CRAVE: A Small Town Menage Romance (Reckless Falls Book 4) Page 26

  But also awesome.

  I looked down at my coffee and grinned a private grin, and I swear I could feel both Cal and Gray looking at me, just by the way my skin heated up.

  My father chose that moment to walk back into the kitchen, his newspaper folded under his arm. "Morning boys," he grumbled.

  Both Cal and Gray mumbled polite hellos, but I was too busy burning up inside to be able to look up and see what their faces actually looked like.

  My father moved around the island to slide his arm around my mother's waist and pulled her close. "You boys will be at the vow renewal later, right?" he asked.

  "Wouldn't miss it," Cal said.

  "Absolutely," Gray said.

  "And I don't really have a choice do I?" Rett interjected.

  My father chose to ignore that. Instead, I heard him kiss my mother's cheek and her soft little coo. "I'd marry you all over again," I heard my dad murmur softly.

  It was probably supposed to be a private moment but there was no privacy in this house. I looked up at my brother, who wrinkled his nose and stuck out his tongue like he was going to retch. Cal laughed and Gray started coughing into his hand. Suddenly all four of us were kids again, laughing about being grossed out by my parents' affection and for just one second, I felt like I could be normal again.

  But only for a second.

  *****

  The church was decorated for Christmas still. The giant tree covered in paper stars made by the Sunday school, and a beautiful wreath hung from the cross at the front of the sacristy. Underneath it, my mother, dressed in white pantsuit stood holding my father's hands as he fished a pair of newly blessed rings from the pocket of his suit.

  I was trying my hardest to pay attention to what they were saying, to focus on my mother's happy face, and my father's eyes as they glimmered while he blinked away tears and dabbed at them with his fingers. It was a beautiful, special moment, the start of another new year after thirty years together. My parents' marriage was rock solid and happy and I was eternally grateful for that and I should remember the moment forever.

  But all I could think of was the way I was sandwiched in between Cal and Gray again.

  As the priest spoke, Cal's hand wandered from his lap over to rest on my upper thigh. The heat of his fingers blazed upward, and my pussy, still throbbing and sore from — shit —— his cock last night...and — holy fuck —— Gray's this morning... immediately started up a pulse like some kind of Marimba band.

  His hand slid higher, and my breath came shorter. Gray, for his part, shifted in the pew like he was uncomfortable, then reached up to stretch and casually leaned his arm behind me.

  I felt like I was going to lose my mind.

  Here we were, in a church, under the watchful eye of as many relatives as my parents could muster, and Cal's hand was sneaking higher and higher, closer and closer to that place between my legs. Gray brushed his hand across my neck, sending my hair swinging and igniting goosebumps down my spine. Everyone was certain to see that. From the end of the pew, I felt, rather than saw, Rett lean over and stare at us, but I couldn't meet his eyes.

  I was leaving tomorrow, and that was the best thing. I was leaving tomorrow and it couldn't come fast enough.

  When the ceremony was finally over, I was the first to jump to my feet and start gathering my things.

  Cal stood up immediately and helped me arrange my coat around my shoulders at the same time he bent to whisper in my ear. "Are you okay?" he asked.

  "I don't know, I'm not sure," I babbled.

  "Do you want me to walk you out?" Cal asked.

  "Do you need me to help you find the bathroom?" Gray piped up.

  "No!" I yelped, drawing several scandalized stares from my relatives. I ducked my head then looked up again at both of them. I tried to look at Cal's blue eyes, but my gaze kept resting on his lips, and Gray's hand was sliding up my back, drawing heat with the barest of touches and fuck....

  "Do you regret what happened with us?" Gray asked softly.

  I pressed my lips together and tossed my hair behind my shoulder. I had to get control of the situation. I had to get control of myself before I fell off into some kind of precipice that I couldn't climb out of. "No, I don't regret it," I said tightly, keeping my voice low. "But it's a good thing I'm leaving, right?"

  Cal looked at me sharply. "You think so?"

  I swallowed and then swallowed again, but I couldn't get around the lump in my throat. "Well yeah," I said, trying for casual but only sounding desperate. "I mean, we sure made it awkward, huh? I mean God, what was I thinking? Coming back to my hometown only to have a one night stand?"

  "One night stand?" Cal growled.

  I looked at him and faltered. "Well... yeah?"

  "That's what that was you?" Gray whispered.

  I lifted my chin. "It was fun, but it was a fling, right? Something to try. So you can cross it off your bucket list." I winced again. "I have to go," I said to them both. "I have to go congratulate my parents." And I turned to get away from them before I lost my goddamned mind...

  ...again.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Callum

  "If you don't stop fiddling with your tie I'm going to choke you with it," I grumbled.

  Gray looked startled for a moment and let his hands drop back to his lap. But soon enough, they started wandering back up to the solid gray necktie that I loaned him, and started twisting the knot again.

  I sighed and leaned back in the booth. "Dude, you're going to do fine," I finally said.

  Gray was looking off into the middle distance like he didn't hear me. "It's weird," he said carefully, like he was forming the words at the same time as the thought. "You start to buy into the whole, 'your worth is tied up with your job’ bullshit. I mean, it's only been two months, but look, I couldn't pay rent, I had to start depending on you..."

  "Stop it, stop right there." I held up my hand. "You're fine. And any company would be lucky to have you."

  Gray shot me a withering glance. "Well, we both know that's a lie."

  "Right. I'm only trying to get you to stop talking about your feelings," I said. "You're a damned old woman sometimes."

  Gray snorted, but that faraway look in his eyes was gone and that was all that mattered. His father had spent his whole childhood telling him he was a piece of shit so I knew that voice was in his head. The worst thing was when he started to listen to it. "Touché, you ornery bastard," Gray laughed. "I'll stop talking and save it for my journal."

  "With the fuzzy pink cover."

  "Oh that one's full of my poetry already," he grinned. "This new one has unicorns on it."

  I chuckled and leaned forward, glancing over the menu again before closing it. We were back to giving each other shit, so that was all fine and normal. What wasn't normal was the thing we were strenuously avoiding talking about.

  Harper.

  I wasn't about to bring that whole thing up now, though. Not right before he had his interview. He'd been prepping for it for weeks now, making me quiz him on questions like what were his biggest strengths, and his biggest weaknesses, all that corporate bullshit. It was the kind of stuff that made me so glad I owned my own business and didn't have to deal with that. Yeah sure, I had a problem client sometimes, but it was my prerogative whether or not I got to fire them.

  I couldn't imagine Gray working in an office. He'd always been more of a hands-on guy, and he genuinely loved his job at Melton's. It wasn't his fault that the old man finally closed up shop after all those years, just when Gray was starting to get some skills under his belt.

  It was always hard to find work around here. Especially stuff that wasn't seasonal. I thought he'd end up going back to working in his father's farm there for a minute, but then he'd run into Carla Claymore from the Sweet Shoppe and she'd mentioned needing someone to help her with advertising. It was a weirdly good fit for him, not only because he could eat his weight in cake and not gain an ounce, but also because, as unpolished a
s he was, he was damn good at making you like him. I was proud of him for landing the interview. Maybe the dude was finally growing up.

  Fat chance, I thought as I looked down and saw that he was methodically scrunching up the wrapper of his straw and dropping water on it so it looked like a winding snake.

  "More coffee, guys?"

  I looked up to see Charlie, the hostess here at Bob and Lou's. The bags under her eyes were so dark she looked like she'd been bruised. "Nah, we're good," I told her. "Thanks sweetheart," I said, resolving to leave an extra twenty in her tip.

  "How's the baby?" Gray piped up.

  I shook my head, feeling like an asshole. I'd looked at her and thought she looked tired. But Gray made the leap that it probably had something to do with the four-month old she was raising alone. Sometimes I'm a dense motherfucker.

  "He's cute when he sleeps," Charlie sighed, reaching over to pour more coffee into my cup, even though I hadn't asked for it. "When he sleeps."

  "How old is he? Four months right?"

  She nodded tiredly.

  "I hear that's the worst time for sleep, they regress or something like that, I don't know. It'll get better, I swear."

  Charlie looked at Gray and sort of blinked at him like he'd suddenly materialized in front of her. "Thanks," she said. "Everyone tells me that it's only going to get worse."

  "You can't believe that. That's the kind of thinking that leads you to dark places," he said emphatically.

  "Yeah, I've been there," Charlie muttered and then looked up startled, and rushed off without saying goodbye.

  "That chick has been dealt a rough hand," Gray declared.

  I looked down at my plate. Here he'd been dealt a pretty rough hand himself, but he was concerned with someone else. That was why doing things like taking him in, driving him around, and taking him out for breakfast before his big interview were all easy for me to do.

  I took another sip of my coffee and then looked up at the front entrance, where there was some sort of commotion going on. A woman bustled her way in, taking up too much room with a big carry-on suitcase.

  "Harper?" I barked out, and splashed coffee right into my lap. Gray whipped around, following my gaze. "What the fuck?"

  We both leaped to our feet and rushed to her. She had her back to us and was ordering at the to-go counter. Gray reached her first.

  "Is that a suitcase?" he said by way of hello.

  Harper whipped around, looking like a trapped animal. And suddenly I realized something. "Were you really going to leave without saying goodbye?" I said, heart sinking.

  She bit her lip, and looked around guiltily. She dropped her voice. "Guys. Please..."

  "Please what? Are you on your way to the airport, right now?" What's with the suitcase?" Gray said, still fixated on the giant piece of luggage on the floor.

  She sighed. "Yeah, I have to go to the airport."

  "So you were going to leave without saying goodbye," I realized.

  She looked up and blinked, her eyes glimmering. "It was just, it was fun, it was great, it was just you know a one night stand type of thing. You got your lives, I've got mine, and I have to get back..."

  "You're just trying to convince yourself that," Gray growled.

  I stepped forward. "We're not just some guys, Harper. I thought you knew that.

  Her eyes spilled over and suddenly two tears tracked down her cheeks. "I knew that. I do know that," she said, and she sounded like she was choking on the words. "That's why I have to go."

  "When is your flight?" Gray interjected.

  "I fly out at 3:20, but it's a two-hour drive and I have to get through security and all that..." she babbled.

  Gray looked at me. "Let us drive you up there," he said

  I looked at him startled. "What about your interview?" I hissed.

  Gray looked at me, looked at Harper, then back at me again. "This more important," he finally said.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Grayson

  Since I am almost a gentleman, I offered Harper the passenger seat, and settled for folding myself nearly in half to fit in the back of Cal's pick up. I hated that I had to sit back here, like some kind of fucking third wheel in all of this, but once I realized that I could brush Harper's hair back from her neck, and kiss her shoulder as she talked, I felt much better.

  "It's just, I have to get back," she said, and I couldn't help but hate the way her hands fluttered in her lap. I hadn't seen that nervous tic of hers the whole time she'd been home, but now that we were on our way to the airport, she was back at it again, that same folding and twisting and turning of her fingers that she did whenever she fretted about something. Back, before...all this, I used to wish that I could grab her hand and kiss them still, and even though I knew I could now, I just couldn't quite reach from back here. Goddammit.

  "I have to get back, it was actually a really big risk coming here in the first place."

  "How the hell was it a risk?" Cal said angrily. Harper and I both turned to stare at him. "What?" he fumed, glancing at us. "You came home for the holidays. How the hell is that a risk?"

  "Well," Harper said, lifting her chin a little bit. "Literally the second I was about to leave, my agent came up to me and informed me that we were entering talks. My book is being optioned by the Children's Television Network."

  "Hey..." Cal said, sort of trailing off at the end.

  "You watch the Children's Television Network?" I teased. "You sound impressed"

  "Don't be an ass. My sister's school kids are like, addicted to that channel."

  Harper nodded. "Right. They're a big fucking deal. And they are in talks not only for a ten show season to start, but also to work with a toy company on licensing the characters from my book."

  "Wow," I heard myself say. There was this weird, sort of gliding sensation, where two realities existed simultaneously. Harper, the girl next door, the girl I'd always love to tease, the one I’d pined for. And Harper, this confident woman in front of me, who, unbeknownst to me, was rising to the very top of her career, very, very fast. I shook my head as if to resolve the sudden double vision.

  But she was still the same woman. A very, very impressive woman.

  "So that's cool," Cal said. He still sounded pissed off though.

  "I know," Harper said. "I should've stayed. I should have been on the phone, marketing, making contacts and charming them with my winning personality and all that..." She trailed off into a hysterical laugh. "But I really wanted to come home and just take a break from it all for one second and now I'm afraid that I torpedoed my chances of achieving all the stuff I've been working toward."

  "I'm sure you didn't," I said reassuringly.

  She twisted in her seat to look back at me. "You say that, but my agent is saying something different. I sort of went a little the dark over the holidays, radio silence is really bad in this industry. You have to keep engagement up, always new content, all this crap that I just feel so bogged down by." She looked at me imploringly. "It was really nice to kind of escape from all that, but I need to stop hiding. If I'm going to achieve any of these goals, I need to be there. In New York City. I need to be there in the meetings, letting people meet me, shaking hands and smiling and all that shit."

  I sat back, not knowing what to say. My knee was jammed into the back of her seat, my other braced against the back of Cal's seat, and a little tiny nudge of claustrophobia was starting to close in. She was right. All the stuff she'd been working for was finally happening. All the stuff I hadn't realized she'd been doing behind the scenes to achieve the success she had was finally coming to fruition. It would be pretty freaking terrible to keep her at home. As appealing as it was to think of her forever chained to my bed — or... our bed... or whatever the hell was going on — I couldn't do that.

  I looked out the window.

  Whatever this thing was — strange as it was — it wasn't wrong. That was pretty clear. In fact, I sort of even liked the idea of having a second pai
r of hands that let me do to her all the things I wanted to. I could do even more with her body this way. Back on New Year's, it had actually turned me on once or twice to see what Cal was doing to her. And — God strike me down on the spot if I ever admitted it — I'd even learned a few tricks that my best friend had up his sleeve, that I planned on making my own. Cal was a smart dude, methodical as hell and it didn't surprise me that a bossy motherfucker like him would be more into a little bit of the kinky shit. Spanking her...I would have never thought to do that, but goddamn was I grateful to have seen it.

  I wanted to see him do it again.

  But it wasn't going to happen.

  We were shooting up the expressway now, only five minutes away from the airport, our time together coming rapidly to an end. Harper leaned forward craning her neck to look out the front windshield. "I always like this, right here," she said pointing. I could hear the desperate note in her voice to try to keep things light, easy. Keep the conversation from going into some serious place.

  So I indulged her by leaning forward. "What, the lights?"

  "Yeah, see how they're all short right here? So they don't get hit by the incoming planes?"

  I nodded. "They look silly," I observed.

  She twisted to smile at me. "I don't think they look silly at all. When I was a kid we used to fly out of this airport, I always thought of it as such a hallmark of the big city. Now I really am off to one." Her voice trailed off wistfully.

  Cal took the ramp around the airport to the passenger drop-off then pulled over to the side. Cal and I stumbled and scrambled over each other to pull her suitcase from the back of the truck, even though giving it to her meant she was really leaving us.