Brothers

by Tess Oliver

  "She's good. And fucking adorable," Sundance added as he looked at each of us. "Damn, my sister and her creepy sixth sense." He shook his head. "Guess this explains that mad dog race down the hill just now." He motioned toward the cut on my side. "Are you going to take care of that before you climb into my truck?"

  I yanked off my shirt, wadded it up and held it against my side to stop the bleeding.

  Jesse sat in the passenger seat, facing out, with the door open while he chugged down a bottle of water. "What the hell are you rambling about with Sherry's sixth sense?"

  Sundance shrugged. "Not sure if you two want to hear about it."

  "You're right. We don't. Now throw me a bottle of water." I hopped up onto the open tailgate of the truck, not an easy feat with a cut in my side.

  "Maybe Zach doesn't want to hear about it but I do," Jesse said.

  Sundance fished out a bottle of water from the ice chest and tossed it my way.

  I twisted off the top and gulped it down.

  Joelle was halfway down the hill, still having a helluva good time and looking hot doing it.

  "Well, what did Sherry say?" Jesse climbed down from the passenger seat.

  Sundance hesitated and looked sideways at me. I had a pretty good idea what was about to come out of his mouth. Jesse hadn't caught on yet.

  "Sherry told me she's worried about the heartbreak brothers and their new house guest."

  Jesse raised one brow. "And why the hell is that? Neither of us is going to break her heart. She's already been through enough."

  "Well, it's not that she's worried about Joelle's heart being broken as much as yours."

  Jesse pointed to his chest. "Who me?"

  Sundance took another cautious look my direction. The cut on my side gave him more courage than usual. "Not just you, Jes. Both of you. And after spending some time with her and seeing you two behaving like strutting roosters, I think my sister's on to something."

  "Sherry's been spending too much time around ink fumes," Jesse said with just enough anger to produce a smug grin on Sundance's face. He knew he'd hit a sore spot with my brother. I gave him no reaction but then I’d already known exactly what he was going to say.

  Joelle's voice popped us out of the heated moment. "That was a blast," she said with a laugh. "I would do it again if I could figure out a way to ride downhill without the grueling ride up."

  "Yeah, we've joked about building a tram or lift just for that purpose." Jesse, ever the gallant knight, walked over and held the bike for her while she climbed off.

  "Want some water?" Sundance asked.

  "Yes, please. I think I've got pieces of gravel between my teeth." She took the bottle from Sundance's hand, and after a second or two of struggling to open it, Jesse stepped forward with another show of chivalry. He was really working it today.

  Silence followed as the three of us worked hard not to watch her press the bottle against her lips and lift her chin, exposing the smooth white skin of her neck as she drank the water. She lowered the bottle with a sigh of relief. Her eyes flitted my direction.

  "You're awfully quiet, Zach." Her gaze drifted down to the hand I held against my side. "Is that blood? What happened?"

  "Nothing. Just got hooked up on a branch."

  She walked over to me. "Let me see? Did you wash it out?"

  "Nope, just trying to stop the blood first."

  "You might need stitches." Sundance came around to get a better look at the cut, but Jesse stayed away.

  I lifted away the shirt. Joelle leaned forward. I had a bloody gash on my side, and all I could think about was how good her hair smelled. Her warm breath caressed my bare skin as she moved in closer. I was already feeling way less pain.

  "We need to clean that off." She straightened. "Do you have something in the truck, Sundance?"

  "Yeah, there's a first aid box under the passenger seat."

  Joelle set right to work gathering supplies.

  Sundance winced as he got a better look at the cut. "Ouch, that looks ugly. It's all mucked up, so I can't tell if it needs stitches." Sundance, apparently thinking he'd given enough of his unqualified opinion, walked away. "Hey, Jes, one more ride up the hill?" he asked.

  Jesse paused as he watched Joelle lean into the car, completely unaware of the effect she was having on him. Sundance elbowed him as they both watched her dig the box out.

  "Ah ha, here it is." She pulled the sweater down, the sweater that had, in her search below the seats, inched up, exposing her thin waist and the tops of her curvy hips. She stopped at the ice chest and pulled out a clean bottle of water. As she straightened, she, for the first time, noticed that she had everyone's undivided attention. Her long lashes blinked coyly and a tiny smile popped up. "Hope y'all got a good look at my ass."

  I held back a laugh. Sundance looked away quickly as if that obvious gesture could help him save face.

  Jesse, as usual, had a different tack. "We did. And I can't speak for these guys, but it was definitely the highlight of my day."

  Sundance swung his fist back to hit Jesse on the arm. "Christ, Jes."

  "No, I like his honesty." Joelle held up some gauze and the water. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some doctoring to do."

  Jesse shot me a squinty eyed look. "Beginning to think you snagged that branch on purpose."

  "Yep, the tree and I planned the whole damn thing out beforehand."

  Joelle circled around to where I was sitting on the tailgate, with the same sweet smile she wore most of the day. She put the package of gauze down and untwisted the bottle cap. "You're going to have to take your hand and that balled up shirt away so I can clean the cut."

  I pulled away the wadded shirt and lifted my arm away from the cut.

  Jesse walked to his bike. "C'mon Sun, I think I need that ride after all."

  I vaguely heard them climb on their bikes and take off up the trail, but my mind had other things keeping it occupied.

  Joelle bit her bottom lip in concentration as she used the wet cloth to gently wipe away the dirt and blood. "Does this hurt?"

  I badly wanted to answer 'not in the way you think', but I held back the suggestive words. "It feels better already. You're a good doctor."

  "I hardly think I can take credit for that when all I've done is wipe it with a wet cloth." A long strand of hair fell over her face as she worked. I reached up and pushed it back behind her ear. My fingertips trailed lightly over the soft skin behind her ear, and I wondered if the entire girl was as silky soft as that small patch of skin. I knew, of course, I shouldn't have been thinking about the rest of her skin at all, and, for that matter, how it would feel under my fingers, but I couldn't help myself.

  The gentleness of her caring touch coupled with the face and the smile and that warm glow that seemed to always be swirling around her made it easy to forget the cut on my side. "So did you enjoy the bike ride?"

  "I did." She straightened, and I spotted the fading red mark on her neck. It would soon be gone. I hoped every shitty thing that guy did to her would eventually be pushed far back in her memory.

  She tilted her head to admire her first aid work. "I used to ride a bike back and forth from work. A bike and my feet were my only modes of transportation. I once had a reliable car, a crummy little compact with faded paint and mismatched hubcaps. But one night, after losing a lot of money at poker, Bobby wrapped my car around a light pole. He was unhurt, but my sad little Toyota with the ripped upholstery and impressively good heater was mangled beyond repair. His jeep, gleaming in black and chrome, still sat safely in the garage, but my car had to be sandwiched into a pile of scrap metal at the junkyard." She piled up the dirty gauze and pulled out a clean piece, along with a plastic bottle of disinfectant.

  "I'm sorry."

  "Actually, once I got used to it, I sort of preferred the bicycle. You miss a lot when you're chugging through traffic."

  "No, I meant I'm sorry that you had to waste even one minute of your life with that guy."
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  Her smile faded, but there was still a brilliant, coffee-colored sparkle in her eyes. "I spent a long time feeling sorry for myself. After that, I went through the—you deserve this because you're a knucklehead and you make bad decisions stage. Then one day, I just stopped blaming myself. It was pointless. It was all his fault. Everything was on him."

  She popped off the top from the disinfectant and crinkled her nose up at the smell. "Wonder if this stuff is still good?"

  I took a whiff. "I think it's mostly alcohol, and they say that booze gets better with age."

  She laughed. "Uh, I think that pertains more to whiskey in an oak barrel than to antiseptic in a plastic bottle."

  "Shit, wish Sundance had some of that aged whiskey in his first aid kit. A swig of that would go down pretty smoothly right now."

  "I can look again, but I'm pretty sure we're stuck with this stuff. But if you still want a swig." She held up the bottle.

  "No thanks, I'll pass."

  Joelle spilled some of the dark yellow liquid on the gauze and pulled out some bandages. "I'm going to press this against the cut, so it might sting."

  "K. I'll try not to cry."

  Shit, was there any sound better than her laugh. She pressed the gauze against my side and then reached across and took hold of my wrist. I couldn't stop myself from staring at her as she focused on her task. Her face was just inches from mine, and every curve and line of her mouth became a permanent picture in my mind. "Here, hold the gauze in place while I open the bandages."

  She glanced back at the hill as she ripped open a few bandages. A dust cloud at the top signaled that Sundance and Jesse were on their way down. "That trail you guys race down looks treacherous. I guess it's considered a victory if you get down that hill with just a cut on your side." As she spoke, my mind glazed over with the feel of her fingers on my skin as she pressed the bandages in place.

  She patted her work. "There. I think other than the damage to one scary looking lion tattoo, crisis averted."

  "Leo's hurt?" I lifted my arm and contorted my upper torso to get a look at my side. "Shit, I didn't even think about that."

  "I think Leo might end up with a menacing scar across his eye, which will only serve to make him more badass."

  Sundance and Jesse were close enough for us to hear the rocks and forest litter crunch under their tires.

  "Thank you, Joelle."

  She took hold of my face, hopped up on her toes and pressed a kiss against my forehead. "Glad I could help." She dropped back to her feet.

  I was relieved she had no way to hear how fast my heart was bouncing off my ribcage.

  13

  Joelle

  "Check out this nail polish color." Sherry pinched the cone-shaped silver top in her fingers and held up the bottle. "It's called Forest Mist. I think it should be called Baby Snot."

  "It isn't very appealing."

  "They sent six bottles in the last shipment. I think I'll return them, or do you think someone will buy it?"

  I shrugged. "Different strokes, as they say."

  "You're right. Who am I to judge if someone has godawful taste. I'll let you finish marking off the shipment list. I left the invoice next to the box. I'm going to take a quick jaunt to the coffee shop."

  "Great. I'll head back there right now and keep an ear open for the bell."

  Sherry walked into her office and emerged with her wallet. "This is working out well. I never got to enjoy a coffee break or any kind of break when I was running the shop alone. Heck, it seemed whenever I had to take a pee, that was the time everyone in town was in dire need of hair color or a flat iron." She held up the wallet. "Do you want something? My treat."

  "An iced tea would be nice."

  The bell on the front door rang as she walked out. It was my third day on the job, and I had no complaints. In fact, I would occasionally pinch myself to make sure it was real. Sherry's shop was a rectangular building with purple awnings over the front window, shiny white tile on the floor and a mural of a flower filled garden running along the back wall. Sherry had painted it herself. The peonies and poppies looked so real, I could have sworn that they occasionally swayed in an imaginary breeze. A shiny chrome and glass counter divided the room in half, between her tattoo parlor and her beauty supply store. As small as the town was, there was a steady stream of customers coming through the shop at all hours of the day. Especially after three o'clock when the nearby high school let out for the day and the girls and even boys came in to buy the newest hair product or nail color.

  I pulled out my phone. Jesse had sent a text that he would pick me up at four. Zach and Jesse had bought the phone the day before I started work, insisting that I had to have one. That same day, I started a list of the things they bought me. I intended to pay them back once I started earning a wage. They had tried to fight me on it, but I stood my ground. As it was, I saw no way I could ever repay them for their kindness.

  I walked to the back and started unpacking the box of supplies. A few minutes later, Sherry returned with the drinks.

  "That was fast." I checked off foam curlers.

  "I got there before school let out. I sure would love to know how those teenagers have so much extra money that they can stop in and buy four dollar frothy coffees every day. Shit, when I was in high school, I had to save just buy a damn soda from the vending machine." She placed the tea on the table and pulled up a chair. "Damn, I sound like my mom." She aged her voice by making it raspy and added a fist shake in the air. "You whippersnappers shouldn't be wasting all that money on coffee, and why the hell are you drinking coffee at your age anyhow?"

  I clapped at her performance, and she bowed her head.

  "Thank you. And by the way, my mom doesn't sound like that and I've never actually heard her say the word whippersnapper. Whippersnapper. Huh." She pulled out her phone and sent a quick text. "I just told Anthony I had a name for our kid, if we ever decide to have one."

  Sherry pulled up a stool and enjoyed her coffee while I finished unpacking the order. "So, how is it going over there with the Coltrane boys? Have they been treating you right?"

  "They are awesome. After the last few years with Bobby, I'd almost given up hope that there were still decent guys out in the world."

  "Yeah, it's hard not to love those two."

  I searched the list for lip balm and as my pen ran along the check boxes, I was keenly aware of Sherry watching me, as if she wanted to ask something but couldn't find a way to do it. But I had caught her assessing gaze more than once, as if she was trying to figure out exactly how it was going with the Coltrane boys.

  "They are both so different," I continued. "Aha, there you are lip balm." I checked the box and looked up at her. "When I'm with Zach, I want to pour my heart out. I want to untangle my emotional turmoil and tell him everything. He's such a good listener, and he just seems to understand. And he never judges. It's rare for a guy to be like that."

  "Zach's a great guy. He's highly respected in town. He has a slew of female admirers, but I've only ever seen him give his heart away once."

  It seemed Sherry was adding information, details about Zach I already knew, just to make doubly sure I knew everything about him. I couldn't tell if it was a warning for me or out of protection for Zach.

  I picked up my tea and took a sip. I held it up. "Thanks for this." I put the cup back down. "Then there's Jesse. When I'm with him, I can easily forget my emotional turmoil, my ugly past. When I'm hanging out with him, I find myself wanting to experience life through his rose colored glasses. He faces everything with enthusiasm and a laugh, like he's telling the world nothing is going to get me down. It's fun. He's fun. And if there has been one thing I've missed these past few years, it's fun."

  Sherry grew quiet for a minute. It seemed that if she'd allow herself to speak her mind, it would start flowing and never stop. But she smiled and nodded. "They are good guys and loyal friends and even though it may not always seem like it, they are fiercely loyal to each o
ther." With that she smacked her palm on the table and hopped off the stool. "I've got to get ready for a tattoo client." She looked up at the clock on the wall. It was the old-fashioned kind, an analog with two arms, like the ones that hung in classrooms. "It's almost three and the afterschool rush will be starting. They always seem to know when the new shipment of nail and lip color comes in. Who knows, we might just off load that baby snot after all."

  "You might be right." I followed her out to the shop, and just like she'd predicted, minutes later the beauty supply side of the store filled with chatty teens. The displays I'd work so hard to organize were a cluttered mess by the time they finished checking out the new colors. Baby snot, it turned out, was not on their list of cool new colors, but they picked clean all the new pinks and blues. Even lemon yellow was popular. I stayed behind the counter ringing up orders and thought, Sherry was right. I'd never had extra money for fun stuff like nail polish and lipstick.

  So many people had been strolling in and out of the store, I didn't look up when the bell rang for the hundredth time. The two girls standing at the counter, debating what color hair bands to buy, stopped their conversation.

  "Look, it's Jesse Coltrane," the girl in favor of blue hair bands whispered. "Oh my gosh, is he hot. Why don't we have any guys like him in school?"

  I peered up over the register and caught Jesse's smile shooting across the busy room.

  "My sister, Kate, graduated with him," the girl in favor of green hair bands whispered. "He took her to a dance in junior high. Jesse Coltrane was her first kiss."

  "That would suck to have him give you a first kiss," the first girl insisted. "Every kiss after that would be a disappointment." I actually had to join them in the laugh that followed.

  One step into the store and Jesse had managed to render every enthusiastic conversation and giggle to a halt. Girls were peeking up over shelves and around displays to get a look at him. Two were even taking pictures with their phones.