Broken Hart: The Hart Duet Book One

by Bo Reid

  “Yeah, let’s head out so we can get a motel for the night.”

  “You want me to call around and get you guys a room?” Sol asks.

  “Yes, please, and just text me the details,” Hartley says, reaching up on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on Sol’s cheek.

  “Drive safe; I’ll let you know about a room,” Sol says, and slaps the truck keys into my hand before giving us a small wave, practically pushing us out the door.

  “Lock the door,” I tell him, and he rolls his eyes at me.

  “Yes, Mother,” he deadpans.

  Hartley can't help but laugh as we walk down the steps towards the truck.

  “Oh, you think that’s funny?” I ask her.

  “Course not, Mom,” she says, the sarcasm rolling off her pretty lips.

  “You two are the worst,” I say, rolling my eyes, but opening the passenger door. I toss our bag behind the seat and gesture for her to get in.

  “Thanks,” she says, “for everything.”

  “Anytime, Hart,” I say before closing her door and walking around the hood to climb into the truck.

  Hartley already has the directions punched into the GPS by the time we’re heading down the driveway, and she flips to a country station on the radio. We drive in comfortable silence while Hartley sings along to the 90’s country playing on the radio.

  Halfway through the drive, she starts to fall asleep against the door.

  “Here, lie down,” I tell her, grabbing a sweater someone had left on the backseat, balling it up, and putting it in my lap as a pillow.

  “I’m a pretty shitty copilot if you’re telling me to sleep,” she says, but yawns.

  “I’ll be fine,” I assure her and motion for her to lie down.

  “Okay.” She sighs, loosens the strap of her seat belt and lays her head in my lap. She pulls her legs up and manages to squeeze her whole body onto the small bench seat of the truck. I rest my right hand on her hip after she stops squirming.

  “This okay?” I ask.

  “Fine.” She yawns again and wiggles her hips slightly to squish deeper into the bench seat. She’s snoring in under a minute, and this is just one more moment to add to the list of things I’m grateful for.

  Hartley

  “Hart? Hey, honey, wake up. We’re here.” I hear Kasen’s voice as I feel him softly nudging me awake.

  I sit up and rub the sleep from my eyes, taking a moment to look at our new surroundings. We’re in the parking lot of a small motel, Sol must have texted the reservation info after I fell asleep. I’m a shitty copilot, I must have slept for at least half the drive.

  “Did he say who the reservation was under?” I ask sleepily, turning to read the time on the clock: just after midnight.

  “Yeah, you. He said it's under the Wild Hart credit card,” Kasen says.

  “Okay, I got it,” I say, opening the glove box and digging around for the company card. “Be right back,” I tell Kasen. Instead, he gets out with me, locking the truck behind us.

  “Wanna stretch my legs anyways,” he says, but I know it's ‘cause he doesn’t want me to go in alone. I can appreciate that.

  We ring the bell to the lobby, since it's an old school motel in the middle of nowhere and they don’t keep the lobby open past ten. I see an older man walk out from the back and look through the glass doors. I give a kind smile and a little wave. I can see the moment he gets an eyeful of Kasen -- his demeanor instantly changes, pissing me off.

  “Can I help you folks?” he asks through the intercom, instead of opening the door.

  “We have a reservation under Hartley Montgomery. It should have been called in a few hours ago by my brother,” I explain, trying hard to keep the disgust for his apprehension of Kasen out of my voice, but failing miserably.

  “Oh, yes, one moment,” he says through the intercom, before coming around to let us inside. He eyes Kasen, and I reach out to grab Kasen’s hand, intertwining our fingers together before handing over my ID and credit card.

  “Right,” he says, and goes behind the desk, running my credit card for the room and triple checking my ID. When he hands back my stuff, he hands me a room key.

  “It’s around back, just pull out and go right around the building. It’s in the center on the back side,” he explains to us. I nod, taking the key and the little map to the rooms.

  Kasen holds the office door for me. When we get to the truck, he opens my door, helping me into the cab. I hate it when people judge him based on his appearance; it boils the blood in my veins. Just because someone looks a certain way, doesn’t mean that they're good or bad.

  Some of the most well-dressed people with the biggest bank accounts have the worst hearts, and some people with tattered pasts have the best hearts. We’re all a little beaten, battered, and broken anyways, no one is perfect. Who is he to judge someone based on a single glance?

  Kasen parks the truck in front of our room. I shake my head, trying to clear it of the thoughts plaguing me. We get out, and I reach behind the seat to grab our bag. When we meet up in front of the cab, Kasen takes it from me and grabs my hand in his instead. I put the key into the lock, and the door swings open. There is only one bed.

  “Oh, uh,” Kasen stutters. “I’ll go back to the front desk and tell him we need a room with two beds. Here, you wait in the truck,” he rushes, handing me the keys.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Kasen, this is fine. I mean, if you don’t mind. It's big enough that we can just take sides,” I tell him, pulling him into the room.

  “Are you sure? I can sleep on the floor,” he suggests.

  “If you want to sleep on a gross motel room floor, then go for it, but it's really fine. Not like we've never shared,” I rationalize, shrugging.

  “Okay, if you’re fine with this,” he concedes, motioning to the bed.

  “We’ll survive,” I deadpan. But really, I’d rather have him close to me anyway. He sets the duffle bag down on the bed and opens it up, pulling out his clothes, then passing the bag to me. I rummage through it, but can't find my sweat pants.

  “Fuck!” I exclaim.

  “What’s wrong?” Kasen asks right before he disappears into the bathroom.

  “I forgot to pack pajamas,” I tell him.

  “Here.” He passes me his sleep shirt, “Should be big enough, I don’t normally wear a shirt to bed anyways.”

  “Thank you,” I tell him, and he motions to the bathroom. “You can change in there, and I’ll change out here,” he says, and I smile.

  “Okay,” I say before disappearing into the bathroom. I pull my shirt off over my head and take off my bra. Pulling Kasen’s shirt over my head, I then slip out of my pants. I fold all my stuff into a neat pile before opening the bathroom door and stepping out into the room.

  Kasen is already in gray sweat pants that hang low on his hips, and I’m fairly certain he isn’t wearing boxers. Plus, he is gloriously shirtless. He should just always be shirtless; think I can make that into a new house rule? I’ll think it over.

  He has one hand resting behind his head while flipping through the TV channels with the other one. I walk over and crawl into the bed, turning to fluff my pillow.

  “You wanna watch something for a little bit, or go to sleep?” he asks.

  “I can fall asleep to something. Anything good on?” I ask.

  “Depends on your idea of good, I guess,” he says. He flips through the channels too quickly for me to see if there's anything on worth watching.

  “You’re going too fast. I can't tell what’s on,” I whine. He smirks.

  “Trust me, it's nothing good,” he says as he flips through another channel.

  “Oh, oh, oh! Go back, go back!” I yell, motioning wildly towards the TV. He turns it back, and I sit up in bed as a deep voice comes through the TV, “The dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories. Bom Bom.”

  “I take it you want t
o watch this?” he asks, chuckling.

  “Shhh, it's starting.” I wave my hand to shush him.

  He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me back to lie down with him. I settle my head onto his chest as he rests his hand on my hip, drawing small circles with his thumb.

  “Good night, Hartley,” he grins, shifting slightly on the bed and wrapping his other arm around me.

  I sigh contently as I watch Olivia and Elliot investigate a particularly gruesome fictional rape case. Things are weird with Kasen, mostly because things aren’t weird at all.

  I shouldn’t want to be close to him, not like this. I shouldn’t want him to want to be close to me. But there's something about him that calls to me, makes me feel safe. I know he would never hurt me, never hurt Brooks. He’s good inside and out, regardless of how people judge him. He’s better than most people I grew up with. He is the most amazing person I have ever met, and in a strange way, he makes me feel whole.

  He makes me feel like someday I can actually be me again; like I can live, instead of just surviving. I want to live again, and I want to do it with him by my side. I just want him.

  I wake up, and the slightest moment of panic washes over me, until I realize it's Kasen’s arm wrapped tightly around my waist. Settling into his embrace, I yawn, and a feeling of contentment washes over me. I know I shouldn’t feel this comfortable with him yet, but he makes everything easy.

  He starts to awaken behind me, and his arm wraps around me more tightly, hauling me into his chest. I feel his chest expand as he sighs deeply. Lying still in his arms, I start to feel his morning wood pushing into my ass. This is about to get really awkward.

  “Shit,” I hear him whisper as he pulls away from me. I pretend to still be asleep.

  He pushes the covers off and slides out of bed. I track the sound of his footsteps on the motel carpet as he walks into the bathroom. When I hear the door shut and the shower turn on, I crack one eye open and take in the room. I have to stifle a small giggle at the cold shower he is probably taking right now.

  I grab my phone and pull up the map, looking for any signs of a quick breakfast nearby. Since I was asleep when we pulled in last night, I didn't get a chance to look for a place we could eat today. I see on the map that there is a small coffee shop and diner about a block away from the motel.

  Shooting off a text to Sol to ask about Brooks, I climb out of bed and throw on my clothes for the day. I use the notepad by Kasen’s phone to let him know that I’ll be back in a minute, then I grab some money and head out.

  The one-stop-sign town we stopped in is still about a twenty minute drive from where we need to be. From the front of the motel, I can see the coffee shop, one small diner, and a gas station. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to live in a town like this. Is it just like Crystal, but smaller? Are people still up in everyone else's business? Or do people live out here because they don’t want to concern themselves with what their neighbors are doing?

  I push open the door to the diner and take a seat at the end of the counter, grabbing a menu and looking it over for something quick.

  “Hey, sweetheart, what can I getcha?” the older waitress asks as she strides up to the other side of the counter.

  “Can I get two coffees and two of the bacon breakfast burritos? To go, please.” I give her a smile.

  She nods her head as she jots down my order on her pad, “It’ll be about ten minutes, dear. You want those coffees out now?”

  “Yes, please, and do you have cream and sugar?”

  “Sure thing,” she says with a wink, before turning to head towards the coffee maker.

  It’s just a few moments before she's striding back over with two to-go cups of coffee and a handful of cream and sugar. She sets everything down in front of me and I get to work making the coffees for Kasen and myself. Three sugars and two creams for me, four sugars and one cream for Kasen.

  I hear the little bell above the door to the diner tinkle as a new customer walks in.

  “Couldn’t stand me, huh? Had to sneak out this morning,” Kasen says in his gruff voice. He sits on the stool next to me.

  “Well, you live with me, so I don’t think walking to the diner a block away from the motel is going to get me too far from you,” I deadpan as I slide his coffee cup over to him.

  He smirks at me and takes a sip as the waitress walks over to us.

  “Can I getcha something, honey, or are you two together?” she asks Kasen.

  “I’m with her,” he says, smiling at her, as the bell rings behind the counter, signalling that our order is up.

  The waitress bags up our takeout boxes and hands me the tab. Kasen reaches over and steals the bill. He pulls a twenty and some ones out of his wallet and puts the money on the counter. Smirking at me, he grabs the bag and his coffee and nods his head towards the door. I grab my coffee and follow him out. We walk back over to the motel.

  “Want to head out, or stay and eat?” he asks.

  I check the time on my phone; it’s still early, but we can eat on the road. That's why I got stuff that would be easy to eat while driving.

  “We can just head out. If we leave now and eat in the truck, we'll be there when the warehouse opens. And that'll get us back home sooner,” I decide.

  “Okay, sounds good.”

  When we get to the motel, he grabs the truck keys and starts it up, while I throw our stuff into the bag we brought. We get in the truck, and I hand Kasen his breakfast burrito as he sets his coffee into the cup holder. He stops at the front desk and I hop out of the truck to drop off the key to the room.

  We’re on the road and heading towards the warehouse for our pick up by nine in the morning. When I finish my burrito and down the rest of my coffee, I turn up the radio and bob my head along to the beat. When we’re about ten minutes away from the warehouse, Kasen reaches over and turns down the radio. I look at him and can’t decipher the look on his face.

  “Hartley, I, umm, wanted to talk to you about this morning…” he says and trails off. Oh, that's what this is about.

  “What do you mean?” I decide to play it cool, we don’t really need to talk about this. I fear it’ll just make the rest of the day awkward, and we have a six hour drive back home.

  “When did you wake up?” he asks.

  I shrug. “You were in the shower.”

  “Okay. Well, uhh. Look, I just… when I woke up, we were close.” He cringes like it's a bad thing. I can respect him for not groping me, or thinking it was his right to touch me in anyway.

  “I know we've fallen asleep together before, I just wanted to make sure you didn’t leave the room this morning because I made you uncomfortable. If I did, Hart, I really am sorry, and I didn’t mean it,” he explains.

  “Kasen we’re fine, okay? I woke up and looked to see if there was food nearby. There was, so I decided to head over there and get us some coffee and breakfast for the road. We’re good, okay? I promise.”

  “Okay, I just don’t ever want to make you uncomfortable. I should've just slept on the floor, or gotten a room with another bed.” He sighs, shaking his head like he did something wrong.

  The reality is he didn't; he offered to get us a different room, and I said it was fine. He offered to sleep on the floor, and I said we could share. He did nothing wrong.

  “Kasen, look, we really are good. You didn’t do anything wrong. You offered to get a new room with two beds, or sleep on the floor. I said we were fine. I should have had Sol set us up with separate rooms to begin with, since sharing seems to have made you uncomfortable. So, for that, I’m sorry. It’s my fault. Just know, I was fine, and not at all upset this morning when I left. In the future, I'll remember this, and we can get two beds if we ever share a hotel room again. I’m sorry.” I say.

  “Hart, I’m fine too. Fuck, man, we’re a pair.” He chuckles softly. “We're both concerned about the other one being upset or uncomfortable, when neither of us actually is.”

  “Yeah, we make
quite the team,” I laugh as we pull into the parking lot of the warehouse.

  I get out of the truck and walk into the warehouse area. It only takes me a couple minutes to track down someone who looks like she knows what’s going on. She directs us to our order, and helps us load up the truck. When we’re all ready to go, she apologizes for the inconvenience, and I sign some papers. Kasen and I get back in the truck and head home.

  This trip, even though it was for work, has been a nice little break from reality. But I’m ready to go home now.

  Chapter 18: Blue Rose

  Hartley

  I’ve been doing really well holding myself together since Kasen moved in. It’s been about six weeks since I first brought him home. But today I just can’t deal.

  I knew it would be a bad day; I felt it in my bones when I got up this morning. It’s a feeling like I'm being weighed down in deep water, unable to move my limbs.Or I’ve just climbed the highest mountain peak without properly training for it, and now the air is too thin around me. Suffocating me with my own memories.

  A weight sitting on top of my chest, leaving me unable to bring air into my lungs.

  This gray haze clouding my brain, taking away my sunshine, and showing me only the pain of my past. Forcing me to relive it over and over again.

  I work to take a couple of deep breaths, trying to find my center, to fill my lungs, but they won’t expand properly. Instead, my breaths come out ragged and pained.

  Kasen tries to talk to me on the drive to work, but I can't form the right words. If I say too much, I know the tears will come.

  When we drop Brooks off with Martha, she cups my cheek, shaking her head. She's seen me like this enough to know that on a day like today, it’s hard to get out of bed, let alone be a good mom.

  Once we make it to the shop, I outline the work I need Kasen to do today, letting Sol handle everyone else. I hole up in my office all morning, trying my best to just get through the workday without having a complete public meltdown. I can do that later when I’m home.