Love Unclaimed

by Jennifer Benson

  “Naw, I got my truck.” He shook Harry’s hand and kissed Ruby on the cheek.

  “Goodnight,” Audree called.

  “I think I’m going to head up.” Travis looked at Audree again before going over to shake Scotty’s hand. “See you guys in the morning.” He waved at them.

  “Been a long week,” Scotty sighed, not making a move for the door. Audree could tell he wanted her to ask him to stay, but she knew Travis needed to talk. She still wasn’t sure where she and Gavin stood since they had never been able to finish their conversation the day Clint called. She also knew she wasn’t ready to start anything with Scotty or anyone else right now.

  “Yes, it has.” She stepped up to him to place a kiss on his cheek. “Travis wants to talk to me about something, so I’m going to call it a night,” she said, stepping back, but Scotty grabbed her wrist and pulled her back against him. “Scotty.” His mouth covered hers and he pulled her closer to him. He ran his tongue over the seam of her lips begging her to open her mouth to him, but she couldn’t do anything but pull away.

  “I’m sorry, I’ve wanted to do that for the longest time.” He leaned his forehead to hers. “I cannot believe I finally did it,” he said as he blew out a breath.

  “Now really is not a good time for, for whatever this is.” She pointed between them. “I’ll be leaving with Eva Monday and be gone for a week. There is a lot of other stuff going on with Travis, that…” she heard voices coming from the living room. She knew that Ruby and Harry had left through the kitchen, Travis had gone upstairs, and her parents would have used the back door.

  “Audree, did you hear…” Travis called from the kitchen doorway and, looking in to see Audree still standing with Scotty, moved down the hall toward the living room. “What the fuck!?!” Travis yelled and Audree quickly pulled further away from Scotty and followed after Travis.

  “Oh my God, Gavin!” Audree heard her voice, but all of the sudden she had tunnel vision.

  “What …” was all Scotty got out when he stepped up behind Audree.

  Gavin spun around with a drunken glaze over, bloodshot eyes that seemed to instantly sobered up when they met Audree’s look of horror.

  “Audree… I,” Gavin sighed and released his hold on the woman whose body he had pushed up against the wall in front of him. She had her head tucked in the crook of Gavin’s shoulder as she unwrapped her arms from his neck.

  “What the fuck were you….” Audree started then she looked over at Travis when the woman turned her head. “Oh my God, Gavin! Travis!” Audree screamed at Travis who was motionless next to her.

  “I… what…” Travis had dropped to his knees where he stood; his mouth open and his eyes open wider as he watched his fiancée adjust her clothes while smirking at Audree.

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Audree shook her head. “I always knew you were a whore, Trudy, but really? Brothers? You couldn’t cheat with a stranger, at least? I know Gavin was always your first choice, but really.” She shook her head and clinched her fists, wanting so desperately to punch the smirk off Trudy’s face.

  “It was good enough for you to have them both, why not share the fun,” she slurred her words with a giggle, trying to catch her balance when Gavin swayed away from her.

  “I would never… I …. Get the fuck out of my house!” She looked at Trudy then Gavin. “Out, now! Get out of my fucking house!” she screamed and made for the steps.

  “Audree,” Gavin pleaded and moved, completely off balance, toward her.

  “Get the fuck away from me Gavin.” She stormed up the stairs as Gavin reached for her and tripped up the steps behind her.

  “Audree, I was trying to…”

  “I don’t give a fuck what you were trying to do. How dare you bring that woman back to my house like this!” She turned around to look at him stumbling up the steps after her. “Scotty, could you move my truck around front, please? The keys are on the counter. I’m taking Eva to Brooks’ tonight.”

  “Brooks? Tonight? You’re leaving? You’re leaving Monday,” Gavin slurred.

  “Did you drive here like that?”

  “No, her friend drove. My truck is at the bar.” He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. “I didn’t know it was her… I… She wanted…” she could hear the pleading in his voice.

  “I don’t want to hear it, Gavin.” She stormed up to her room, slammed the door, and clicked the lock.

  “Come on, Gavin, let’s get you some coffee,” Scotty said, offering Gavin his hand.

  “She can’t leave, not like this. I have to tell her… I have to …” he put his head in his hands. “I fucked up. I know I fucked us up, but I want...”

  “Come on,” Scotty offered again.

  “Get the fuck away from me.” He pulled his arm away from Scotty. “Don’t think I don’t know that you want Audree.”

  “You’re right. I do want Audree, but not like this.” He pointed back to the living room. “Not because you fucked her over some more. I wanted her to want me because I was the better choice; now she will just feel sorry for you.”

  “No, I won’t.” Audree said from the top of the steps with two suitcases in her hands. “Could you please put these in my truck?” She waited at the top of the steps for Scotty to come up and get the cases.

  “I’ll take you over.” Scotty took the cases and walked back down the steps, hitting Gavin’s slumped over shoulder with one of the cases, he had practically passed out with his head against the railing.

  “I’m fine, I can drive myself.” Her voice quivered and she was fighting tears. “I need my truck to go to the airport anyway.”

  “Fuck, man,” Gavin shook his head and immediately grabbed both sides, realizing that the less he shook his head, the better he would feel.

  “I called my mother, she will have Eva ready.” Audree took a deep breath and began to walk past Gavin.

  “Audree, please, please, let me explain.” He grabbed the railing and pulled himself up; he needed to balance himself before he took his first step.

  “Travis, I want her out of my house, now! I don’t care how you do it, but I want her out of my house now!” She stepped into the living room and saw a now passed out Trudy lying on one of her couches with Travis brushing her hair away from her face. “Don’t, Travis.” She walked over to him.

  “Travis, I’ll take Trudy home and drop her off,” Scotty said reassuringly at Travis. “You sort out your brother.” They both looked back at Gavin who was now standing upright against the banister swaying with his eyes closed.

  “We’ll figure this out and be okay.” Travis hugged Audree.

  “I can’t be here with him right now. He has finally, completely broken my heart.” Audree hugged Travis back, fighting the tears that were starting to roll down her cheeks.

  “I can’t even imagine what he was thinking, but…”

  “Don’t make excuses for either of them. He had no right and certainly not like this and not here, no in my house where he…”

  “He had no right and certainly not like this and not here, not in my house where he…” Audree said on a sob. “I have…” she stepped away from Travis and turned toward Scotty who was waiting by the door. She took a deep breath and walked over to Gavin. “I hate you.” Audree slapped him across the face looking him right in the eyes.

  “I hate me, too.” Gavin slumped to the floor. “I’ve hated me for years for never being man enough to tell you that I am in love you,” he said as his ass hit the floor with a thump.

  “You son of a bitch! I have been waiting since I was eleven years old for you to tell me that you love me and this is how you do it! Drunk after practically fucking a woman, who happens to be your brother’s fiancée, against my wall! A wall you have fucked me against! I fucking hate you, Gavin Montgomery!” She walked to the door. “I want you out of my house by the time I come home, and you are not welcome in this house ever again! Ever!” She slipped by Scotty, who turned and looked back at a brok
en Gavin shaking his head.

  “Audree!” Gavin called after her. “Audree, no!” Gavin finally pulled himself up off the floor and trudged to the door; he had it pulled open and was out in the driveway just as the taillights turned the corner of the house. “Audree, please! I’m sorry! I love you! Please!! Audree.” He dropped to his knees, not even feeling the hard cement of the driveway under his knees as he crumbled into a ball.

  ***

  “Ugh.” Gavin tried to roll over, but his head was about to explode. “Shit.” He grabbed his head and tried to sit up.

  “Try some coffee,” Travis whispered.

  “My head…” Gavin bolted upright, took in his surroundings, and gulped when he took in his brother’s face. “What the fu…?” Gavin sighed and threw his head back against the couch and running his hand down his face.

  “Here,” Travis offered him two aspirin and a mug of coffee.

  “I…,” he ducked his head, not meeting Travis’ eyes, as he took the pills from his brother’s open hand and put the mug to his lips. “I don’t even know what to say.” He shook his head again. “I have to talk to you and Audree.” He looked around.

  “Well, you are stuck with me, asshole. She left.” Travis leaned back on the couch across from a very hung over and Gavin.

  “Wait, what? Audree left? I…” He tried to put all the flashes of pictures going through his head in order. “She was going to get Eva.” He looked pleadingly at Travis who shook his head. “She’s staying at her mom’s? Let’s go, I have to explain…” Travis didn’t move to get up, he just shook his head.

  “She took Eva to Brooks’,” Travis answered flatly, his jaw clinched, and watched as the realization covered his older brother’s face.

  “They weren’t leaving until Monday.” Gavin bolted off the couch and ran up the stairs to Audree’s room then to Eva’s. “She… why… shhhit! What the fuck did I…” he slumped to the floor outside Audree’s bedroom door.

  “You brought my ex-fiancée to Audree’s house! You had her pushed up against the entryway…” Travis stood at the top of the stairs, leaning against the railing watching his brother fall apart.

  “Trav…”

  “Don’t. Scotty took her home last night so I could stay with your dumb ass, and she tried to get him to go to bed with her. Apparently, to ‘show him what he would be missing out on if he didn’t go in with her’, she pulled her top off and threw it in his face.” Travis shook his head and used air quotes for the story Scotty had told him.

  “I have to buy Audree a new coffee table, and I have to have someone come and replace the mirror in the living room that I smashed when Scotty came back and told me what Trudy had done. Of course, this morning she said that she doesn’t remember it, but Scotty mentioned the nipple piercing that Trudy had “treated” herself to for her birthday,” he sighed. “I then told her we were done; she said that I was risking the deal between our fathers if I broke off the engagement, and that what our fathers didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. She said they hadn’t known about the other men so there was no reason we couldn’t have our own little deal on the side.” He punched his fist in the air. “Trudy is exactly what Audree and Ruby said she was. She has been holding me at bay for months, but has been messing around with other guys, so much for the private school taming her. She has also known about the deal for a while; she’s played me all along.”

  “Sorry, Trav.” Gavin shook his head and regretted it instantly. “I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking. I think I just wanted you to see she had tried to pick me up at the bar. I didn’t even know who she was at first. I was just sitting at Indies’. She and her friend came up to me, and we talked for a bit. She never even told me her name. She seemed familiar, but I just couldn’t place her. I was at least four beers and more than a few shots in, I know it sounds stupid, but I didn’t connect her with the pictures you’ve shown me. The woman you showed me wasn’t all made up and she looked like a nice girl. The woman I met last night wasn’t the nice girl in those pictures. She was a woman on a mission.” Gavin shook his head trying to figure out how he had never met her. “I know I asked her name a couple of times, but she changed the subject.” He rubbed the palm of his hand into his eye.

  “Trudy liked to hang there with the girls she works with. I guess that is where she picks up guys, too, figuring I wouldn’t know anyone there, which is bullshit.”

  “That would explain some of the dirty looks I was getting when she asked me to dance and she was all over me. Sorry, man.” He saw the grief on Travis’ face. “I was, honestly, drunk off my ass. I have pretty much been drinking myself into oblivion for the past few days or so. As soon as I was done at Spencer’s, I would head over to Indies’, after I found out Audree called over to Authors’ and told Dirk to keep an eye on me. Fuck that. I don’t need a babysitter.” He rubbed his eyebrows with his fingertips. “I figured being a couple of towns over, I’d be safe if you guys decided to go hang out,” he said with a shrug.

  “Everyone, everywhere pretty much knows us, but no one has said a word to me.” Travis shook his head. “Did she know who you were?”

  “She called me by name when she stepped up to me at the bar. Like I said, I kind of knew her face, but I couldn’t really place her.”

  “Trudy was different when we were kids, her dad kept her close to home. Her mother insisted she be sent to boarding school and kept away from the riffraff. Audree and Ruby said that she had a thing for you, but you never mentioned her and she never looked my way back then. She was one of those book types or, at least, that was what she told me. She showed up at some football games with some friends, but we hung out in different circles,” he sighed. “Audree and Ruby have always hated her.” He chuckled.

  “What?” Gavin smiled when he saw Travis laugh.

  “Ruby told me back when she found out I was dating Trudy that Trudy had a mad crush on you. She apparently saw you playing ball and set her sights on you. She supposedly told a bunch of girls you took her V card the summer of our senior year.” Travis raised an eyebrow at his brother, because he knew that was the summer Audree given her V card to Gavin.

  “I swear…” Gavin held his hands up defensively.

  “No, I know you were getting someone else’s card that summer.” Travis chuckled again.

  “And turning in my own.” He winked at his brother.

  “Bullshit!”

  “I had to wait for her to turn eighteen.” Gavin smiled at the memory.

  “Gross! But wow, you went through high school and two years of college without… Man, you must have been dying.” Travis shook his head.

  “I’m not the man whore you guys think I am. I left that to Clint and to you. Audree is the only woman I have ever wanted.” He met Travis’ eyes at the mention of her name. “I’m not saying I’ve been a monk since then, but for the last two years, it has only been …. Fuck, she left.”

  “Yeah, she did.”

  “She said she hates me.”

  “Yeah, she did.”

  “I broke her heart.” Gavin tried to swallow the lump now taking up residence in his throat.

  “Yeah, ya did.”

  ***

  “You’ve broken her heart a little each time you’ve left her, but this…” Travis didn’t know what to say. He and Ruby had picked up the pieces of Audree’s heart more than a few times after Gavin left. She made them promise never to tell him what a mess he would leave her in. It usually took her a day or two to stop crying and to drag herself out of bed. She did her best to hide it from Eva, with an excuse of being sick. It killed him to watch Audree fall apart and not be able to kick Gavin’s ass for hurting her.

  “What? Audree and I…”

  “Had an unspoken understanding that you love each other, but neither of you can tell the other; you fuck each other and you leave,” Travis raised his eyebrow at his brother’s shocked look, a look that told him he knew what had been going on. “I promised Audree never to say anything, but she has
been in love with you since she was little. She didn’t even know what it was then, but it started with a huge crush at seven or eight then moved into love probably around eleven or twelve. Hell, she has a tattoo with a “G” on her hip for Christ sakes. Are you blind or just heartless?” He shook his head at his brother in disbelief. “Just because she agreed to accept the scraps of you that you offered her, doesn’t mean…”

  “Scraps? What are you…?”

  “It isn’t just sex for her, and I doubt it is for you, yet you both have agreed to keep this shit up for all these years. Do you know how much time you two have wasted? I’ve talked to Audree about it, but she leaves it up to your dumb, stubborn ass to make the first move. She knows you won’t make it serious because of some obligation you feel toward Clint.” Travis moved away from the railing. “How do you think Clint will take it when he finds out you have been fucking his sister for years and that you just tore her heart out?”

  “Trav.”

  “Well, you have until he comes home to fix this.” He started down the stairs. “I’m going to go shove this deal up our father’s ass.”

  “Travis, what about the farm?”

  “We signed the papers this morning; her Dad loses everything. Trudy and I made an addition with our own clause. The land goes to us, not Dad, if there is any infidelity, before or during, the marriage. I spoke to Trudy’s father this morning. He just wants to be rid of Trudy, but most of all, he wants to screw Malcolm Montgomery.” Travis chuckled. “Everyone wins.” He looked at Gavin. “You want to come with me? You can help me kick our father off our land.” He smiled when Gavin’s eyes lit up with excitement.

  “Give me ten minutes to clean up.” Gavin stood up and turned to look again in Audree’s room. He could smell her scent of lavender and vanilla, the scent that always made Gavin think of home.

  “We’ll figure out what to do about getting Audree back to you, too,” Travis smiled and headed back down the stairs. “Just promise that when we do, you won’t fuck it up again.”

  “Never.” Gavin nodded to Travis and ran back down the hall to his room. “Oh and Trav.” He turned back to his brother. “You know I didn’t do anything with Trudy, right?” He waited for Travis to acknowledge what he had said.