My Mistake (Stories of Serendipity #7) (24 page)

Her eyes lit up and she smiled. “Sure!”

“Cool, we’ll do that first thing in the morning. She’s tucked in for the night right now, and I don’t want to disrupt our precarious schedule. Let me iron my shirt and we can go, if y’all want. I’m supposed to meet Casey there in a little while.”

Brent spent some time ironing his shirt, trying to get the creases just right, while the three girls squeezed into his tiny bathroom to change. He chuckled to himself as he travelled back in time to listening to them do the same thing at their own house, thankful he only had the one sister. When he was dressed, they emerged. Lauren was wearing jeans and a sleeveless button down shirt with her worn boots. Alexis was wearing a rather skimpy sundress with boots that he raised his eyebrows at, but didn’t say anything. Haley was dressed for the summer heat, wearing shorts and a T-shirt with sandals. They all looked really good, having done something to their hair and faces that transformed them from country cousins to bar-ready femme fatales. Brent was in for it tonight.

“Y’all ready?” His query was met with a chorus of nods and yes’s as he led the way out to his truck.

“You still not drinking?” Lauren asked him as she scooted herself up into the truck. Haley and Alexis took the backseat.

“Nope. It makes everything else…a little easier.” He had told them at his Nana’s funeral. He’d been having a hard time staying clean those few weeks, and Summer had convinced him to open up to a few more people about his addiction and his difficulties. He had to admit, the immediate unwavering support had been a life-saver for him.

“So, what’s going on with you and Casey?” Haley was leaning up from the backseat, her hand on his headrest.

“Um…We’re officially a couple. But I’m trying to do everything right, you know?”

“Does she know? About…”

“Yeah. And that’s why I’m trying to be real good. She was pissed when she found out.”

“Why?” Alexis had been the one to ask that question. Brent figured it was probably because she had her own mistakes she was living with due to others’ reactions too.

“It’s a long story, but the gist of it is that her dad was an alcoholic, and I lied about myself to her. She had sworn she would never have a relationship with someone like that, and I knew it. So I lied. When she found out she was pissed.” He grinned in an effort to lighten the mood. “But I think I’m wearing her down.”

They finally pulled up to the parking lot of the Gin a little late, but Casey wasn’t there yet. Brent pulled out his phone to send her a text, but Alexis tugged on his arm to get him out on the dance floor with her. He led her through a complicated series of spins and twirls around the dance floor, and when the song was over, he saw Lauren smiling widely at him. He gestured her over for a turn. After dancing with all his cousins, they cajoled him out on the floor for a variation of the Harlem Shuffle that they’d all done as kids.

Panting and out of breath, they all stumbled to the side of the dance floor and Haley went to get them drinks and water. Alexis wrapped her arms around Brent and fingered his hair.

“You need a haircut, Cuz.” Her fingers twirled through his mop of curls on top.

After taking the bottle of water that Haley brought him, he pulled out his phone to check the time, and was shocked to find that Casey was over an hour late.

“I need to text Casey.”

“Dance with me first, Cowboy.” A strange grip nearly pulled his arm out of socket, dragging him back out onto the dance floor. When he turned to see who it was, he saw Lindsey, her eyes glazed and cheeks flushed with alcohol.

“I really need…” He was interrupted by her jerking his body close to hers, and she started swaying rather slowly to the song playing, a love song. Of course. Brent sighed and resigned himself. “Just the one dance, Lindsey. I’ve already told you…”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. You don’t do relationships. I get it, you hate me.” She pushed her body flush against his, slowly grinding her hips into him. He tried to pull away without making a scene.

“I don’t hate you, I’ve got a girlfriend.”

She looked over his shoulder at his passel of cousins. “Which one? I don’t see the one from your house.”

Through his clenched jaw, Brent bit out, “Those are cousins. Casey’s not here yet.” He lowered his face to hers and lifted her chin so he could be sure she saw his eyes when he told her to leave him alone. “Lindsey, I’ve been trying to be nice, because I don’t want to hurt our professional relationship. You’re the best vet in town, but you’ve got to stop this. I’m with Casey now.”

As if she didn’t hear him, she raised herself up on her toes and broached the distance between their lips, kissing him. He tasted the alcohol, the stale cigarettes, and coldness. He pushed away from her.

“I told you to stop, Lindsey. No more.” He dropped his arms from around her waist and left the dance floor before the song was over, finding his cousins, and escaping Lindsey’s tentacles.

C
asey had completely lost track of time and knew she was late. As she parked next to Brent’s truck, she felt a shiver of anticipation. She walked into the Gin, and a layer of cigarette smoke sank into her pores almost immediately. She cast her gaze around, looking for Brent and when she found him, she stood transfixed, a torrent of emotions boiling up under her skin.

He was on the dance floor with a woman, spinning her around in a waltz that they danced together as if they’d learned at the same time. They looked like they were made to dance with each other. After the song ended, he stayed in a cluster of women, doing some sort of line dance. She stood there and watched, as three of the women stumbled off the floor with him, laughing and they all went into a darkish corner of the bar. One of them wrapped herself in his arms, and started playing with his hair. Another one spoke some words in his ear. The third one, patted his arm, before walking away towards the bar.

The familiarity of their touch told her that Brent knew these gorgeous women. They were all legs and had long silky brown hair. And they were quite a bit younger than her. She watched as he pulled out his phone, right before Lindsey, the vet, came up behind him and pulled on his arms, tugging him out onto the dance floor. She watched as they danced close, too close, and then they kissed. Biting back the burning tears, Casey spun and ran from the bar.

Outside, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed her mom’s number.

“Mama?” The endearment she hadn’t used since she was a child fell from her lips.

“What’s wrong, Baby?”

“I need to go to the cabin for a few days. Is the key still in its spot?” They’d kept the key under a rock formation near the woods surrounding the cabin for years. She didn’t think it would be gone, but she needed to be sure before she drove all the way out there.

“Of course it is, but why are you going to the cabin? Did something happen?” Her mother’s voice was etched with concern.

“I’ll call you later…I-I just need to get out of town for a few days.” The tears were coming and Casey wanted to be off the phone and inside her car when they came. She’d walked to her car, and was leaning on the door.

“Do you want me to meet you out there?”

“No. I just need to be alone.”

“I love you Sweetheart. You know that, right?”

“Of course I do, I love you too.” Somehow, hearing those words from her mother made her feel marginally better, but she still wanted to break down alone. She would allow herself a mini-breakdown here, then get to the cabin and have a full-on, berserker style blow up, where no one could hear her.

Once in the privacy of her own car, she allowed the tears to fall. She was so caught up in her own misery, she didn’t notice the shadow in the back seat, nor did she feel the car shift when the shadow moved.

She buried her face in her hands on the steering wheel, and cried heavy, angry tears. She felt so betrayed by the man she loved. Strains of country music floated out the door of the bar, encroaching on her solitude, but she couldn’t hear them over her jagged sobbing. She hit the steering wheel with the palm of her hand in angry frustration, angry she’d been duped again. Angry she’d thrown her heart away.

Suddenly, a hand at her throat choked the tears back, and the shadow spoke.

“It sounds like you actually missed me Casey.”

B
y the time the girls had been ready to leave the Gin, Brent had regretted inviting them in the first place. They wanted to stay later than he did, especially after it was apparent that Casey was a no-show. Obviously, she’d taken his words at the house more seriously than he’d intended.

He didn’t mean to accuse her of breaking glass in the barn, but it was a question he’d had to ask. Maybe she was madder about it than he realized. They’d been spending so much time together lately, maybe she was needing some space of her own for a little while? He hated the idea of her at her house with Kevin unaccounted for, but maybe she’d decided to just stay in and be alone for the evening. Since his house wasn’t big enough for everybody, he happily dropped his cousins off at a hotel, promising to bring Lauren’s truck out the next day before driving over to Casey’s house.

He couldn’t imagine what had kept her from coming out, and his mind went to all the dark places. His first and worst thought was that she had come home while Kevin was there, and something horrible had happened to her. He’d tried to tell himself that wasn’t likely, which was why he’d stayed with his cousins. That, and if Kevin wasn’t there, she was likely to get pissed at him for encroaching on her solitude. She probably laid down for a nap or something, and time got away from her.

He told himself all of this, because the alternative was unthinkable. There was no way she was in trouble. Of course, this was the thought that he just couldn’t shake. He wouldn’t be able to sleep until he saw her and found out what had happened. On his way home, he drove by her house, and contented himself with the knowledge she wasn’t in trouble there, since her car wasn’t in the driveway.

She must have gone to Summer’s house to stay with her mom. That would make sense, although he sure wished she would answer his calls to her cell phone. The little tendril of fear in his gut wouldn’t go away though, as he recalled his questioning her about breaking glass, and how she’d immediately snapped at him. Was she still angry?

Deciding she must be madder at him than he’d realized, he went home and slept fitfully, vowing to apologize profusely tomorrow, when she’d hopefully be speaking to him again.

Brent was beside himself. He’d slept later than he’d intended, and when he finally made it to Casey’s that morning, her car still wasn’t there. Her door was left unlocked, so he let himself in, running through the rooms of her house, calling to Casey, knowing she wasn’t there. He felt her absence in his bones.

When he got to her room, he stopped short at the lack of Casey. If he hadn’t seen her in this room recently, he would think it was a perfectly preserved room from her childhood. All traces of adult Casey were gone. Her closet emptied of everything except her letterman jacket and old prom dresses. His hands slipped across the taffeta of the blue one. He remembered that one well.

His senior prom, he, Max and Les had taken Summer, Casey and another girl, whose panties Les had been trying to get into. They had all gone as a group. It had been unspoken, but Casey was Brent’s date, because he couldn’t take his sister. That would have been too weird. Fingering the dress, he remembered what it had looked like on her emerging high school curves, as she looked up at him while they’d slow danced in the gymnasium. He hadn’t kissed her that night, as much as he’d wanted to. That was the night of the skinny-dipping debacle, and the night he’d realized how much she meant to him. The night he’d fucked everything up. That had been his big chance, and he’d blown it.

As he looked around her room, he found a photo book on her bed. He flipped through it idly, then more slowly as he realized what was in it, and a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach made it turn. He ran to the bathroom and threw up, mostly bile and stomach acid since he hadn’t eaten anything. Weak, he sank to the floor with the sudden knowledge that something was wrong. Really wrong.

He had to find Casey.