Coming Undone

by Stephanie Tyler

  “IS THIS WHAT YOU DO NOW when you get time off? Sit on your ass like an old man, reading the paper? You should be out, raising hell and partying with naughty women. And bringing some along for me.”

  Ty Huntington’s voice carried, loud and raucous, across the quiet diner. His black leather boots were noisy, stomping across the linoleum. In fact, Ty was pretty much dressed totally in black. When he stripped off his jacket it revealed a T-shirt with no sleeves and multiple tattoos adorning both arms.It was only a little past two in the morning, but Hunt had never slept much anyway. He’d stretched out in one of the back booths to catch up on the news. He’d known his brother would be arriving at some point soon; this diner was always his first stop when he was in town. And Hunt had been right, because he’d heard the roar of Ty’s Harley long before his brother pulled into the parking lot. Ty always rigged his bikes to roar so loud when started that they would set off car alarms within four blocks. Luckily, he was always gone before the irate owners got to him.

  “I wore all those women out and sent them home to bed,” Hunt said.

  “Just as well. I wouldn’t want them to compare you to me, because you would’ve been second best,” Ty called, then gave a subtle tongue wag to the young waitress. He hadn’t changed a bit.

  Hunt stood and grabbed his younger brother in a headlock, reminiscent of all the times he really would’ve liked to strangle him. When he let him up, Ty was smiling, as if he knew.

  His brother’s hair was longer than when he’d seen him last, his skin tanned from all the time spent outside on the bike, drifting from place to place and doing who knows what. He didn’t ask and Ty didn’t offer, and Hunt knew better than anyone the line between legal and barely so.

  He’d straddled that line himself too many times to count, but he had the US Military backing him. It was a world Ty would never have survived in, although his brother was more of a survivor than anyone truly knew.

  “You look good. Not so military.” Ty slapped him on the back and Hunt settled into the seat across from him.

  “I see you got a new baby.” Hunt pointed to the bike through the window, and Ty smiled.

  “She’s a beauty. I gambled and won her up in Chattanooga.”

  “I didn’t know there was much gambling that way.”

  “There’s more up that way than you could ever dream of, all of it trouble.”

  “And you find it, I’m sure.”

  “Trouble finds me,” Ty protested. Then he winked at the waitress who’d come over to take his order, and no doubt, to get another look at him. They almost started kissing right in front of Hunt, and he had to stop Ty from following her into the kitchen.

  “So, Jon, how’s it going? Still living like a monk?” Ty asked, after mouthing, later, to the waitress.

  Hunt grinned because it had been a long time since anyone had used his real first name. Meaning, it had been too long between visits with Ty. “Why are you so interested in my sex life?”

  “Not your sex life. Your love life, as in, are you living alone, like a monk? Getting laid’s never been your problem.”

  Hunt smirked. “I wasn’t aware that I had any problems, other than keeping your ass in line.”

  “Nice avoidance technique.”

  “I learned from the best,” Hunt said, and sighed inwardly. He wondered when his little brother had managed to add pop psychologist to his list of credentials. Ty had always had an insightful, almost sixth-sense kind of thing going on, sometimes eerily so.

  You’re going to have to stop referring to him as your little brother. He’s twenty-five.

  Only three years separated the two, and they did share some similarities. Although, the differences at times were so great that Hunt had to wonder where Ty’d come from. Ty had the same freewheeling spirit as their parents had, and he’d inherited their wanderlust and their openness. Their trusting natures.

  Hunt enjoyed his travels with the SEALs, but always liked having someplace steady to hang his hat when he came home. Instability in two- to four-month stints in his job, he could handle. In his life, not so much.

  Forget about trust. Hunt was always out of there long before any relationship reached that stage, and he never gave out enough personal information to worry. “What about you, Ty? Find the old ball and chain?”

  Ty laughed a deep sound that bounced off the walls of the nearly empty diner and reverberated. The waitress smiled. Ty was infectious that way, always managing to pull everyone into his good time. “Not yet, but I’ll know her when I see her.”

  “Still a romantic.”

  “I guess so.” Ty put salt and ketchup on his eggs and began to chew like he hadn’t eaten in weeks. “This place is as good as I remembered. And a long ride always gets my appetite up.”

  “Yeah, I know what you mean.” Hunt dug into his own breakfast.

  “You busy today? I thought maybe we’d take a ride up the coast, check out a few bikes I’m looking into buying this morning,” Ty offered.

  “Can we do it later on? There’s something I’ve got to take care of first.” Hunt had a few things that couldn’t be put off. He wasn’t going to complete the fantasy for Carly, but he did have his own ideas, plenty of them, and he planned to execute each and every one of them on her gorgeous, lithe body as soon as the time was right.

  “Does it involve a woman?” his brother asked.

  “None of your damned business.”

  “That means yes, and that’s the only excuse I’ll accept.”

  Hunt changed the subject, asked what he’d wanted to from the second he’d seen Ty. “Speaking of excuses, have you been doing what you’re supposed to have been doing?”

  “I never do, bro. Thought you knew that by now.”

  Purposeful avoidance. Hunt stared his brother down with his best cut-the-crap face, knowing he didn’t stand a chance.

  He didn’t—Ty just laughed. “I’ll make the trip myself, that way you don’t have to rush whatever it is you’ve got to do. But we are going out tonight?”

  “Wouldn’t miss it.”

  “Maybe I’ll get to meet this mystery woman you’re ditching me for.”

  “I’m not ditching you. And she’s not a mystery woman. I’m just doing her a favor.” And, oh yeah, he was going to make her work for that favor.

  Except you’re the one who’s all worked up, dumbass.

  He could handle it. He’d been through worse. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Besides, she wasn’t going to be able to resist him when he came calling, and he was going to come calling. He purposely left no way for her to get in touch with him. That would’ve been too easy for her, too convenient, as if she were pulling all the strings.

  “Big surprise,” Ty muttered.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Whenever you mention woman and favor in the same sentence, I know what you’ve done. Found yourself another fixer-upper.”

  “Huh?”

  “You know the phrase love ’em and leave ’em? Well, you’re fix ’em and leave ’em. Can’t you find a woman without problems? Someone who doesn’t need you so much?”

  “Carly doesn’t have problems.” Just fantasies. Hunt took a gulp of juice and told himself that he was in control. He wanted her under his command and he would make sure it stayed that way. Or, that it at least worked out that way. He wasn’t going to let her know how hard she’d tumbled him. From the second she’d opened the door, in fact. “She just needs a date for a wedding, so I said I’d—”

  “Help her out,” Ty finished, shaking his head, and Hunt wondered when he’d gone from big brother in charge to being lectured. “You know, it’s your responsibility to save the world on the job. In your own life, you’re allowed to enjoy. Let down your guard. Let someone cater to you every once in a while.”

  Now that was a fantasy that Hunt couldn’t ever see himself allowing to happen. “It’ll be fun. This opportunity presented itself, and I never turn down an opportunity to hang out with a b
eautiful woman. You of all people should understand that.”

  “I understand, man. I do. As long as we can spend some time together this week, it’s all good. And at least I know it’s a wild one.”

  In a few hours, when the sun came up, Hunt would head over to Carly’s. He’d wait for her on the beach he was only just at, and see what happened next. “It’s gonna be a wild one for sure.”

  “Speaking of wild, how was the action you caught recently?”

  “Where’d you hear about that?” Hunt demanded, and his mind flashed, not pleasantly, to his most recent mission.

  “You just told me.” His brother shrugged, and took a slug of coffee.

  “I’m fine. Obviously.”

  “Obviously,” Ty repeated. “As always.”

  “Are we going to fight? Because I’d hate to have to kick your sorry butt tonight.” Hunt settled against the booth and Ty shook his head. “Besides,” Hunt said, “you’re not exactly forthcoming about your cross-country adventures.”

  “I’ll fill you in on all the details, unless you’ve got somewhere else to be.”

  “This ought to be good,” Hunt muttered. His brother laughed again, and things were back to normal.

  THE BREAKFAST RUSH HAD just begun. The sound of plates being collected and tables freshened was a welcome distraction. Thanks to the rising smells of warm bread and hash browns from the kitchen, Ty Huntington’s appetite had come to life again. A good sign.

  “More coffee, honey?” The waitress on the morning shift gave him a nice, easy smile as she set down what was technically his second order of the day.“More everything would work for me,” he replied, smiling, because she was staring at him with a look he recognized well. And, if it weren’t so crowded, if it was even a month earlier, he might’ve whispered for her to meet him in the back of the restaurant. Because that would’ve been so simple to do. So easy. As it was, having his brother there had saved him from having to turn down the other waitress’s offer of a quick pick-me-up.

  She waggled a finger at him, still flirting as she gave a mock pout. “You bad boys are all the same.”

  “No one even comes close to me, sugar. Trust me on that,” he said.

  Ty took another slug of coffee and decided that putting off the trip up the coast for another day or so wasn’t going to matter for now. He’d spend more time relaxing, and if he could wrestle the bike away from his brother later, he’d do a little maintenance.

  He’d rebuilt the hog for Jon three years ago, as a birthday present. Not much for someone who’d done so much for him, but Jon never asked for anything in return, aside from the odd, usually small favor now and again.

  As much as he’d wanted to spend time with his brother today, Ty had been more than glad when he’d said he was busy. This trip wouldn’t be easy, and he’d never taken the easy way out ever, but this time, he wished he could.

  On the long ride in from Tallahassee, he’d rehearsed over and over what he was going to tell Jon. And then he’d lost his nerve when he saw him, because the part of Ty that always wanted to protect his older brother whispered, he doesn’t need to know anything right now. Nothing’s going to change, one way or the other.

  Ty had thought about not telling his brother at all. Avoidance for that long a time would be easy, but it wouldn’t be fair.

  It helped that they’d at least gotten along this time. Ty had regaled his older brother with stories of traveling the open road and it was good to see Jon laugh.

  He’d like to see a woman do that for Jon. Ty wanted to see his brother all taken care of, but he knew that would require a damned special woman. Jon was stubborn as hell about letting anyone in.

  Not like you.

  Ty had watched a good friend get hitched before he’d made the trip here, stood up as a witness in front of God and the preacher and it damn nearly broke him. He’d been through all kinds of women, short and tall, every hair color, the tough biker chick and the sweet innocent, and all of them had only wanted the bad boy.

  Now’s a great time for you to prove you’re something more than that.

  His appetite faltered, but he forced himself to continue eating. He’d finish his eggs and work on his hog, because both of those things were simple. Everything else he’d worry about later.

  7

  CARLY’S SISTER’S VOICE, normally screechy when she wasn’t being bridezilla, was downright shrill, and Carly had been barely awake when she’d grabbed the phone. The only reason she’d picked it up was because she’d thought it might be Sam, needing to cry on her proverbial shoulder again.

  “You’re bringing a Navy SEAL to my wedding?” Nicole blurted.Carly was not thinking it might be Hunt when she’d answered. She had not been dreaming about his big hands all over her or wishing his tongue had found her…

  “Is he going to wear camouflage to my wedding? Because Mother said he was wearing camouflage yesterday when she and Dad met him at your house.”

  “Nicole, he’s not…” Definitely not. Because Hunt had disappeared into the night without so much as an, I’ll call you. Which was a good thing, she told herself firmly as her sister continued to babble on about formal affairs and proper attire.

  “He’s got to wear a tuxedo to the engagement party. It is a black-tie event.”

  “Nic…”

  “If this is going to be a problem, you need to tell me now,” Nicole said. Yes, the problem was that her parents had fueled the rumor mill before Carly had a chance to set things straight with them. And apparently they’d given her sister the full rundown on her new, Navy SEAL boyfriend, who didn’t exist. Carly wondered if she should be worried that she couldn’t even get a pretend boyfriend to stick around. However, the trouble she’d created was more serious than worrying about Hunt.

  Coffee. Lots of strong coffee, preferably in IV-drip form, could get her through this. She struggled out of bed and down the stairs in just her tank top and boy shorts, phone in hand.

  Dawn hadn’t broken yet. Why was her sister, who could barely drag herself out of bed by noon, up so early?

  “I do not need this stress today, Carolyn. I have a full day of wedding plans to go over, and I have a breakfast event of mother’s to attend this morning.”

  “Then don’t stress. Hunt’s not coming to the wedding.”

  “Oh.” A pause. “So then, you’re coming alone? Like a spinster maid of honor?”

  Coffee alone was definitely not going to get her through this. Hanging up now might.

  Her sister was still talking when Carly clicked the phone off and threw it into the living room. It hit the couch with a less-than-satisfying thud. She abandoned the coffeemaker and headed upstairs for her bathing suit.

  She wasn’t sure how far she’d get today, but she was not going to let her fear get the best of her forever.

  Back downstairs, she walked onto the lanai then stepped onto the sand.

  There was a storm brewing and the ocean responded in kind by granting surfers, who were willing to get up this early—the dawn patrol—the thrill of an extra-long ride. She willed herself not to leave, stood close to the spot she and Hunt had used for their interlude. Taking a deep breath, she was prepared to at least be able to walk to that place beyond the dunes where he’d held her close. But she choked up and bailed the second she saw the choppy swells. The rushing tide and the merging clouds distorted everything. The fantasy that had seemed perfect by moonlight was replaced by that familiar fear she despised. She turned her back to the water.

  It wasn’t going to happen today. Whatever magic Hunt used to get her past the dunes he’d taken with him when he’d disappeared into the night.

  When had she gotten so dramatic?

  Carly kicked some sand in frustration and stepped slowly toward her house. It had become the long walk of shame she’d come to know so well. As she got closer, she glimpsed a strong, broad back bending over one of the longboards she kept propped against the side of the house.

  Hunt.

  He’d
taken her oldest, and once most-treasured stick and laid it across the patio table. He was using sex wax to rough the board up for riding, giving it all the TLC she hadn’t over the past months.

  Had he seen her freeze up by the dunes?

  “Hey,” she said. Carly looked beyond him, down the path that led to the side of her house, and saw his motorcycle parked in the middle of the driveway.

  “You’re up early,” Hunt said without bothering to turn around. She took that opportunity to stare at him, long and hard. He’d stripped off his shirt, and she watched the lean muscles in his back and arms move as he worked the board.

  “I’m always up early.” She tried to keep her voice steady. “Have you been here long?”

  DID YOU SEE ME FREAK OUT? That was what Carly wanted to know.

  Indeed, Hunt had seen her panic attack. From the looks of it, the walk down to the dunes was something of a ritual for her, and one that she wasn’t happy about.Her shoulders had tensed, fists clenched, the fear palpable. It made him want to run to her and hug her.

  Okay, he wanted to do a lot more than just that, but he could easily recognize someone who needed comfort. He could also recognize when someone wanted to let something go, and not have it be noticed. He could do that, too. “I haven’t been here long at all,” he replied.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I wanted to see if Candy Valentine could come out and play.”

  “She’s busy. Very busy.”

  “I’ll bet.” He walked over to her, cupped her chin in his hand for a second and then released it. It could’ve been the sunlight, but he would have sworn he saw a flash of disappointment in her eyes. “Catch any waves this morning?”

  “Too choppy for a decent ride, and I don’t like wasting time,” she lied.

  He nodded, went back to roughing up the board. Judging by the erosion of the wax, it hadn’t been touched in a while.

  Maybe she has other boards she uses. Stop jumping to conclusions.