’ve managed all right, but Aimee, Wendy, and Scotty were still little kids.”

Grant’s other brother and sisters. They’d been young when he left, all freckles and knobby knees. At first there’d been lots of letters from them written in dark, clumsy pencil, but those had dwindled as they got older. Then he had trouble remembering things like birthdays. He’d sent presents, sometimes. When he thought of it. But he’d fallen out of the habit of wondering about the things, and the people, he’d left back in Bell Harbor. Work was easier than family, but his mother had reminded him last night that he’d missed a lot. His brother was about to remind him too. He could sense it coming and the realization made him feel lonely and old. And then it made him feel defensive.

“Four months, Ty. Four months after Dad dies and she brings that jackass into our house? Into Dad’s house. Grandpa would’ve helped her. I would’ve helped.”

Tyler leaned back and crossed his arms. “Helped? You mean the same way you helped when Hank left and took all the money? Or how about when she lost her job? Or when Scotty got arrested?”

Grant felt sucker-punched in the solar plexus. He hadn’t known about any of those things happening, but what hurt worse was that his brother didn’t sound angry so much as he sounded resigned. As if his expectations of Grant were so low, they’d become nonexistent. His involvement in the family had become superfluous. A rolling sense of unease rose up and he swallowed it down. Maybe that’s what all those unanswered phone calls were about. Shit. Maybe he
was
a lousy son, and a lousy brother. No wonder his mother had been so pissed at him last night. “When did Mom lose her job?”

“About three years ago. Now she’s working at Gibson’s grocery store.”

“I didn’t know that. When did Scotty get arrested?”

“A while ago but it’s all handled. I took care of things, and now he’s doing great at Fort Jackson. All he ever wanted to be was a soldier like Dad, so they’re kicking his ass but he loves it.”

The waitress brought their drinks and Grant took a big swallow. To wash down the size-eleven foot he’d put in his mouth. “Scotty’s a soldier now. I guess I have been gone a long time. Maybe I should’ve checked in a little more often, huh?” He tried to make a joke of it, but it fell flat.

“It would’ve been nice.” Tyler’s mouth said
nice
, but his tone said
you’re a dickhead
. And all of a sudden, Grant felt like one. The world he’d left behind hadn’t frozen in place. Everyone had changed, grown up, suffered through turmoil, and he’d missed it all. Maybe somewhere down deep, that had been deliberate.

“I’m here now. Does that count for anything?”

Tyler paused. The frown lines eased a bit. “It
is
nice to see you. I wasn’t sure you’d make it to the wedding.”

Grant felt some relief at the change in tone. “I would’ve come sooner but I didn’t get the invitation until about a week ago, and as you can imagine, it’s a bit of a hike from the Philippines. Mom said you tried to call me, though. I never got a message.”

Tyler took a drink and set the glass down firmly. “I never tried to call.”

That foot in his mouth went and kicked him in the throat. “You didn’t?”

“No. I didn’t figure you’d care that much.”

Grant’s jaw dropped, and the foot kicked him again. “Not care? My brother is getting married and you think I wouldn’t care? It’s not as if I’ve stopped being part of the family. Right?” It shouldn’t have been a question. It should have been a declaration, but at this moment, he wasn’t so sure. “Look, I know I’ve been shitty about keeping in touch, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you guys. I’ve just been busy working.”

His brother nodded, as if Grant’s words were of only moderate interest, but a curve started to form around Tyler’s lips.

“Well, like I said. It’s nice to see you. Aimee calls you Bigfoot, by the way.”

“Bigfoot?”

“Yeah, you know, like a mythical creature that people say they’ve seen in the wild but no one knows for sure if it’s real. That’s you to them.”

“Great.” God, was there anyone in his family who was actually
happy
to see him?

“Just thought you should be prepared. If you’re thinking there’s going to be some kind of a big parade to welcome you home, you might be a little disappointed.”

Apparently Grant had died without knowing it, and had come back as a punching bag. His brother was throwing hook after hook, and it was starting to piss him off. Eight thousand miles. That’s how far he’d come, and for this? If he’d wanted to get treated like shit, he could’ve stayed in the jungle with Miranda and Blake.

“Wow. Guess I’m wondering why you invited me at all.”

Tyler rolled his shoulders. “My fiancée insisted on it. Her parents had a fight that lasted twenty-three years, and she said if they could work through that, then you and I should be able to figure this out, if we put in a little effort. You interested?”

Was that an olive branch his brother was waving in his direction or a spear about to skewer him?

“Well, considering the fact that I didn’t even know we
had
a problem, I guess, yeah. I’m interested. I quit my job to be here, you know.” That wasn’t precisely true. He’d quit because he’d wanted to quit, but Tyler was flinging a lot of crap his way and he needed to fling some back.

“Mom said you quit because Blake Rockstone is an asshole.”

Grant chuckled at his own expense. “He is. But apparently so am I, so maybe we were a good team.” He picked up his drink and took a huge gulp. This was not the reunion he was expecting. It was more like a colonoscopy followed by a tar-and-feathering.

Tyler’s grin broadened, also at Grant’s expense, but he lifted his glass. “OK, truce. I’ve said my piece, and I really am glad you’re here. I didn’t think you’d come, and you’ve made Evie very happy, and Mom too.”