Making You Mine – the Bradens & Montgomerys (Pleasant Hill – Oak Falls)

by Melissa Foster

Knox slid his hand into his pocket and said, “Why do I feel outnumbered?”

  “Because you are. Paige, I’m going to whip up a few things in the kitchen for the Super Bowl while Knox is busy with Landon. Want to help?”

  Paige wrinkled her nose. “Hasn’t Knox told you? I can make cereal and burn toast, but the one time I tried baking I nearly burned down the kitchen.”

  “No problem. I’ll teach you,” Aubrey offered. “It’ll be fun.”

  “She says she’s a rock star in the kitchen,” Knox said.

  “Okay. Sure. I have to make a few phone calls for the Gratitude Ball, but I’ll come find you after I’m done. Now, please take him out of here before he finds my copies of the Wicked Boys After Dark series.”

  “No time to waste. Super Bowl prep takes time.” Knox scowled as Aubrey ushered him toward the door. In the hall she asked, “What’s a Gratitude Ball?”

  “A dog and pony show my parents throw every year to honor their colleagues and clients.”

  “That’s nice of them.”

  He grunted something inaudible as they headed for the restaurant.

  They passed through the restaurant and entered the double doors at the back that led them into a large commercial kitchen. The staff bustled around stainless-steel counters and massive stoves, unfazed by the steam rising from large pots and pans. The din of their banter quieted as Knox and Aubrey approached.

  “Who let the riffraff in?” The jovial voice rang out from a burly, pink-cheeked man closing in on them from across the room.

  “Paige left the back door to the inn open and we snuck through it,” Knox teased as he embraced him. “It’s good to see you. It smells delicious in here, as always.” He placed his hand on Aubrey’s back and said, “Chef Clyde, this is my girlfriend, Aubrey Stewart.”

  Alarm at the term girlfriend rang in Aubrey’s head, and just as quickly, happiness pushed it away.

  “My boy has a girlfriend?” Clyde clasped Aubrey’s hand between his meaty palms, smiling warmly. “You are far too beautiful to be hanging out with a man who prefers Goober sandwiches to my delectable meals.”

  “Hey, now,” Knox said. “Don’t dis my snacks. Aubrey is partial to Cheetos, orange-cream soda, and finger foods.”

  “A woman after your own heart.” Clyde raised his brows and said, “Where did you two meet? Junk Food Junkies Anonymous?” He laughed heartily and smacked Knox hard on the back.

  The other staff chuckled while continuing to man their stations.

  “Aubrey’s used to cooking with her family for the Super Bowl, but since we’re staying at the inn for the game, I thought she could take over a corner of your kitchen,” Knox explained.

  “Corner? Nobody should cook in a corner.” He turned toward the others and said, “Chester, Adrian, please prepare a workspace for our guest.”

  “Thank you,” Aubrey said. “I don’t need much space.”

  “Then you’re not cooking right.” Clyde winked. “Shall we ditch the Goober eater and begin?”

  Knox smiled and kissed Aubrey’s cheek as Clyde stepped discreetly away. “You going to be okay?”

  She looked at the giant refrigerators, freezers, and all the accoutrements she could ever need and nearly burst with excitement. “Yes. I just need to know one thing. Besides Goober sandwiches, what’s your favorite food?”

  His eyes smoldered. “Don’t you know by now? It’s you, Wattsy.”

  “Sustenance-wise,” she said, trying to ignore the way her pulse kicked up.

  “If it’s made with your hands, I’ll love it. Surprise me.”

  Chapter Ten

  KNOX SAT ACROSS from Landon in Landon’s office as his brother wrapped up a phone call. Landon had always seemed untouchable to Knox, impressively couth, confident, and unflappable. But he’d watched his brother closely last night, and the slightly twitchy, highly irritated man they’d had dinner with wasn’t the brother he was used to. The first few times Landon’s phone had vibrated, his face had become pinched, as Aubrey had noticed. He’d seen Landon silence his phone, but then Knox noticed he’d continued checking his messages throughout the evening, as if he had a love-hate relationship with whoever had been leaving them. Now, as Landon assured whoever was on the phone that he would have documents in his possession by the middle of next week, he appeared to be back to the confident businessman Knox knew him to be.

  Landon set his phone on the cradle and said, “Sorry. We’re negotiating the purchase of an overseas property.”

  “No worries.” Knox crossed his ankle over his knee as Landon shuffled papers on his desk. “Aubrey’s cooking for the Super Bowl, so I thought I’d come hang with you for a little while. Unless you’re too busy?”

  “Not too busy to spend time with you. Aubrey was pretty funny at dinner last night. She reminds me of you. A bit rebellious.”

  “I think the word you’re looking for is forthright, not rebellious. She’d rather shake the tree so everyone knows her apples are good than feel like a bruised apple when she’s not one. Have you ever seen Dad so playful? Is that even the right word? Emotional?” He relaxed into the chair and said, “What was that?”

  “You’ve got me, but I think it was a much-needed breakthrough. He’s been struggling with being more approachable.”

  “Yeah, I know. I’m glad to see it. But he seemed a little hard on you about that Bruckner deal.”

  Landon shrugged. “Not any harder than usual. You know him. When it comes to business, he wants to be sure all t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted.”

  Knox set his foot on the floor and leaned forward. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Go for it.”

  “Why are you here overseeing the resort instead of working in one of the Bentley offices in the city? The inn is so remote. There can’t be much of a chance to meet single guys out here.”

  Landon pushed to his feet and came around the desk. Knox was struck anew by how similar Landon’s gait and appearance were to their father’s. He moved with purpose and dignity. His brother was a classy dude.

  Landon sat on the edge of the desk and said, “You always wanted to get away and strike out on your own, but I never felt that. I have friends here and I like being around the staff that we’ve known for so many years. Besides, someone has to be around in case Mom or Dad need us.”

  Knox wasn’t sure he was buying his brother’s explanation or not, and that uncertainty bugged him to no end because it magnified the distance between them. Hopefully he could make strides in closing that distance by finding some common ground. “Don’t you get lonely for companionship?”

  Landon’s lips quirked up. “I have male friends who live nearby, Knox. It’s not like I can’t get laid if I want to.”

  “Sorry. My bad.” He eyed his brother’s upside-down cell phone on the desk. “I noticed your phone blowing up throughout dinner last night. Everything okay?”

  Landon shifted his eyes away. “Fine.”

  Nope. Not fine.

  “Something happen with work yesterday?” Knox asked.

  “No.”

  “Argument with a dude? A hookup?”

  Landon glowered. “No.”

  That left only one thing. Knox knew he was going to push his brother’s buttons with his next question, but he didn’t like seeing Landon so cagey and not being able to help. “Carlos?”

  “Why do you care, Knox? It’s over with him. Done. Let it go.”

  “I care because you’re my brother, and I don’t think you’re being honest with yourself. You’re not over him. I’ve never seen you as edgy as you were every time your phone vibrated last night.” He put his hands up in surrender and said, “You can be pissed, but I love you. I want you to be happy, and knowing some dude hurt you makes me want to fix it or pound the fuck out of him.”

  “Some things can’t be fixed, and he’s not worth going to jail over.” Landon took a few steps away.

  “But you are.” Knox rose from the chair. “If that’s him blowing up yo
ur phone, just talk to him. Hash it out. If you don’t want him back, then end it for good. Stop the calls. And if you do want him back, then get off your ass, track the fucker down, and lay it on the line for him. All or nothing, that’s the way you roll.”

  “No, Knox. That’s the way you roll.” Landon scoffed. “You almost had me there. I almost believed you were watching out for me. But then I remembered your girlfriend wants to use the inn. You know where I stand on that, and pushing me to get over Carlos isn’t going to change that.”

  “Damn it, Landon. Why is it so hard to believe I care about you? Yes, Aubrey wants to use the inn, but that’s not my reason for being in your office right now. You can’t tell me you’re okay and expect me to believe it. I’m not Dad. I see you, not what you can do for a business. I know you’re hurt and I get that. It would suck to have your existence denied the way Carlos did to you. But if he’s still texting you after all this time, he’s not over you, either. You need to shit or get off the pot.”

  “Not everyone is like you, Knox. We don’t all bully our way into other people’s lives.”

  “I’m a risk taker, not a bully.”

  “You’re a bulldozer. You nearly got kicked out of high school for fighting.”

  Yeah, to keep the assholes from giving you shit about being gay. Knox gritted his teeth. His brother didn’t need to know what he’d done to protect him when they were younger, and he sure as hell didn’t need to hear it now. Just like he didn’t need to know that after Landon came out to their parents, it was Knox who’d spent long nights helping their father understand the complexities of innate sexuality that a percentage of his generation had a hard time grasping.

  “No response,” Landon said sharply. “No surprise there. That’s just like you, willing to risk everything for your passions—in work and in your personal life—without regard for the ramifications to anyone else.”

  “You’re right. In certain cases I am willing to do that, because if I know one thing about myself, it’s that I have to be true to what I feel. I want to live an authentic life, and yeah, sometimes that means pissing people off. That’s why I’m willing to go head-to-head with you about Aubrey using the inn and why it is driving me batshit crazy that you won’t go to the same efforts for yourself with Carlos. Trust me on this. Figure out what you want and go for it. I spent months in Belize trying to get over what I felt for Aubrey, trying to convince myself it wasn’t real, or that I—the great Knox Bentley—didn’t need her.” He lowered his voice and said, “Dude, I couldn’t do it. All it made me realize is that there is no great Knox Bentley. That guy who blew through life like a rebel? He suddenly realized he was missing a piece of himself. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll always be a badass, but I’m not too proud to admit that I have never wanted to be with anyone the way I want to be with Aubrey. I think of her and my heart goes wild. I see her, and I’m all live wires inside, which really messes with my head, but, man, she’s it for me. For her, I’m all in, no matter what it takes. And regardless of what you’re telling yourself right now, this guy might be your Aubrey. He might be it for you.”

  “Don’t act like you know me.”

  “Oh, I’ll act like it, because I do know you. We may not have been super close growing up, but I know you in ways nobody else can. I was there for you when you realized you were into dudes, remember? It was me you talked to and cried with until three in the morning when we were kids because you thought you’d let Dad down by being yourself.”

  “I was fourteen.”

  “No shit. And now you’re a man with bigger issues, and you need a swift kick in the ass or you’re going to hurt forever.”

  “The guy who spends more time away from his family than with them is suddenly an expert in relationships?”

  “No,” Knox said honestly. “But I know how it feels to have a rift between me and the people I love, and I know how hard it is to come back from it. I learned from my mistakes, and Paige made sure that we all learned from Mom and Dad’s mistakes. I don’t want to see you suffer when all it might take is putting your ego aside long enough to figure out if Carlos was ever worthy of you or not. Had I been less worried about my fucking ego and more worried about getting through to our parents in a more tactful way, maybe things would have been different. Maybe I’d have been around more and I could have seen what Paige was going through earlier on—or better, maybe her life would have been different and she never would have gone into modeling and down the rabbit hole. Maybe I could have been around when the shit went down with Carlos and helped you somehow. I don’t know. But this isn’t about me. It’s about opening your eyes to why you’re so unhappy and trying to get to the heart of it so you’re not so damn miserable.”

  Landon’s jaw clenched. His hands fisted and unfurled. His eyes became hooded, and he said, “Don’t you think I’d like to be as aggressive as you? To not care if I got turned away again? To barrel through life with your confidence and arrogance?”

  “Not really. You don’t like the way I do things.”

  “That doesn’t mean I’m not impressed by it, or a little pissed at myself because you can do things I can’t.”

  “Then do them!” Knox challenged.

  “I can’t, because I do care about being turned down again. I care a whole hell of a lot more than you can imagine.” He paced, averting his eyes from Knox as he said, “I was devastated when all that shit went down. It took everything I had to stand up for what I needed in my life. And now I ask myself a hundred times a day if I was stupid to end our relationship. If I’m still being an idiot and should take his calls.” He met Knox’s gaze with a deeply troubled expression. “But I can’t because I don’t know if I can survive that again.”

  “But you’re not alone this time.” Knox stepped closer. “I will be here whenever you need me. I’m not saying we’ll be best buddies tomorrow, but I’m trying, Landon. It kills me to see you so unhappy. And this conversation, me being here for whatever you need, that has nothing to do with Aubrey wanting to use the inn.”

  There was a knock on Landon’s office door, and then their mother peered into the room. “Hi, boys. I’m sorry to interrupt. I was looking for Aubrey.”

  “She’s with Paige in the kitchen,” Knox said.

  “Oh, okay.” As she pulled the door closed Knox heard her say, “The kitchen…?”

  Landon’s office phone rang, and the two men stared at each other, at an impasse. When it rang again, Landon said, “I should get that.”

  Knox nodded curtly, knowing a dismissal when he heard it. “Come by the media room to watch the Super Bowl with us later?”

  “You know football’s not my thing.” He reached for the phone, hesitating long enough to say, “But I’ll stop by.”

  AUBREY WAS IN heaven. Clyde had everything she needed for a perfect Super Bowl spread, and he even let her stream music from her phone as she worked. She began by making her mother’s famous guacamole, her father’s favorite salsa, and tiny pizza pockets. Paige had arrived while she was making lasagna, and they’d been working side by side ever since.

  Aubrey pulled a tray of miniature cinnamon buns from the oven.

  Paige looked up from the dough for the pigs in blankets she was turning out and inhaled the sweet aroma. “I want to be you when I grow up.”

  “No you don’t. I’m a big pain, but I can cook, that’s for sure.” She set the tray on the counter. “And now, so can you. Look how beautiful our cinnamon buns are. While these cool, we’ll finish the pigs in blankets.”

  “Okay. Don’t forget to show me how to turn the guac into a football field.”

  “That’s so easy. Right before it’s served we’ll use sour cream in a frosting sleeve to put lines across the guacamole, like yard markers on a football field. Then we’ll put a few pigs in blankets upright on either side of the fifty-yard line, like teams. We’ll cut black and green olives in half and put the black on the tops of the pigs in blankets on one side and green on the others, like helmets. Then we
’ll put a piece of sausage in the middle as a football. It’ll be really cute.”

  “You’re a Super Bowl food savant. I want to be able to do all of this, too, not just for Super Bowl parties, but for other events we can host here at the inn. Will you email me your recipes and instructions? Or even better, maybe we can continue to get together sometimes and do stuff like this? Just for fun?”

  “I’d love that.”

  “Yay!” Paige looked over the dishes littering the counter and the enormous rectangle of dough before them and said, “I swear we have enough food for thirty people.”

  “I know. It’s a downfall of mine. I can cook for big groups, but I’m not as good when it comes to paring the dishes down. Maybe your parents and some of your friends can join us for the game? The more the merrier.”

  “I would say don’t count on my parents, but after Dad’s slip into normalcy last night, who knows what he’ll do. I’m kind of excited to find out.”

  “I think Knox is, too.” She wondered how things were going with Landon, and she realized that while this trip had started because of the inn, it had turned into a life-altering weekend of learning about Knox and herself. Finding an unexpected friendship with his sister was icing on the cake.

  Paige handed Aubrey a pizza cutter. “You should cut the dough. I know you said to just cut it into ninths diagonally since it’s so big, and then slice each section into ninths vertically, but I’ll mess it up. I think I’ll just eat a cinnamon bun while you show me how.” She reached for a bun with a mischievous smile.

  Despite Knox’s reassurance, Aubrey had wondered if Paige would act different around all this food, but she was just as effervescent as ever. Aubrey was glad she hadn’t hesitated to taste nearly everything.

  “It’s going to be so fun to watch the game with you guys. I’ve never watched a Super Bowl before,” Paige said as Aubrey cut the dough.

  “Really? I’m sure Knox told you that my brothers play pro football and my dad’s a football coach. My whole life has been sports.”

  “No, he didn’t. How fun was that growing up? Are your brothers older? Younger?”