WindSwept Narrows: #16 Anna Carson & Catherine Jenkins

by Diroll-Nichols, Karen

  “Anna…okay, you’re right…”

  “Anna, he’s just being protective…” Carter felt his voice fall into a crack on the floor when she spun on him.

  “And you? You’re just as bad! It’s perfectly alright for men to get all the experience in the world but a girl goes out and samples and right away she’s attacked by someone who’s supposed to understand her?” Anna glared from one to the other. “So because I didn’t spread it around, there’s something wrong with me? Augh….! Men!” She shot them each one last growling glare before storming down the hall, the vibrating sound of the slamming door making them both finally breathe.

  “Well…” Aaron lifted the glass and drained the juice.

  “What the hell just happened?” Carter’s head swiveled from Aaron to the hallway.

  “Bit of advice…a few arguments with my sister, and you’ll come to learn that even if you watch it on instant replay, you’ll never be able to understand how it got turned around and you’re the one in trouble,” Aaron exhaled slowly. “I’m sorry. She’s right. I…don’t know…”

  “Brothers are protective I’ve heard,” Carter offered with a half shrug, lifting the half glass of juice Anna had left behind and drank deeply.

  “Yeah…yeah, we are…I got coffee…want some?” Aaron moved to the connecting door.

  “I’d kill for some about now,” Carter admitted following with an arched brow. “Connecting door?”

  “My office. We bought the house the instant we turned eighteen and spent the summer nose deep in how-to manuals renovating it,” he took down two large mugs and poured the coffee. “Sugar? Milk?”

  “Straight,” Carter looked around, a little surprised at how similar the décor was. Different tastes in wall hangings, but simple and uncluttered.

  “We divided the house in two and put in a connecting door,” Aaron perched on the high stool before the breakfast bar, staring into the dark brew in his cup. “It wasn’t easy in the beginning. I’m not sure who it was harder on, to be frank. She wanted to be…” he laughed softly, his head shaking. “She wanted so bad to be independent and strong. Positive she could fight nightmares on her own…”

  “It angers her,” Carter commented, taking a long swallow of the good coffee.

  “Sometimes she wakes up with this scream…rocks the house and Jesus, sends chills through me…other times…and they say it’s a twin thing…I just know something’s wrong and I go over and find her whimpering and sweating or huddled in the corner of her closet,” he set the coffee down and paced to the patio door. “You feel so damn helpless…useless…”

  “She told me about the incident at school,” Carter knew exactly how he was feeling and slowly pushed a breath between his teeth.

  Dark brown eyes, flat and cold turned to meet Carter’s without blinking. “I could have easily ended up in jail over that. If there hadn’t been some adults there to…” He felt the hard thump of his pulse at his throat. “And there wasn’t a god damn thing we could do because we didn’t have adults in our life to push for punishment. All it did was add another nightmare…”

  “For what it’s worth,” he paused while Aaron inhaled deeply. “I understand where your…the protective part of you comes from, Aaron. She’s important to you…she’s never been with anyone before.”

  “I…huh…” Aaron lifted the cup and drained it, going to pour another cup and setting the pot on the counter. “She’s right…guys are weird. You expect…or just flat out figure they experiment just like we do, but when they don’t we’re shocked…other girls are supposed to, but not your sister, for crying out loud…and they’re all someone’s sister…”

  “Yeah…I didn’t know…didn’t think…hell…” Carter stopped talking when he saw the shadow coming along the hall between the units. He watched those wide, dark eyes go from one to the other suspiciously.

  “A pleasant guy bonding moment?” She asked sarcastically. “Glad to see you haven’t killed each other over my virtue. Breakfast is ready,” she announced, turning briskly and striding away.

  “Well…” Carter filled the cup and carried it with him, following the silent Aaron back to Anna’s side of the house. Three places were now on the table along with sausages, eggs, hash brown potatoes and steaming biscuits.

  “So how long before we’re good?” Aaron asked casually.

  Carter watched the exchange, figuring it might be safer than sticking his neck out at the moment.

  “She’s not generally violent,” Aaron confided with a slight nod, spooning food onto his plate and reaching for a biscuit.

  “Generally?” Carter caught the word with a curious arch of one brow.

  “Occasionally, something will come flying through the air at you. Keep an eye behind you when she’s pissed,” Aaron told him with a crooked grin at the dark mumbling from the woman quietly eating.

  “Thanks for the heads up,” Carter smiled at the dark expression on her face. “You can be mad, but he was only defending…” He stopped when one hand flew up, one finger up warningly.

  “Don’t even go there. Whatever you’re going to say will only make the ditch deeper. I strongly suggest that my virtue be dropped as conversation. Now,” Anna said firmly, glaring from one to the other.

  “So…baseball season has begun,” Aaron said with a cheeky grin.

  “You do everything she tells you?” Carter asked, glancing from one to the other.

  “I learned from experience. First, you’re new. Second…regrettably, she’s right. Somehow I had this idea I was above the double standard thing, but I guess I’m not.”

  “Fair enough…and despite the fact that I’m not sure why, I’m apologizing, Anna.” Carter reached over the table, two fingers beneath the stubborn square of her chin until she met his gaze with a little nod. “Thank you,” he decided a diversion was needed and began asking questions about Aaron’s out of town trip.

  Anna listened to them, shaking her head at how guys bonded so quickly. She loaded the dishwasher and accepted the brotherly kiss on her forehead when he announced he had errands to run and would check on her later.

  “He worries about you,” Carter said when the door clicked closed behind them

  “I know,” she said with a sigh.

  “I need some normal clothes,” Carter said, catching her palm and pulling her into his embrace. “Spend the night with me…at my place…”

  “I’ll get some clothes and meet you there,” she agreed when she had enough breath after their kiss. She wrapped her fingers around the opening of his shirt and tugged his mouth to hers again. “Drive careful.”

  Carter felt her fingers trail down the front of his shirt as he backed up, lifted the tux jacket off the sofa and found his keys.

  Chapter Twelve

  Aaron wasn’t sure why he needed a long, cold walk. But he knew he did. He needed nothing but air around his head and nothing but water and sky in front of his eyes.

  The break-way built of heavy stone and concrete was perfect for that. And on a day like today with rain shooting down on you from all angles now and then and white caps popping up like icing in the dark stormy waters, it was ideal. He changed into jeans, deck shoes, a simple tee shirt and a heavy, long black water repellent wool coat. Winds whipping off the Sound the first week of April were brutal.

  He knew it had to do with his sister. She was right. She never once asked him about the girls he slept with. Never once questioned his behavior or his taste; never once voiced an opinion about his morals or standards. Yet the first and only time he finds a guy in a towel in her house, he acts like a jerk.

  Never had she come to him and expressed a feeling that she was being replaced. Yet that’s what he was feeling right now. And he didn’t know how to deal with it.

  It had always just been them. No one else cared as much. No one bothered making sure they weren’t alone or afraid or hungry or warm. But they’d always been there for one another.

  He walked slowly out onto the wide, railed
break-way, unaware of people around him. Unaware of the cold or winds or occasional water splashing around him, either from the sky or the ocean.

  He saw more in Carter’s eyes than he’d ever seen in the eyes of any of the girls he’d slept with. Slept. He spit the word about in his brain. Had sex with. And maybe he did feel something for a few of them. But nothing like what he saw when he watched Carter and Anna together.

  She wore a leather jacket that stopped at her waist, slim, fitted and worn weathered jeans and a comfortable flannel shirt. Bouts of rain came and went, but she didn’t appear to notice it. Deep chestnut tinted hair was long, and would have curled below her shoulders but for the high riding ponytail that was bound up in at the back of her head. She wore boots with thick, three inch heels that only added to her height of five foot ten, one of the boots tapping the ornate cane at her side with a grimace.

  She wanted to kick it into the Sound.

  She heard the tapping approach of feet along the wooden planks that made up the break-way but didn’t think about it until she heard the thud. Groaning for too many reasons, she pushed herself to her feet and peered around the large stones that made up the end where the benches were placed around the base.

  Thugs with a baseball bat?

  “Geeze…” Young and stupid, she assessed, taking her cell out and placing the 9-1-1 with the right ending, requesting a black and white immediately. She moved as quickly as she could, stepping forward and catching the attention before the one with a tattooed neck could raise the bat again and bring it down on the guy lying on the planks.

  “Get outta here, bitch…”

  “This ain’t your business…” Growled the one with no hair and obviously no sense, she concluded. She arched a brow, leaning heavily on the cane with both hands.

  “So…this a mugging or robbery?” Came the silky voice that echoed into Aaron’s mind, his hands out to push against the plank. He saw boots and the cane when his head tilted a little.

  “Don’t you listen, bitch? Get outta here…”

  “Can’t…won’t…pick one…besides, you’re already trying to beat up a lone guy. Shouldn’t be so difficult to take on a girl with a cane, right? Especially when I’m somewhere I shouldn’t be….watching something I shouldn’t see…”

  “Damn woman, shut the…”

  Neither of them were sure how it happened. They saw her take a wobbly step forward. Then the cane shot up through her fingers, the hooked end catching the bat where he held it between two hands. She pulled sharply, sending him stumbling forward and onto the planking. Her foot came up and then down firmly between his shoulder blades at the same time she shot the hooked end of the cane out again.

  She knew it was pure luck but it sure looked good and felt good at the time. The hook caught in the opening of his jacket and she pulled, once more catching him off balance and pushing his face into the planks. She had them side by side, a foot on each of them and her balance held by her weight as the sound of running feet echoed over the water.

  “Huh…and the operator said you needed help,” came the friendly chiding from one of the officers.

  “Lieutenant…even on convo you’re embarrassing us…” chuckled the other officer.

  “Just minding my own business…check for weapons…didn’t have time…but don’t doubt they’re carrying.” She carefully stepped back and dropped to her heels, a soft hand up and touching his forehead. “You okay in there?”

  “Yeah…yeah…”

  “Know these two?”

  “Never saw them before,” Aaron looked over at them and then back to the high cheeks tinted pink from the weather and exertion, he thought. Then he met the most startling shade of pale violet eyes he’d ever seen.

  “Hold up guys…” She stood up with a low groan, leaning against the railing and glancing from one disgruntled hood to the other, their hands now bound behind them. “So…for paperwork sake…mugging…robbery…you…” her memory kicked into high gear. “You’re a dealer…I know you…so why are you hassling this upstanding citizen? Out here…in the middle of nowhere…” full lips pulled into a taut, thoughtful pucker.

  “I don’t got to tell you dick,” he spit out, glaring over at the man now standing and rubbing his shoulder.

  She arched a brow at the other one who offered his own colorful suggestion.

  “I’m sure…considering I’m a girl…that’s anatomically impossible…huh…and you don’t know them?” She looked over at the man who easily topped her own height by a couple inches, lean and not soft, she decided with feminine approval.

  “Sorry…first I saw them was from the ground looking up,” Aaron shook his head again. “I’ll sign the complaints or whatever…”

  “Throw them in your vehicle and take his statement,” She sunk down to the bench with a wince. “And when my doctor gets done chewing my ass, I’m coming down to the station and kick yours for the grief,” she growled, rubbing her thigh and leaning her head against the stone behind her.

  “You okay, LT?”

  “Yeah…peachy…can’t you tell…” She sighed, her hand up with a wave. “Ignore me. I’m fine, thanks.”

  “You’re usually a better liar than that,” came the chuckle as the pair were led down the break-way.

  “I’m having a flippin’ off month,” she ground through her teeth, lifting her head only when she was sure it wouldn’t embarrass her by spinning some more. “The uniforms will take your statement, Mr.…?”

  “Carson. Aaron Carson,” he held out his palm, surprised at the long slim fingers on the almost delicate looking palm.

  “Catherine Jenkins. Don’t know how hard they hit you…are you alright?”

  She watched him rotate and flex both his arm and shoulder and shrug.

  “Probably bruised and sore, but…yeah, it’s okay…they didn’t ask for a wallet or anything…just…I was staring out at the water and then I was on the ground…” Aaron shook his head. “I’ve been walking out here since I was a kid. Never had anything like this happen before.”

  “It’s a bit on the open side…that’s the odd glitch in the whole deal…” Unless they were after you, specifically, she added in her mind. She watched him walk a few steps away, talking to one of the uniforms as she took out her phone and entered her request to the police website. All information on one Aaron Carson. She read through the limited information. Nothing that could even remotely put him in contact with the pair being hauled off to lock up. She’d snapped the phone closed when she saw him striding back towards her, a wince crossing his features when he moved his shoulder.

  “You might want to see your doctor…or at least ice it down…”

  “Speaking from experience?” He watched the absent shrug. He nodded to the cane between her knees. “What happened?”

  “Idiot with a knife and old age, I think…didn’t move fast enough.”

  “Are you free for dinner?” Aaron felt himself give a sharp smack upside his head for finesse and style. Instead, just blurt it out like he did when he was fifteen. “How about…would you like to have dinner with me?”

  “I thought the first one worked okay,” she said with a grin, levering her hand on the bench and about to stand up when his palm came out. She angled his hand up slightly, clasping it firmly and using his strength and balance to pull herself to her feet with an approving nod. “I think I’d like that.”

  Aaron watched her move cautiously at his side. “Are you sure you should be out walking around yet?”

  “If you start to sound like my doctor, it’s going to put a serious crimp in the fun factor of dinner,” she said clearly, ignoring the nagging throbbing in her leg.

  “Ouch,” Aaron responded, ignoring convention and putting his arm around her waist. “I interpret that to mean you should still be flat on your ass somewhere.”

  “I hear the dulcet tones of a nagging doctor.” She said dryly.

  “God, you have got to meet my sister,” he shook his head, laughing at the look on h
er face. She had high shallow cheeks, tinted pink from the weather and he guessed the exertion it was taking to keep vertical. Her jaw line was strong and firm, with a chin that probably had too much stubborn behind it.

  “I remind you of your sister?” Cat Jenkins was starting to question her sanity as they neared the parking lot. “You can follow me to my apartment. I don’t want to leave my car here for long.”

  “It’s not a bad thing…” He chuckled looking over the few choices and nodded to the bright red low riding sports car. “Let me guess…”

  She looked at him long and hard, dark lashes narrowed as she pulled out her keys and aimed it at the vehicle. “I gave myself a birthday present,” she turned and leaned against the door. She patted down her pockets, pulling out a pen and small post it pad. She scribbled over the surface, handing him the single sheet she plucked free. “In case I lose you in traffic.”

  “Bet you got one of those cute spinning lights for such events…legal speeding?” He teased, laughing at the gleam in her eyes. “I thought so. I’ll try and keep up.”

  “You pay your own tickets, sport,” she laughed, sliding into the seat with a long rush of relief. Falling flat on your face in front of a cute guy was seriously bad form, she decided, listening to the engine turn over at her request.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Aaron didn’t miss the small beads of sweat breaking out on her face or the way she let her head fall to the headrest for several long minutes before heading out on the road. He tapped the address into his GPS, sliding the piece of paper into his pocket as he drove more sedately behind her. His four door was a large, comfortable sedan in deep blue, very different than the low riding sports car. A high end import with an engine that purred and didn’t bulk at all when she went up the hill and around the curves.

  She lived in a small adult complex just east of the Sound, the sports car pulled into a garage next to a first floor unit. He parked in the guest slot next to her front door and went to the garage door. Aaron counted, checked his watch and finally reached for the door at the same time it was pulled inward. Dark eyes did a concerned sweep, his curse soft when he saw the stain darkening the fabric of her jeans.