Shooting For Love - A Standalone Novel (A Suspenseful Bad Boy Neighbor Romance Love Story) (Burbank Brothers, Book #2)

by Naomi Niles

  I felt a presence in the room and lifted my eyes to see my family seated as well as a stranger. He was tall and muscular, gorgeous with dark black cropped hair and intense brown eyes that were taking me in quite intently. He was dressed in a clean white t-shirt and a worn leather jacket and smiled at me as I found myself returning one to him easily. I suspected that he was the owner of that car in the driveway, and everything about him screamed that he was an outsider to me. It was enticing, and the timing couldn’t have been worse, or better, depending on how you looked at it.

  I could smell him in the room above the scent of my supper, clean and woodsy as I took a deep breath.

  I noticed the scar tissue on his arm where the jacket was pushed up just slightly, perhaps to be easier for him to move. Maybe the feeling of anything on his skin irritated the marred red welts that covered his forearm. It made me wonder what happened, and I took the hands of my family as my Daddy said the nightly prayer before supper.

  I was introduced to the man after the prayer was said and the food was being passed around the table. His name was Aidan Wolcott, and he winked at me after the introduction as I felt my body warm up and my cheeks flush pink. I found out from his easy way of talking that he was a veteran of the Afghanistan War. I didn’t know too much about anything other than what little I’d been taught in school and without television or the internet like other folks had there was no way for me to know anymore apart from what he was telling all of us. It was fascinating to hear about life outside of my little community, and his eyes showed that he hid a few details with his storytelling and witty banter that had me laughing all too quickly. I think that my family was even entertained by him as I took peeks at them when I wasn’t staring at Aidan.

  There was a large part of me that wanted to go to a modern college during my time away as I listened to him talk and learn everything that I could, though that decision would have to be made at a later date. I hadn’t even left yet though I was feeling a stirring in my belly as I got more and more lost in Aidan.

  He was animated and witty, much different from any of the men-or boys-that I’d ever met living in this community. They all paled in comparison to him with their awkward ways, and I was hooked on his voice. His banter had me smiling and laughing before I even realized I was doing so, and it took away from the focus on the supper I’d piled on my plate.

  Supper was normally a quieter event for my family, and I noticed the looks that my father was giving me as I cleared my throat and looked down as I played with the roast on my plate. The food was delicious as always as my mother was one of the best cooks in the community, but I didn’t have any taste for it tonight. The appetite that I’d worked up outside in the yard seemed to disappear when I saw this stranger at my table, in my house.

  My father, Isaac, told me that Aidan was making a cross country drive from Virginia when his car broke down just in front of our farm. He gave me a stern look as he mentioned that he would be spending the night before a repairman came to take a look at the vehicle in the morning and I noticed out of the corner of my eye that my older brother Adam was sitting up straighter. I wanted to laugh at him and ask how he could think that he could intimidate a man like Aidan? He was strong and had lived such a life, one that I wanted so badly to know more about. No man here in my community could ever compare to Aidan, and I knew that I would never forget him.

  We finished supper, and I cleaned up in the kitchen with Mama as the men sat out on the porch and talked. Daddy liked to have his coffee and relax after he ate and I think my brother went out there just to spy on Aidan. I couldn’t help but wonder what they were talking about as we washed and dried the dishes and got the kitchen all cleaned up for the night. She looked at me with the same green eyes that I had and cleared her throat. “You liked that young man, Elsa. I could see it.”

  “He’s so different from anyone I’ve ever met here. What’s not to be fascinated by, Mama?” I asked her as I looked at her in wonder. I knew that she was worried about my time away and concerned that I might choose not to return, and the arrival of this man was a little too close to comfort for her. I knew that she had wanted the Amish life and loved it since she’d married my father soon after returning and settling into the family life. Of course, she wanted the same for me, but I’d always wanted to explore and see the world.

  I loved my family more than anything, but I’d always wanted something different for myself. I had looked forward to my freedom since I was a little girl and I anticipated spreading my wings and seeing more of the world, even if it was just the next town over. I knew that I was safe here and sheltered, which I didn’t want to be for my entire life.

  “I just think a man like that is far too advanced to be good for a woman like you, Elsa. That’s all.” She sounded concerned, and I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. “He’s dangerous.”

  “Mama, he will be gone before you know it. I am sure that he appreciates your generosity.” I tried to assure her as she hugged me back. “Everything is going to be just fine,”

  I told her to go and clean up for bed and that I would finish up in here since I needed a moment to myself. My mama and I didn’t talk about her time away, only ever about how happy she was here with us and her peaceful life. Mama hinted that the life she’d seen outside of our community was messy and troubling, and that was a sentiment that my father backed up.

  My brother had even come back to our life, and he was looking to marry Abby Rhodes in a few months’ time. She was a nice girl, and they’d known each other their whole life, but it made me wonder what he’d seen on the outside to return.

  Was the outside so terrible that nobody wanted to stay there? Would I not like it as I thought I would so many times?

  CHAPTER 2

  Aidan

  I went out front to pace around my car as I thought about the beautiful woman just inside. I had taken it through a car wash, and I decided to shed my jacket and give her a good wax before the sun went down for the night. There was a part of me that wanted to play the music that I had been listening to on my now silent cell phone, but I chose to respect them, and I worked in silence as I took in the fresh air that surrounded me. I glanced up halfway through the job to see the pretty blonde watching me from the kitchen before I raised my hand in a wave just to see her smile again. That smile had lit up my otherwise dull world in that little room while I ate their simple but comforting food and I basked in their lifestyle as I observed all of them around the table.

  The father had clearly been suspicious of me and my intentions as his only daughter laughed at my stories and seemed to be very involved in my words. It had been amusing the way her older but lean brother had tried to puff out his chest in an effort to Sucre of off of his sister, though I appreciated their concern. She seemed to be captivated by me and I wiped the edge of one of the high fins with precision as I smoothed it out.

  This car was the only thing that I could fix right now and I looked at the window again. Elsa was gone now but she’d wormed her way into my heart and I thought again back to the reason that I was here at all.

  Joe Miller had been my closest friend in Afghanistan. This car had been given to me by him in case anything should happen to him and the fact that I was standing here alone with it cleaning it like I could fix everything that happened only proved that he was gone all over again.

  In some ways, Joe had been lucky. A bomb took him out while I was suffering inside with a severe case of lung cancer as a result of being exposed to chemical weapons in my career in the military. I was only twenty-six and honorably discharged from my position as an Army soldier with nothing more to live for in my life after I’d already lost so much.

  This place was peaceful and I looked around over the hills that surrounded the tidy farm. It was clear that the family lived off this land and there was something about that that appealed to me, there was a certain joy in the quiet that was settling all around me.

  I had grown up in a military fami
ly full of rules and love, as well as loss and heartache. My house growing up had been in Norfolk, Virginia where my mother still lived in the same house I’d been born in after my father died on duty when I was only twelve years old. My older brothers kept the house loud and raucous and I’d stopped by there before I started this road trip for a small visit. They each served in the Navy as well with Brett being thirty, James twenty-eight and Braden thirty-two. We weren’t often there together but when we were, it was a pleasant and distracting sense of chaos.

  This was so different. It made me wonder if Elsa had ever left this yard or even this little community that she had grown up in. Did she have friends that she confided all of her secrets to, or a guy that looked at her with lust in his eyes? Had she ever been kissed under the night sky that was approaching soon?

  I didn’t know too much about the Amish ways and had never met any in the past, but this was a new adventure for me. I assumed that it was a lot different than my years growing up. I had played sports in high school and partied a lot. There were more women in my past than I wanted to think about right now, and three came into my mind as I dropped my arm on the car for a moment and frowned.

  I was on a mending journey to see each of them and to gain closure from what I had shared with them in my life. I needed my chance to tell them goodbye and prepare for the end, which I’d accepted up until tonight. Too much had happened that made me not want to fight anymore; the loss of my father, seeing Joe blow apart to pieces before my eyes and then the other memory that hurt me so badly that I ached inside. I was to blame for so much suffering and unhappiness and I dropped to the ground as the crickets started to chirp around me in the darkening evening. I felt myself caving inside to this peace and wanting a better life for myself if only for a moment.

  I knew that night was approaching, and I figured that I ought to head inside and find what my sleeping arrangements were for the night. I wouldn’t mind if it was in bed with sweet Elsa but dinner had only proved that she was off limits to a man like me, as she probably should be.

  I grabbed my jacket and tucked the car supplies into the trunk before I knocked gently on the front door. Isaac let me in, and I saw him give the vehicle a long gaze before he ushered me into the living room. Every man loved a classic car, and I shook my head as I sat down on the simple couch and looked around.

  “We have a barn out there with a loft area. There’s no room in the house for you tonight but that will make a fine place to sleep for the night. It’s comfortable and the night air will do you good,” Isaac told me as I saw a figure step into the room. Elsa was still dressed in her pale purple cotton dress and her hair hung over her shoulder in that braid as she stared at me with wide eyes.

  “That sounds like something I’ve not done since I was a kid at my grandparent’s farm. It’ll bring back good memories,” I agreed as she frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. He glanced up at her and told me that he’d get a fresh blanket and a pillow for me from the closet and left with a hard stare at both of us.

  I stepped closer to Elsa after a good look around the room to assure me that we were alone. “If you get scared tonight, come and get me. I’ll protect you from anything in the night,” I assured her in a husky voice as I watched her shiver and cross her arms tighter over her small chest. Elsa was a small, lithe girl, but I knew that her body would be nothing short of stunning. I saw the interest in her alert gaze as she looked into my face and down my body with her eyes resting on the scars on my arm.

  “Are you okay?” Her voice was soft as she asked me and I had a sudden rush to keep this woman safe from all harm as I took a deep breath.

  “Yes. It doesn’t hurt too much.” Lies. I was on a strong prescription for the pain from my injury that I only took at night when I knew I’d be trying to sleep. I wouldn’t cause any accidents or harm anybody then. It wasn’t the only medicine that I’d been on as a result of everything that had happened in the Army and I knew how they could cause harm to those in my life.

  It was another reminder that I wasn’t good for a woman like Elsa, and I gave her a long look before I heard Isaac call me to come into the barn. As I followed him, I knew that it was going to be a long night full of thoughts of Elsa, and I thought about the workout that I could get in the cool night air to try and ease the pain in my arm.

  CHAPTER 3

  Elsa

  I was changed into my white cotton night dress and in my bed for the night, but I only tossed and turned in the room as I thought about Aidan just a mere few feet away from me in the barn. My family went to sleep early in anticipation for an early work day, but rest was not going to come quickly to me tonight. I stood quietly and walked to my window where I could see up to the barn and my eyes widened as I watched Aidan lift his muscular body on one of the sturdy rafters, once and then again. His movements were slow and controlled. Amish men were strong on the farm but I’d never seen anything like him before, and I swallowed slowly as my throat went dry.

  My mind was racing with my reactions to him, both emotional and physical.

  Aidan was also only wearing a pair of loose shorts, and I could see every curve of his arms and back as he continued to move. It was a beautiful sight, and I barely felt aware of the act of grabbing a cardigan sweater and slipping it over my shoulders before I found some shoes to slip my feet into.

  This was wrong, but I couldn’t stay away from him. Daddy and Mama would be furious with me, but I carefully listened as I walked through the house and made my way to the far door before I cracked it open. It was silent, and I even heard Daddy snoring from their room.

  The sound of crickets and the summer wind filled my ears, and I took a deep breath before I walked out under the night sky. It was lit with stars, and I gazed up with wonder as I found myself longing to know what they looked like in other places. Were they brighter or closer? Did they look very different?

  My eyes passed over the lights in the sky and back to the barn where I knew that I was drawn. I walked over the grass and across the path to the door of the barn, which I opened slowly and carefully. It was dim inside with only light from the oil lantern that Aidan had placed on a table carefully while he exercised, but something about that light made him all the more appealing. I watched him with hungry eyes as he moved and then stilled as he looked around the room. “Scared already?” His voice was quiet, and I walked forward as he watched me with interest.

  My hair was loose around my shoulders in tousled curls and his eyes rested on them as I paused in front of him. “I haven’t slept yet. I saw you from my window and…I have never seen a man like you.” I let my eyes pass over his firm torso and pressed my lips together. “Please dress for me so I can feel you. No man here looks like you and I want to feel your body.”

  “Women usually ask for clothes to come off, not to be put on,” Aidan told me with another wink as he reached over and slid a dark fitted t-shirt over his body. “You’re a different kind of woman, Elsa. Would you like to learn how to do some of these exercises with me?” I could hear something in his voice that called to a darker part of me as I shivered but I stared into his face. This had to be fate that this man was here just at this point in my life. This had to be a sign of things to come.

  “I want to do so many things. I want to see the world.” I reached out and ran my fingers over his broad shoulder before I traced down his arm as I felt bumps cover his skin. “Please keep doing what you were doing for me. I need to see you.”

  “They’re called pull ups. I can do them most anywhere, and they keep my arms fit and strong,” Aidan told me before he chuckled and returned to the rafter.

  “I am allowed to leave soon. I can go away and see more,” my words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them and he paused over the smooth wood before he looked down at me where I was seated on the loose cover of hay.

  “What do you mean, Elsa?” I heard his curiosity, and I pulled the sweater over the thin material of my nightdress as I tried to figure out wha
t my body was doing inside. I was tingling, and there was a pressure that I wasn’t sure how to fix.

  “It’s a tradition know as rumspringa. We are allowed to leave our homes and run around, as the word means in Dutch. We can live another life before we make the final choice and give our lives to our church.” I told him as he moved down and up again in a slow manner.

  “What do you do during that time?”

  “Adam went with friends to Philadelphia for a month. He didn’t tell me the details, but I hear that the people drink alcohol and drive cars, while some smoke and do other forbidden things.” The stories were wild, and I blushed as I thought about what a girl had told me about her time away before she returned. She was not set to marry soon, but I was all too aware that her husband was not the first man she’d ever been with. It was hard to discuss with being busy so much and always having folks around, but I knew that she’d had sex while she was gone. Sex in a car.

  I couldn’t imagine such things.

  “When do you get to do this?” Aidan asked as he dropped down beside me and forced my gaze to his eyes.

  “It’s my choice but soon. I’ve been deciding what to do,” I responded as I watched him swallow thickly.

  “Yeah?”

  “Do more of the pull ups or anything else,” I urged him as I scooted away from him ever so slightly. “I need to see you.”

  He dropped to the floor where the hay was thinner and urged me to count for him so he could keep up with his record. I watched with a riveted gaze as he pressed his body up and down with his twitching arms as I counted and walked to the door to peer through the small crack that I’d left to see my house.