The McCallans

by Hadley Quinn

  At some point he stopped kissing her, but even with the attempt to catch their breath, their lips were still touching. Jay had never been in such a lingering moment like he was now, waiting for something to either make or break him, and it was almost more intense than the night they’d fooled around. That time was entirely their physical needs being met; this time he had fucking let himself kiss her and a whole shitload more had stormed the walls.

  “Jay?” Melanie whispered against his lips.

  “Mmhmm?” was all he could respond, because she kissed him again, softly and slowly, and his mind was disappearing into a helpless heap of mind fuck.

  “I want you to have lots of beautiful things in your life,” she spoke softly.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck as she carefully unhitched her legs from around him, and when her feet were on the ground again, her hands slid down the front of him and remained against his chest.

  Jay’s mind was slowly beginning to process her words but he was without an intellectual response. When all he answered was, “Okay,” he thought she’d roll her eyes or be annoyed with him.

  But Melanie’s eyes were still pulling him in as they continued to stare at one another, and then she leaned forward and kissed him on the lips again and said, “Okay.” She gave him a hug—it was brief but purposeful—and then said, “I’ll let you get some work done.”

  He watched her walk across the garage, and she even turned the music back up before she opened the door to exit. She glanced back once and gave him a smile, and then left.

  “Oh my God,” Jay exhaled as he leaned against the car with both hands. He shook his head, as if it would clear his mind of what the hell just happened. He also needed a minute for his cock to chill the fuck out before he could go back to work.

  ***

  Jay didn’t enter the house until almost eleven o’clock that night. After getting immersed in a project, it was always difficult for him to pull himself away. He was fucking starving, too. He hadn’t eaten since lunchtime and went straight to the kitchen to see what he could find.

  “Melanie made you dinner,” Tyse said from behind him.

  Jay had only turned on the light over the sink so he didn’t bother him in the other room, but Tyse flipped the other lights on and squinted. He was just in a pair of shorts and it was obvious he’d just woken up.

  “She said you’d probably be out there for a while so it’s that red dish in the fridge.”

  Jay opened the refrigerator and found it right away. As he pulled it out he said, “Sorry I woke you. Maybe we should get you a bed for the other room.” He put the dish on the counter and didn’t miss the surprise on Tyse’s face. “Well unless you really do want to move into the McCallan mansion,” Jay added. “I don’t really give a fuck. I just thought while you’re here, we might as well put at least an air mattress in the other room.”

  “No, I don’t want to move into the mansion,” Tyse shook his head. “I don’t even know what my plans are.”

  “Hmm. Join the club.” Jay removed the lid from the dish and paused when he saw what it was. With a sigh he barely shook his head at the food but grabbed a plate anyway.

  “What’s wrong with the food?” Tyse asked, obviously annoyed by Jay’s reaction to it. “She spent like an hour making it—”

  “Chill the fuck out,” Jay retorted. “It’s none of your damn business, but it’s one of my favorites.”

  Tyse didn’t reply to that as Jay dished some of the baked spaghetti onto the plate. If Melanie had been there she would have made him eat a salad with it, but he was so hungry he started eating it cold without heating it.

  “Yeah it was pretty awesome,” Tyse finally said. “I’ve never had that before.” He turned to head back for the living room and then paused. “Oh, and she was pretty damn happy when she left here a few hours ago. I take it things went well out in the shop.”

  Jay could hear the smirk on Tyse’s face before he even saw it. “Why, what’d she say?” he tried to ask casually as he stuffed his face with another bite.

  “Nothing much, actually,” Tyse answered. “Just that you let her help take the hood off. I kind of assumed that was an innuendo, so I don’t wanna know.”

  Jay couldn’t help but laugh, but shaking his head he replied, “Actually no, no double meaning on it. She did help with that.” He was going to add “and then some” but decided against it.

  “Hmm, well I’m assuming it was more than that since she had finger smudges on her shirt right across her chest and I’m guessing it wasn’t her own.”

  Jay watched him disappear around the corner without a word as he silently replayed his time with Melanie in his head.

  Yep, he could definitely admit to having his dirty hands on her…

  ***

  “I really appreciate this, man. You have no idea,” Jay said.

  “You know I love working with you,” Teague answered. “No need to thank me. I’m just glad I have a chance to while Camryn’s in Fresno.”

  Jay only nodded. Melanie had gone with Camryn too, and he was worried that her stupid fucker of an ex would try to see her. At least Camryn was with her, so it wasn’t like he had to worry about her physical safety. But it was just the idea of her being around that dickhead that got under Jay’s skin.

  Now he and Teague were going to spend the entire day working on the Boss. Now that Jay didn’t have a job, he needed to get that baby up and running so he could sell it. He had bills to pay, and whether Beck wanted to speak to him or not, Jay was still going to pay him the two grand he owed him.

  They got straight to work, getting things done without a single problem. But after two hours of working on the car, Tyse appeared in the shop, looking way out of place.

  “Whoa, man. You’ll get your khakis ruined in here,” Jay laughed, looking him over.

  Tyse smiled and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I had a job interview. Two, actually.”

  “And how’d it go?” Jay asked, caring for some reason. After hearing bits and pieces from his life, the guy actually seemed pretty interesting. And he wasn’t kidding when he’d told Jay that he had a lot of interests. From business to sports and music, Tyse was pretty well rounded.

  “Went pretty well,” Tyse nodded. “I’m pretty sure I’ll get offered at least one of the two. One of them is more entry-level than what I was doing back home, but that’s expected. Seems like a good facility, regardless.”

  “And is that the one that you think you’ll land?” Teague asked.

  “Uh, not sure,” Tyse smiled with a shrug. “I have a good chance at the other one too. Anyways, you guys need some help? I can go change and do whatever you need. I’m probably not as brilliant as you guys, but it’s kinda funny that this interest runs in the family.”

  Jay wasn’t surprised, but he was still about to decline.

  But Teague answered, “You like mechanics, huh?”

  “Yeah, I’ve worked on a few things here and there. Can I help?”

  “Yeah, actually we got something you can do,” Teague said. “Go change.”

  When Tyse left the garage, Jay gave his cousin an unhappy glare. “Three’s a crowd, buddy.”

  “He can strip the paint, dumbass.”

  Jay thought for a moment, and decided Teague had a point. Sanding the old paint off a car was his least favorite chore.

  “Tyse can be the stripper,” Jay finally agreed with a nod, and they both laughed.

  By six o’clock that night, Jay was one happy motherfucker. Having the extra help had been nice, and while Tyse took care of stripping down the Boss, Jay and Teague were able to take care of a shitload of other things that needed done before they could paint it and hoist the engine into it. Teague had offered to stay longer to hang the plastic up for painting in the morning, but Jay knew Camryn was already home and didn’t want to keep him.

  Now he was alone with Tyse, who continued to offer his help. To Jay’s surprise, he actually didn’t mind his company. Tyse didn’t
talk unless he needed to for the sake of the car, and he also didn’t have to be told twice how to do something.

  It was ridiculous that he reminded him so much of his dad.

  “So how long have you been working on cars?” Tyse asked out of the blue. “I’m pretty intrigued with what you do.”

  Jay shrugged as he returned his tools one by one. “You obviously know more than you give yourself credit for. I guess it really does run in the family. But since I was fifteen. It was actually a hobby of my dad’s—eh, of our dad,” he corrected. “But he never let me work with him. When I was just a kid—five, six, seven years old—he had several cars that he’d kind of started to collect and work on. He had a ’68 Camaro, a ’71 El Camino, a ’70 Mach 1, a 1956 Chevy Pickup, and a few others over the years. That was actually my favorite—the truck. But...” He shrugged again as he put away his sanding equipment. “He always told me to stay away from his cars. When Dad was working on his cars, I knew to leave him alone.

  “But when I turned twelve my parents got divorced,” he continued. “My mom got quite a bit in the settlement since my dad had cheated on her. You know who my mom is, right?”

  Tyse slightly nodded. “Amelia Brennan, the actress.”

  “Yep. She may have been a washed up actress already, but she had proof of my dad’s affair and pretty much nailed him to the wail. She got half of his cars, too, so when I was about fifteen that’s when I had access to them.”

  “So you ended up living with your mom at that point?”

  “Most of the time. We still went to my dad’s two weekends a month, but he turned into a drunken idiot even more so than he already had been. He said shit to me all the time, but the minute he laid into Kellie verbally, things got physical between him and me. It ended up like that every weekend we were there, so by the time I was a junior in high school, my mom had his weekends revoked. He didn’t even care.”

  “So did you get along with your mom, then?”

  “Uh, not exactly. With my mom it wasn’t peaceful either, just because she was constantly trying to push us into the McCallan spotlight. Since her career was failing, she wanted some sort of future in it for us too. She put Kellie into modeling and dance and all that shit, and Kell hated it. My mom ended up giving up on us, I guess,” Jay chuckled sarcastically. “She met someone and moved to Colorado after I graduated. Kellie lived with Grandpa until she turned eighteen, and then she moved in with Teague and me.”

  “So you don’t talk to your parents at all?”

  “I talk to my mom on the phone maybe once a month for two minutes. But she’s remarried now and rolling in wealth and her new life, so she hardly bothers. But my dad? Hell no. I tried connecting with him a couple of times and he’s just… I don’t know, he just wants to keep drinking his life away. I don’t understand it. His dad has paid for him to have the best rehab treatments there are and he just keeps turning his life into a giant shit mess.”

  They both headed for the exit, and Jay shut the music off and flipped the lights. As they walked across the yard, Tyse said, “I called him before I left Arizona.”

  Jay slowed as they stepped onto the back porch. “You called my dad? Uh, your dad?”

  “Yeah,” Tyse nodded.

  “Hmm. And how did that go?” Jay asked as they entered the house.

  “Well, let’s just say I’m not surprised because my mom already told me how he’d react,” Tyse lightly laughed. “He pretty much told me not to bother heading this way. He told me he didn’t have any money for me, but if I wanted to work my way into his father’s good graces, maybe he’d consider meeting up with me if I had something to compensate him for his time.”

  “Oh my fucking hell!” Jay laughed out loud. “That is so classic! Yeah,” Jay nodded. “He’s used that on us, too. Jesus, he’s an asshole.”

  “Yeah, pretty much,” Tyse nodded. “And no, before you ask, I didn’t come this way to work an angle with your grandfather. I just wanted to meet him. On the phone he was actually—”

  “Hold up, you talked to Gramps on the phone too before you came this way?” Jay asked as they both stopped in the kitchen to eat.

  Tyse leaned against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. “My mom did first. He actually knew about me, but agreed with my mom years ago to just let her live her own life. He told her to let him know if she would ever let him be a part of my life, but that he respected her decision. But yeah, he was the one that told me to come meet him whenever I was ready. But to be honest, I was more interested in meeting you and Kellie, so that’s where I started first.”

  “Hmm, interesting,” was all Jay said as he started pulling out items to make sandwiches.

  “You’re pissed, huh,” Tyse stated.

  “Not at all,” Jay replied just as quickly. “Just not surprised, I guess. This family is so full of secrets and shit that nothing fazes me anymore. I just wish it could all stay with them and leave me the fuck alone. I want no part of anything complicated in my life.”

  Tyse went to work making his own sandwich in silence, but just as Jay was about to head to his room with his food, Tyse said, “Just don’t write something off too quickly if it seems ‘complicated.’ Sometimes it’s really not. Or sometimes it’s just totally worth a sacrifice or two…”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jay: Where u at?

  Melanie: Just got off work, heading to swim

  Jay paused. Fuck, she was headed up to his grandpa’s? He instantly wondered if Tyse was there too. Jay had been working out in his garage all day, but hadn’t seen Tyse since the night before. And Melanie had been busy with her own stuff so he’d barely even heard from her.

  The last time he saw her was two nights ago when they’d kissed…

  Melanie: Wanna swim? Come join me. Pretty please???

  Jay had to pause again. It was five o’clock, and even though he had to wait until tomorrow for Teague’s help hooking the engine to the hoist and lowering it into the car, Jay wanted to claim he was too busy. But…he couldn’t help it.

  Jay: Only if ur in a skimpy bikini

  Melanie: Hahaha! Yeah, me and baby bump. I’m sure it’ll be sexy

  Jay had to smile: Good, then count me in

  He quickly grabbed what he needed and left the house. On the way to Malibu, he stopped and grabbed some takeout at Islands Restaurant. He knew Melanie loved the chicken club wraps from there, and since Jay didn’t care what the hell he ate, he got a few of them. He was so hungry he ate two of them while he drove, and when he punched in the security code to his grandpa’s mansion, he was stuffed full.

  After parking on the pool side of the property, he let himself in through the wrought iron gate. He could already see Melanie’s blonde head and yellow bikini in the water, slowly swimming from one end to the other. No one else seemed to be around, but Jay was sure at least the live-in maid was in the house.

  He just stood there for a minute, off to the side where she didn’t notice him, but eventually he made his way to a lounge chair and set the bag of food on the one next to him.

  “Oh my god, please don’t tell me you’re going to sit there and eat that in front of me,” Melanie said as she swam up to the edge of the pool. “I’m starving and I love that place.”

  “Hell yes, you keep swimming,” he answered, motioning her back to the water.

  “Just one bite?” she asked with a playful pout. She opened her mouth for him as a hint to bring something over.

  “You come over here and get it,” Jay answered smugly. He pulled out the last chicken wrap and waved it at her.

  “You are evil!” she scoffed.

  “It’s the only one,” he smiled. “Come get it or I eat it all.” He unwrapped one end of it and held it to his mouth.

  Melanie was up the ladder in about five seconds, dripping pool water all over his legs to take it from him. “You’re a liar,” she glared. “I see you’ve already had one.” She waved a finger over his t-shirt at the spots where he’d dribble
d food as he drove.

  “Fucking traitor shirt,” he shook his head. He yanked it off and threw it on the lounge chair as Melanie sat next to him.

  “Oh my God,” she mumbled after taking a bite. “I shouldn’t admit this out loud, but I owe you big time.”

  “You always owe me, so it doesn’t matter if you admit it.” He lounged back on the chair and kicked his shoes off.

  “You’ve got chicken wrap on your shorts too,” Melanie observed. “Maybe you should take them off as well.”

  “Maybe I should,” he gave her crooked smile. “Lose the bikini and I will.”

  Melanie chuckled after swallowing another bite. “I’m already wearing less than you.”

  “True.” Jay looked at her again but wasn’t exactly subtle about the head-to-toe observation. His eyes rested on her lips, and all he could think about was how much he wanted to take them between his teeth again.

  Her hand covered her mouth, breaking his gaze. As she wiped at her face she asked, “What’s on me? Stop watching me eat.” She reached into the bag to grab a napkin and dabbed at her lips.

  With a smile, he leaned over to her lounge chair and said, “You’re not even close, sweetheart.” When she raised her eyebrows at him, he lowered his mouth to her upper thigh and sucked off a small drop of juice from her chicken wrap. He lingered longer than necessary, turning it sensual as he used his tongue right along with his lips. Fuck, her skin was so soft. And he was tempted to explore a little further, especially when he felt her fingers softly touching the back of his neck.

  He tilted his head so he could see her reaction. Oh yeah, she was totally affected by his mouth on her leg. She was biting that damn lower lip, and when her eyes met his, Jay’s playful actions seemed to be compromised. It was almost impossible to keep things light when she looked at him like that.