Ache For Me
T he Everetts of Tyler, Book 4
Hayden Braeburn
Ache For Me
Hayden Braeburn
Copyright © 2017 Hayden Braeburn
Cover image and design by Kimberly Killion and Hot Damn Designs
Editing by Black Opal Proofreading
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as fact. Any resemblance to actual events, organizations, or persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable, right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. Except for use in reviews, promotional posts or similar uses, no part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the author.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Epilogue
About the Author
Chapter One
Camryn Everett caught herself before the frown appeared on her face. This was her brother's wedding, and surely she could find it within herself to be happy for him. She was surrounded by people in love, by examples of what marriage should be, and she should be happy or at least heartened by it all. Instead, she was ashamed, and a little envious. Okay, a lot envious. Her older siblings had all found their matches, and Caleb even had a cherubic little girl to call his daughter—or he would after all the papers were in order, at least—and all she had was a bitter heart, a disdain for relationships, and a very guilty conscience.
She held in the sigh that wanted to break free. She should have known better than to get involved with Gavin, but she'd fallen hard and fast for his charms, for his lines. She'd moved in with him almost as soon as they had started seeing each other and had been dreaming of a fall wedding in Central Park until the day she came home, and her world was shattered.
“Hey, baby, I'm home,” she called as she came in, two coffees balanced in her hands. There was no answer, but that wasn't unusual if Gavin was in work mode. She made her way into the kitchen, tossed her keys in the bowl, and set the coffees down.
“Gav?” she called again as she walked through the apartment. Rhythmic banging came from the bedroom, and her stomach dropped. She took a deep breath and steeled herself for what she'd find when she opened the door. Part of her wished she could just walk away, pretend nothing was happening, but she refused to be a coward.
“Gavin?” she questioned as she pushed the door wide. There she found him, buried deep in a brunette who wore nothing but a huge diamond wedding set on her left hand. “Cheating with a married woman?!” she screeched.
Gavin's English accent was thick. “No, love, she's my wife. You're the piece on the side,” he explained without missing a stroke, and his wife didn't seem bothered in the least. “You're a good fuck, Cammy,” he went on, never losing focus on the woman beneath him. “Iris doesn't mind, do you, love?”
She hadn't waited for his wife's answer, running out of the apartment, out of the city, out of everything she'd worked towards for years. She'd left it all behind, and hadn't cared a bit. Things could be replaced, but she'd been too weak to go back. She'd always thought herself strong, but she couldn't face him, couldn't look the cast and crew in the eye, not when she knew they all thought she'd slept her way into her role. How many of them had known he was married? So, she'd come home to Tyler with no explanations given, and she'd hidden.
Now, she was sitting here with her parents witnessing Caleb commit his life to Haleigh, and she had to pull from every bit of her training not to fall to pieces.
~*~
Carter Jamieson knew something was wrong with Camryn and had known it since he'd first laid eyes on her when she’d come home. He hated to admit she was the one Everett he could read at a distance of fifty paces, and the one he couldn't allow himself near. She was ten years his junior, his best friend's baby sister, but he was fully aware she was nothing close to a baby now and hadn't been since she was fifteen.
He focused on the couple getting married to try and stave off the memories of Cam in a bikini unknowingly torturing him at his family's pool while he was in law school. She had dancer's legs, but abundant curves on top, and while he knew she was supposed to be like a sister to him, he couldn't hide his reaction. She'd only gotten sexier in the following years, so he'd avoided her ever since, causing awkward family get-togethers and pain in her swirling hazel eyes.
He hated to hurt her, but what could he do? It was either walk away from her or cause trouble for them both. He wasn't the wholesome, straight-laced man everyone assumed him to be, and he was most certainly too old for Camryn Everett, even if she haunted his dreams every night. No, he wanted to help her, but he couldn't trust himself around her so he would stay out of her path as he had for the last decade. Even if it made him ache.
He leaned against the bar at the reception, dutifully drinking a beer and watching the revelry from a safe distance when his sister grabbed his elbow. “Stop staring at her a make a move,” Taylor whispered, her eyes bright with mischief.
“I can't.”
“You won't. You love her, so do something about it. What happens when she finds someone? What will you do then?”
“Stop, just stop.” He pulled his arm free from his little sister, the youngest of the six Jamieson siblings and the nosiest of them all. “I made a promise.”
Her face twisted into an incredulous scowl. “A few years ago, it would've been inappropriate, and Mason had every right to make you promise. Now it's different.”
“She's hurt. Something went wrong in New York.”
“How?” Taylor started. “Never mind. I don't know what happened, but I do know you should take a chance now.”
“Says the woman who married a dying man.”
She frowned. “I did, and I'd do it again. I know I'll be a widow in a few months, and I've made peace with that.”
“You don't love him.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Not like you should. Not like a wife should love a husband.”
She shook her head, her red hair flying around her face. “Maybe, but that doesn't matter. I made a promise, and I'm seeing it through.”
“Ha!” He pushed up his glasses. “I made a promise, too.”
“A stupid promise, big brother.”
“It wasn't stupid. I wanted her when she was just a child. What kind of person does that make me?”
“She was hot and totally baiting you. You know that, don't you?”
“It doesn't matter. A twenty-something-year-old man shouldn't lust after a teenager. It's wrong, and I don't deserve her.”
“Tell that to all the men who had count
down clocks on Emma Watson, or Selena Gomez, or Victoria Justice. It's not wrong that you wanted her, or that you love her. It would've been wrong to date her or sleep with her.”
He looked around then at all the people of Aylesford and Tyler blissfully unaware of his and his sister's conversation. “We shouldn't be talking about this here.”
“Why not?” Taylor asked with a shrug. “No one knows. Besides, if you'd just nut up and ask her out, I'd leave you alone.”
“It's not that easy.”
“It's just that easy if you'd go ahead and do it. She thinks you don't like her.”
“Good.” He'd set out for her to hate him after she tried seducing him when she’d turned eighteen. She might've technically been legal, but he'd made a promise to leave her alone. His stomach clenched at the memory of her naked in his bed, asking him to take her virginity, telling him she'd saved herself for him. He'd told her she was just a child, that he didn't want her, and she'd run away crying while wrapped in his bed sheet. He'd hated hurting her, but if he'd given in and kissed her just once, he'd never have let her go. No one in either of their families knew about that incident, and he meant to keep it that way. “The only way I can keep my distance is for her to think I don't want her.”
His sister gave him a disgusted look. “She's twenty-five now, Carter. She's a fully-grown woman with a good head on her shoulders. You'll be thirty-five in a few weeks, and you've never had a woman last past a month or two. Any particular reason for that?”
“I haven't found one I like enough to let stick,” he gave the stock answer he'd been giving for years now, but his sister's expression clearly told him she wasn't buying it.
“Because you're in love with Cam.”
Exactly. “It doesn't matter.”
Clear blue eyes pinned him with a hard look. “It should, you ass.”
What he wanted didn't matter, and he said as much, sending Taylor off with a disgusted noise and a wave of her hand.
~*~
Camryn watched as Taylor spoke with her older brother. She wished she could hear them, but imagined it was about her. Lately, she felt everyone was talking about her, even if she knew that likely wasn't the case. With Carter, though, she was sure her friend, who also happened to be his sister, was putting her nose where it didn't belong. Carter made it clear long ago just how little he liked Cam, and she didn't see that changing anytime soon, no matter how much she still admired him even after all these years.
He'd hurt her seven years ago, but looking back at it, she couldn't really hold it against him. She'd been eighteen to his twenty-eight, and she'd thrown herself at him, even confessing that she'd kept her virginity just for him to take. Admittedly, it was a stupid move, one she wished she could take back. Of course, now they'd spent the last three-quarters of a decade in an awkward dance. She shook her head at herself. Carter Jamieson wasn't interested in her, no matter what Taylor kept insisting, and she just had to accept that. Besides, she was in no place to even think about relationships after the disaster in New York. She still couldn't believe she'd been the other woman, and it would take her a while to move past that ugly, embarrassing fact. She took a deep breath to steady herself. She needed to hold herself together, and she needed to find a new direction in her life and her career. She was a washout at twenty-five, and there wasn't a lot she could do about it.
“You're too pretty for that frown,” her oldest brother said by way of greeting.
She forced a beaming smile. “Better?”
Mason chuckled at her. “I suppose.” He wrapped her in a one-armed hug. “I know you don't want to talk about it, but you've always been so, I don't know, sunny, and you're not lately. What can I do to help? Do we need to get Dylan to beat someone up? You know he would.”
“I'll be okay, big brother,” she promised. “I needed to be home for now.”
The look in his eyes told her he didn't believe her, but all he said was, “All right. Promise me you'll tell me when I can help.”
“I will.”
“Go have fun instead of marring your pretty face with sour expressions.”
“Don't you have a wife you need to bother?”
“I'll always have time to bother my baby sister.”
She grinned for real this time. “Goody.”
He gave her another hug before heading off in search of his lovely wife, and another pang of envy and shame went through her. She had a lot to make up for before she would allow herself another relationship. She smoothed a hand over her hair. She'd also make sure she had Dylan run a background check on her next date.
~*~
A few days later Camryn sat at her parent's kitchen table, her laptop open to a job site. She technically didn't need to work, but she refused to sit around feeling sorry for herself, and she'd moped around long enough. She heaved a sigh. Nothing looked appealing, and while she didn't want to be doing nothing, she didn't want to do any of the things she saw.
“Why the sigh?” her mother asked as she headed toward the coffee pot.
She thought briefly of lying but rejected the notion. Not only would Carolyn Everett call her on the lie, but she'd also give her a lecture. “I need a job.”
“You do not,” her mother said through a laugh. “You need to do something you love.”
She loved Broadway, but that hadn't worked out very well. Oh, she wasn't planning on staying away forever, and there was no way she was calling it quits, but it would be some time before she was ready to go back. She looked up into a pair of hazel eyes almost identical to her own twinkling with mischief. “What do you have in mind?”
“It just so happens that Aylesford High is doing a spring musical, and they need a musical director and choreographer.”
“And you suggested I take the role?”
“Booker and Juliette brought up your name, I agreed with them.”
She wasn't surprised her hat was thrown into the ring by the Jamiesons. Booker and Juliette were like her aunt and uncle, and the six Jamieson kids grew up with the four Everett children. If you asked any of her siblings, they felt the Jamiesons were like cousins, and she'd agree that Hunter, Walker, Sawyer, Tanner, and Taylor were as close to her as cousins, but Carter was another story entirely, one she wasn't sure she wanted to address. “What did you say?”
“I promised I'd bring it up to you.” She took a sip of coffee. “And I have.”
“Why isn't Juliette choreographing?” She knew the former prima ballerina, current studio owner, and Jamieson matriarch choreographed every year, her husband taking the director's chair.
“She thought it would be good for you.” She laid a hand on Cam's shoulder. “Besides, the kids should have the opportunity to work with a Broadway star.”
“I am so far from a star I'm underwater,” she murmured. “When would they need me, and to whom would I be reporting?”
Her mother smiled. “Perfect grammar as always. Good girl.” She walked back to the coffee pot and topped off her mug before continuing, “You'd need to see Carter.”
Her heart almost stopped in her chest. “What? Why?”
“He's always loved theatre, dear,” she answered with a shrug.
Bullshit. “What angle are you and his parents trying to play?”
“There is no angle.” She took a long sip from the obviously hand-thrown mug, and Cam held back a smile. She'd made that mug for her mother what seemed like a million years ago, while attending pottery classes at summer arts camp, and it made her happy to know it had made it through the fire that had destroyed the old house. “Carter volunteered to help with the production. He'll be directing.”
“And he has no idea I might also be there,” she guessed.
“It shouldn't matter. You two have been avoiding each other forever, and now you'll have a bunch of teenagers to act as chaperones.” She sighed. “I don't know what happened between the two of you, but you're adults. Deal with it.”
She seemed to be hearing that a lot lately. “Fine, I'll do it,
but only because I love it too much to miss the opportunity.”
Her mother's smile was huge. “I knew you'd do it.”
“What's the production?”
“Kiss Me, Kate.”
Her first leading role had been as Lilli Vanessi. “Who chose that?”
“You were amazing in that show. Maybe Carter remembered that when he picked it.”
For a moment she warmed to the idea Carter chose the play because of her but shortly discarded the thought. Carter had told her how little she mattered to him with no room for uncertainty long ago, and she would do well to remember that. “It's a fun show.”
“Yes, is it, dear.” She left the kitchen humming a tune that vaguely sounded like “Were Thine That Special Face.”
Part of her was excited to work with teenagers and nurture young talent, and the other was terrified she would do something stupid. “You've racked up enough stupid points to last a lifetime with that man,” she muttered to herself, hoping she'd keep her head when she actually had to have a conversation with the only man who'd ever turned her down.
Chapter Two
Carter watched Camryn as she instructed the two boys playing gangsters in the dance she'd choreographed for their number. Brush Up Your Shakespeare was one of his favorite songs from this musical, and he really had to admire the satire and silliness Cole Porter put into the piece. The boys were just as enamored with Cam as he was, closer in age as well, and that fact helped him keep his steely demeanor when it came to the dynamic, talented, and beautiful Camryn Everett. One of the boys, Holden, was staring a little too intently at Cam's ass.
“Holden!”
The boy's head jerked up, his dark gaze catching Carter's. “Yes, sir?”
“Keep your head in the game,” he said, not wanting to call the boy out, but needing to let him know he knew where he was staring.
“I'll get it in time to open, sir,” Holden promised. “It's a tough dance.”
Camryn turned around to address Holden. “Think about it the way you think about footwork on the field.” She demonstrated the grapevine step again. “It's really nothing more than step, cross, step, cross.”
Ache For Me (Romantic Suspense) (The Everetts of Tyler Book 4) Page 1
