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

by Vivian Lux

  There wasn't any way that I could keep this a secret from either of them. It wouldn't the right because I loved them.

  Both of them.

  "Baby girl. God I've missed you so much," Cal said, shuddering lightly as he rained kisses down my neck and shoulders.

  "You did good, baby. You did so good," Gray said, squeezing me ever so tighter.

  "I love you," I said, my voice catching in a broken, ragged sound in my throat.

  Cal pulled away, looking at me. Gently, the two of them pulled out, lowering me to the ground. Cal lifted me up in his arms and carried me over to the bed, laying me down gently before he stroked my hair back from my face. "You're crying," he said, his eyes widening. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

  Gray rushed over, laying down by my side, curling his body around mind. I grabbed his hand and held in tightly against my stomach as Cal stroked my shoulder over and over again. "I can't...I can't...I didn't want to tell you," I sputtered.

  "Tell us what?" Cal sounded desperate.

  "But I love you," I was babbling. "I can't do that to you."

  "Harper, what the hell is going on?" Now Cal's voice was rising angrily.

  "Hey man, she's upset. Give her room," Gray said, pulling me more tightly against him.

  "I'm sorry," Cal said through gritted teeth. He took a deep breath. "I want to help you with whatever it is, that's all. What's wrong?"

  "Yeah, you know that we'll help you. We're there for you, no matter what, Harper." Gray added.

  I let my head fall down onto the pillow. "No matter what?" I echoed. My body was still coming back to itself, my skin still flushed from the heat of our bodies together.

  "Yes," Cal declared. "No matter what."

  And there was such finality to his voice that I had no choice but to believe him.

  I propped my head up, looking first at Cal, then at Gray, then up at the ceiling, unable to look at either one of them as I said, "Okay then. No matter what," I took a deep breath. "Because I'm pregnant."

  All of the air left the room. Both of them sucked in their breath at once, and I suddenly felt like I couldn't get enough oxygen. I sat up, burying my head in my hands, trying to shut out the sound of their panicked breathing. I swear I could hear their heartbeats. Or maybe it was just my own. "I'm pregnant," I said again.

  "How far along?" Gray finally whispered.

  I looked up the wall. "Somewhere around eight weeks," I said. Then I turned to look to see his mouth twisting furiously. "Don't bother to do the math, pregnancy math is all fucked up. What that means is I actually got pregnant six weeks ago."

  "Six weeks," Gray echoed. "That means..."

  I turned to him and nodded. "Right, New Year's."

  Cal was still absorbing. I could see it on his face. He was struggling, his head shaking a little bit. "But, we both..." he started to say. "That means..."

  I hugged my knees to my chest and looked down miserably. "That's right," I said, completely and utterly defeated. "That means I don't know which one of you is the father."

  Chapter Forty-One

  Callum

  I was swimming underwater with nothing but the roaring of the ocean in my ears. Voices came to me, as if from above, high above me, maybe in the sky. Maybe it was because I was floating?

  Then I heard Harper's voice again, and suddenly I was back is Gray's bedroom, and Harper was telling us she was pregnant.

  With a baby.

  She didn't know whose.

  My hand was shaking and I clenched it into a fist, hiding it from her.

  My beautiful girl was hunched over miserably, her head in her hands and I wanted to take this sadness from her and make it my own. I wanted to break the misery in two and smash it to pieces so she'd never be sad like this again. The sight of her crumpled face was too much for me and I had to turn away.

  I looked over her and saw Gray, and his face was the mirror of my own. Shock, confusion, and a little bit of anger.

  Anger, because whose baby was it?

  Which one of us was the father?

  I grabbed the sheet and held on tightly. Before I lost it and punched the wall.

  "It doesn't matter," Harper was saying. "This was just supposed to be a fling, you know? We had to know that it wasn't going to work. Three people together at once? Whoever heard of something like that?"

  I wanted to protest, say that it was wrong. She was wrong. We were the proof that it could work.

  But she wasn't wrong. We fucked it up, big time. And by not wearing condoms. Fucking hell, it was such a silly, stupid mistake, one that they teach you not to make an elementary school. What the fuck had I done?

  What the fuck had we done?

  I glared at Gray. His eyes widened and then narrowed and he glared back, probably thinking the same thing I was. Fuck you. You did this.

  "You don't have to worry, like I'm not going to come after you for support or anything," Harper said. "But I am keeping it." She went on, and her fingers went subconsciously to her still taut belly. Or was is still taut? Just now I noticed a fullness that had never seen there before. Her slim waist thickened, like she was blooming. Now that I knew, I wondered how I could have ever not known. She cupped her hand around that tiny rise. "I'll make it work," she said softly. "I swear."

  "Like hell you will," I heard myself say.

  Harper looked up sharply.

  "You're planning on leaving, aren't you?" I said, rising up from the bed. "That's what you're doing right now. You're breaking up with us."

  Gray looked at me and then looked at her, in a perfect double take.

  "Don't you think...?" she started to say, but I waved her off.

  "No I don't think anything, is this why you came today? Not because you missed us or anything like that. But because you wanted to tell us you’re pregnant and then disappear out of our lives?" I struggled to keep my voice from rising. "How the hell could you think we'd be okay with that, Harper? We fucking love you!" I was yelling now, for myself and Gray, and somehow, I knew he was thinking the same exact thing I was.

  She shook her head, caught in her own plan.

  "Where's your suitcase?" Gray suddenly burst out.

  I looked around the room and remembered she'd come in with nothing in her hands but her purse. I looked at her, but she ducked away from my gaze.

  "Where is your ticket?" I demanded. It was a struggle to keep my voice steady.

  She looked up. "What are you talking about?"

  "Your ticket!” I thundered. She jumped a little, and I hated myself, but I hated the idea of her leaving even more. "Give me your fucking plane ticket."

  "Cal, watch it," Gray said.

  "Go get her purse, Gray," I ordered.

  Gray looked at me, then looked at Harper. His lips twisted and suddenly he left the room. I stared at her. "How did you think that we'd let you go?" I asked her, feeling tears prick the corner of my eyes. "How could you think after telling us this, you could walk out of our lives?"

  "Because I don't know which one of you is the father," she gritted through her teeth. "Don't you see what that makes me? I have a baby, and I don't know who the father is? That's not the life I'm supposed to be living. I'm a fucking children's book author. I have a fucking morality clause, in my contract. I'm not supposed to be fucking around with two guys like some kind of two-bit whore!" she screamed, eyes blazing.

  "Don't you ever call yourself that again," I seethed.

  Gray reappeared in the doorway with a slip of paper in his hand. Harper's eyes went wide and she suddenly jumped up. "Give me that," she ordered.

  "Your flight's today," Gray said in an anguished whisper.

  "Give me that!" she cried, jumping up on her toes but he held it above her head.

  "You we're just going to fuck us and run?" Gray said, horrified.

  "I was coming to say goodbye!" she said harshly. "And it's not my fault that this happened."

  "It's nobody's fault," I heard myself yell. "But it will be yours if you le
ave."

  "We love you," Gray said, his voice catching. "Let us take care of you."

  Gray, looked back at me. I nodded slightly, and then suddenly her knees gave out.

  Gray caught her up in his arms and I went quickly over to her, and helped him get her back to the bed. "Are you okay?” Gray was asking. "Do you need some saltines or something? Are you dizzy?"

  "I'm fine," she said in a wavering voice.

  "No you're not, you're white as a ghost," I told her. "You take a nap, I'll call the airline and tell them to reschedule your flight."

  "They're not going to do that," she mumbled.

  "They will once I'm done with them," I told her. And I fucking meant it too. I was all set to go stomping out into the living room to search for my phone, blood boiling and ready to read the fucking riot act to some poor customer service worker, when the tell tale creak of my side door froze me in the spot.

  "Yo!" came the worst fucking voice I could have heard at the moment. "How'd the first day go?" Everett sang out cheerfully. "I brought over some of the good shit.”

  Then he rounded the corner out of the mudroom and stopped short to see me standing there in my living room, still stark-ass naked. "Dude, um..." he started, averting his eyes as we both fell silent.

  But not fucking silent enough.

  "Shit," came the distinctly feminine voice from Gray's bedroom. Rett's head whipped around and my heart sank right down to the center of the fucking earth when he saw her.

  Harper, emerging from Gray's bedroom. Wearing my shirt.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Grayson

  Everett was standing in Cal's living room and the only thing I could think to do was say, "Hey man," as I moved to cover my dick with my hands

  Everything was moving so slowly that I felt like I had fucking superpowers. I could hear the clink of glass in the white plastic bag he'd brought over, probably a bottle of Patron since he knew it was my favorite. He was still dressed in his polo and khakis, so he'd headed over right from work, eager to help me celebrate my first day at the new job.

  And fifteen minutes ago my cock had been inside his sister's ass.

  My superpowers extended to Harper and I swore I could hear the rapid pulse at her throat, and see the fluttering of her heartbeat under the thin fabric of Cal's shirt. I could read her fucking mind, too, as she wondered whether she should bolt out of here, or stay and see it through. Instinctually, I moved a little closer to her, just a fraction, but it was enough to make her roll her shoulders back and look her brother full in the eye.

  Rett cleared his throat. "Gray, man? Could you put some motherfucking clothes on?" he growled. "Maybe you too, Cal?"

  Cal and I looked at each other. I twisted and grabbed his jeans from the floor and tossed them to him, then grabbed my own. I could hear Harper's breathing getting faster and faster. She was close to hyperventilating and I knew she wasn't going to be able to take it much longer. "Rett?" she squeaked, then caught herself. "Can we talk about this?"

  "Yeah," Rett said, and I'd never heard that tone of voice come from his mouth. Nor did I ever want to again. I always thought the idea of your blood running cold was an expression but I swear my veins were actually flowing with ice. "We can talk later. Right now? You —" He stabbed a vicious finger in my direction, and it felt for all the world like he was trying to stab me right in the heart. "—and you. Outside."

  "Rett," Cal started.

  But Rett whirled on him. "My sister? My baby fucking sister? The fuck were you thinking?"

  "Rett," I didn't know what I was going to say, but it wasn't like he was going to give me a chance.

  "Get the fuck outside, right now, or so help me god, Gray..." he didn't finish his sentence, but then again, he didn't really need to.

  Harper hiccupped a quiet sob. Without really thinking, I brushed my hand up her back, trying to comfort her, but Rett's murderous eyes landed on me right as I was caressing the small of her back. "Get your fucking hands of her!" he roared.

  I snapped my hand back and lifted my chin. "So it's gonna be this way?" I challenged him. "All these years and you aren't even interested in hearing what we have to say?"

  Rett was pacing, running his hand over the back of his head and then dragging it down his face. "Both of you?" he whispered, shaking his head like he was trying to dislodge a particularly nasty image. "One of you I could maybe handle, but both of you?" He spun in a circle like a trapped animal, and then stabbed his hand to the door. "Outside."

  Cal shot me a glance and in that I saw everything that I needed to do. That we needed to do. There wasn't any way Rett was going to be able to make this right in his head until we gave him something to do with his fists.

  I took a deep breath and then nodded back.

  "Where are you going?" Harper demanded. "You don't have to listen to him!"

  "We owe him, baby girl," I said softly. "Don't you think?"

  "No!" she hissed, vehemently. "No I do not think!'

  I snatched up her hand. "Clear the air. Get it out in the open. No more sneaking around." I kissed the tips of her fingers. "For our baby."

  Her green eyes snapped fire at me and then suddenly filled with tears. Her hand went to her sweet little belly. I could already see the swell starting there, a round little curve that was brand new and perfect. She needed to concentrate on making that bump bigger. And that meant I had to fix this.

  Cal had been watching, but when I turned away, he nodded again. Rett was already out in the driveway, his shoes crunching on the icy gravel.

  I followed Cal outside. The late February cold wasn't enough to cool the adrenaline that was pumping in my veins. For a moment there was only the drip-drip sound of the snow melting from the pine trees that hid Cal's place from the road.

  Then there was the sharp sound of boots on the gravel and the whoosh of a fist in the air. Rett caught Cal with a punch straight to the gut, sending Cal's breath out in a whooshing grunt. I winced as I watched him double over and then fall back, stumbling to catch himself with his left hand.

  Fuck this is gonna hurt, I thought. "Rett, man, listen," I started to say...

  But he caught me with a wicked right hook. It was the kind of punch that should have flattened me. Hell, I'd thrown the same damn thing in fights before and I knew the damage it could do. But at the last minute he must have pulled back because it glanced off my jaw, snapping my head back but mercifully didn’t drop me like a rock.

  "Fuck," I hissed, and spat blood on the ground.

  "That's for fucking around with my sister. Any other girl in the world you could have picked to run a train on, and you chose Harper?" Rett spat at my feet. "The fuck were you thinking?"

  Cal was bent double, coughing and sounding like he wanted to either puke or murder something, but Rett wasn't done yet.

  "And what the fuck were you thinking?" he snarled, whirling on Harper. All the color drained from her face and she stared at him, stricken, her mouth a perfect 'o'. “You're smarter than this, why are you acting like a fucking idiot?"

  "I'm not," she shot back, stepping towards him. She was at least a foot shorter than Everett, but she got right in his face as she shoved him back. "You are! What the fuck are you doing, you don't own me! Go help Cal up, I think you really hurt him."

  "Good," Rett snarled. "Fucker deserves it."

  "No, he doesn't!" Harper shouted, shoving Rett so hard he took a step back. "I love him, Rett! I fucking love them both! And I'm having their baby!"

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Harper

  My big brother's face was crashing down in slow motion. His shoulders slumped. He sagged at his center and staggered backward like my words had punched him harder than he'd punched Cal. And the part of me that would always be his little baby sister, forever wanting to tag along, reached out to catch him before he slumped all the way to the ground. "Rett?"

  "Don't touch me!" he roared and smacked my hand away.

  And then everything happened so fast I
could only catch it in glimpses. A sound, like an enraged bull and the crunch of feet on gravel. And then motion as I was suddenly airborne, whirled around and away and suddenly deposited behind the broad wall of Gray's back as I peered out, terrified, to see that Cal had my brother by the shirt collar. "You don't touch her!" Cal raged. "Do you fucking hear me?"

  As fast as everything happened before, now it suddenly slowed back down again, so that I could see the anger in Rett's face dissolve into shock, and then hurt as he turned to look at me cowering behind Gray's back. "Shit," he whispered. "I didn't...mean...Harper are you okay?"

  I cleared my throat and stepped out from behind Gray. Gray reached out, but I gently set his hand back down at his side and went to my brother. "I’m okay," I told him, and then somehow, I'm not sure how, I managed a grin. "How about you?" I reached up and pressed my hand to Cal's shoulder. "You can let go of him, honey," I told him.

  The corner of Cal's eye twitched, but he nodded and loosened his grip on Rett's collar. My brother staggered back up to his feet. "I'm sorry," he sighed, running his fingers through his hair so that it stood up at all angles. "I shouldn't have...I didn't mean."

  "I'm okay, Rett. You barely touched me. It's Cal and Gray you should be apologizing to."

  He looked up. Cal was running his hand over his sore stomach. Gray grinned like a ghoul and then spat more blood on the ground. "Yeah, well..." Rett said, his voice hardening.

  "We'll get to that," Cal said. He stepped forward and extended his hand. "I really fucking regret that summer I taught you how to box," he said, grinning ruefully.