Rough Play (13 page)

He blinked. “She loves him?”

Flora only shrugged and kicked out of her shoes. “Probably. Gretchen is, just—” She laughed. “Gretchen’s just not normal either. She’s perfect.”

“Ah well, Lane isn’t perfect. There for a minute it sounded like they were really going to be perfect together.”

She laughed again. This was good. That soothing warmth was back in his chest as she tossed hair off her shoulder. The ends flicked up and he reached out to catch them, but she was a step too far away.

He leaned on the counter as she walked through the kitchen and pulled a half-eaten pie out of the refrigerator and a fork from a drawer. “When we were kids, Lane was the quiet one. So serious. We’re triplets, but it was me and Trent always getting our hands in some dirty shit. Not that Lane is clean. He was just more calculating and analyzing whereas we were more jumping in headfirst.”

“So because he uses his brain he’s not normal?”

He took her fork and dug in the blueberry pie with a chuckle. “Sometimes we thought so. You wouldn’t think so after being around him for all of ten minutes, but Lane’s pretty giving. You get a flat tire at two a.m.? He wouldn’t think twice about coming out to fix it. He’d be pissed as hell, but damn if he ever showed it. Trent and I get to his house and he’s in his recliner like everything was normal. It’s just frustrating. And I can’t wrap my head around why he didn’t trust me.”

She pulled out a second fork from the drawer by her hip and dug in the pie. “He’s back now.”

“Yeah. We told him to get his head out of his ass.”

“How sweet. I can’t imagine how y’all manage without one another for advice. What I meant was, he’s back, so you could just ask him why he didn’t trust you.”

He scratched his face. “Yeah, we don’t really talk about feelings much.”

She shook her head. “And you wonder why he kept this a secret.”

He was laughing again. “It wasn’t until we told him that Gretchen called him a coward that he finally opened up. Dummy thinks he’s going to walk back into her life and everything will be fine, like he left on a work trip. I don’t know. Maybe I need to open up more. Talk about feelings more so my brothers know I’m always there.” Fuck, now he sounded like some sap.

“Admirable that you’re willing to try something.”

He took another tart bite, wanting this conversation to end. “This is damn good.”

“Gretchen’s handy-work.” She smiled and pushed another bite of the gooey pie in her mouth. “Gretchen may be perfect, but she’s not going to be easy. Cross her once and she’s pretty much done.”

He poked at the crust. When it was fresh, it was probably crispy or something. After being in the refrigerator for who knew how long the crust had softened. The filling had soaked in and it was doughy soft and so damn good. “We tried warning Lane about her. But again, can’t tell Lane anything.”

“Probably a good thing. He’ll need to be determined to win Gretchen back, but odds are, he’ll have her.”

“Think so?”

She nodded. “Oh, yeah. She was torn up when he left the first day. Now she’s mad as hell. If he can wait out her anger, he could win her back, unfortunately.”

“Unfortunately?”

She pointed at him with her fork. “He’s your brother and all, but he’s a complete dipshit for leaving like he did.”

“I take it you’ll only stand for being crossed once and you’re done, too.”

She smiled and put the pie away. “Nope. You won’t cross me at all.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Not you-you. Just people in general.”

“How does that work?”

She paused at the closed refrigerator door and stared upwards. “I’m not sure exactly, but it’s been working for a few years now.”

“And before then?”

She glanced away. “Not so much. But live and learn. We going swimming or not?”

Subject change. Clear as day. As she stripped her shirt off and headed through the living room, he’d figure a way to circle back to this conversation somehow.

There were a few bits and pieces he had on her past, not too much. Not near enough to make a picture. Just enough to know there was a history and it was something she was not up to discussing. He wanted to know and one way or another, he was going to have to figure out how to pry it out of her.

But he’d deal with that later and instead stripped his own shirt and tossed it over hers on the floor.

Chapter Thirteen

Flora kicked hard through the water, but it didn’t matter. The moment Jacob had stripped down and jumped in the pool, she knew she’d be caught. She was a good swimmer, but Jacob was fluid and smooth in his movements and he glided through the water, powered by his rippling muscles.

Fingers glided against her calves and she dove underwater, gave a hard kick, gaining a few inches. Another stroke by him and he was over her, his hands going around her waist. His entire naked front lined against her entirely naked backside.

Trapped in his arms, he surfaced, pulling her with him. His hand sprawled across her front. His wrist trapped between her breasts. Another hand wrapped across her hips and held her upper thighs.

He stroked her chin with his thumb. “You didn’t really think you could out swim me, did you?”

“No, but I wasn’t just going to give it up to you easy.”

He chuckled and kicked to the edge of the pool where there was a small curve and she was able to touch. He pushed at the wet hair crossing her forehead. “You and easy do not compute.”

She swiped at a drop of water hanging from his chin. “If you’re trying to say I’m difficult, you’re not winning yourself any points.”

He leaned closer. His wet arm was propped on the concrete surrounding the pool, his bicep pushed up and making him look extra strong. “I was, but thanks for the heads up. Instead I’ll say you’re a woman who knows her mind.”

She shook her head, knowing better than to get sucked in by this chitchat. “That has to be the worst save I’ve ever heard.”

“I thought it was smooth.”

She leaned forward, wrapping her arms around the warm breadth of his shoulders. “You need to work on it. Get on that tomorrow.”

“It’d be easier on me if you didn’t know your mind so well.” He grinned.

“As much as I’d love to, I can’t forget things.”

His hold relaxed, his brows pulled down. “What happened?”

She sighed and turned, propping her arms on the edge of the pool and kicked at the water. And that was a dash of ice over warm heat. “What didn’t happen? Just another person who had a shitty childhood, that’s all.”

“I know you’re not from here, so why this place?”

She traced the tiny pebbles in the concrete and debated what to say. She and Jacob weren’t something she couldn’t define. More than what she usually had with guys. Not so much she would call him a boyfriend. She didn’t want to keep her secret, not exactly. She wasn’t sure she wanted to tell him either. It itched at the back of her mind to just spit it out.

She bit her lip, wanting to hold it in, but in the end, she sighed. “Mom gave me the keys to dad’s old beat up pick up and told me to leave. Apple Trail is as far as I made it before the truck ran out of gas. I coasted into the diner’s parking lot. Didn’t have anywhere else to go, no one to call. I stayed. Hid in the bathroom all night while Tonya closed the place down. Slept in a booth after she left. She found me the next morning, didn’t say much, just put me to work. Left me a blanket the next night.”

“Your mom kicked you out?”

A humorless laugh echoed out. “Yeah.”

“Why?”

She drew on the concrete with the water. The dark spots made blotchy circles before soaking in and drying. “She thought I was moving in on her man.” She turned, resting her elbows on the edge and continued on. He stirred up a lot of her memories on this and it was all flooding up her throat. Things she hadn’t bothered herself with in years. “I was seventeen and mom thought I wanted my uncle.”

He frowned. “Your…uncle?”

She nodded. “Mom’s brother in law. Not her blood brother, but still
my blood
related uncle. It was a mess. My uncle had been…different around me when I got to be about sixteen. He was always a father to me. My dad was mostly out of the picture in a drunken stupor on the couch. I was so stupid. I never really knew why my uncle was around so much. I just thought he was checking up on me, you know? Being good to his brother’s family.”

“Did he ever….” He swallowed. “I mean with you, did he ever?”

That old familiar tightness welled up her throat and she shook her head. “No. Later I realized I had started developing around sixteen. I no longer looked like a little girl. He was always touching me.” She shuddered, recalling how she’d craved the attention like a foolish kid. “Nowhere inappropriate, but like on my lower back. And his hand started lingering there longer each time. One time he squeezed my shoulder and his finger slipped under my bra strap. He didn’t pull away immediately and instead caressed a little. That’s when I realized something had changed. I dealt with it for about a year by avoiding him. Leaving the house out of the backdoor if I saw him pulling up and stuff.”

“You didn’t tell your mom or dad?”

She didn’t look at him. He made things hard enough, looking at him would make this impossible. “Lord no. Like I said, dad was mostly out of it. And mom was, well, as I got older I realized mom wasn’t always as great as I’d imagined her. At times I think I’d have rather had both parents passed out on the couch.”

“Really?”

She nodded and stroked her fingers across her cheek before she realized it. “She was always pushing me to do better. When I was little, I loved living up to her expectations. As I got older, it was harder to do. A bad grade and she’d pop me across the cheek. Not hard enough to bruise or even swell. Give it ten minutes and there was no sign at all. She’d yell at me for doing a shitty job and tell me to spend more time studying and less time thinking about boys.”

She blinked back tears she didn’t want, but they flooded to her eyes anyway. She dipped underwater to wipe her face clear. It’d been years since she talked about any of this. Back then it was all so fresh and poured out of her with fisted hands and a hot temper. Now she didn’t know, but the cramping ache in her chest got easier with each word she unloaded.

“I’m sorry, Flora. I can’t imagine what that’s like, to be completely on your own. My brothers and mom may have lived far away at times, but I knew I could always call them for anything.”

She sighed. “It was lonely. I had friends, but none of them really knew what was going on.”

“What happened to make your mom kick you out?”

“My uncle made a pass one day. An unmistakable pass.” She closed her eyes, still able to feel his rough fingertips scraping down her naked arm, back up and the way the spaghetti strap had fallen off her shoulder. That shirt had been a favorite. So soft and comfortable. That day it had been tight and scratchy. “Dad happened to have been on his well-worn path from the bathroom to the couch when it happened. He was furious. It was the only thing he did for me as a dad that I can remember. Mom came home, dad told her what happened and that he didn’t want his brother back in the house. Dad drunkenly crashed on the couch later. The moment he passed out, mom shoved that wallet with twenties in it and the keys in my hand and told me to get out. Didn’t even give me time to pack.”

“Jesus.”

She kept drawing on the concrete. “It was for the best, in the end. I got to Apple Trail, found Tonya and Gretchen. I made something of myself.” She pointed at her house and just seeing it made her smile. “When I started plumbing, I was able to buy my own home.”

“You’ve never heard from them again?”

She shook her head. “Dad died a couple of years later. Liver had all it could stand. I only know because I got notice of his Will. When I was thirteen, he’d noted in the Will that I was to have the truck mom had given me. That was it.”

His hand cupped her shoulder. “I don’t know what to say. That’s horrible, Flora, and no one should have to live like that.”

She turned into him. In all his warmth and strength and through all those muscles, there was also tender and softness and she snuggled against him. That same heart that had been exposed at the hospital out of worry over his brother. He was tough and strong, but there was this too. Another piece of him that she wanted and craved more.

“There’s nothing to say. I am who I am because of them, but I’m stronger for it. It was a long time ago and not part of my life anymore.” His arms wrapped her up, not too tight, not too loose. Just safe contentment. The only person to really, truly give it to her outside of Gretchen and Tonya. With Jacob though, it was different. This silent way about him. It was hard to define.

A hard rock that plopped in the center of her life. One she knew she should be pushing away, but just couldn’t quite manage it. He was such a risk and it’d been so long since she’d taken a risk. If she’d ever taken one at all. She’d always been so good about going and doing for herself. Slipping through the cracks when necessary or sticking to her guns when she needed. This thing with Jacob was more than just herself.

She could only go fifty percent and if she took the risk, would he return it and be there with her? She didn’t know. Didn’t know how to find out the answer.