Beautifully Used (The Beaumont Brothers Book 2) (4 page)

Chapter 5

The bachelor part
y turned out to be perfect. The bar was packed. I think every guy in Turtle Lake showed up for at least a little while to wish Jackson farewell from the single world. We’d closed the bar to the public, making it men only, except for the women I’d hired to dance. They’d done a decent job too, and after much coaxing from everyone and several shots of Jägermeister, Jackson accepted a lap dance from Jayda, a beauty I’d had my eye on for about two weeks. Just one of the reasons why I’d hired her.

Another one bites the dust, as the
‘holy grail’, aka our illustrious young mayor, Tom Grail, kept singing in an out of tune, messed up, slipshod way most of the night, until he finally passed out on the sofa in the office. Jackson managed to get just as drunk and slurred about how much he loved Lena. Repeatedly. My brother had it bad. But even I had to admit, Lena was a special find and I was happy for them.

I only hoped their love never faded the way I knew it could
, maybe even would. I didn’t know. It wasn’t something I enjoyed thinking about as Beth’s pretty face flashed before my mind’s eye. I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing my finger and thumb over them to clear the image. Better to just live in the moment and lust the one you’re with, no chance of heartbreaks with that outlook. It wasn’t so much that I thought about Beth anymore. What she had done was unthinkable, and I would never forgive her or myself for letting it happen. But I had forgiven her for what she’d done before. Only she couldn’t forgive herself. Beth and I had been together a long time. We went to high school together. I knew her better than I knew myself. At least I thought I had, until that day.

Now
, I won’t allow myself to get that close to anyone ever again.

As I watched Jackson sit there, pretending to enjoy the
hottie gyrating on his lap, I downed the shot of Jäger Doc handed me. I’d been holding back on drinking to make sure everything went smoothly, but my sour mood needed a serious ‘tude adjustment.

Jackson couldn’t have asked for a better bachelor party. Well, maybe a trip to Vegas would have been fun, but then not everyone had the funds to get there
. Plus, Derrick, our other bartender would have had to stay home to tend to the bar, and I know Jackson wanted him to be included in the celebration, even if he was still behind the bar. Well, a few of us were tonight, actually. I think I even remember seeing Doc back there pouring for a while.

I’d hired three girls to come and dance
, and I thought I might hook up with Jayda or one of them later, just to show my appreciation. They were all dressed in a lot of lace, garters, and form-fitting bustiers, building up their lovely breasts. The problem was, for some reason, I didn’t want to be with anyone tonight. Until my mind flipped to g-strings made of pearls, sexy long dark hair, and pink shimmery lips. Why did Gabrielle’s presence in my house bother me so much? She’d made herself very clear over a year ago that she didn’t want anything to do with me, so why would the fact that she would be spending the next two weeks sleeping in the room right next to mine have any influence on my desire to be with one of these chicks? I didn’t need to bring them to my house. They all had homes of their own, and I’m sure any one of them would be more than excited to show not only their homes, but a little piece of themselves off to me.

Except
Gabrielle was staying at my house and, damn it, I wanted to sleep in my own bed tonight, in my own room. No, I wouldn’t be bringing one of these chicks home with me. So what if I was alone? I could handle it. I’ve slept alone before. I wasn’t five years old and afraid of the dark for Christ’s sake. I didn’t need a companion every night. I shrugged my shoulders at my thoughts and gave Jackson a salute with my empty glass. The idea of Gabrielle being at my house was getting under my skin. She was going to be sleeping at my house for the next two weeks helping Lena prepare for the wedding. God, how would I ever survive it?

Chapter 6

I tiptoed into the kitchen
, remembering to stay very quiet considering Jackson’s inebriated state last night. I’d be very surprised if he didn’t wake up with a huge headache. He must have had a blast though. Lena and I had stayed up doing a little drinking ourselves, sharing some memories and just being girls talking about the wedding and decorations. It was fun and reminded me of the times we’d spent before she’d met Troy. We were both still up when Brodie and Jackson had come home. Brodie and Lena’d had to carry Jackson to bed, which from everything Lena told me about her fiancé took me completely by surprise. I thought he’d stay somewhat sober, but then again, he had Brodie and Doc to influence him. Lena held him up with her shoulder under one of his arms and Brodie under the other. I trailed behind just for moral support, listening to Jackson slur about how much he loved Lena, and swearing that he didn’t do anything bad at the party. Lena gave Brodie a questioning look as she giggled. I had to admit, I was surprised to see Brodie helping his very drunk brother to bed. The weirdest part of that middle-of-the-night encounter, Brodie seemed perfectly sober, and I certainly didn’t expect him to come home alone without a girl hanging from his arm. From what Lena had told me, I thought for sure he’d leave after helping Jackson to bed. I think Lena was just as shocked as I was when he said goodnight and went into his room, shutting the door. I thought maybe he would come out a little while later and leave, but I didn’t hear his door open at all, not that I was listening. Well, maybe a little.

A
s much as I didn’t like the way Brodie had treated me the last time I was here, there was still a part of me that wished he’d tried to get to know me, even after I’d turned him down. I might have liked him if he’d taken his time and showed me some respect. Maybe gotten to know me a little before groping my breasts. It wasn’t even a seduction. He acted more like a Neanderthal taking whatever woman he wanted, any time he wanted. Instead of trying again, he did the complete opposite and never spoke another word to me the entire time I was here. I suppose the slap was a bit harsh, but at the time, I thought he deserved it. I didn’t know him, and he didn’t know me. For him to just assume I wanted to have sex with him really ticked me off. I guess I deserved the cold shoulder I got from him now. Maybe he thought I wasn’t worth the trouble if sex was all he wanted.

Once I got to bed, it didn’t take long for me to fall asleep. By all rights, I should have been asleep by nine, considering
that I hadn’t slept at all the night before. How I made it until three in the morning was baffling.

I’d never been able to sleep once the sun hit my eyes
, and this morning was no exception. Not knowing the sun would be blasting in so early, I hadn’t thought to close the blinds last night. I peeked at the time on my phone to find it already ten-fifteen, not all that early. I turned over and tried pulling the pillow over my head, but it was too hot so I got up.

As I came into the kitchen, my stomach flipped at the sight of Brodie sitting at the large island in the center of the kitchen
, his very fine bare chest looming out in the open showing off some very interesting tattoos on his chest and shoulder. One of the ones on his chest was a golden guitar, caressed by a bunch of red roses with music notes around it. It was beautiful but not as beautiful as the dragon etched in multiple shades of turquoise, reds, and blues on the other side. There was another tattoo on his chest, a saying that I couldn’t make out because it was in a different language, but the one on his shoulder was a G clef with the words “Music is what feelings sound like” scrolled in a circle around it. His dark hair was damp, and he’d brushed it straight back, tucking the sides behind his ears. The wetness took away the auburn hue his hair usually had. He must have just gotten out of the shower. He sat hunched over a bowl of something that looked like mostly strawberries, but I realized, as I noticed the box of granola on the counter, that there must be some cereal and milk somewhere under all that delicious looking red. He glanced up at me, coffee cup half way to his lips. He sort of smiled, I think.

“Good morning
,” I managed, not sure if he would even return the greeting.

“Morning,” he said and sipped his coffee.

I stepped over to the granite counter and pulled a mug down from the cupboard. This kitchen had everything. A matching center island took up the middle, complete with a little vegetable sink and storage cupboards under it, yet big enough for four people to sit at comfortably while still leaving room for someone to do some food prep. Pouring coffee into the cup, I decided I’d try to have a civilized conversation with Brodie. “Is Jackson going to be okay?”

“Sure, I imagine it might take him the entire day
.” He laughed and spooned a strawberry into his mouth. He chewed it and swallowed, then added, “But he’ll recover. He doesn’t usually drink that much, so his system wasn’t ready for the type of abuse he gave it last night.”

“Why do guys do that?
”

“Party?”

“Not just party, but party like it’s the last time they’ll ever get to. Just because he’s getting married doesn’t mean he can’t still hang with his friends.”

He stared at me for a few seconds, then said, “
I guess, not all women think like that.”

“Well, he wants to marry Lena, right?
”

“Yeah, I’m positive.”

“Then why did he need to get so drunk?”

He shrugged. “Tradition, I guess.”

“Well, it’s a stupid one if you ask me.”

Lena came walking in just then. “Hey
, you two. I’m going to need some help today. We don’t have tables ordered yet and Jackson and I were supposed to go pick out what we wanted for the table decorations later, but he’s in no shape to go anywhere. What did you do to him last night, Brodie?”

“Me? I didn’t
force-feed him those drinks, you know. He was doing fine until everyone started buying him drinks. Knowing Jackson, he probably drank them so he wouldn’t hurt anyone’s feelings by not accepting their offer.”

“
Yeah, that sounds like him.”

“It was too late by
the time I even realized he was smashed. He stopped drinking though, after the ah … well, never mind, that’s privileged information.”

Lena rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to know anyway. I have complete trust in Jackson.”

Brodie laughed. “You don’t have anything to worry about, little sis.”

“I think I like that.”

“What? The nothing to worry about or the little sis?” he asked.

“
Both.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

Brodie glanced at me briefly, before averting his eyes back to his bowl of strawberries.

“Anyway, since Jackson needs to sleep it off, can you take Gabby into town to look for table decorations for me?”

“Wouldn’t it be better if I go order the tables?” Brodie asked. “I don’t know anything about decorations.”

“Gabby knows what I like, and you know what Jackson likes, so I’m sure whatever you two pick out will be awesome. I’d go, but I need to meet with the photographer, which is right next door to the place where we are renting the tables, so it makes sense for me to go for them. Oh, and Gabby, I’ll need you to go with me tomorrow when I pick up my dress. Your dress is supposed to be in and ready for you to try on.”

“I can do that,” I said and looked at Brodie, wondering if he was going to brood about having to take me across town today
, or if he would be civilized and maybe try to hold a conversation with me. It would be nice if we could get along and try to get to know each other better, considering we’ll be forced to spend so much time together over the next couple of weeks.

“Brodie?” Lena prompted him for an answer and he raised his eyes from his cereal bowl.

As his eyes met mine, he shrugged. “Yeah, whatever.”

Great. This was going to be such a fun day
. Not. I took my coffee and headed to the room I’d slept in to shower and change for my unexpected, possibly even torturous excursion with Brodie.

Chapter 7

I sat in the truck waiting for Gabrielle to come out. It was already
eleven o’clock, and I wanted to get this over with. I didn’t mind doing my brother’s last minute wedding preparations. I just didn’t like the idea of spending the next several hours with a girl who clearly didn’t want to be around me or want to have anything to do with me.

It felt good to be out and away from the bar for
a change though, and the weather was perfect; a nice eighty degrees, and not a cloud in the sky. It would no doubt get into the high nineties by noon though, and then we’d be sweating our balls off, well me anyway. I’d called Derrick to make sure he had the bar all covered. Luckily, he hadn’t had too much to drink last night either knowing he was opening the bar this morning. I think it’s time we hired another bartender, these hours were beginning to wear me out. I was only twenty-two, and some mornings I felt like thirty. I was tired of working weekends, and being available every weekday morning was getting old, too. It was Jackson’s bar, he was the “official” owner, but I’d agreed to run it for him when I talked him into moving back here after our uncle left us the bar and the house. At first, Jackson didn’t want anything to do with the bar. But our pathetic dream of being heroes in the private detective business sort of went by the wayside. My uncle had left the house to me, but I considered it Jackson’s too. We’d spent most of our childhood in that house since we had lived just around the corner. My mom, professing loneliness, had moved to San Francisco to be close to her sister when Jackson and I had lived in the city. Now that we’re back here, she wishes she’d stayed put. But San Francisco is only about four hours away, and we see her several times a year.

A glint of shimmer caught my eye as Gabrielle opened the
passenger door to the truck. She pulled herself up and plopped down on the seat. She had on a bright pink tank top and some of those pants that stopped just below the knee. They were tight denim and looked sexy as hell on her. It was the long, dangling necklace she wore that must have been shimmering from the sunlight. She sat back and buckled her seatbelt. Tilting her sunglasses up, revealing her beautiful brown eyes, she smiled. “Let’s go.”

I put the truck in gear and headed out
of the driveway.

“How long does it take to get to
Fall River?” she asked.

“Fall River
Valley
,” I corrected her, feeling a little too smug for my own good. It’s a common mistake a lot of people make.

“Fall River
Valley
, then.”

“
About twenty minutes, but we need to go into Redding.”

“
Redding? Wow. That’s the closest store?”

“It
’s where the stores are that are on Lena’s list.”

“Wow, you guys do live in the boonies.”

“It’s not that far. Besides, who wants a bunch of department stores and the traffic they’d bring to our town? It would have been nice to know we’d need to head back to Redding yesterday when I picked you up from the airport though, could have saved on some gas.”

My pragmatic inference
only resulted in alienating her from any possibility of a decent conversation as silence ensued between us. I stole a glance at her out of the corner of my eye. She sat staring out the window, her elbow on the door with her chin in her hand.

I wanted to reach out and touch her hair
, run my fingers down through the long strands flowing down her arm all the way to the seat, smooth, dark, and silky.

It pissed me off that we’d had such a fucked up beginning last year
. I should never have tried to seduce her so soon. She owed me an apology for the slap though. A simple “no” would have sufficed.

“
I think it’s time to clear the air. You know, this would be a hell of a lot easier if you apologized,” I suddenly blurted out loud, giving her a quick glance.

“What?” Her head snapped up and she glared at me.

I turned my attention back to the road and kept my eyes straight ahead. “I said, this time we have to spend together would be a hell of a lot easier if you stepped down from that high horse you’re sitting on and apologized for slapping me just for trying to kiss you last year.”

“
Trying to kiss me? You mean for groping my breasts.”

I shrugged.
“Whatever.” I suppose I did grope her a bit.

“I don’t think I owe you an apology,” she said, crossing her arms defiantly over her chest. “You should be apologizing to me.”

“You hit me when a simple “no” would have worked just fine.” Silence filled the air once again as she went back to staring out the window. I couldn’t take it any longer. One of us had to give in or we were doomed to spend a painstakingly tense-filled two weeks together. Was she so thickheaded that she couldn’t see that?

“Okay, I’m sorry I touched your breast
.” I caved.
But I’m not sorry I kissed you
, I thought as I remembered how soft her lips had been against mine, which was no easy feat, considering how long ago it was and how brief an act it had been.

She sighed and I felt her eyes on me. “Thanks.”

“What?” I couldn’t believe what she just said. “Thanks? That’s all I get?”

She sighed again, even more heavily. “Okay,
I’m sorry I slapped you.”

I smiled. I couldn’t help it. Those five little words that seemed so hard for her to say gave me a great amount of satisfaction, even though I had to practically beg for them
. I’m not sure they were honest, but they were there.

“I forgive you,” I said and waited.

“I forgive you, too,” she finally added.

“Maybe we should start over,” I suggested and stuck my hand out toward her. “Hi, I’m Brodie.”

She rolled her eyes, but took my hand and shook it. “Hi, Gabrielle.”

“Nice to meet you, Gabrielle.”

I studied the road as that uncomfortable quiet took over again. I decided it was going to be up to me to make this little adventure a more pleasant one. “So, Gabrielle, how’s life in San Diego?”

“Not bad.”

Jeez, this was like pulling teeth.
She wasn’t going to make it easy on me that was for sure.

“You, uh, moved down there for school
, right?”

“
Back down there. My parents are from there, but now that the semester is over and I have two years completed, I’m transferring to Chico State this fall.”

“That’s where I went.”

“How was it? I mean, I’ve heard stories of kids dying from too much partying and stuff. I was a little reluctant to go there at first, but they have a really good English department.”

“
I only went for one year. Then I joined the San Francisco PD.”

“
The police department?”

I nodded.

“I have a hard time picturing you as a cop, but then, I guess the shoe sort of fits.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, I’ve heard that cops sort of have a reputation for sleeping around. Not all, but some. It’s probably that whole superhero complex that makes them think they’re God’s gift to women.”

“Is that so?” I laughed

She shrugged.

“I see. And you think I sleep around a lot?

She gave me a sideways glance and smirked. “Uh, yeah.”

“I can’t help it if women throw themselves at me.
They use me, I use them. It’s a beautiful arrangement.”

“Brodie, I’m not a prude, but compared to you, I’m a virgin.”

“You are?” I said in a shocked mocking tone. Then I wanted to kick myself because maybe she was.

“I said, compared to you.
Besides, if I were, I wouldn’t tell you, so you can wipe that silly smirk right off your face.”

That was going to be difficult, but I gave
it my best shot and changed the subject. Sobering my expression a bit, I said, “Weren’t you camping around Turtle Lake with your boyfriend when you spotted Lena at the parade? I sort of remember that guy, Weezer, saying something like that.”

“I hate that I was the one to give her location away to that creep.”

“It wasn’t your fault. You had no idea what he had done to her.”

“I know, but she was
—is—a very good friend, and I would never have told him had I known. I just feel horrible about it.”

“I don’t think she holds it against you.”

She fell quiet again, most likely feeling guilty about Lena, and I felt like a heel for bringing the subject up. “So, you have a boyfriend,” I asked, trying to lighten the mood. Besides, I
was
curious about that.

“Not anymore,” she said softly and twisted her fingers together
. For some reason, my insides swelled with giddiness and excitement.

“You broke up?”
My voice cracked a bit, making me sound like an eager fourteen year old.

“Yeah.
”

“How come? Or is that top secret information?”

She sat silent for a moment, staring out the window as though she searched the air for the answers, and I thought, shit, maybe it was something she didn’t want to talk about, especially if he had dumped her.

“No, it’s not a secret.” She brushed a few stray hairs off her face
that the air conditioner in the truck kept blowing there. “He didn’t want to leave Oregon when I moved back to San Diego last year, so we decided it was better to just part ways. We weren’t all that serious to start with, and he did too many drugs for my taste.”

“Why’d you go camping with him then?
I mean if he did drugs and you didn’t like it.”

“I’d gone to appease my girlfriend. She sort of begged me to go because she wanted to be with her boyfriend
, and didn’t want to be the only girl in the group.”

I had a hard time keeping a straight face. I wanted to smile about her breaking up with her boyfriend.
I decided a change of subject might be a good idea. “Why English?”

“What?”

“Why are you majoring in English? I thought you were studying music.”

“I was.
Am. Music is my minor. But I love writing. I realized that when I tried to write a song and it turned into a short story instead. So, I decided to make English my major with music as my secondary.”

I wondered what sort of stories a girl like Gab
rielle might conjure up. Would they be sweet and innocent like she seemed to be or would a wild side come out on paper allowing her to be someone completely different? We rode in silence the rest of the way into town, my mind on the girl sitting beside me. I knew I’d blown my chances with her last year, but for some reason, I was still pleased as peach pie on a summer evening that she no longer had a boyfriend. I turned the truck into the parking lot, feeling a little better about being stuck with Gabrielle now that I knew a little more about her and we’d cleared the air. I didn’t know much, but I knew some. And that was a start.