by Niki Green
“It doesn’t matter what happened. It won’t happen again. Carter’s here now, where he should be. Things are how they should be.”
“You love her.”
“Maybe once.”
“You’re in love with her.”
“Not anymore.”
“Always.”
“It was a long time ago, Joss. Things change. Some things…some things are just better as a memory.” His hand reached for the doorknob once more, and with his back turned he never saw her approach him. He twisted the knob, but her hand covered his and stopped all movement.
“And some things aren’t.” She barely whispered her piece of twenty-two-year-old-never-been-in-love wisdom.
He left on that note, but her words lingered in his mind, in his body and in his soul. Jocelyn’s words struck a chord in Brent’s heart, a cord that hadn’t been stricken in a long time. They would do little good though.
Carter Nash was back.
Back in town and back to claim what was rightfully his—Peyton.
Brent didn’t waste any time. He left the house and headed toward the barn, praying none of his family would choose to follow him. He just needed some time. Time to think. Time to himself—just a little bit of time.
Once he entered the barn, he had one of the horses saddled and ready in no time at all and then he was off. He rode the gelding hard for the first few miles—harder than he should have. When they finally stopped, Brent dismounted and left the horse content and comfortable under the shelter of some trees and walked. His boots took the terrain easily. This was his land. He knew it like the back of his hand and he moved across it at will.
When his feet finally stopped, he realized he hadn’t gone as far as he would have liked. In the end he was standing in front of the largest pond on the property. The largest pond with the clearest water. The pond where he and Carter and Peyton used to end up on the hottest summer days when the sun threatened to burn flesh from the bone. The cool water was always waiting with open arms. This pond had also seen a few drunken and giddy nights where all three of them would lie beneath the stars and dream about the what-ifs in life and what the future held for them.
It was also the same place they had ended up at that night—that night that changed the dynamics of their group. Brent took a deep breath, thinking it would clear his mind, but all it did was bring back memories, one memory in particular. He stood there on the banks, eyes shut against the ever-present sun and remembered.
He watched as she poked the sleeping form sprawled out in the bed of his pickup truck. Carter had passed out a good thirty minutes before and since then he and Peyton had taken turns tormenting him while he slept off the whiskey they’d consumed in honor of her eighteenth birthday.
“He’s gone. You can quit poking him now,” Brent said as he swatted at one of Carter’s booted feet that were dangling off the end of the tailgate. Carter stirred a bit, grumbled and then went still once more. Brent laughed and watched Peyton cover her mouth with her hand in an effort to stifle the giggles threatening to roll from her. It didn’t help.
“I shoulda known he’d be a lightweight on my night.” She stood from her crouched position and swayed a bit on her feet, but before she could tumble and fall, Brent was there to catch her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and let him ease her down from the bed of the truck. When her feet touched the ground, Brent expected her to let go of his neck, but she didn’t. Immediately, he felt a surge of lust rush through his body. He prayed like hell she was too drunk to notice the bulge in the front of his jeans.
“Can you walk?” he whispered against her mane of hair that always seemed to smell like apple blossoms.
“Well, now that all depends,” she countered with a laugh attached to her voice.
“On what?”
“On just how far you plan on travelin’.” She let her head fall back and Brent watched her eyes slide shut and a smile cross her face.
“Not far, darlin’. Just a few feet.” He tilted his head and indicated the quilt they had laid out earlier in the evening closer to the water’s edge.
“I think…” she said as she pulled away from him to stand on her own, “I can make it that far.” She laughed again, grabbed the half-empty bottle of whiskey from the tailgate and made her way toward the pallet. Brent checked on Carter one more time, saw he was breathing all right, enough to snore like a bear, and followed the same path she had taken.
He stood next to the edge of the blanket and smiled as she brushed away the nonexistent blades of grass from the quilt. When she had finished, she cut her eyes toward him and patted the empty place beside her. He did as she asked.
Brent sat down and pulled his long legs up so that the heels of his boots were embedded in the earth and his arms rested on his bent knees. The two of them were quiet for a few long moments as they watched the wind make ripples on the water.
“I love it here,” she said in a lazy, slurred fashion.
“So, how was your birthday? Was it everything you expected it to be?” She was silent for a second, and from the corner of his eye Brent could see her pondering his question.
“I don’t feel eighteen. Aren’t I supposed to feel like an adult now?”
“I guess some people do and for others it’s just another day.”
“What did it feel like when you turned eighteen?” As she asked her question, she scooted closer to his side until she was flush against him—hip to hip, thigh to thigh.
“I don’t remember,” he said after he cleared his throat, hoping it would clear his head as well. She felt so good pressed up against him like she was. She was so soft and so warm—so her.
“What do you mean you don’t remember? It was only a couple of years ago.” She laughed at him and he couldn’t help but join in. “As I recall, I wasn’t invited to that party. It was boys only. I only got to hear the edited version you told me days later. What did y’all do that night?”
“I don’t remember.” he lied. He remembered and remembered vividly. His brother Chase, being so much older and so much wiser at twenty had taken him to a strip club—just the boys, Chase, Brent and Carter. It had been one of the best nights of his life, but it was nothing compared tonight. He would have traded every naked woman he had seen that evening for five minutes alone with Peyton.
“You’re such a liar.” She playfully popped him on the shoulder with the flat of her hand and tiny tingles of heat rushed from the top of his skin to the middle of his bones when she did. “Carter told me Chase took you to a tittie bar in Dallas. What was it like?” Her voice was peaked with curiosity and Brent had never been more mortified in his entire life. Fucking Carter and his damned big mouth.
“Carter told you what we did that night?”
“He sure did,” she replied in a singsong voice. “Every last horny detail.”
“Then why’d you ask?” Heat coated his face and he swore that when Carter woke up from his peaceful drunken slumber he would knock his ass right back out.
“Because I wanted to see if you would tell me, and you didn’t and now my feelings are hurt.”
Brent stared at the toes of his boots and waited for the embarrassment to pass. It did and just as soon as his face had cooled, she laid her head against his shoulder and sighed too sweetly for her own good. “It’s okay, Brent. Everybody likes boobs and you’re no different.”
“Shit.” He would have lunged to his feet if he weren’t scared of rolling her across the ground as he did. “What the hell did Carter tell you?”
“I told you—everything. Haven’t you figured it out yet? Carter and I don’t keep secrets from each other unlike some people I know.” She poked him in the ribs with her finger.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you tell Carter everything and Carter tells you everything and I tell Carter everything and Carter tells me everything, but you tell me nothing.”
“I have no idea what you just said.”
; “I don’t either.” She giggled once again and gracefully fell back onto the blanket and stared at the stars above. Brent’s embarrassment over his best friend’s admissions fled his body and desire took its place. He studied her long, tan legs that were slightly bent at the knee and wondered how the simplest thing like moonlight could make them look sexier than they did on a regular basis. On her back her breasts didn’t look as heavy as he knew they were, but they were a welcoming sight nonetheless. Once again, his cock became full and his zipper threatened to leave a permanent reminder of his lust behind. Like he needed one more reminder of her or her body plaguing him. He had years of memories and fantasies to keep him occupied at night.
“Come lie down by me.”
“I better not.”
“Why not? We’re just star gazing.” He felt her move and when he was sure enough of himself and his actions he looked down at her. Big mistake. She lay curled on her side with one leg crossed over the other. One of her bare feet was nudging the hem of his jeans, prodding him along, and that teasing grin he loved so much was plastered on her face. He gave in to her request and slowly eased his back onto the blanket and stared at the endless sky above dotted with more than a million twinkling stars.
Looking completely satisfied with herself, she cuddled up next to his side, laid one of her legs across the both of his and rested her head against his shoulder. He felt his muscles roll and play underneath his skin and was sure she felt them as well. When she spoke, her voice sounded soft and sleepy and the tone reverberated throughout his body and soul.
“This is nice.”
He could only grunt in reply. Entwined together, per her doing, they both lay still and silent with the overhead blanket of light as their only cover.
“How long have we been friends?” Without thinking, he brushed a few of the fallen locks of hair away from her face and tucked them behind one of her dainty ears. When had her skin become so soft? When had she stopped being just a friend and turned into something so much more? A year ago? Maybe two?
“Forever. But things change. Who’s to say that when I come back for Christmas you won’t be settled down with some old skank?” The way she snarled her nose brought a laugh to his lips.
“What makes you think I’m the one that’ll end up with a skank?” He felt her shrug and watched as a whole book of emotions played across her face. If it hadn’t been for the light if the moon he wouldn’t have seen a one, but thanks to its shine he saw them all. Fear. Disappointment. Pain. What was going on with her? “Besides, who’s to say when you get to college you won’t find a boyfriend or two and forget all about Carter and me.” Forget about me. He was glad he’d included Carter in his statement—it was better that way.
“I might just do that.” She put on one of the fake smiles Brent had seen a thousand times before. Maybe it was the alcohol making her talk and feel the way she was. Or maybe it was her nerves talking. It was something—he just didn’t know what.
“Well, when we come to visit you at college you best tell him to hit the road while we’re in town. You know how we are about what’s ours—we’re not real big on sharing.” He tried to make his comment light, funny and friendly, but he felt he failed miserably.
“Yeah, right.” She pushed herself up from her curled position and scooted to the edge of the blanket and started again with her damned fiddling and brushing. “Carter’s already told me he’s going to be entirely too busy to drive down and see me, and you know as well as I do the two of you always travel in a pair.”
“That’s just Carter talkin’. You know he doesn’t mean half of what he says, and then you can’t believe the other half that comes out of his mouth.” Carter was a sweet talker who very rarely followed through with what he said—no matter how big or small.
“You know he’s heading off with his brother to rodeo?” That fact wasn’t news to Brent. He knew Carter was itching to get out of Millbrook. He always had been. Nothing could tie Carter down—nothing at all.
“He just wants to see some of the world before he settles down is all.” Brent tensed a bit as she moved closer and as her fingers toyed with the buttons of his shirt. Shit, at this pace he would bust the seams of his breeches in no time. He tried to think about anything besides her and her fingers and her hair and her everything.
Trees came to mind.
His mother’s chicken casserole.
His grandmother, Faith, and how she always smelled like Windsong and soap, but apple blossoms were so much better. Shit.
Brent closed his eyes and counted to ten and then to twenty. When he opened them again, feeling more calm and more in control, her face was just inches away from his.
“What about you?”
“What about me what?” He tried to make his breathing more shallow so that her breasts didn’t flirt and play as much against his chest.
“Do you want to see the world before you decide to settle down?”
“My world’s right here. It always has been—it always will be.” Once more, he tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear and couldn’t help but linger.
“If I asked you to do a favor for me, would you do it?” Her voice had dropped to barely more than a whisper, but he had no trouble hearing her, thanks to their close proximity.
“I always have before. I don’t see why that would change now.” Brent sent her a teasing smile and tugged on the strand of hair he couldn’t stop running his fingers through.
“Kiss me.”
“What?” To Brent’s ears he sounded as if he had swallowed a frog. He tried to move her off and away from him, but she wasn’t budging.
“Kiss me.”
Brent tried once more to put some space between her soft, sweet body and his, which seemed to be growing harder by the minute. He finally gave in, lifted his head and pecked her lips with his. When he drew away, he saw a disappointed look mar her features.
“What?” he asked as if he didn’t know.
“Not like that. I want a real kiss. I want you to kiss me like you mean it.” Again, her lips were inches from his.
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not?” The pouty look she had on her face made him want to laugh, but he resisted. Just as he resisted his natural instincts to kiss her and keep on kissing her until she forgot all the other kisses she’d ever had and any she would ever have.
“Because. If I kiss you, for real, I won’t be able to stop myself.” There was the truth. She could take it or leave it. He just wondered what she would do with it now that she had it.
“Then don’t.”
Without hesitating, Brent grasped her by the neck, pulled her face to his and took her lips just as he dreamed of doing every night when he went to sleep.
The kiss was meant to be sweet and suggestive and it did the job. Moments after her lips opened for his, he rolled her underneath him, locking them together for an eternity. When he finally stopped and pulled away, he liked what he saw. Her lips were swollen from his assault and her breathing was just as ragged as his own. Brent didn’t think his mind and body could race out of control any more than it all ready was—he was wrong.
“More.”
That was the end—or the beginning. Brent’s next kiss led into another and then another. Before dawn crept over the plains of the Kiel ranch, Brent had kissed nearly every inch of her body, clothed and unclothed, and taken what she had given him without a bit of guilt.
They’d both watched the sun break the night into a thousand pieces as they lay wrapped in each other’s arms, his body still deep within hers. The fact that she was leaving in a week’s time had left him with a bit of emptiness deep down, but he had known she would come home. She would come home to him—and he would be waiting for her.
Brent opened his eyes and the memory vanished, but the ache lingered. He had waited on her—waited on her and then pushed her out without a blink of an eye. But this time it was different. This time he hadn’t pushed her away, but he hadn’t tried to pull h
er away from Carter either. He had let her go—along with his heart.
Chapter Twenty-One
“We need to talk.” Peyton heard Carter’s voice before she saw his face. He was standing just outside the bathroom door, out of arm and fist’s reach.
“You still mad at me?”
Peyton lifted her head from the bathroom sink, toothbrush still stuck in her mouth, and scowled at Carter via the mirror.
“I said I was sorry.”
She shook her head, rolled her eyes and then spit the combination of toothpaste and water into the sink in a less than ladylike manner. She grabbed the towel from the towel rack, scrubbed her mouth with it and then left the bathroom and Carter staring after her.
“Peyton,” he called after her, but she ignored him. “Peyton will you stop?” Carter caught up with her as she was about to enter her bedroom—the one place he was forbidden to enter as of last night. Carter had slumbered in the guest bedroom on the bed that had mysteriously lost its sheets and blankets. They were resting safely in the bottom of Peyton’s closet and she would replace them when she didn’t see red when she looked at him.
“Where the hell have you been, Carter?” She turned quickly on her bare feet, crossed her arms over her breasts and stared him down and waited. “I have called you every day, several times a day, for the past week, and you pick two days ago, of all the fucking days, to show up.
“Sorry, darlin’. My phone got turned off and by the time I got it turned back on I had missed all of your calls.”
“You know, if you would pay the bill your phone wouldn’t get turned off and you wouldn’t miss my calls and my voice messages telling you that I hadn’t had the chance to tell anybody that our engagement was off. If you had paid your phone bill you would have known what a shit storm everything was around here and why I haven’t gotten around to telling anybody yet.”
“You’ve had months, Peyton. Months. Don’t blame me for coming to check on you and interfering with you and Brent and whatever the hell is going on between you two.”
