Room For You (Cranberry Inn)

by Beth Ehemann

  “Yeah, they do. So does Kacie.” Derek eyed me curiously.

  “Does she? Good.” I sighed. “We’ve had a weird week or so, I thought I’d done something wrong, but all she says is she’s fine.”

  Derek cringed. “Fine is never good.”

  “I know!” I handed Derek his beer and we started back to the table together.

  “Kacie had a rough time after Zach ditched her; she’s been a little skeptical ever since. Like she’s waiting for a bomb to drop or whatever.” He shook his head, staring off at the dance floor. “I don’t know, women are weird.”

  “I’ll drink to that,” I said, clinking my beer with his.

  “What are you two toasting?” Alexa stood behind us with her hip cocked to the side, arms folded defensively across her chest. Kacie was just behind her with one raised eyebrow, and her lips puckered as she chewed the inside of her cheek. She looked sexy and confident … and sexy.

  Derek spun around and scooped Alexa up in his arms, kissing her neck. “How fucking hot our women are.”

  “True story.” I pulled Kacie into my arms and started dancing at the table with her.

  “No way.” She pulled back, shaking her head. “If I’m gonna dance, I need to have a whole lot of liquor.”

  “Coming right up.” I grinned, dragging her to the bar.

  “These are so gooooood,” Kacie slurred after her fourth green apple Martini. Her eyes were relaxed and happy, her movements were as loose as I’d ever seen.

  “How are you feeling? Think you should slow down?” I asked cautiously.

  “Hell no!” She tossed her arms around my neck and slithered herself up and down my body in a way that men usually pay for. “I’m just getting started, baby.”

  “Baby?” I laughed.

  “Yeah, baby.” She licked her lips and grinned up at me, wobbling from side to side. “You’re my baby.”

  I grabbed her hips to keep her from falling over. “You got that right … baby.” I reached down and covered her mouth with mine. Her cold, sweet tasting tongue darted into my mouth, kissing me deep.

  “You ready to go? I’m worried you’re gonna be sick tomorrow.”

  “I’m fine,” she said in a garbled tone.

  “You are?”

  “Sharp as a tack!” She giggled.

  “Alexa and Derek are taking off, most of the other people have left too. You sure you don’t want to go?”

  Kacie straightened up with a surprised look on her face. “That Alexa is one smart bitch, huh?”

  “Um … okay?”

  “No, Brody. Really, think about it. She helped design all this.” She threw her hands up in the air as she spun in a drunken circle. “And, she knows when I’m bullshitting her. She’s really good at that.”

  “Bullshitting her?” I asked, reaching out every so often to reel her back in.

  “Yeah, she said I loved you. I said no. She was right.”

  I stood, frozen on the dance floor in shock while she wiggled her way around me.

  “You love me?” I asked after the shock wore off.

  “Holy shit, yes.” She giggled, opening her arms wide. “A lot!”

  No words came out of my mouth, oxygen barely made its way to my brain. I didn’t know how to react. No woman had ever told me they loved me before, and definitely not one I was certain I loved back like Kacie.

  “Okay, I think maybe it’s time to go, huh?”

  “You want to get me home and take advantage of me, don’t you?” she whispered in my ear. “I accept.”

  She wrapped her arms around my waist and held on tight as I led us out to my car, waving at a beaming Lauren and Tommy as we left.

  I gently set Kacie down in the passenger seat and before I could scoot around to my side, she grabbed my face and pulled it down to hers, kissing me again.

  I tore myself away from her before I lost all control and peeled her dress off right there in the parking lot. Odds are, there were security cameras and there was no doubt in my mind that footage would be in the news by morning.

  “You’re so hot, Brody.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh at her a little. I’d never seen her like this and oddly enough, it was adorable, just like everything else she did. This woman normally controlled every aspect of her life, it was nice to see her let loose for once.

  She reached over and grazed her fingernails along the back of my neck while I drove us home. It was driving me crazy and making me hard.

  “I meant what I said tonight … I love you, Brody.” Her head lay against the back of the seat angled toward me; her shimmering green eyes barely cracked open.

  “I love you, Kacie.” I reached over and brushed her cheek with the back of my hand.

  I sat at the stoplight long after it’d already turned green, just so I could watch her fall asleep.

  I tried to roll over but I couldn’t move, it felt like someone had replaced my limbs with sandbags. And my head … holy crap, my head. Every time I moved it, I thought it was going to break free and roll right off the end of my bed.

  How the hell did I get into my bed?

  The harder I tried to remember last night, the louder the blood rushed in my ears. My head felt like it was being squeezed in a lion’s mouth, a very angry lion who was being stabbed with a scalding hot fireplace poker.

  Groaning as I rolled over, I peeked one eye open to see the clock, but a piece of paper covered it. I lifted my 700 pound arm and snatched the piece of paper off my nightstand, blinking rapidly until the words came into focus.

  As painful as it was, I lifted my head and saw two aspirin and a glass of water next to my clock. I sat up in bed and concentrated on nothing but breathing for a few minutes.

  In and out. In and out.

  The waves of nausea finally calmed into ripples, allowing me to reach over and scoop up the pills. I popped them into my mouth and took a sip of water. The sip turned into a giant gulp as I chugged mouthful after mouthful of the cold, refreshing liquid. I set the empty glass down and looked at my outfit. Brody must have put pajamas on me too.

  I wanted nothing more than to burrow myself deep into my bed for the next twelve hours, but my bladder wasn’t having it. Dragging myself upright, I silently wondered if I was still drunk. Everything hurt. Holy crap, did I drink too much last night or run a marathon?

  I limbered to the bathroom and then made my way out to the family room to see what my girls were up to, praying someone was watching them.

  I turned the corner to the family room and stopped dead in my tracks.

  “What the…” I mumbled, trying to force my brain to process what I was seeing.

  Lucy and Piper had a salon set up in the living room. Brody was propped up on the couch with cotton balls stuffed in between his toes, a mess of pink polish on his nails and his hair was pulled up into ten different short ponytails and dotted with barrettes.

  He cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes at me. “You tell anyone about this, I’ll tell the world you drool in your sleep, a lot.”

  A laugh escaped my lips, causing the pressure in my head to accelerate to an excruciating level. “Ow, ow, ow,” I whined, holding the sides of my head as I backed into the kitchen and fell onto a chair.

  “See? That’s what you get,” Brody teased. “Hey guys, I’m gonna take a break. I’ll be right back, okay?”

  “My turn!” Lucy called, offering to take Brody’s place.

  He walked over and bent down, placing a gentle kiss on the top of my head.

  “Ow. Even my hair hurts.”

  “Serves you right, Martini queen.” He laughed.

  “Shhh, not so loud. Maybe a whisper for today?” I rested my head on my hands and prayed for death.

  “You hungry?” His words made my stomach turn. “Maybe you’d like a … green apple?”

  “Are you trying to make me sick?” I mumbled against the wood table.

  “Not really, but this is kinda fun. How about some coffee?” He stood and turne
d the coffee pot on.

  “Yes, please.” I growled.

  Brody didn’t talk through my whole first cup of coffee and half of my second. He told the girls Mommy had a headache and promised them that if they played quietly, he’d let them paint his fingernails later.

  “Do you remember anything about last night?” he finally asked.

  I thought hard, but nothing came back. “The last thing I really remember is walking my mom and Fred to the car. Where is Mom, anyway?”

  “She said she had breakfast plans with a friend but didn’t want to go because of your … condition.” He chuckled. “I told her I’d watch the girls and take care of you.”

  “You handled the girls all right,” I teased as I filled my coffee cup for the third time. I may not sleep for the next two days because of all the caffeine, but as long as the headache was gone, that was just fine by me.

  “Last night was interesting.” Brody had a funny look on his face.

  “Did I do anything stupid?”

  “Nope, not at all.” He cocked an eyebrow at me. “But you’re one hell of a dancer.”

  I groaned and dropped my head back onto my hands, harder than I intended to. “Ow. Did you put me in bed?”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  “Did you change me?”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  “Did we…” My eyes darted over to make sure the girls couldn’t hear us.

  He laughed. “No. I’m not exactly into necrophilia—you were passed out before the first stoplight. You did say one interesting thing though.”

  “What was that?” I asked, without lifting my head to look at him.

  “You said you loved me.”

  I stopped breathing, as panic filled my chest and made my head pound harder. Slowly, I lifted my head and looked at Brody who was smiling contentedly, blowing on his own mug of coffee.

  “I did?”

  He nodded slowly, his eyes searching my face.

  “Sorry about that.” I cringed.

  He pulled his brows together and frowned at me. “Sorry? Why would you apologize?”

  “I was drunk, I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “Do you?”

  “Do I what?”

  “Do you love me?”

  Oh God, oh God. I wanted to puke and it didn’t have anything to do with my hangover. My head hurt, and now my heart hurt. Looking at Brody’s soulful eyes, knowing he was waiting for an answer I couldn’t give him was hard. Too hard.

  I did love him. I loved him so much I sometimes couldn’t breathe around him, but I couldn’t tell him that. I would never let those words leave my mouth; that would make all of this too real. It would give him all the power.

  I wanted to get up and leave the room, but Alexa’s voice nagging me to ‘stop running’ kept ringing through my head. Her voice wasn’t the only one in my head. Blaire’s was there too, cackling and warning me that I was nothing but a summer fling. If he was just going to throw me away, there was no way I was going to tell him the truth.

  “Kacie.” Brody’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

  My eyes traveled around his face … the face of the man I loved, the face I had to lie to in order to protect myself.

  I took a deep breath.

  “No.”

  “You have ten new voice messages. To play these-” I shut off my phone and tossed it, not giving a shit when it tumbled off the bed and hit the floor with a cracking sound. None of those messages were from Kacie and that pissed me off.

  Lauren and Tommy’s wedding was two weeks ago, and Kacie and I hadn’t talked since the morning after when she told me she didn’t love me. Hell, I’d barely left my condo in that time. Gym and back. That’s about it. I talked to my mom every few days so that she didn’t call in a missing person’s report, but I still hadn’t told her about Kacie. I didn’t want to say it out loud; it just made me angry.

  After she said ‘No,’ we sat at that kitchen table for a long time, not saying a word. She didn’t know what else to say and I only wanted to call her a liar. I’m one of those people who believe when we’re drunk, we say what we really mean. I think that liquid courage helps you get out what you really do want to say, when we don’t know how to just say it. There’s nothing I could do though, whether she loves me or she doesn’t, I had to take her for her word.

  That left me here, wallowing in self-pity, dirty bed sheets and the Classic College Football Network for two weeks, not giving a shit about the world outside of my house. I reached over and opened the canister on my nightstand, pulled out another Slim Jim and shoved it in my mouth before throwing the wrapper on the floor.

  Fuck it.

  Just then I heard my condo door open. For a fleeting second, my head went somewhere it shouldn’t have gone, but reality set in when Andy called my name.

  “In here,” I yelled back.

  He appeared in my bedroom doorway with a disgusted look on his face. “Dude, what the fuck?”

  “What?” I glared at him defensively.

  “I’ve been calling you for a week and haven’t heard back. What’s going on with you?”

  “Nothing, I’m just chillin’.”

  “Chillin’?”

  “What do you want, Andy? I have things to do.”

  “Oh, what—like call a heart surgeon and schedule your bypass appointment now because of all these?” He walked over and picked up my Slim Jim canister. “I talked to Viper, he told me what happened.”

  “It’s not a big deal, whatever.” I waved him off.

  “If it’s not a big deal, why are you drowning your sorrows in sodium and reality television?”

  “Don’t forget beer,” I joked.

  “Listen, why don’t you come over this weekend?” he asked.

  “Fuck. That.”

  “Let me finish, ass wipe. Blaire and all her obnoxious friends are headed to a weekend getaway in Napa Valley. It’s just me and the kids. I’ll invite Viper and a few of the guys over. We’ll smoke expensive Cuban cigars and drink too much, so plan on crashing at my place.”

  “No.”

  “Come on, if worst comes to worst, you can go up and play with Logan and Becca.”

  “If I say yes, will you leave?”

  “Absolutely,” he said.

  “Fine.” I sighed as I rolled over. “Now get out. And leave the Slim Jims!”

  Andy laughed as he walked toward my bedroom door. “I’m holding them for ransom.”

  I pulled up to Andy’s house and sat in my truck, contemplating turning around and going home. I just wasn’t feeling this. As I had just about talked myself into driving home, Logan appeared on Andy’s porch, waving at me to come in.

  Crap.

  “What’s up, buddy?” I scooped up Logan as I made my way up the porch.

  “I got a new PS3 Lego game, wanna come see?” he asked excitedly.

  “You know what? Let me say hi to your dad and I’ll be right there, okay?”

  Andy was in the kitchen, taking pizza out of the oven when I walked in. “Hey, glad you made it.”

  “Me too, I guess.”

  “Have you talked to her?”

  I glared at him. “No, and I’m not talking about it tonight.”

  “Okay, okay.” He put his hands up in front of him. “I won’t ask anymore.”

  “Where should I put this?” I held up the bottle of tequila and rum I’d bought on my way over.

  “Uh-oh, tequila? Someone means business tonight, huh?” Andy raised an eyebrow at me and sighed. “Why don’t you put them in the blast chiller down in the basement?”

  By the time I came back upstairs, the unmistakable sound of Viper’s bellow sounded throughout the house. “The party can now begin, the king is here!” He went through the kitchen with one arm up in the air, a case of beer tucked under the other.

  “The King?” I teased, coming up behind him. “You sure do like yourself, huh, V?”

  “I do, I do.” We shook hands and he set his beer on the table.
/>   “Big Mike, how are ya?” I went over and shook the giant paw of one of our defensemen. Andy represented both Viper and Big Mike, so it came as no surprise that they both came over too.

  “I’m awesome,” he said with a big, goofy grin on his face. “Guess what? Michelle is pregnant.”

  “That’s excellent. Congratulations!” I said as sincerely as I could, though right now I don’t think I could truly be happy for anyone about anything. Selfish, yes, but it was the truth.

  Before we even got the night started, there was more commotion at the front door, except this time it was the devil’s voice I heard.

  “What are you guys doing back here?” Andy’s mouth hung open, his face frozen in shock at Blaire and her friends standing in the doorway.

  “Our flight was canceled because of storms over the Valley, so we’re all gonna have a giant sleepover here. The limo is coming back super early in the morning and we’ll be on the first flight out.” She looked around the room, turning up her nose as she went. “What’s going on here, Andrew?”

  If there was one person in this world Blaire hated more than me, it was Viper.

  “What does it look like? I had the guys over for dinner and drinks,” Andy responded defensively.

  “Hi, Brody.”

  A head peeked out from behind Blaire.

  Shit, Kendall.

  “Hey, Kendall,” I said dryly, suddenly wishing I were a tiny girl in a blue dress from Kansas and I could just click my heels together and be home. Actually, anywhere other than this kitchen would be just fine with me.

  There we stood, Blaire’s group and ours, the East and the West, the Crips and the Bloods, staring each other down to see who was going to head where.

  “We’re gonna head to the basement and watch some baseball. You guys do whatever you want.” Andy finally broke the silence.

  “Ok, Andrew.” She slid over and kissed him on the cheek, almost making me hurl in the process.

  Kendall walked over and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a hug. I leaned down and embraced her back as loosely as I could. She smelled good. Pulling back, she looked up at me from under long, fake lashes, a suggestive little grin playing on her lips. For a moment I wondered if I could lose myself in her, at least for one night. Lord knows I needed a distraction.