Test (A Gentry Generations Story)

by Cora Brent

“So what about you?” she asked. “What’s going on in your world, Paige?”

  “Not much. Just working at the pizzeria and trying to figure out life.”

  And spending every night in Derek’s arms but I couldn’t really say that with Noah at the table.

  “Oh, and I’m turning twenty one this week.”

  “No kidding,” Julianne said, then let out a low whistle. “Wow, twenty one. I have to say that age seems like so long ago already. You planning anything special?”

  “Just dinner and some music in the park with my friends. And my boyfriend,” I added because last night the all important question in my mind had been resolved.

  Derek and I were lying in bed after yet another epic session of almost-sex and I was trying to think of a way to ask him why we were hesitating instead of going the whole nine yards. When I finally got up the nerve his answer was beyond sweet. He kissed my forehead and said, “I’ve never had this before, a real girlfriend. I just want to make sure we get there when it’s right.”

  I’d propped myself up one elbow and I gave him a teasing grin. “So I’m your girlfriend, Derek Gentry?”

  For a second he looked uncertain, almost shy. “Aren’t you?”

  “I’d love to be your girlfriend,” I told him and then we nearly had sex again.

  When we were together he was nothing like the cocky player everyone always said he was. Even Sam and Ric had admitted Derek seemed sincere when they’d busted into his apartment to quiz him on his intentions.

  Now Julianne was surprised. “Oh, you didn’t mention a boyfriend. Tell me about him.”

  So I told her all about how Derek and I had gotten together after the whole Super Q incident and she was delighted.

  “So something good did come out of that awful night,” she laughed.

  I blushed. “Yes.”

  Julianne talked about her job while we helped Noah with his coloring. She loved her work and hoped to continue her education. I remembered the way she’d launched into action at the Super Q, putting pressure on Chris’s stab wounds to stop the bleeding. I remembered wishing I’d known what to do, how to help.

  Maybe it was time to think about a career that involved bigger challenges than kneading pizza dough. I’d hidden in the kitchen at Esposito’s for years, forever putting off any decisions that would alter my current course. There was always a reason, whether it was because of my personal struggles or my grandfather’s bad health or because it seemed like the wrong time of year. Esposito’s was a safe place where I knew exactly what was expected of me. The money wasn’t great but I had enough from my grandparents’ estate to keep me comfortable. Now I was thinking I didn’t want to be stuck in neutral anymore. Things were happening in my life, Derek being the best of those things. I was starting to look toward to the future and get excited about all the possibilities instead of frightened about all the uncertainty.

  When our food was delivered I made a fuss out of how much had arrived and how I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to eat it all. Noah took an interest and kindly offered to accept three pieces of chicken and half the fruit bowl on his plate.

  “Thank you so much, Noah,” I gushed when he cautiously chewed a bite.

  Julianne chuckled.

  I insisted on paying for lunch, which prompted an argument from Julianne but when I said I simply had to pay because I was so grateful to Noah for helping me clean my plate she relented. From what she’d said I gathered money was tight and I was glad to treat them.

  Julianne gave me another hug before departing while Noah stared at me solemnly for a moment. Then he ran over and wrapped his arms around my right leg for an instant before returning to his aunt. I was being sincere when I said I hoped I would see them again soon.

  There was still plenty of time to kill before I needed to be at work and I happened to be in the neighborhood of the Brothers Gentry Garage so I decided to stop by. Once I was in the parking lot I had second thoughts about just showing up to Derek’s work because it seemed slightly reminiscent of one of those stalker girlfriend memes.

  But I was here and I thought if someone had already seen me it would seem weirder if I just drove away. I fired off a text and nervously tapped my steering wheel as I waited for Derek to answer. For all I knew he didn’t even keep his phone nearby when he was working. I usually kept mine in my locker at Esposito’s. The boss tended to frown upon employees messing around on their phones when they were supposed to be paying attention to their jobs.

  Five minutes passed and there was no answer so I bravely muttered, “What have I got to lose?” and went inside.

  The interior of the garage was exactly how a garage would be expected to look with a small lobby, a receptionist desk and beyond that, a large area full of cars and tools where all the work happened.

  The receptionist must have been away from the desk because it was being occupied by a man I recognized as one of Derek’s uncles. He’d been at Thomas’s baseball game but I couldn’t remember which one he was. Stone maybe?

  “Welcome to the Brothers Gentry Garage,” the man said. “Give me just a second.”

  He squinted at a computer screen, clicked on a few things and then turned to me.

  “How can I help you?” he asked. No sooner had he uttered the words when recognition clicked in his face and he flashed a wide grin that strongly reminded me of Derek.

  “It’s Paige, right?” he said.

  “Yes, I am Paige,” I told him and then felt like I should have come up with something wittier.

  Derek’s uncle didn’t appear to mind. Now that I was closer I could see he had his name sewn to his work shirt. This wasn’t Stone after all. This was Conway.

  “Hey Derek!” he shouted over his shoulder. “Get out here, kid.”

  Derek appeared with grease smudges on his face and hands. “What’s up? I’m in the middle of an engine rebuild.”

  “You’re due for a break.”

  Derek was annoyed. “Since when are breaks fucking mandatory?”

  Conway rolled up a magazine and swatted him with it. “Watch your mouth. Your girl’s not going to stick with you if you carry on like a caveman.”

  “What?” he growled and then looked up.

  “Hi,” I said, lamely waving my hand in the air and thinking this little visit was probably turning out to be one of my less brilliant ideas.

  But Derek’s face changed instantly. He broke into a smile and bumped his uncle with his shoulder. “I’m taking ten, Con.”

  “Take fifteen,” Conway encouraged, staring at the computer again.

  On the right there was a door allowing access between the lobby and the garage but Derek opted to hop over the counter instead. It was an impressive sight.

  “Hey,” he said after he landed right in front of me. Somehow he managed to look even sexier than usual in his beat up gray Brothers Gentry shirt decorated with motor oil stains.

  “Sorry for just showing up,” I said. “I was driving by and I texted but didn’t hear back.”

  He nodded and wiped the sweat off his forehead with the crook of his elbow. “Yeah, I don’t like dicking with my phone while my head’s under the hood.” He smiled again. “I’m really glad you came by though.”

  “You sure?”

  “Of course.” He reached for my hand.

  Music filled the room, the sound of Elvis Presley launching into Can’t Help Falling In Love.

  Derek slowly swiveled to confront his uncle. “Seriously?”

  Conway was having fun. “I thought you needed a soundtrack.”

  “These clowns,” Derek muttered and led me toward the door. “Let’s go outside.”

  He held my hand as we walked to my car.

  “I hope I didn’t mess up your engine,” I said.

  “Nah. It’ll still be there when I get back.” He looked me up and down. “Where are you coming from?”

  “Lunch with Julianne and Noah.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Noah?”

  �
��Julianne’s nephew. Remember I told you she’s the guardian of her nephew, the kid who was with her that night.”

  “That’s right,” he said and eyed me again.

  “What?” I looked down to see if I’d spilled my lunch on my shirt or something.

  “I like those shorts,” he said and now his voice was different. He leaned against the trunk of my car and pulled me close.

  “They’re just cutoffs,” I said.

  His hands rested on my hips. “They’re nice.”

  I slipped my arms around his shoulders. “Know what else is nice?”

  He shook his head. “No. You should show me.”

  I stretched up and met his lips for a slow, deep kiss that summoned a low moan out of the back of his throat when we finally came up for air. Derek squeezed me against his body.

  “I’m sweaty,” he whispered.

  “And I like it,” I whispered back, rolling my hips slowly to let him know I felt every inch of him through our clothing.

  Derek became more aggressive, kissing me harder, sliding his hand underneath my shirt. A loud crunching noise on our left interrupted the action as a car pulled in. An elderly woman emerged but instead of glaring at us as we made out in the parking lot she smiled like she was enjoying the show.

  “To be young again,” she sighed with her hand over her heart before entering the lobby.

  Derek snickered but I was distracted, tracing his lips with my fingertip.

  “I can’t wait,” I said.

  “For what?” he wanted to know.

  “To be with you.”

  The words made him happy. “You are with me.”

  I kissed his neck. “You know what I mean.”

  “No I don’t. Say it.”

  I leaned closer and whispered the words in his ear.

  “I can’t hear you,” he whispered back, his hand still under my shirt, sneaking inside my bra.

  I leaned my head back and stared up into his eyes. “I said I want you inside of me, Derek.”

  “Fuck,” he groaned. “You can’t just say that out loud and expect me to function.”

  “Bullshit. You wanted me to say that out loud.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I know. And now I’ll have to go visit the bathroom and jerk off so I can deal with returning to work.”

  The picture in my head was stimulating. “Can you send me a video?”

  He was amused. “You really like to watch that, don’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes what?”

  “Yes, I like to watch you jerking off.”

  “You’re fucking killing me.”

  I planted a kiss on his lips. “I don’t want to kill you.”

  He pushed my hair off my shoulder. “Did you decide what you want to do for your birthday?”

  Derek had seemed perplexed when he found out my twenty-first birthday was rapidly approaching and I had yet to mention it. Truthfully, it didn’t occur to me because I was used to my birthday being no big deal. My grandmother was the one who made a big production over birthdays and after she died there was just my grandfather and me and he grew kind of senile even before he got really sick. Usually I’d get a card from Uncle Ryan and Aunt Maddie. Sam and Ric would take me out for dinner. But other than that, there wasn’t much going on. Although I could admit to myself that I always checked the contents of the mail extra carefully in the days surrounding my birthday. Just hoping, I guess. Hoping there’d be a surprise card from the woman who should remember the day better than anyone.

  “Dinner at Sonora’s and then Rialto is playing in the park by the lake.”

  “And it’s okay if Kellan and Thomas come along?”

  “Of course.” Kellan always made me laugh. I hadn’t spent much time with Thomas yet but this week he was staying at his brothers’ apartment since this was actually his spring break. He seemed like a nice kid. A bit more serious and sensitive than his brothers. Yet the three of them seemed to balance each other out somehow.

  Derek touched my cheek and the look in his eyes was heated. “Special night,” he said. “Your twenty-first birthday.”

  “It doesn’t come around every day,” I agreed.

  His voice dropped an octave. “I bet we could find a way to make it even more special.”

  I knew what he was suggesting and the bolt of desire that seized me almost caused my knees to give out.

  “Let’s do that,” I said and seductively brushed my lips over his. “Let’s do everything.”

  He was breathing hard again. “Everything might be more than you bargained for, sweet Paige.”

  “I’ll take my chances, Derek.”

  He kissed me, tenderly this time, although I could still feel how much more he wanted. Eventually he stopped and looked over his shoulder toward the garage.

  “Shit. Got to get back to work.”

  “I know. Engines to rebuild and all.”

  His lips tilted up. “Friday?”

  I nodded. “Friday.”

  He dropped a light kiss on my forehead. “And we’ll catch up later tonight?”

  “I’ll call you as soon as I’m off work.”

  I watched him disappear into the building before I climbed into my car, my legs still feeling rather rubbery.

  Friday now seemed like a very long time away.

  I fired up the engine and searched through the satellite stations for one of the oldies channels. Usually I enjoyed rock from the eighties and nineties but today I paused in the sixties when I heard familiar lyrics. What a coincidence that I should happen to hear the same song that Conway Gentry had blasted in the lobby a few minutes ago when he was trying to tease his nephew.

  And no, I really couldn’t help falling in love with Derek.

  I couldn’t help it if I tried.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Derek

  My kid brother was something else.

  He could have been lounging by the pool over at the apartment since he was spending his spring break with us to get a taste of independence.

  But instead he texted me that he was going down to Dalton’s training center because he wanted to work on his swing. Last week he pitched his way to a championship and he was about to accept a full ride to Arizona State’s baseball program yet he couldn’t help wanting to be better, always better. I admired him for that and decided since Paige was working and Kel had a class this evening, I should go over and watch him practice, partly because I really wanted to see him in action and partly because sometimes bad things happened when I sat around for too long with my own thoughts.

  Last night I’d suffered a near miss. I couldn’t sleep, kept tossing and turning. I was in Paige’s bed and didn’t want to wake her up with my restlessness so I went downstairs. It would have been nice if there was a television around but the only one in the house was in Paige’s room. I wound up sitting on the couch, staring at old family photos and wondering where the hell I’d left my phone.

  Then I decided to drift into the kitchen in search of a snack. Paige had brought home a pizza and after we ate she stuck the leftovers in the fridge so I knew I’d find at least a few slices in there.

  I also knew I wasn’t really looking for pizza.

  The forgotten bottle of wine was still in the exact same place as it always was. It was a cheap red variety, kind of crookedly stuck in the groove at the back of the bottom shelf. Paige wouldn’t know if I drank it. Or at least she wouldn’t realize it was gone anytime soon. The hour was before midnight so I could gulp back half the bottle, go to sleep with a pleasant buzz and wake up sober in time to go to work. There might be a little bit of a lingering headache in the morning but that was nothing. I’d dealt with that before and no one was any wiser.

  The floorboards upstairs creaked and I quickly closed the fridge, abruptly repulsed by the idea of stealing wine from my girlfriend’s fridge. The only result would be confronting tomorrow’s agony over the fact that I was once again back to zero days sober.

  There w
as a constant war inside of me and I badly wanted to keep winning it. I hated the thought that one day Paige might very well see me lose it the same way Kellan had watched that happen before so I decided not to give the matter too much thought.

  I crept back upstairs, crawled into bed beside Paige and kissed her cheek, thinking how cute it was that she smiled in her sleep when I did so. I felt lucky every time I looked at her. That feeling was cemented when she dropped by the garage this afternoon and made all kinds of exciting suggestions.

  There were still quite a few people left at Dream Fields when I found Thomas inside one of the batting cages. People of all ages came here on the night the place was opened up to the public. My brother was intent on the task at hand and didn’t see me when I stood behind him at the cage.

  Someone else took notice of me though. Dalton was standing about ten feet away, looking official with a baseball hat on and a clipboard in his hand. He waved me over.

  “Don’t tell me you finally came by to take some pitches?” he asked with a grin.

  It was impossible for me to look at Dalton and not get a fleeting glimpse of his brother Hale. We’d both gotten drunk at Cami and Dalton’s wedding and then drove around like madcap idiots, the traffic cameras confirming that we collided when Hale’s motorcycle sped through a red light at top speed. From Dalton’s rational perspective, Hale had been a problem drinker for a long time and he could have crashed with anyone that night.

  But Hale didn’t just crash with anyone. He crashed with me and I’d been drunk too. Maybe if I’d been sober I would have been able to use my reflexes better and avoid the accident. At any rate, I’ll never understand how Dalton had forgiven me. I could never have forgiven a guy who’d been responsible for the death of one of my brothers, no matter who he was. Perhaps Dalton Tremaine was just a better man than most of us.

  I was glad to go talk to him though. He was a great guy who’d been extremely helpful when it came to developing Thomas’s talent and he was devoted to my cousin Cami. I asked him if he was looking forward to becoming a dad and his face lit up. They’d decided not to find out the baby’s gender but Dalton confirmed he didn’t care if it was a boy or a girl, then joked that he hoped the kid got Cami’s looks and brains.