TIED: A Steamy Small Town Romance (Reckless Falls Book 3)

by Vivian Lux

  Was it because of me?

  I didn't want to believe it.

  There had to be some other reason for the tension. They were friends, too close to nearly come to blows over a girl, especially not a girl like me. I was their friend's little sister, but they'd almost come to blows up there at the top of the falls, and Gray had completely humiliated Cal in front of his tour. What the hell was going on with the two of them?

  It couldn't be me.

  There had to be some other reason.

  There was a soft knock on my door. I scrambled to sit upright, fixing my clothes while I tried to rearrange my face into less guilty-looking lines. I cleared my throat. "Come in."

  "I brought you a towel, cause I didn't know if you knew where we kept them now," my mother said, coming into the room.

  I sat up and grinned at her, hoping I looked innocent. "Are you implying I need to take a shower?" I teased.

  My mother took a deep breath. "You went hiking today. I'm just saying you might want to...freshen up before dinner."

  I rolled my eyes. "Point taken, Ma," I said, standing up and taking the towel from her. "I read you loud and clear." I needed a shower, all right. A cold one.

  "You always were smart girl," my mother said, with a smile. She turned to leave.

  "Hey Mom?" I called.

  She stopped and turned around. "What's going on?" she asked.

  I sat down in the bed. "That's exactly the question I wanted to ask you."

  She laughed lightly. "Well you're going to have to be a little more specific than that, Harper," she said.

  I sighed. "With Callum and Grayson. Got any idea what's going on with them?" There has to be something, I pleaded in my head. Something other than them fighting over me.

  My mother shook her head slowly. "Going on? You mean something bad?"

  I shrugged. "I don't know, there's just some sort of, I don't know, weirdness there."

  My mother leaned against the wall. "No, I can't think of anything," she said shaking her head. "But I mean, they are living together. Grayson's been staying at Callum's house ever since he lost his job. So maybe there's some tension there." She started to smile. "Maybe Grayson's a little bit too messy for Callum's liking?"

  Of course. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and chuckled. "I can see that," I said. I thought once again about what a good friend Cal was being, inviting Grayson into his house like that. There weren't too many friends that would do that for each other. "You know how Grayson is, one step up above feral."

  "Well, I guess it's tough to learn basic housekeeping skills when your father is Pierce Abbott," my mother said hastily.

  I nodded. "Yeah, I guess you can excuse it... A little bit." I thought for a second. "What with his father being..."

  "An alcoholic piece of shit?" my mother supplied.

  I looked up sharply to hear her swear. "Well, yeah, exactly that. I just didn't expect you to put it that way."

  My mother crossed her arms. "There's no other way to put it. When I think of that little boy, shivering in that jacket, the way he didn't even notice that his son wasn't properly dressed for the winter, and it was so cold that January."

  I nodded at the familiar story. Grayson has shown up at our door one afternoon after school with a gigantic tear in his only winter jacket. My mother had immediately pulled out the needle and thread and then convinced him to take home a few of Everett's. And ever since then, Grayson had been the most loyal friend anyone in our family could ask for.

  Callum too.

  "Those boys, they're both diamonds in the rough," my mother said fondly.

  I nodded as well, trying not to let on how much I agreed. "I guess I'll take that shower now, so as not to ruin your dinner," I teased my mother.

  "Good," my mother said, sniffing and then wrinkling her nose and waving her hand in front of her face.

  I laughed and grabbed the towel again as she headed out the door. I pulled my phone from my pocket, and threw it onto the bed and started to pull my sweatshirt over my head.

  Just then, my text alert went off. I leaned forward curiously, then sighed to see a chirpy little text from Cecily asking how the trip was going.

  "It's going well," I shot back quickly, then resumed pulling my shirt over my head. I'm just masturbating to the idea of getting fucked by my brother's two best friends simultaneously. You know, normal Christmas-y stuff.

  When I'd emerged, it was to see that she did responded with an almost frightening quickness. "I'm looking forward to you coming back," she wrote.

  I wrinkled my brow and shook my head slightly, then picked my phone back up. "I'm looking forward to that too," I wrote back, choosing not to ask what exactly it was she was looking forward to.

  But as I set my phone back down again, I thought once more about Cal and Gray. Maybe I wasn't lying when I said I was looking forward to coming back to work, and Cecily and my killer schedule, and the upcoming negotiations with the Children's Television Network.

  I needed to leave. Sooner, rather than later.

  Before I did anything I regretted.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Callum

  It was like living with a sullen teenager.

  For nearly a week now, Gray had been avoiding me. And even though I knew I should be the bigger man and confront him, I avoided him right back. For the first time since I started my touring company two years ago, I actively went out and pounded the slushy pavement for business, snagging startled looking Christmas-tourists and practically bullying them into letting me show them the sights. For three days after the debacle at the Falls, I was out in the elements, freezing my fucking face off on my snowmobile or gimping along on snowshoes, just to avoid the asshole living in my house.

  Did I think about kicking him out? Yes. Morbidly. Almost obsessively. As I paced the main drag of town, I played the conversation over and over in my head, and how fucking satisfying was it to imagine getting right in his face and letting him have it.

  But what was it...really? Yeah, he'd embarrassed me a bit in front of my tour, but I was actually more pissed with Marie-the-pink-lady, who'd demanded a full refund once we got back to the vehicle, citing her emotional devastation over her husband's manhood being openly mocked. I noted grimly that her husband had nothing to say about the situation, but ended up just saying fuck it. Rather then try to explain that my best friend was kind of an asshole, I just gave in and let her have the tour for free. It wasn't like I'd done a good job at it anyway.

  No, it wasn't that he'd shot his mouth off that had me so furious. That was just Gray being Gray, his usual unfiltered bravado that was alternately amusing and irritating. No, it was something else.

  He owed me an apology, there was no getting around that, but for what I couldn't really articulate. I was just pissed at him for...existing, at this point and we probably could use a really good dust-up to clear the air, but he seemed content to stay in his room, with the door shut, only emerging when he heard me open the door to my bedroom. I actually timed it yesterday, shutting the door without going inside. He'd emerged, then stood stock still in his doorway to see me standing there staring at him, and at that moment I thought we were finally going to have it out. But instead he turned and headed right back in again.

  But tonight, there was no getting around it. Ma McCabe was in hyper-hostess mode, throwing yet another one of her famous parties that I swore were the only thing that kept this town from dying of boredom in the winter months. Even though the woman was celebrating her anniversary tomorrow, that wasn't enough, and she'd still insisted on having her yearly New Year's Eve celebration, and that meant Gray and I were both coming, no getting around it.

  So now we were both getting ready to go to the same party, and that necessitated a lot of jockeying for bathroom space and checking the laundry to make sure that pants had no wrinkles in them. We danced around each other, all twitchy like a couple of scalded cats, until I finally couldn't take it anymore and went to the kitchen to gr
ab a beer.

  Only to see the fucking milk carton sitting out on the counter.

  "Motherfucker, are you serious?" I exploded, slamming open the fridge door. The whole refrigerator rocked dangerously to the side, sending the glass condiment jars jingling.

  Gray appeared in the doorway, wary, his fists clenched, but didn't say a word, which only pissed me off further. "You serious with this shit? Look, watch me, it's not hard. You close the fucking milk carton and then look, look, are you watching? This is the complicated part. You put it back in the motherfucking refrigerator!"

  The corner of Gray's mouth twitched up in a snarl for just a moment before it relaxed into a cocky grin I immediately wanted to punch off of his face. "You really are an old woman, you know that?"

  "You really are an asshole, you know that?" I shot back.

  Gray stared at me like he was shocked by this, and we both kind of stood there for a second.

  "What the hell's going on?" I sighed.

  Gray shrugged and looked away. "What, you want to talk about your feelings or something? You really are an old woman."

  "Fine," I said, slamming the refrigerator door shut. "Fuck you then."

  Silence reigned for a second and I started heading back to my bedroom to grab my shirt, half a second away from kicking him bodily out of my house.

  Gray was still standing there when I reemerged to find my tie. So apparently the motherfucker did want to talk about feelings like an old woman, which was fucking good because I couldn't stand this silence anymore. "You're in love with Harper, aren't you?" I blurted. It wasn't a fucking question.

  Gray looked up, startled, then down at his hands, then back up again, his mouth twisting. He opened it like he was about to say something, then snapped it shut, with tension written all over his face. I felt the breath slowly leaving my body. There it was, out in the open. It was written all over his face. I sagged against my doorframe and was just starting to nod when suddenly Gray burst out, "I'm not going to fuck it up for you," he blurted.

  "What?" I asked.

  Gray stepped forward, spreading his hands, in an entreaty for peace. "You've been in love with her forever," he said, gesturing toward me.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. "Yeah, but I don't want you backing off for me." I stood up straighter and narrowed my eyes, suddenly sure of it. "I can get her on my own."

  It was the truth. I'd been holding back all this while for his sake, while the dipshit had been holding off for mine. It was like that stupid short story they made us read in sophomore year of high school, where the guy buys combs for his wife's hair with money he gets from selling his pocket watch, only to come home and find out she sold her hair to buy him a chain for his watch and the whole thing could have been fucking avoided if the two of them had just communicated like fucking adults. We'd been pussyfooting around each other, treating each other with kid gloves.

  But now the gloves were off.

  Gray stopped moving towards me and stood up straight. The cocky bullshit smile returned to his face, but for some reason this time it didn't make me feel like decking him.

  It made me grin back.

  "Oh, you think you can get her, do you?" Gray asked skeptically.

  I nodded. "I know so."

  He grinned wider. "With what? Your tiny dick and fussy old lady ways?"

  I wrinkled my nose. "No. I plan on charming her with my supernatural ability to close a fucking milk carton."

  Gray folded his arms across his chest and stared at me, and I saw something in his eyes that hadn't been there before. A certain fire. "It's up to her then, huh?"

  I nodded slowly. "It's up to her then," I said. Then I extended my hand. "May the best man win."

  Gray clasped my hand and grinned. "Thank you," he said, pumping it up and down.

  "No, thank you," I declared. And as I shook his hand, I felt some of the tension in the house release. It was up to her.

  And tonight I was going to make sure the best man won.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Grayson

  It seemed like everyone had already arrived. Cars were parked all along the driveway, front wheels on the grass, and all the close spots were taken.

  Cal looked at me. I looked at him. "Best man's gonna win," I said, extending my hand.

  He sniffed and switched off the ignition. We both sat there for a microsecond.

  And then I lifted both middle fingers before throwing open the door.

  Cal's door slammed and I heard his feet pounding on the gravel as he raced to catch up with me.

  "Too slow," I jeered, walking a little faster.

  I heard his feet pounding on the gravel. "Never!" Cal laughed.

  "Motherfuck—" I started jogging.

  He came up on my left side and I threw out my arm. "Are you fucking serious?" he panted. "Throwing elbows?"

  "Did I break your hip, old lady?" I asked.

  He responded with a hard shoulder check, sending me staggering to the side. I swore and regained my footing, then broke out in a dead run. Cal played football in high school because his dad could afford the equipment, but you don't need much equipment for track, so that was my sport. He was good at short sprints, but distances were my area of expertise and we both knew it, which was why were suddenly both running, full tilt, a flat-out sprint the two hundred yards to the McCabe's front door.

  "You're gonna lose!" I called. He looked back with an arrogant grin and then leaped onto the front porch. But he'd misjudged the distance and only caught the edge of it with the ball of his foot. He stumbled backward just as I slammed into him, propelling us both onto the welcome mat, where we stopped, breathing hard, before jostling and jockeying for position to ring the doorbell.

  And after all that, it wasn't even Harper who answered the fucking door.

  Everett stood there, wearing a suit and tie like he was born in it, and an expression of pure confusion on his face. "What the hell are you doing ringing the doorbell?" he asked. "I don't think you guys have ever done that in your lives."

  I looked at Cal, who looked down at his feet. We both knew why. We are both hoping to get to Harper first. 'May the best man win' apparently extended to foot races in the driveway. But now that Rett was here, we had to play it cool. Because even though we'd reached an agreement about how things were going to go in our quest for Harper's heart, neither one of us had the balls to inform Rett of that agreement.

  For the second time in a week, I walked into the McCabe's new place and felt that strange frission about it no longer being the same. The cabin down by the gully had been a second home to me, and there was no way I was ever going to be able to recapture that feeling in this new place. Time passed, things changed, and we'd never be the same three scruffy-headed, skinned-knee group of maniacs tearing around the woods.

  That feeling made me feel strangely melancholy.

  But once again, the appearance of Mrs. McCabe, who immediately starting clucking over us — straightening Cal's tie and muttering about the crease on my pants — made me feel right at home again.

  "How's it going, Gray?" she asked me, her green eyes just like Harper's searching my face. "Rett tells me you have an interview the day after tomorrow. It's okay if you can't make it to our vows ceremony, that's much more important. You might need the time to prepare."

  I leaned over and kissed her on her cheek. "Nothing is more important than seeing your vow renewal," I reassured her. "I'll be able to do both, I promise."

  She started saying something else, worried and fretting, but I was distracted by the faint whiff of Harper's shampoo. She wasn't in the room, but her scent drifted by on the breeze.

  Callum looked up, then turned to stare at me meaningfully. He wasn't trapped under Mrs. McCabe's worried clucking, so he was free to go follow that scent. As I was reassuring Mrs. McCabe that yes, I was excited about my new prospect, he sidled off into the living room, leaving me trapped. I clenched my fist as I assured Mrs. McCabe that yes, I would make sure to tell them that
my greatest flaw was my perfectionism, when I heard Harper's laugh float in from the living room, followed quickly by the low rumble of Cal saying something. Harper laughed even harder, and I felt my stomach twist in a knot. Bastard wasn't playing fair, not at all.

  "Ma, I'm going to be fine, don't you worry," I declared, clutching her hands. She looked mildly startled at my sudden interruption, but I ignored it and kept talking. "I need to go run in and check something about the tree I brought over, okay?"

  Her eyes widened. "Oh dear, is there something wrong?" she asked, hands fluttering near her mouth.

  I fixed her with the baleful glance. "Gosh I hope not," I said. "But just to be sure..." I was backing out of the room as Mrs. McCabe made worried sounds with her mouth. I felt bad about appealing to her anxieties that way, but it was the only way I was going to make sure that the best man truly did win.

  Cal had maneuvered Harper over to the couch, sitting way too close to her for my liking.

  So, of course, I went right over and plucked my ass down next to her.

  "What are you drinking tonight?" I asked her, nudging her with my knee.

  She flipped her gaze up to me, and for a second I remembered what a jerk I'd been the last time she saw me. I turned the corners of my mouth down. Great Aunt Hilda had once accused me of using my puppy dog eyes to get away with murder, and she wasn't wrong. "I'm trying to make amends," I told Harper mournfully.

  She rolled her eyes and laughed. "You two are collectively a piece of work," she sighed, leaning over and picking up pieces of fuzz off the sofa.

  That was a little better. At least she was acknowledging both of us. "Oh come on, you've known this forever," I reminded her.

  "I have." She nodded.

  "And you've always known that Gray has a touch of the douche in him," Cal piped up.

  I shot him a murderous glance. "There's a lot of room for it, since there’s no stick up my ass," I reminded him.

  "Guys," Harper said sternly. "Let's not have a repeat of the Falls."

  I leaned back. "Of course. I'm going to be on my best behavior tonight."