Key To My Heart: Stay (3 page)

She drove to the nearest
convenience store, wondering if the clerk was going to call her
mother and tell her that she’d bought cigarettes. Sometimes it
really sucked living in a small town where everyone always thought
they knew your business. She lit a cigarette as she pulled out of
the parking lot, wondering what she was going to do with herself.
The cigarette tasted like shit, but once the nicotine hit her
bloodstream she almost let out a sigh of relief.

She drove to the park, and
parked her car, deciding she might as well get some exercise. She
wandered around the various trails and equipment, trying not to
smoke too much and trying most of all not to think. She didn’t want
to think about the fact that she didn’t know what she wanted to do
with her life. She didn’t like to think about the fact that she
wanted Garett either. She realized as she took a seat at a worn
picnic table that she was almost directly across the street from
Garett’s house and her face lit up like it was on fire.

She hadn’t been thinking
when she’d driven to the park that it was near Garett’s house. She
shielded her eyes from the glare of the morning sun and looked
across to the house. He was the only one of the Black boys that had
chosen to carry on in their father’s carpentry and remodeling
business, but with the state of his house, you couldn’t tell that
he was in the business at all.

He’d purchased the old
Collins house and it had been rundown when they were kids. It still
looked like it was falling apart, and Acasia had to wonder why
Garett had chosen to purchase that particular house when there were
more than enough houses in town for sale to choose from that were
in much better shape. Once you bought a house in the small town of
Clinton, it was hard to resell. There wasn’t much going for the
town of roughly 10,000, and many that had grown up there like
Acasia grew up dreaming of nothing more than getting as far away
from Clinton as possible.

But Garett had always been
different though. He’d always loved working with his father and had
always seemed like the natural one to take over the business.
Acasia shook her head at herself as she lit another cigarette,
feeling like a stalker, though in a way she supposed it was pretty
funny that her one track mind had led her to stop so close to
Garett’s house. She was headed back to her car when she happened to
glance over at the house. His truck had appeared in the driveway
when she wasn’t looking.

Before she could attempt to hide, he
called out to her. “Hello beautiful. Are you stalking
me?”

He had crossed the street to
her before she could even think of a response. He looked pointedly
at the cigarette in her hand. “I thought you’d quit. Didn’t you
promise your mama?”

“
Don’t lecture me Garett.
Why did you buy the old Collins place?”

He looked across the street at the old
house, and she could see in his eyes that he saw something
differently than what she saw when she looked at it. His eyes shone
when he turned back to her. “Have you seen pictures of what the
place used to look like? It was gorgeous. The perfect place to
raise a family.”

She raised an eyebrow. “A family
huh?”

“
Cas, don’t tell me that you
don’t want that someday.”

She shrugged, trying her best to come
off as nonchalant. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her
pulse was racing. She was sure it had something to do with the fact
that she’d been smoking again, but Garett’s closeness certainly
wasn’t helping either.

“
I guess. Maybe you’ll have
the house fixed up by the time you’re really ready to settle
down.”

“
It might not look like
much, but someday she’s gonna be the beauty that she once was. And
I’ll have free advertising for the business too.”

“
Yeah.”

“
You’ll have to let me show
you around one of these days.”

“
I’m not that easy
Garett.”

“
Ha ha Acasia. As if I’d
ever think that I could really talk you into my bed. Why do you
smoke?”

“
It calms me
down.”

“
And it reeks, makes your
teeth yellow, your breath stink, not to mention the fact that it
can kill you.”

“
I can read the warning
labels Gar. Shouldn’t you be getting back to work?”

“
Yes, I suppose I should.
I’ll miss seeing you at the diner tonight. Seeing you is the best
part of my day.”

She forced an eye roll, sure that she
was blushing. “Save it for a woman you actually can talk into your
bed.”

“
Bitch.”

“
Guilty as charged I’m
afraid. I’ll see you around Garett.”

“
Acasia.”

“
What?”

He looked at her. She felt
for a moment that he was trying to pick apart her brain. His eyes
were warm and full of promise. She wanted to reach out to him, but
instead she tore her gaze from him and turned away.

“
Never mind. I’ll see you
tomorrow night.”

And he walked away. She forced herself
not to turn around until she’d heard his truck start. She lit
another cigarette as she walked to her car, wondering how she was
going to get herself out of the mess that her life had
become.

Garett

Garett Black was in love and it was
threatening to drive him crazy. Acasia Brown had always been
beautiful, and he’d always appreciated that beauty. After he had
given up on catching the eye of Acasia’s sister Demi when they were
teenagers, he had turned his attention to Acasia. She had been so
depressed when Gavin had broken up with her that he’d known he had
to do something.

So he’d talked her into teaching him to
French kiss. He’d already known how because his first girlfriend
had been older, older than Gavin even, a secret he had managed to
keep from everyone. He didn’t think his parents would appreciate
the fact that he had lost his virginity at fourteen to an older
woman, but he had never looked at it as a bad thing. His body had
certainly been ready to do something about his raging
hormones.

He had woken up the night Gavin had
left town, and had known his brother was leaving. He’d snuck down
the hall and seen his brother throwing clothes into a beat up old
duffel bag that had once belonged to their father. He’d wanted to
beg Gavin to take him with him, but besides the fact that his
brother would have obviously refused him, he’d always known that he
was the family’s last chance at keeping Black and Sons Carpentry
and Remodeling in the family. He couldn’t let his parents down.
They had given their boys a good life, and Garett had always felt
the need to return the favor in some way.

Gavin had looked strange that night, in
a panic almost. Garett had always known that he was running away
from something. Gavin had seemed fearless until then, never taking
anything seriously. At first Garrett had thought that Gavin was
scared of what he felt for Acasia and had broken up with her
because he was afraid he would be taken down by a woman.

Garett would always remember his
brother boasting that he would never be brought to his knees by a
woman. Jay had laughed and made a dirty comment, but Garett had
stayed silent, knowing even then that Gavin was afraid to fall in
love. He thought that it had something to do with the fact that
their parents had almost split up when Gavin was quite young, and
no one’s marriage seemed stronger from the outside looking in than
his parents’, except maybe Jay and Nikki’s.

It was strange to think that he and Jay
might not exist if their parents would have made a permanent split,
but his mother had been feeling sentimental one night, he’d been
the only one left living at home by then and she had opened up to
him about her affair. The news had stunned him, but realizing that
his parents were human hadn’t stopped him from wanting to marry and
have children himself someday. He knew that even Jay and Nikki had
problems now and then, though they’d been together so long and
seemed so damned perfect together that he, like everyone else in
their families, was sure that Jay and Nikki were the last people
you’d ever see in divorce court. They’d recently had a little girl
and she was so damned beautiful that even looking at pictures of
her made Garett’s heart ache.

Jay didn’t mind admitting that he was
sensitive. He looked softer than Gavin and Garett, his facial
features more like their mother than their father; and had always
been teased about it. But Jay had always been confident in his
skin, and Garett was sure that Nikki’s devotion helped. If he’d had
a beautiful woman that had loved him since he was thirteen years
old, he was sure he’d be pretty damned confident in his manhood
too.

While Garett wasn’t much like Gavin in
all reality, he sometimes wished he was. Even if his older brother
was afraid to fall in love, he still seemed invulnerable. He lived
his life the way he wanted without caring what anyone else thought
of him. Garett had always been concerned with what people thought
of him, especially his father.

His father had been his idol even more
than Gavin, and Garett couldn’t imagine a better man than his
father to model himself after. Jed Black had fought for the woman
that he loved and had won her back successfully. Garett was ready
to fight for the woman he loved, but the only person he would be
fighting at the moment would be her.

He had no idea how Acasia felt about
him. When he thought back to the day he had talked her into French
kissing, he thought that something had happened between them that
would forever change the way she viewed him. She may have been a
little tipsy when they’d kissed, but he had known from the look on
her face when she’d pulled away from him that she had enjoyed it.
She had looked at him, an almost astonished look on her face, as if
she no longer viewed him just as Gavin’s little brother, but as a
man himself, or at least a boy on his way to becoming a
man.

Kissing Acasia had been amazing. He had
imagined over and over again after what making love to her would be
like, sure that she would eventually come to him. He’d been so
damned nervous the rest of that summer, preparing himself for a
life changing moment. He had known that making love to Acasia would
change his life even then. But of course she hadn’t come to him,
and he’d had to give up on his dreams of being with her after she’d
left for college, only returning home during holidays and important
events, like when her father had died.

Elden Brown had been a father figure
for the Black boys, still a hard man, but more understanding than
Jed Black, and certainly easier to talk to. Garett had confessed
both his feelings for Demi and his feelings for Acasia to their
father. Elden had always been convinced that his daughters would
end up with his old friend’s sons and the idea had never bothered
him. He’d seemed to understand Gavin better than almost anyone, and
even his youngest daughter’s feelings for Gavin hadn’t bothered
him. He had seemed to see the man that Gavin could be, not the one
that he chose to be, and he’d had faith in Gavin long after
everyone else had already lost it. Garett still missed Elden, and
was sure that if anyone could tell him how Acasia felt about him
besides her, it would have been her father.

He knew that he was bugging the shit
out of Gavin, calling him all the time, trying to dissect every
conversation he’d had with Acasia. Gavin seemed convinced that
Acasia wanted him too, and wasn’t even trying very successfully to
hide it, but Garett still wasn’t sure. Acasia was a mystery to him.
Every time he’d been sure that she wanted him too, she’d say or do
something that left him wondering again and he’d lose the nerve to
ask her out.

Seeing her was the best part of his
day. She was so beautiful that he could hardly stand to look at
her. He knew that she probably would have preferred him to be
taller like Jay or Gavin since she was tall herself and built
bigger than her sisters, but he saw the vulnerability in Acasia. He
knew that she was strong, but he saw the softness too. He had felt
it the day he’d kissed her.

He supposed her inhibitions had been
down since she’d been drinking, but she had given herself to him
completely that day. She had been his for the brief moments that
their mouths had been joined and it had been the best feeling in
the world. It had had something to do with his ego back then,
knowing that he’d had her since she’d been Gavin’s girlfriend and
she was older and so fucking beautiful, but now it told him that
really being with her would be even more incredible. He had
wondered what it would be like to make love to her for so long that
when he finally did he couldn’t imagine how wonderful it would
be.

He missed her. Their brief conversation
in the park hadn’t been enough for him and he was tempted to drive
by her house to try to catch a glimpse of her. But more and more
lately he’d sensed that she wanted to run away from him and he
didn’t want to pressure her, afraid that he would lose her. He
wondered if he should lay off some with his flirting, but he wanted
her to know how beautiful he thought she was and didn’t know any
other way to tell her without sounding like a complete
idiot.

He sighed as he popped the top of a
beer, looking around his house. There was a lot of work that needed
to be done, and he supposed that he should put more time and effort
into fixing the house up than torturing himself and his brother,
wondering how Acasia felt about him. He vowed to try to keep his
mind off of her, but he had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be
easy. The blue of her eyes haunted his dreams, and he had never
forgotten the taste of her lips.