Undone

by Shannon Richard

  * * *

  On Sunday morning, Paige woke up to a clear blue sky. She pulled on her bathing suit, a tank top, and a pair of running shorts. She threw a big beach towel, sunscreen, some lip gloss, and a book into her beach bag and headed into the kitchen.

  “You leaving soon?” Trevor asked over his newspaper.

  “Yeah, in about five minutes,” Paige said, grabbing a plastic bottle from the cupboard and filling it with ice water.

  The doorbell rang and Paige heard her mother answer the door. Grace laughed as she walked into the kitchen with Denise.

  “You tell your grandmother that I’m going to go down and get some of that chicken pot pie of hers. I’ve never had anything that amazing in my life.”

  “I’ll tell her. Hi, Mr. Morrison.” Grace waved from the doorway.

  “Hello. Have you and your grandmother been busy?” he asked over his coffee cup.

  “Lately we have been. What about you? How’s everything going here?”

  “Pretty good. Retirement is mighty fine.”

  “You girls have fun,” Denise said, sitting down at the table next to Trevor.

  “We will,” Paige said, walking over to her parents and kissing them on the cheeks. “I’ll see you guys later.”

  “Love you, Little Miss,” Trevor called after her as they walked out of the kitchen.

  “Little Miss?” Grace asked, looking at her.

  “Nickname that I’ve had all my life,” Paige said while slipping on her leather flip-flops.

  Five minutes later, they pulled into Lula Mae’s driveway. The sound of a lawn mower greeted them as they got out of Grace’s vintage yellow Volkswagen Bug. Paige followed Grace up the steps to a whitewashed beach house with a red roof and a screened-in front porch.

  “Grams,” Grace called out as they walked in the front door. “We’re here.”

  The house was simple with beige tile running through the hallway and walls that were painted a soft peach. Before they rounded the corner, a loud tapping noise made Paige look to her right where a large but beautiful black and gray dog came skidding across the tile.

  “Sydney, sit,” Grace said, putting her hand out.

  The dog sat at Grace’s feet, her feathery tail sweeping the floor as it wagged back and forth.

  “Good girl,” Grace said, scratching her head. “This is my brother’s dog, Sydney. He comes over on Sundays to mow the lawn.”

  “Can I pet her?” Paige asked, holding out her hand.

  “Yeah. She isn’t mean or anything. She just tends to ignore people who she doesn’t know or like, so don’t be offended if she walks away.”

  Paige held her hand in front of Sydney’s nose to sniff. Sydney stuck her nose into Paige’s palm and her tongue shot out, wrapping around the back of her hand.

  “Hi, pretty girl,” Paige said, running her fingers through the fur on the dog’s head and down to the side of her neck. “What is she?”

  “Part Siberian husky and part something else. My brother thinks she might be part black Lab and that there’s a little German shepherd in there somewhere. Come on,” Grace said, rounding the corner.

  Paige followed her into the kitchen where Lula Mae stood in front of the stove, a sunshine-yellow apron tied around her waist.

  “Morning, Grams,” Grace said, kissing her on the cheek.

  “Morning,” Lula Mae said, turning around. “Paige, I’m so glad you came.”

  “Thanks for having me,” Paige said, leaning against the counter. Sydney came up to her, butting Paige’s leg with her head. Paige leaned down and started scratching her neck again.

  “That’s weird,” Grace said.

  “What?” Paige asked, looking up as she continued to pet Sydney.

  “She doesn’t normally respond well to women who she doesn’t know, or to any girl who my brother has dated.”

  Sydney pawed at Paige’s legs so Paige sat down on the tile floor. Sydney sat down in between Paige’s bent knees and Paige scratched her chest. She closed her blue eyes as her back leg started to hit the tile with a loud thump, thump, thump.

  “It’s true,” Lula Mae said, looking at Paige and the dog, her eyebrows raised in surprise.

  “The last girl my brother dated, Sydney ate her shoes.”

  “Oh, and she hated Marty,” Lula Mae added, pointing to Sydney. “Whenever she would come over, Sydney would whine the entire time.”

  “Yeah, well, I felt like crying whenever Marty was around too.”

  “I’m so glad she isn’t in the picture anymore.”

  “She wasn’t good enough for Brendan anyway,” Grace said.

  “Brendan?” Paige asked, looking up panicked. “Your brother is Brendan?” she asked, looking at Grace. “He’s your grandson?” she asked, turning to Lula Mae.

  Grace and Lula Mae looked at Paige with matching expressions of amusement and guilt.

  “Did we forget to mention that?” Grace asked innocently.

  “Well, isn’t this an interesting picture?” a deep voice said to Paige’s right.

  Paige turned and nearly swallowed her tongue. Brendan was standing there wearing a pair of green athletic shorts and sneakers. Sweat dripped down his face and bare chest. He had a light dusting of blond hair across his tanned chest; the trail narrowed as it traveled down his flat stomach and disappeared into shorts that hung low on his hips.

  He had a tattoo on his left bicep. It was on the inside of his arm and all that Paige could see was what looked like a tree trunk extending down to just above the crook of his arm.

  It was then that Sydney started swatting Paige in the face. Paige had stopped scratching her chest, being too distracted ogling everything that was Brendan King.

  * * *

  Brendan was jealous of his dog. There was no other explanation for it. Sydney was sitting in between Paige’s thighs getting her chest scratched and looking like she was in heaven. He was pretty sure that if he could’ve traded places with Sydney, he would’ve had a dazed look on his face too.

  The last thing that Brendan had expected when he’d walked into his grandmother’s kitchen was to find Paige sitting on the floor playing with his dog, a dog he was now extremely jealous of. Then it hit him; Paige was playing with Sydney, Sydney who hated every girl he’d ever brought home. And at the moment, Sydney was swatting a stunned Paige in the face, trying to get her to resume her scratching.

  Brendan had noticed the way that Paige was looking at him, her gray eyes going wide with wonder as they’d skimmed his body and her mouth falling open. He’d known that she was attracted to him; he’d figured that out when he’d almost kissed her in his office. But the look he saw on her face went much deeper than just attraction.

  He’d been thinking about her all week. Ever since he’d met her, he couldn’t get her off his mind. She was driving him crazy when she wasn’t around him and she was most definitely driving him crazy now with that heated look on her face.

  “Paige is going to the beach with us,” Grace said brightly.

  “Is she now?” he asked, walking over to the refrigerator and pulling out a pitcher of orange juice.

  “Who else is going?” his grandmother asked as she stirred the batter.

  “Mel, Harper, Jax, and Shep,” Grace said.

  “Jax and Shep should be here soon,” Brendan said, grabbing a glass from the cupboard. “When I told them you were making your butter pecan pancakes they couldn’t resist,” he said as he poured himself a tall glass of juice and drank half of it in one gulp.

  He sighed in relief as he pulled the glass from his mouth and looked down at Paige again. She was staring at him, her lovely chest rising and falling a little fast, and a light blush creeping up her freckled chest and neck. And with that Brendan walked out of the kitchen to go take a cold shower.

  * * *

  “You set me up,” Paige said, looking at the satisfied smiles on Grace and Lula Mae’s faces.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lula Mae said as she
turned and started fiddling with the griddle.

  “Yeah, absolutely no idea,” Grace said as she hopped up onto the countertop.

  Paige raised her eyebrows at their lies.

  “Alright, fine. We set you up. But the element of surprise always reveals so much,” Grace conceded.

  “Oh, I’m sure it does,” Paige grumbled.

  Paige had probably revealed too much about herself in the couple of minutes that Brendan had been in the kitchen. She was surprised she hadn’t started panting. She tried not to be obvious, but that was difficult whenever he was breathing the same air as her. And really, he’d just been standing in the kitchen half naked and sweaty and looking hot as hell. It wasn’t her fault. It was his fault.

  Stupid hot mechanic.

  “Well, isn’t that something,” Oliver said as he walked into the kitchen and stared down at Paige. “That dog is putty in your hands.”

  “She isn’t the only one,” Grace muttered under her breath.

  Paige looked at Grace, trying to give her the evil eye but failed miserably when Grace started cracking up.

  The front door opened and closed and deep voices traveled down the hallway. Two tall and very attractive men walked into the kitchen. Sydney sure was some guard dog. She didn’t even look up, just scooted closer and rested her head against Paige’s shoulder.

  “Paige, this is Jaxson Anderson,” Grace said, not moving from her perch and indicating the tall redheaded man with freckly, tanned skin and deep green eyes. “And Nathanial Shepherd,” she said, pointing to the guy with thick, wavy black hair, dark blue eyes, and arm tattoos. “Jax is a deputy sheriff, and Shep helps his family run the Sleepy Sheep, which is a bar out on the beach. They’ve been friends with Brendan since preschool.”

  Paige couldn’t even imagine the trouble that those three had probably gotten into growing up. They had mischief written all over them. Paige could read it on all of their muscles.

  “This is Paige,” Grace continued. “She just got a job at the funeral home. Brendan helped her get it,” she added, covering her smirk with her mug as she took a sip of coffee.

  Jax and Shep gave each other significant looks and grinned at each other. Jax had dimples and Shep’s blue eyes seemed to glow. Yup, these boys were just as lethal as Brendan, especially when they smiled.

  “Nice to meet you,” Jax said, holding out his hand. Paige stopped scratching Sydney and shook Jax’s hand before Shep stepped in and grabbed her hand.

  “It’s good to put a face to the name,” Shep said. “Brendan’s talked about you.”

  He what?

  “Now if you boys don’t come over here and give me some sugar I won’t be serving you any pancakes,” Lula Mae said, crossing her arms.

  “Sorry, Grams,” Jax said, walking over to her and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

  “Won’t happen again,” Shep said, giving her a loud smacking kiss on her other cheek.

  “It better not,” Lula Mae said, giving them a stern look.

  “How you boys doing?” Oliver asked, patting each of them on the back.

  “Pretty good, the bar has been busy the last couple of nights,” Shep said, leaning back against the counter.

  “Did Grace say it was called the Sleepy Sheep?” Paige asked.

  “It goes with the whole Shepherd thing.”

  “Right.” Paige nodded.

  “I see you haven’t moved,” Brendan said, coming back into the room. Much to Paige’s relief, he was wearing a white T-shirt with red swimming trunks. She didn’t need to get all hot and bothered again with all of these men in the room.

  “I think Sydney might have switched allegiances,” Jax said.

  “Me too,” Brendan said, smiling at Paige, his eyes lighting up as they traveled up her legs. “Not that I blame her.”

  Apparently it didn’t matter that he was wearing a shirt. There was no skin-to-temperature ratio where he was concerned. He made her hot and bothered anyways. He shouldn’t be allowed to look at her like that; it wasn’t fair.

  “I’m going to start making the pancakes,” Lula Mae said, scooping dollops of batter onto the sizzling griddle. “You boys go set the table,” she said, making a shooing gesture.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Shep said, pushing off the counter and all three of them left the kitchen.

  * * *

  “So that’s her,” Jax said, leaning back to look at Paige through the kitchen doorway.

  “Yeah,” Brendan said, going over to his grandmother’s china cabinet and pulling out a stack of dishes.

  “Damn those legs are long,” Shep whispered, leaning over Jax’s shoulder to get another look at her too.

  “I will kill the both of you,” Brendan said, putting the dishes down on the table and folding his arms across his chest.

  Both men turned back to him, grinning.

  “Grace wasn’t kidding,” Shep said, raising his eyebrows. “The new girl’s got your panties all in a twist.”

  “Shut up.”

  “Yes, sir,” Jax said, giving Brendan a mocking salute and grabbing the juice glasses.

  * * *

  Breakfast turned out to be an interesting event with all seven of them crowded around the dining room table. Brendan was conveniently seated next to Paige. He was pretty sure everyone had conspired to make sure they sat next to each other. And she’d been so incredibly flustered it was ridiculous. It probably didn’t help her any that he kept deliberately letting his arms and legs brush up against hers. He’d pushed his thigh into hers as he’d passed her the sausage and she’d almost dropped the entire plate into his lap.

  “Stop it,” she whispered after she passed the plate along.

  “Stop what?” he whispered back innocently.

  “You know what,” she said, grabbing her napkin and putting it in her lap. “You’re doing it on purpose.”

  And he’d continued to do it for the rest of the meal.

  When they’d loaded up into Jax’s truck, Brendan and Paige magically wound up sitting next to each other in the backseat. Brendan kept up his shenanigans on the drive down to the beach. He really couldn’t be held responsible for his actions. Paige was literally pushed up against him and he desperately wanted to turn his face into her neck and just breathe her in. But since it wasn’t the right time for that, he made due with letting his arm brush up against hers.

  When they pulled into the parking lot of the beach, Brendan jumped out and turned to help Paige get out on his side. She hesitated for a second but then scooted closer to the door. He put his hands on her hips and guided her down in front of him.

  “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him.

  “No problem,” he said, reaching up and pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

  Paige inhaled sharply as his finger grazed her skin. Brendan dropped his hand and stepped back, giving Paige the space to step by him. Grace sidled up to Paige as they all unloaded the stuff from the back. Paige muttered something under her breath that made Grace crack up. Brendan grabbed his bag and a cooler and followed as everyone made their way down to the beach. They stopped where two girls were already spread out on the sand.

  Melanie O’Bryan and Harper Laurence were Grace’s closest friends. After high school, Mel had gone to Florida State University in Tallahassee. She’d gotten her bachelor’s in education and had just moved back to town a couple of months ago. She was now teaching math at the high school. Harper was a massage therapist. She split her time working at a resort on the beach and a spa that was in downtown Mirabelle.

  Grace introduced the girls to Paige and then they set up their towels next to them. Brendan watched Paige out of the corner of his sunglasses, trying desperately not to be obvious. She pulled off her tank top and then did a little shimmy getting out of her shorts that nearly killed him. She was wearing a modest green one-piece that did amazing things to her curves.

  She lifted her arms to tie her hair up and her bathing suit pulled, showing the side of her left breast where she
had a quarter-size birthmark in the shape of a strawberry.

  “Did you just groan?” Shep asked, coming up next to him.

  “No,” Brendan said, taking the beer that Shep handed him.

  “Damn, you’ve got it bad,” he said, shaking his head.

  “Shut up.”

  * * *

  Three months of being in this stupid town and nothing had gone right. No job, no friends, no social life. And then a week ago Paige had met Brendan, and poof, all of that changed.

  She didn’t want to like him—she really, really didn’t. The ache in her chest was just beginning to grow smaller and she knew that Brendan had the potential to crack that wide open. She didn’t want to be cracked open. She wanted to be safe and whole but every time he looked at her she just wanted to let herself fall.

  Paige put her book down and propped herself up on her elbows, looking out at the water. Brendan was out there with Jax, Shep, and Mel. All of them had beers in their hands and were talking as the waves rolled in, splashing around them.

  Mel and Harper were more than friendly and easy to talk to. They were average height, shorter than Paige, but then again most girls were. Both women were beautiful but in different ways. Mel was slim, with long thin legs and a tiny waist. She had corkscrew honey-blonde curls, amber eyes, and a warm, welcoming face that inspired confidence and trust. Harper was more exotic looking, with long, thick black hair, violet almond eyes, and killer curves.

  “You going out there?” Grace asked, rolling over onto her side.

  “I was thinking about it.”

  “Come on,” Grace said, standing up and grabbing her beer. “You coming, Harper?”

  “Yeah,” Harper said.

  Paige grabbed her beer and followed them out toward the water. She hesitated on the hard-packed wet sand and let a wave wash up around her feet. The water was warm but it felt cool against her sun-baked skin. They waded out where everyone else was and joined the circle.

  “So, Paige,” Mel said, shoving a strand of her curly blonde hair behind her ear. “What did you do in Philadelphia?”

  “I worked in the art department of an advertising agency,” she answered, taking a sip of beer. “But when they were bought out I lost my job.”