Keeping Up Appearances (A Gass County Novel Book 4)

by Isabell Lawless

  “Oh my God! What the hell, Ford!” Valerie screeched and backed up against the side of the wall of the house. “What are you doing here?”

  “Nothing really, just . . .”

  “Nothing?”

  Bryce stood at her side, eyes trying to kill the intruder. Ford held up his hands in defense. “Blame your mom, Val, not me. I’m just fulfilling my part of this deal.”

  Valerie sighed in the light of the outdoor lamp sitting on a fence pole of the porch. She dragged her fingers through her hair and . . . well, sighed again.

  “What did my mom ask you to do, Ford?”

  Ford, as tall as Bryce but much leaner in figure, pushed his hands into his front jeans pockets and stuck out his chin at Bryce who was still standing like a quiet warrior at Valerie’s side. Ready to pounce at any given demand.

  “Can’t he leave, or something?” Ford asked, looking suddenly insecure. A first, Valerie thought and let her hand run the length of Bryce’s arm. “Wait inside for me, please, so I can speak to Ford,” she asked softy.

  “Fuck no.”

  “Pardon me?” Valerie answered standing between them. Never before had she been somewhat sought after by two men at the same time. It wasn’t as glamorous as the rumor said.

  “Both of you, just stop!” She took a step away from them into the dark area by the patio furniture at the opposite end of the porch. “You,” she pointed at Ford, “spill the beans of why you’re here.”

  “Your mom called me and said you were back in the states, so she asked me to keep an eye on you and show you I still care about you. Ta-da!” His hands came up from his pockets and he gestured the surprise.

  “Need me to call Brody?” Bryce asked in a low rumble, looking from Ford to Valerie. Just the tone of voice made her body heat.

  “No need,” Valerie replied. “Ford is leaving now, and will “report” back to my dear mother that no one needs to check in on me. Especially not in the evening, when it’s dark.”

  She went inside and hit the light switch on the wall bathing the back porch in nothing but moonlight.

  “You’ve got five minutes to leave this property. I’ve got no problem marking another tear drop tattoo on my body should you not listen to the lady’s command,” she heard Bryce’s voice from outside. It sounded slow, dark, and . . . absolutely wonderful.

  “So, are you some kind of —” Ford began.

  “One . . .” Bryce began, and with that she heard Ford shout a profanity and run off the porch.

  Bryce closed the sliding porch door behind him, walked right by her in the kitchen, down the hallway to the front door and stared out its side window.

  “He’s backing out and is now . . . heading down the street . . . and is gone.” He turned and watched her hug her own body in anxiety. “Feel like telling me what’s going on? Like you having a boyfriend?”

  Valerie swallowed hard and finally dared to look up in Bryce’s eyes, not noticing a sign of the softness he’d shown before during their dinner.

  “It’s a long story,” she began.

  “Well, that’s great because I love long stories and I’m going to sit here, drink my beer, and listen to very end of it,” Bryce said and parked his behind in the same chair he had recently vacated and nursed the new beer down to half in a few seconds. “Now would be a great time to start.”

  ~ Chapter Fourteen ~

  She landed on her huge bed, king she’d made sure when she moved in, comfortable and soft as whipped marshmallow.

  “I —" This was all she got out before he was on her. Heavy, warm, and all over. He removed his jacket and dropped it to the floor. He took both of her wrists and pinned them above her head as he settled over her, leisurely placing a leg between her thighs. Oh, so perfectly placed. She looked up, trying to see her hands which made her wriggle a bit below his weight. “No, not yet,” he said and let out a warm breath that touched the side of her face where his lips hovered. “I have things to say, I expect you to answer me without any of your usually vague answers, and if you touch me right now I’ll forget what I want to say.”

  It surprised her. “I do that to you?”

  Bryce sighed and laughed simultaneously and placed his forehead to hers. “All the time. All the fucking time.”

  She squirmed in delight but held in a small squeal pushing up her throat. She couldn’t stop moving below him. It was difficult to resist. Bryce was so nice to squirm against, warm, hard, and heavy. Owning her not so delicate frame with his.

  “Do you really want to talk now?” she whispered, hoping for a good answer. Something that would make her feel good too.

  “Listen,” he began, not removing his hands from her wrist. “Sometimes you act like I might have the plague or like I’m just some random person you know from somewhere. I think I deserve a better title, I think I’m more than that. I want to be more than that, damn it. I’ve been inside you even.”

  Valerie crunched her eyes together in mortification. Awkward . . .

  “No, no. You don’t get to be ashamed now. In Brazil you were brazen, and I loved it. In the hotel room . . . you had the alcohol relieving you of any embarrassment, and I loved that too,” he stated. “I like you a lot, and obviously so does my body.” He moved himself between her legs and pushed himself against her already tingling parts and she couldn’t argue with him there.

  “While other times,” he continued, “you moan my name and let me make you come. What. Do. You. Want?

  She sighed and bit her lower lip contemplating how to tell him. “I like to do the good parts with you, but you should really be with someone in your own league. You know . . . popular, thinner . . . preferably, fun to be around.” She watched his eyebrows crunch in the middle, creating a deep crease.

  “Pardon me?” he answered.

  “Face it, Bryce. I’m working full-time and more, not much going-out-to-party time there. I outweigh the girls you surround yourself with by a lot, and I almost always wear scrubs.”

  He silenced her by kissing her. Not tender, not romantic, but frantic. His tongue quickly found its way in against hers and she sighed in delight to his action.

  “Be quiet, woman,” he breathed and released her hands so that his could roam her sides, move under her shirt, and find her breasts.

  ***

  It was early when Bryce walked out of his deliciously warm house and into the icy morning. His hand fumbled with the button on his car key due to the chills going through his body, and not just from the weather, but from the things Val had said the evening before. She not being good enough for him, and then being content with the hypocritical fact.

  “Fictional, delusional thoughts,” he muttered and slammed the car door to his blue Ram truck extra hard, hoping the very same lady across the street would hear it. No use, he later noticed as he drove out, her car wasn’t there. She’d beat him out the door this morning.

  He parked the car at Rick’s bar at the end of the town’s main street and with a pedometer attached to the waistline of his sweat pants he took aim for the longer of the two forest trails beginning at the very end of the dirt lot. His breath crystallized in front of his face as the heat inside his lungs came in contact with the cold air around him. He glanced back toward the parking lot he could still see between the tree trunks, and he was lucky, no one else decided to take the same route as him today. He didn’t feel much like socialize, as he’d have to be sociable and pleasant the moment he stepped into work in about an hour. Sometimes a person needs to have time to be honestly grumpy and complain, if only to himself.

  The trees were bare, the branches jagged black fingers scraping the December sky. Thin clouds hid the moon, but still there somewhere, offering a feeble, diffuse light that made the headstones seem to glow. He took this walk as often as he could when weather and work permitted. The morning had already felt long and he’d seen his fair share of injured people for the week, his mind needed to cleanse, his memory erased if possible at times.

  Spending Ch
ristmas anywhere in Gass County resembled nothing less than a picture postcard from an old Gregorian village in old Europe dusted in continuous white snowflakes falling without rush to coat the world. Bryce had always held a deep appreciation for the town, especially around this time of the year. Had his parents still been alive he’d spent the holidays with them, similar to what they did as children.

  He and his sister would tumble down the stairs on Christmas morning finding wrapped presents under a very well-lit Christmas tree. He held those memories dear, as the years since his parents passing had held a quietness he wasn’t too fond of but started to embrace and grow custom to. His sister, on the other hand, preferred to leave the country as the holidays grew near and had this year decided to celebrate with a friend in Ireland. Dublin that time of year was magical, she’d said. But he knew, no matter how strange the holidays felt without close family nearby, he’d never leave Gass County.

  “This is stupid,” he mumbled to himself as his feet pushed down on the pine needles along the cemetery trail. His mind twirled like a dryer on the highest setting. There was no other way around it, he thought. This going around, stupid. A woman’s work. No man would tolerate himself being this indecisive. Dumb is what it was. If he could just show her how much he liked her . . . no he had already done that, and been very frank about it, too. He thought for a while and came to the only conclusion he had. It was deadly risky, he might even lose Valerie completely but so far the things he had done had not been of any of success. So, he decided there was nothing else to do.

  He drove home, glanced across the street where Valerie’s car had left a dark shape in the asphalt, saving it from the new snowfall of white dust coming down and then parked in his driveway.

  He sat himself on the bed, pulled off his shoes and walked into the kitchen where he grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge. On his way back to the bedroom he downed half of the liquid and threw himself back on the covers across the bed and slowly felt the anxiety tickle his brain.

  He grabbed the phone next to him on the nightstand, almost spilling last night’s beer gone warm wishing the alcohol would give him some ideas of how to solve the problem and the emotional wall that was Valerie. That solution had the name of Trayza. The girl, who for months had been asking him for a date to the fireman’s annual holiday party. It was time to play the jealousy card.

  ~ Chapter Fifteen ~

  “This might have been one of the worse ideas I’ve ever come up with”, Bryce mumbled as he walked into the ballroom of the old high school with Trayza at his side, feeling fastened to her like in a vice. This was not prom night, he had nothing to show off. Trayza, swinging her long auburn hair around her shoulders might have different thoughts as she pinkie waved to the random group of mingling people turning their way as new people entered the party, this time it being them.

  Bryce grinded his teeth at the unwanted attention and couldn’t have been happier when Trayza excused herself to powder her nose in the bathroom. Turning he met Wayne walking over handing him a cold bottle of beer. Strong. He needed it. Wayne didn’t speak a word over the drinking of his beer, his laughing eyes did his talking for him. He shook his head, punched Bryce a tad too hard in the shoulder (he’d get him back for that later) and steered off into the sea of mingling people.

  When Wayne moved on to greet others in the room, Marlene stepped forward in all her perfectness and put a halt to his escape into the darkness at the end of the room.

  “I knew I’d find a way back to your city and to us one day.”

  He took a half-step back and into the wall of Brody, full uniform and sunglasses, inside, at night, then turned to face Marlene.

  “Well, I sure didn’t. I’d been happy seeing you stay behind down south,” he replied and took a swig of his beer.

  A brief smile tipped her mouth and she ran her hand down the side of his arm until her hand briefly squeezed his and he felt an impulse to pull it away in twinge. “I’m happy you’re here tonight, Bryce.”

  ***

  Valerie watched the situation and chewed on the inside of her mouth. At six-feet-three inches, Bryce was pure testosterone and absolutely man. His build suggested one of those guys hanging out for hours at the gym while watching their muscles flex in the reflection of the mirror, yet Bryce was too involved in his job to ever bother about how he might come off to women, or how he measured up to another guy at the gym.

  Work itself, carrying injured patients on stretches, adrenaline pumping, and running made his body into what it was. A brilliant masterpiece, she thought and cursed both him and the circle of women inching ever so closely. Half the women in this town, of all ages, were in love with Bryce. The other half was men and they didn’t count. Except Andrew at the gas station who’d stated he’d take him any way he was offered should he ever have the chance. Nice, hot, life-saving Bryce. Giving out smiles and kind words to everyone around him.

  “Fucking women. If they’d all be on fire I’d make some goddamn s’mores.”

  Thinking about him awoke the memory of his naked body. It was hard not to think about it, given he had been in front of her all evening. He was so much taller than she was, so unless she tilted her head all the way back her gaze had constantly been facing his delineated pectoral muscles with their light dusting of dark brown hair. Had he been nude, that is. “Sigh . . .”

  Soaking him in. Memorizing what his chest had once felt like, pushing her down into the mattress. His breath staccato in her ear as they both convulsed. His groans of pleasure . . . dear God.

  She pulled her suddenly itching fingers out of her pocket, noting the wooly fabric of her gray dress pants made hand sweat a serious disability should she need to greet someone. Flicking on the drinking faucet by the back wall next to the stage, and the grandiose Christmas tree standing at least fifteen feet tall, she ran cold water over her trembling hands, feeling both hot and bothered. And a little bit pissed off.

  Thinking about Bryce had to stop. She had no business being with someone like him, at least not if she wanted to keep her dwindling family-ties somewhat together. Because how tall, dark, and mouthwatering sexy he was, he was not supposed to chase someone like her. He should play in his own league: where women had legs up to their armpits, carried at least ten pounds or less of weight than what her scale had showed this morning, and who fit into a slinky material of a dress that would make every cellulite on her behind magnified. Like the two women standing at his side right at this moment. Looking heated, in an argument.

  “Good, " she mumbled.

  She bent down and swallowed cold water, feeling it slowly run down her insides and lower the strange phenomena of fire that burned. Being with Bryce had disaster written all over it, heartbreak just as much, and she was not going to fall into another one of those too-good-looking men’s hands again. Coming back home from South America was supposed to protect her from that, yet her heart whispered for a possible sighting of Bryce as she settled in Gass County.

  “Damn feelings,” she muttered and flattened the emerald fabric of her short sleeve blouse before she turned to face the ongoing party behind her back.

  “You’re drinking water like you’re a deserted camel finding the last source of dehydration before starvation.”

  “Yelp!” Valerie gasped as she walked straight into the wall of someone’s chest in the dim light.

  “You scared me! Wayne, am I right?” Damn, this light was just too dark, someone had to lighten this place up, or maybe it was just her age and she needed a serious vision exam.

  He smiled down at her and took a long swig of his bottle. “One and only, Sugar.”

  “No need to sugar me,” Valerie shook her finger and used her hand to push her way around him, but instead he took a side step and blocked her way.

  “So, about the water? Running much?”

  “Pardon me?”

  “Feeling hot, bothered. I know the feeling. It’s mutual.”

  Valerie gasped and stared at Wayne’s ever wi
dening smile.

  “No worries, I ain’t talking about me, Sweet-Cheeks,” he continued. “Heard your ex had come to town for a visit. Don’t look so surprised darlin’, it’s all over the news. Local ones, I should mention. NASCAR must not cover his whereabouts this far out into nowhere. I googled you, you know.”

  “You did what? And . . . Ford is coming here, to this location, tonight? Why haven’t I been informed on this?” Her hands began to sweat once again.

  Wayne smiled and tossed back some more of his beer. “Have a great night, Sugar.” Suddenly he stopped and turned. “Oh,” he said. “Bryce has internet too. Google is a hoot.”

  With that Wayne waved his large hand in the air greeting someone above the heads of the other guests flocking into the room and left as quickly as he had come to interrupt.

  “Gosh, men and their stupid quotes thinking things make sense when there is absolutely nothing to take away from the potential intelligence,” Valerie spoke into the air filled with music not asking for a response. Men were tiring and so was this party.

  Wayne left her standing and with a last shout to the large group of friends he exited the event claiming Rick’s bar was the place to be and free rounds of beer to the first twenty to relocate. Suddenly the place seemed sparse, bare. She nodded to a few people still circling the high tables set out for a chance to mingle. Instead she did the same as the rest . . . left the building and the event behind.

  Something else was eating her away. “Damn you, Ford. Nothing good can come of you visiting. None at all.”

  ~ Chapter Sixteen ~

  “Is there any chance you can be louder, my ears aren’t bleeding yet!”

  “What?”

  “What, what? Are you already deaf? Because that noise you just made must be the reason. Who the hell revs a motorcycle outside someone’s home at this time in the evening?”