Somebody Like You (Starlight Hill Series Book 2)

by Bell, Heatherly

  “Maybe we should eat and talk about this later?” Brooke asked.

  “Good idea, but there’s not much to talk about. There’s lots of planning, though. A wedding! At our age.” Mom smiled next to Giancarlo, and strangely she looked excited and not at all in need of Prozac.

  Billy shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. A wedding.

  “Does anyone want to hear about my problem now?” Pop asked. “If you’re done prying into your mother’s personal life?”

  “Yeah, Pop, what is it?” Billy asked.

  “It’s not instructions to grow the perfect vine. It’s advice for a happy marriage. The stupid man thought he was a poet. He’s likened a marriage to a healthy vine that produces good fruit. Respect each other, put each other first, and never go to bed angry, blah blah blah. Nothing we can use!” Pop said.

  “Maybe we could,” Giancarlo piped up, with a longing look towards Mom. Blech.

  Melinda now stood next to Pop, rubbing his back. “There, there. It will all work out.”

  Before long, they were all seated around the table, watching Giancarlo carve the turkey. Strange to see his mother with a man by her side. Not that Giancarlo didn’t seem like a perfectly harmless man, even if Billy hadn’t had him checked out yet. He would have already accomplished that, had Brooke thought to share that bit of information with him.

  She sat next to him, still not saying much. Despite his confusion, Billy grabbed her hand under the table and squeezed. She had plenty of time to explain all of this to him later, and explain she would.

  Scott was another one who had some explaining to do. He was the brother who always brought home strays, but this was over the top. Billy didn’t need one of his high school exes sitting next to him, where she’d made sure to find a place. She kept leaning a little closer than necessary to pass him a dish. Accidentally brushing her leg against his. Laughing a little too loudly at everything he said. That sense of desperation was no more attractive to him now than it had been in high school.

  “Can we have the wedding at the vineyard?” Mom asked.

  “Sure,” Billy answered.

  “That sounds so romantic,” Fallon said from next to him, brushing up his leg again. “Don’t you think?”

  Billy didn’t answer, since he wasn’t the best person to decide on the romantic virtues of a wedding in a vineyard. But if his mother wanted to get married there, she would. After he’d put Giancarlo through a proper background check.

  “Are you thinking of a summer wedding? In June the vines are full and it’s beautiful.” Brooke spoke up.

  “Summer? I wasn’t thinking we’d wait that long,” Mom said, batting her eyelashes at Giancarlo.

  Billy froze. He was close enough to feel Brooke’s thigh tense next to his. Turns out all along he’d inched his way closer to her, and away from Fallon.

  “But Eileen, you need time to plan the wedding. We’re going to have our Grand Opening in a few days. June would be great,” Brooke said, and Billy thought he heard a little desperation in her voice.

  There was every possibility that this turn of events had shocked her as much as it had everyone else.

  “When you put it that way,” Mom said. “Let’s do it up right.”

  “Makes sense.” Giancarlo nodded.

  Billy relaxed, grabbed Brooke’s hand and squeezed again. This time she squeezed back.

  Fallon put her hand on his thigh and rubbed it. “It’s so awesome that you can give your mother the wedding of her dreams.”

  Carefully, he dislodged Fallon’s hand from his thigh. “Yeah. Awesome.”

  Later, after everyone had their fill and then some of turkey, and the guests began to trickle out, Billy waited until he saw Giancarlo leave. Satisfied that the lovesick man wasn’t going to stay the night, he and Brooke left last, dropping off Melinda at the farm.

  Finally, they had a moment alone in the car.

  “I’m exhausted,” Brooke said, throwing her head back on the headrest of the passenger seat. “How will I get through Christmas?”

  He put his hand on her knee. “I don’t know what you’re complaining about. Your mother was great.”

  “For once. But The Holidays seem to bring the craziness out of people. Billy, I didn’t know your mother would want to get married to the man.” She glanced at him, and though he only took his eyes off the road for a moment, he swore her eyes were watery.

  Which couldn’t be true. Brooke, to his knowledge, didn’t cry.

  He spoke softly. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d fixed them up?”

  “I meant to, but then I thought ...”

  “That I wouldn’t like it?”

  “And I don’t like this, either. I arranged dinner for the two, not a lifetime together.”

  “Kids these days.” Billy laughed, and tried to make light of it.

  It was easier to laugh than to take the love sick expression on Mom’s face seriously. He wanted that for himself, but not so much for his mother. Selfish, okay, but damn.

  “It’s not funny. We have less than seven months. Maybe they’ll change their minds. But what if they actually go through with this?”

  “Then we’ll have a wedding.” They’d reached the manor house, and he shut off the car. “As long as the background check clears.”

  He felt Brooke tense under his touch. “Background check? I wouldn’t have fixed your mother up with someone I didn’t trust. Foolish romantic that he is, Giancarlo is a good man. He’s fairly new to town, but pretty much a fixture here now. A widower for ten years, who raised four beautiful daughters.”

  “I’m sure you’re right about him, but a background check wouldn’t hurt.” He opened the car door, and surprisingly Brooke didn’t immediately spring out of the car but waited for him to open her door. Something she never let him do.

  Not a good sign.

  He opened the passenger door, but she didn’t move, her eyes flashing with heat. “You don’t trust me.”

  “What? Of course I do, Bungee.” He reached for her, pulled her out of the car and into his arms.

  Her hands went up against his chest. “Face it. You don’t trust me to find a proper man for your mother.”

  “Not true.”

  “Then you would forget the background check. You have to admit, this is better than online dating!”

  He took her hand and walked with her towards the main house. “No argument there, but I asked you to get her input on the menu. Not fix her up.”

  “Well, it turns out she needed this more. Besides, she wanted tofu on the menu!”

  So that’s what this was all about. He stopped at the front door, and turned to her. “Did you fix her up so you could have total control over the menu?”

  She didn’t meet his eyes. “Maybe.”

  “Brooke ...”

  “She needed this. She’d become obsessed with tofu. Obsessed! I was doing her a favor. Can’t you see how happy she is?”

  “She wants to get married, and she just met the man!”

  “What can I say? Apparently he works fast.”

  He opened the door, half wondering how he could end this argument and head towards the bedroom. “All I can see is that you like control in every aspect of the business.”

  “I told you that when you hired me, and you still hired me!”

  He couldn’t argue with that. He had. And actually, he still didn’t regret it. The comments about her having a nervous breakdown had been dead wrong as he’d suspected. He’d guess she also hadn’t been drunk and made a scene. He, above most people, understood how a rumor could get around. “Look, from now on let’s just be honest with each other. Tell me when my family is driving you crazy.”

  She looked him square in the eyes. “Billy, your family is driving me crazy.”

  “Thanks for all the honesty.” He grabbed her wrist, and easily twirled her into his arms.

  She put her hands against his chest and gave him a little shove. “And why were you holding hands with yo
ur ex tonight?”

  Yeah, now they were getting somewhere. He’d have to guess Brooke had seen him slide Fallon’s hand off his thigh, and made other assumptions.

  “Ah. She put her hand on my thigh, and I took it off.”

  “Oh. Well, what was she doing there anyway? Am I supposed to believe it was an accident she wound up at Thanksgiving dinner?”

  Thanks to Scott and Fallon, Billy found himself on the defensive, when he’d hoped for a passionate apology tonight. “Believe me, I’ll have words with my brother. But I have to believe, knowing Scott, she asked if she could come. Sometimes that’s all it takes with him. He’s got a hero complex.”

  “She’s interested in you, I hope you know.” Brooke moved to the lighted balcony, where she stared into the dark night. There was a new moon but even so out here in the country the darkness was encapsulating. Complete. It had to be difficult for someone who feared the dark.

  “But I’m not interested in her.” He came up behind her, one of his favorite places to be. He slipped his arms around Brooke, pulling her into his chest.

  She didn’t resist, but leaned back into him. She was so small in his arms, it felt like he could pick her up and put her in his pocket.

  “Billy, what are we doing?” She almost whispered.

  If his head hadn’t been bent down next to hers, he might not have heard her. He turned her around his arms.

  “Whatever you want. Right here. Right now.” His hand drifted up underneath her black dress and palmed her glorious ass.

  Underneath his palm, Brooke shivered. Hopefully not just from the cold that had descended on the late autumn night. “Here? Now? It’s cold.”

  “I’ll keep you warm. We’re alone, no one around for miles, and the balcony is your favorite place. Admit it.” He drew her tiny face to his lips and kissed her hard and deep. When they came up for air, her eyes had softened.

  “But if we do this, I’ll never think of the balcony the same way.” Brooke smiled against his mouth.

  “I’m good with that.”

  She pushed away from him and scooted herself into a sitting position on top of the stone ledge of the balcony. One finger beckoned him to her side.

  He didn’t know how Brooke managed to pull at two different organs at once, but she did. She’d been the only one who ever had. He felt the sharp thrust of pure lust as he got between her legs, and she pulled at his belt.

  He took a condom from his pocket, and she slid it on with a smile. “Always ready.”

  When it came to Brooke, he’d be crazy not to be. He pushed her dress up to her waist and slid off his pants. Then he was inside of her, wet and slick, driving into her. When she cried out his name and he followed, nearly screaming too, he realized he’d been so distracted his thrusts had pushed her dangerously close to the edge. He pulled her back.

  “I got carried away,” he said with a groan. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be. That was fun.” She moaned softly, and for a second he wondered if he’d fallen in love with the female version of Evil Knievel.

  The thought stopped him short. Holy shit. Since when was he in love with Brooke?

  “What’s wrong? You look scared. I wasn’t going to fall. And anyway, it’s a short six foot drop. We’d only get a little bit banged up. Not like we would die.”

  He pulled up his pants, smoothed down her dress, picked her up in his arms, and carried her inside. “I’m not going to lose you over the balcony.”

  Later in bed, as Brooke lay on top of him, all her glorious wild hair splayed over his chest, she pushed up on her chin. “It goes both ways, you know.”

  “What does?”

  “You’re not being honest with me, and you know it.”

  He tugged on a strand of her hair. “I already told you, she put her hand on my thigh. I took it off.”

  “Not what I mean,” she said, caressing the scar on his shoulder. “Does it hurt?”

  “No.” Sometimes, when he was with Brooke, he forgot he had a shoulder much less a bad one.

  “Because when I saw you helping the guys play baseball, I wondered if you should be doing that.”

  “The reason I had to quit is I can’t throw the way I need to in Major League Baseball. Not on a consistent basis.”

  “So you could maybe coach?”

  “Yeah. Actually, Coach is retiring and he’d like me to take his place.”

  “Really? Why don’t you do it?”

  He wouldn’t expect Brooke to understand, but coaching a high school baseball team would be a step down. According to Gigi, and pretty much everyone. “Is this you, trying to get rid of me so you have the vineyard all to yourself?”

  “No, this is me trying to get you to be honest with yourself. Maybe this vineyard isn’t what you want. It’s what Pop wanted, and you’re doing it for him.”

  “So what’s wrong with that?”

  “Why not do what makes you happy?”

  “I am happy. Especially when you stop talking and use your mouth for something else.”

  She laughed. “I’m serious.”

  He grinned. “So am I.”

  She grabbed his face and framed it between her hands. “Billy. All I’m saying is it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You could coach. Or maybe you should take the sports casting job, if it’s what you want.”

  She wasn’t fooling him. The sadness in her eyes was gratifying. “I’m not taking the job.”

  “If you want it, you should. I want you to be happy.”

  “What I want is to stay right here. With you.” His hand slid down her silky smooth back and down to her perfectly shaped ass. A guy could get addicted to Brooke.

  “Even in this boring little town?” She laid her head down on his chest, and he couldn’t see her eyes.

  “Who called my hometown boring?”

  “Gigi said you’d never be happy here.”

  Every muscle in his body tensed. He was so damned tired of Gigi trying to protect him. Those careless words had obviously hurt Brooke.

  He grabbed a fistful of her hair in his hand. “She had no right to say that to you.”

  She lifted her head, her hair disheveled the way he loved it, a wild mane around her face. Her eyes were soft and liquid. “I kicked her out of my office.”

  “Good.”

  “But later I thought, maybe she’s right. Maybe you can’t be happy here. It’s not fair that you spent most of your life working towards a goal, and then you have to leave it all behind.”

  “You know, we find ourselves in a precarious position right now. You, hater of jocks, encouraging the man you’re sleeping with not to give up his sport. Ironic, isn’t it?”

  “Believe me the irony is not lost on me. But for once, I want to look in those green eyes and see a man who looks as satisfied with his life as by all accounts he should be.”

  He rolled on top of her. “I’m satisfied with my life. Do you want me to show you how much?”

  Then he showed her without words. No more talking, but only touching and feeling. Learning and memorizing the landscape of her body.

  Forgetting everything and everyone because she made it so easy.

  *****

  It was five days from their Grand Opening, and Brooke’s lists were making her crazy. She had at least ten of them. Pretty soon she’d need a list of her lists.

  A ten-foot tree sat in the middle of the open floor, and some of the volunteers from the local Little League organization had arrived to decorate it. Garland, white fairy lights, and wreaths hung every few feet on every available wall or door space. Music from The Nutcracker piped through the speaker system.

  Christmas had come to Mirassu.

  “Where’s the list with all the outdoor decorating that still needs to be done?” She shuffled the papers laid out all over the wine bar. Rather than working in the office, she liked being right in the middle of all the action. Where she could watch everyone, and make sure they were doing what they should be.

  Everythin
g. Had. To. Be. Perfect.

  “Right here.” Eric handed her a yellow piece of paper. “What do you need me to do?”

  “Get me some Valium?” Brooke asked. “No? Fine. Then why don’t you go double check our inventory? I want to make sure we have enough of the Pinot.”

  “Right.” Eric took off in the direction of the wine cellar.

  The worst thing that could happen would be to run out of their new line. She’d test tasted the latest crush, and it was quite possibly some of the best Pinot she’d had in a long time. Velvety smooth with a hint of apple. It could wind up being the new Mirassu’s signature label, if all went well. It might even win the next private label contest. That would kill George.

  Judging by the response from the invitations, half the town would be here on opening night. Including George and Chelsea. Too bad. Brooke hadn’t been able to avoid inviting them, but hoped they’d have the decency to decline. No such luck.

  So she’d have to mingle with her ex and his fiancée for the first time since the night they’d announced their engagement. The same night she’d insulted George and quit on the spot. Not exactly her proudest moment. Her plan was to keep Billy and George apart as much as humanly possible all evening.

  Billy. She wanted to be the kind of woman he thought she was. The kind of woman he seemed to see when he looked into her eyes, studying her, like he couldn’t quite believe she was real. This morning she’d woke to find him staring at her. Thankfully not in a creepy stalker way.

  She’d hit his arm. “What? Okay, goofball. Stop staring. Have you never seen a woman sleep?”

  “Can I help it if I enjoy it when you’re quiet? Which is only when you’re sleeping.”

  “Brat.”

  At which point she’d climbed on top of him and showed him how loud she could get. He’d wound up covering her mouth that time. Afterwards, she’d drifted to sleep again, only to wake up and find him gone. He’d left her a note saying he had a meeting with Coach.

  She didn’t understand why he wouldn’t come out and admit how much he missed baseball. It had to be a guy thing. And the reluctance to talk about feelings, definitely something she understood. But there had to be a way he could keep his status as a former baseball superstar and also coach high school baseball. Yeah, in the wide world of sports it might be considered a step down but so what?