by Natalie Ann
That something in her childhood made her that way. Controlled and disciplined were the two words he’d probably use to describe her.
He wondered if he could get her to lose some of that control or discipline. When he thought of that, he decided he was going to make it his mission to see if he could ruffle her feathers a little.
She was too serious by far. Life was short and there was no need for it.
“What are you smiling about over there?” Ryder asked him. “Only a woman puts a look like that on a man’s face.”
“You’d know,” he said. “How’s Bethany? Or is it Brittany?”
“Brianna,” Ryder said. “And it’s over.”
“That didn’t last very long,” he said, not surprised. “What, a few weeks?”
“Two,” Ryder said. “She was too clingy.”
“You need to stop picking women up in a bar,” he said.
“I didn’t meet her in a bar,” Ryder said.
“Then where?”
“Dating app,” Ryder said, laughing.
“Same thing in my eyes.”
“When was the last time you went on a date?” Ryder asked. “Dating doesn’t mean anything. You are way too serious half the time.”
“Me?” Drake said, laughing. “No one has ever said I was serious. I’m the most accommodating in this family. That doesn’t smack of seriousness at all.”
“Your personality is that way. But your personal life is dismal. That is serious. Go out on a date with someone without trying to think three steps into the future. That is always your problem. You never just let it flow.”
“I flow with everything,” he said, trying not to get insulted.
“Everything in life except women.”
Drake stared at his younger cousin and realized the truth in that statement. He was like that. He’d gotten sick of dating women that never seemed to be on the same page as him. If he was thinking of the future, they were thinking fun. If he was thinking of fun, they were thinking of the future.
“Maybe you’re right.”
“I can hook you up with someone this weekend. Double date,” Ryder said.
“No way. I can get my own woman.”
“Then prove it to me and do that,” Ryder said.
Color Blind
“Yes, Kara?” Drake said when he felt a presence at his door. She hadn’t knocked, she didn’t need to. He knew it was her by the tapping of her foot.
“Receipts,” she said.
He’d been gone for a few days at a conference and just returned to work today. He’d told himself he wanted to try to get under her skin. To see if he could ruffle those stiff feathers of hers.
But when he was out of town and drinking at the bar, he realized how childish that was. How stupid too. Plus, he’d told Ryder he could get his own woman and a few had flirted plenty with him for a night of pleasure and he’d turned them down.
He didn’t need to hook up with a woman to prove to his cousin he could. He never liked doing that and didn’t like the way it made him feel.
He was more of a relationship guy, but the sad truth was he struggled to find someone that he truly connected with.
And there in front of him was Kara in her dull brown pants and white button-down shirt, her matching brown penny loafers tapping away. He couldn’t help himself from picking at her. Call him a glutton for his forced celibacy lately, but there was a good-looking woman in front of him that didn’t see much other than tiny pieces of paper he could provide her.
Talk about a blow to his ego.
“Are you color blind?”
“Excuse me?”
“I asked if you were color blind. You never wear any colors. Or any bold vibrant ones.”
“Why does it matter what I wear?” she asked, the frown visible behind her black-rimmed glasses. He’d never thought glasses were sexy before but found when he saw them on Kara his body went into overdrive.
Again making him wonder what the hell was wrong with him. They couldn’t even be in each other’s company without one of them annoying the other.
“Colors are cheerful,” he said, pulling at his red fitted cotton T-shirt. He was in the office all day, no reason to dress up.
“So you think I’m not cheerful?” she asked. Yep, case in point, he’d just annoyed her.
He laughed. He couldn’t help himself and found he was actually missing this interaction with her. Must be he was coming down with a bug or something.
“I said the colors you wear are not cheerful. Not you. Of course you don’t smile that often. Why is that?”
Her lips twitched in what might be a smile trying to work it’s way out. “Maybe because you haven’t said anything happy or funny.”
“What if I gave you my receipts right now?” he asked. “I bet that’d put a smile on your lips.”
“Maybe. I guess the bigger question is why I’ve got to come and get them from you all the time.”
“Could it be I enjoy your company?”
“I doubt that,” she said, walking forward and putting her hand out in front of his desk. “We work together. That’s it.”
That final-sounding word didn’t sit well with him. Like a challenge thrown down.
“If you say so,” he said, making him lose some of his good mood.
It just wasn’t worth bantering with her over this again. She obviously wanted her receipts so she could get back to work.
“You do realize I’ve been at a conference and just returned to work today. Normally I have a few days’ window before you come in here hammering me about my expenses.”
Her face flushed. Good, he hit a nerve. “I wasn’t coming for those receipts. I’m not that much of a hardass.”
“Wow, you swore.”
She snorted. “I didn’t mean to. You seem to bring that out of me.”
“Good to know it’s not just me then.”
“I’m looking for your receipts from the week before the conference. You were still missing some and I’ve got the credit card bill. I need to compare them for accuracy.”
He opened his drawer and pulled out what he had. “This is all I’ve got. If you’re missing more, let me know and I’ll check in my wallet which is in my car, along with all the receipts from my trip.”
“That’s fine,” she said, reaching for them. The minute their hands touched he felt a sharp spark. She must have too as her hand withdrew back. “You did that on purpose?”
“Did what?” he asked. “It’s not like I rubbed my hand on a balloon to get static or something else silly. I reached in a drawer.”
She grabbed the receipts and walked a few steps back. “Did you have a chance to look over what I sent you from our meeting last week?”
“Hello,” he said. “Conference? I was busy Friday and flew out on Sunday and got home last night.”
“There was always Saturday,” she said, this time smirking at him. “Or at night in the hotel room.”
“Some of us don’t work sixty hours a week every week. I’m catching up on work today and have a meeting tomorrow morning. I probably won’t get to it until Monday at the earliest.”
“Fine,” she said. “Let me know if you have any questions.”
“Fine,” he said back and watched her retreating form, checking to see if he could find out what bug crawled up her butt. Man, she had one hell of an ass on her.
***
By the time Kara got back to her office she’d cooled down enough that she realized she should walk back into Drake’s office and apologize.
There was no reason to take her moodiness out on him. It was just he always seemed to rub her the wrong way. Get on her last nerve. Annoy the crap out of her. All those things that she never let anyone do to her anymore.
There was no one to blame for her crabbiness other than a sleepless night thanks to her mother’s call.
She’d just dozed off when the phone rang. She’d seen it was her mother and was going to send it to voicemail, but she’d done that
for two weeks already and figured since it was late and her mother was calling at different times, it was best to answer.
“Hello, Mom.”
“Kara. I finally caught you.”
“Yes. You woke me up.”
“Must be nice to get to bed at a decent time.”
She’d lived with the sarcasm most of her life and wasn’t surprised she was hearing it now again years after she’d left home. Heck, she hadn’t lived with her mother since her mother left when Kara was fourteen, leaving her to stay with her deadbeat drunken father.
“Was there a reason for your call?” she asked her mother.
“I just wanted to see how it was there in North Carolina. How’s the job market?”
There was the dread she’d been hoping not to feel. She’d figured that since she’d been here almost a year her mother wouldn’t have any interest. “I thought you were working.”
She didn’t even know how many jobs her mother had currently. Always more than one. That had been the excuse she gave for not wanting Kara to live with her. That she wasn’t home enough.
Like staying with a man that was passed out more times than not was better. Actually it was better when her father was passed out because then she didn’t have to listen to his bitching and complaining. Or worse yet having his friends over drinking and making passes at her.
“I am. I always am. You know that. One day I’d like to have just one job and not three.”
Her mother had always had at least two. She either cleaned houses or businesses at night as a second job. “Are you working now?” Kara asked.
“I’m on break. I’ve got two more hours to finish cleaning before I can leave. Then I need to be at the hospital by seven tomorrow.”
“Hospital?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” her mother said. She heard the click of a lighter and the exhale of air and knew her mother was on one of her many smoke breaks. Probably standing outside. Rain or shine, when it was time for Denise Winslow to have her Marlboro, she was having it. Work could wait too, which was why she’d had so many jobs as a lot of employers got sick of it and fired her for the extended number of breaks she took.
“Then why are you going to the hospital?”
“I work there.”
“Since when?” Last she knew her mother cleaned buildings, had multiple places lined up and worked full time as a customer service rep at some call center making cold calls.
“Since I couldn’t meet my quota of sales or calls and got canned three months ago.”
Had it been that long since she’d talked to her mother? Maybe.
“So what are you doing at the hospital?”
“What I always do. Clean. Cleaned up after your father and you all day every day and never made a penny at it. At least I’m getting a check here. I deliver meals and pick them up from the patients. Plus I get out early enough that I can line up some more jobs at night.”
“You didn’t have to pick up after me,” Kara argued. She was cleaning the house and cooking dinner long before most girls had their periods let alone knew how to cook much more than an egg.
“When you were younger I did.”
“That’s what a parent does.”
“You’re still bitter I left you with your father, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know, Mom. What do you think? You complained all you did was pick up after him. Worked three jobs to pay the bills because he couldn’t hold a job down. Had his drunken friends over during the day making a mess. Yet you thought it was okay to leave a fourteen-year-old girl alone with all that?”
“I was never home either,” her mother said.
“No, but at least I could have helped you. I could have had dinner ready for you when you got home. I could have cleaned at home. I could have done a lot of things at your apartment that I was already doing at the house.”
And she would have had the privacy and peace too.
“I only had one bedroom. Where were you going to sleep? On the couch?”
“It would have been fine with me,” she said and wondered why she was hashing this out all over again. Every few years it came up.
“So I guess that means you don’t want me to move closer to you?” her mother said.
“You can do what you want, but you’ll have to find your own job, your own place to stay.” Her mother had left her high and dry; she wasn’t offering her a hand.
“Ever since you got that degree you thought your shit didn’t stink. Thought you were better than the rest of us.”
“I never thought that. What’s wrong with trying to better myself? Isn’t that what you keep saying you want to do when you switch jobs all the time?”
There was silence on the other end and she knew she put her mother on the spot with that. “It’s not the same thing.”
“No, it’s not. I’m sorry, Mom. I’m tired and I have to get up early tomorrow.”
“Fine. My cigarette is gone anyway so I need to get back to work.”
Not surprised that was the only time her mother tried to call her. During a smoke break.
She hung the phone up and lay back down, but sleep eluded her like a serial killer from the FBI. Then she woke up the next morning with bloodshot eyes from the tears she’d shed after promising herself she was done crying over her lost childhood.
When she got up, she put cold compresses over her eyes, used some drops and felt as good as new. There was no way she was putting her contacts in to make them worse, so she put her glasses on even though she didn’t care to wear them and pulled her hair back and grabbed clothes out of her closet.
The dull and boring closet in her bedroom that Drake just criticized.
She’d never wanted to stand out. She never wanted attention drawn to herself.
She just wanted to blend in and do her job. And maybe someday she’d find a man and could have a normal decent relationship. If she could ever get past the knowledge of the shitty one she’d been exposed to her whole life.
Keep The Secret
Drake looked up a few minutes after Kara left his office to see his twin, Noah, standing there. “Get out early?” he asked.
“School is out. I’m just doing administrative stuff now. It’s a bit easier to come and go.”
“Not everyone gets short days like you. Summers off.”
Noah was a high school principal. “I haven’t had a summer off since I was a teacher and you know it. And I don’t get short days either. I’m there before the teachers and hours after. Not only am I dealing with the teachers but the snot nosed kids to boot plus their parents.”
“You could have stayed as a history teacher if you wanted to.”
“No way,” Noah said. “That was my stepping stone. I like being in charge.”
Drake laughed. “Always were the bossy one of the house.”
“No one is as bossy as Jade,” Noah said.
“True. And she got away with it being the baby and the only girl,” Drake said of their sister.
“We had the house covered growing up,” Noah said. “You are the chill one.”
“I had to be chill because you were always telling me what to do even though I’m the oldest.”
“By seven minutes,” Noah argued with the famous Fierce grin.
“Wyatt is the prankster and Jade, well, she’s the girly girl who put us all in our place.”
“It makes me wonder how Mom and Dad stayed so sane.”
“Who says they’re sane?” Drake asked. “I work with Dad every day. And he and Uncle Grant go at it like you and me half the time.”
“Just like living at home then,” Noah said. “Anyway. I was on my way home and figured I’d stop in and see if you can cut out early tomorrow so we can get to Charlotte for dinner at the restaurant and drinks at the bar.”
They were all heading to Charlotte for his cousin Cade’s bachelor party, which was on Saturday. Drake and his brothers decided to go early on Friday so they could hang out with their cous
ins.
“Yeah. Just let me know when Wyatt can leave. He has a busier schedule than I do. Who’s driving?”
“You,” Noah said. “Being the oldest and all.”
“Which means you guys can drink more.”
“You always were smart too,” Noah said. “I’m going to chat with Dad for a bit. I’ll text you when I hear from Wyatt and you can pick us up after that.”
“Whatever,” Drake said.
He was looking forward to going to Charlotte and seeing his cousins. Hanging out at the bar, having a few drinks.
Responsibly, of course. He hardly ever got drunk. He never wanted to. Not after he lost his cool at the bar when he was twenty-two. The cool he’d never lost again quite like that. Definitely never anything physical.
As far as he knew, his father and brothers never heard that story. That Brody said he wouldn’t tell a soul and his Uncle Gavin had said he’d keep the secret too.
They knew how pissed he was that his girlfriend back then was flirting with another man...on his turf no less. It was embarrassing on more than one level.
And that night when they’d gone back to Brody’s, and Tami wanted to have sex—said it was the most turned on she’d ever been by him—he’d been nothing but disgusted over it and pushed her aside. He gave her the bed and slept on the couch, then the next day they went back home first thing in the morning.
Two days later Tami broke up with him. Said she just wasn’t feeling it anymore. That he was too accommodating to everyone but her.
He didn’t know what the hell that meant and never bothered to ask. No use trying to win her back when she’d been distancing herself from him for weeks anyway. Probably months when he really looked back.
Either way, from that point on, he stopped drinking a lot when he was out, and he stopped chasing any woman.
If they didn’t want him for the way he was, how he acted, then he was better off without them.
Being single wasn’t that bad regardless of what his brothers and cousins thought.
