Eat Your Heart Out: A Romance Charity Anthology

by Skye MacKinnon

  Around me stood numerous open boxes. Ones I’d unpacked a couple items from for the display shelves. What remained needed to be placed up in the higher shelves before I could stumble up the stairs to my personal rooms. Another benefit to this house that swayed me in my decision to spend a little more was that it came with the second floor already converted to a separate suite, allowing me to live over my shop.

  “Well, let’s get this done. There’ll be time enough to rest when I die.” I’d taken to talking to myself while working just to make me feel not so alone. A consequence of spending more on the building than my initial budget forecasted, I couldn’t afford to hire someone to help me with the set-up. While my bank account continued to contain a hefty balance, I knew it wouldn’t last long. Between the overhead for the store, the hiring of an employee to help me run the store, and the money I’d need to live on for the next year until the store hopefully started to make some cash, at the moment, I couldn’t afford to spend any extra. So for the past week, I’d worked round the clock with only the radio for human contact. The good news: I haven’t started to answer myself… then I would have been worried.

  It was my sixth trip up the ladder, a heavy box under my arm and wedged on top of my hip—the only way I could carry the box and climb at the same time—when my right leg cramped up, buckling my knee. The box began to slip, and I lurched to keep it from falling, pulling it toward my chest. Not the thing to do while on a ladder nearly three feet off the ground.

  My feet slipped, dropping my body, and catching my right knee on the rung. The weight of the box pulled my body backwards, bringing my head closer to the floor or the wooden rails below me.

  A loud shriek left my throat as I scrunched my eyes shut, wishing I could do the same with my ears. The last thing I wanted to hear was the sound of my head smacking something hard.

  But before I hit, large hands grabbed me, stopping my fall. The body they belonged to stepped closer, sliding their hands down my back until they rested just above my hips, cradling my upper body on their arms.

  The box was yanked from my chest before it continued downward and slammed into my face.

  “You can open up your eyes now, sweet-tea. I’ve got you.” The voice heated my blood with its richness.

  Light filtered into my brain as my eyes opened. Then I saw him… them. A pair of deep brown eyes that sucked me into their pool of melted chocolate goodness. They pulled back to be replaced by a pair of warm blue-grey eyes filled with compassion and framed by silver rimmed glasses. “Holy crumpets!”

  Ben

  “Did you just say ‘crumpets’? As in tea and crumpets?” I couldn’t keep the mirth from my voice as I stared down into the most beautiful honey-coloured eyes I’d ever seen.

  Her pale cheeks flushed. “Um, yes I did.”

  “That’s so cute.” Caleb lowered the box he held to the floor as he stared at her knee and ankle. I could take the doctor out of the office and hospital, but I knew I couldn’t take the doctor out of the man. It was his nature to stop and help anyone who looked like they needed it whenever we were out. And tonight would be no different. Although I knew the moment he took a real look at the tiny slip of a woman in my arms, a look like a man and not a doctor examining a patient, he’d be helping her even if she didn’t need it. We tended to think the same things when it came to women, and she was everything my mother told me about her plus more.

  “Hold her still, Ben. I want to examine her knee and ankle before we help her down.”

  When her eyes widened and her face lost what little colour it gained from her blush, I leaned over her, filling her view with my face. I gave her the wide smile I gave to my new students which never failed to make the female students sigh and develop a dreamy look on their face. “Don’t worry. My friend Caleb is a doctor, and he can’t help himself. He loves to make sure that people are okay when they fall. Heck, once he even made me stop the car so that he could examine a bird that limped along the side of the road.”

  Caleb’s chuckles filled the air, easing the tension in the body I held. Or maybe it was the touch of his hands as they trailed over her upper thigh heading down toward her hooked knee. “Now don’t be telling her all my secrets, Ben.” Over his shoulder, he winked at her. Then his eyes widened, and I knew at that moment he registered her honey eyes against the chestnut colour of her hair along with the soft kissable curve of her lips. Before the silence became uncomfortable, he rescued himself, giving her his sultry, panty-dropping smile. “Or I just might have to spill some of yours.”

  As Caleb returned his focus to her leg, I stepped up my game, drawing her attention back to me. “Don’t worry. I’ll continue to spill his secrets to you.” I gave her a quick wink as I moved my fingers, massaging the small of her back. “I’ve been his best friend since kindergarten, so I have a lot of dirt on him.”

  Her soft laughter rang in my ears, filling my soul with music. I wasn’t a stranger to women throwing themselves at me, but it wasn’t a daily occurrence either. For the most part, it tended to be women who heard that Caleb and I liked to fuck together and wanted to experience what it felt like to be the filling in our sandwich. Others were scared off by the prospect, which was fine with me. I didn’t want to waste my time with a woman where there wasn’t any future. Been there. Done that. Already owned the T-shirt.

  And while I didn’t know whether or not she would be willing to take on the two of us, for her I was willing to expend the energy. For the first time I felt that certainty deep within my soul that my father spoke of. I’d thought I’d felt it once earlier, even asked the woman to marry me, but once she got my ring on her finger she changed. Instead of being happy to include Caleb in our lives—and I’m not talking about in our bed—she wanted to cut him out. In particular, my life. But looking into those honey eyes, feeling her weight resting on my arms, I knew that what I’d felt so many years ago was only a faint echo of what I felt now.

  “And I’m sure he’s got a lot on you, too.” Her eyes twinkled as her lips formed a smile that made me weak in the knees.

  I tried to feign innocence as I protested her claim, but she was having none of it.

  “Something tells me that you were the troublemaker of the two.”

  “You tell him, dove,” Caleb urged her on.

  I sent Caleb a mock glare, but he just smirked before turning back to her leg.

  Her shoulders shook, forcing me to tighten my grip to keep a hold on her. At first, I worried that I squeezed too tight when her body tensed, but a glance at her grimace and the pleading look in her eyes told me that the problem came from the spot on her ankle that Caleb palpated.

  “I’m so sorry for the pain, Isabella.” Caleb stroked his hands up and down her calves, easing her tension. But the soft moan that escaped her lips increased mine. Not that I wanted him to stop what he was doing. I’d take her moaning in my arms any day even if he were the one producing them. “I think that you need to be seen at the hospital. Are you here alone?”

  It was wise of him to ask that question even if we sort of knew the answer. Not much was missed if you were plugged into the correct Voyageur Bay gossip channels and between Caleb and me, we were well covered. Not too much escaped the notice of our networks. You’d think I meant our mothers, but our fathers were probably worse. And a single—at least everyone thought she was—young woman with no ties to Voyageur Bay coming in to open a tea shop was information that spread like a wildfire. It also helped that Julie, the real estate agent, was my mother’s cousin, meaning my gossip came straight from the source rather than layers of filter.

  “I am. But do you really think I need the hospital? It doesn’t even hurt that much.” Her lips clenched, revealing how she bit her lip as she tried to move her leg.

  “Don’t move.” Caleb tightened his hold on her calf. “Let us unhook your leg and we’ll get you checked out properly.”

  When she continued to bite her lip and her gaze darted around the room with a panicked look in her ey
es, he loosened his fingers and ran them up over her knee. “You can trust us. Trust me.” His voice oozed the soothing doctor tone that he didn’t need to learn at med school, having been born with it in spades. It came in handy as we’d grown up, keeping us out of trouble.

  He released his hold on her leg with one hand and lightly touched her chin, forcing her to look at him. “I don’t think anything is broken, but you will probably need crutches for a few days. I just want to make sure that there isn’t anything worse.”

  She nodded and the ball of lead in my stomach dissolved. I wouldn’t have blamed her for not listening to us. After all, she didn’t know us, didn’t know that we wouldn’t hurt her. So for her to say that she trusts us made me hopeful that she felt the soul connection between us.

  “While Ben holds on to you, I’m going to unhook your legs. And then we’ll get you to the hospital.” With a quick nod in my direction to make sure I was ready, Caleb unhooked her injured right leg, supporting it as I pulled her body away from the ladder.

  The moment she was free, I twisted her until I held her bridal style. “Put your arms around my neck, sweet-tea. I promise I won’t let you fall.” Not when she fit like a glove in my arms. Falling wasn’t a problem, letting her go… now that would be an issue.

  Chapter 2

  Caleb

  I watched Ben carry Isabella—yes, I knew her name even if we hadn’t been formally introduced yet—out of the almost ready-to-be-opened shop after she informed me where her purse and keys were located. The look on his face scared me. It was one I hadn’t seen since the night he met his ex-fiancée, Meredith, ten years ago. He was falling… hard. And I didn’t know where that left me.

  We’d always said—since the ill-fated foray with his ex—that we’d find a woman together. One we both agreed upon and who would accept me as part of the deal. And while I could see the draw of the honey-eyed woman with those delectable lips and skin that flowed like silk on my fingertips. We hadn’t talked about her. Not really. Although I now understood Ben’s earlier urging that we park in the lot on Fourth Street and walk the extra few blocks to Strönd’s for beer and supper.

  From the grapevine—and from looking around the store—she was a hard worker. In just over a week, she’d taken a place that I’d thought would need a decontamination team and restored it to some of its former glory. To add to that, every person who mentioned her talked about how friendly she was for a big city girl. People mentioned Toronto, but when she spoke, I caught a hint of an English accent. Almost like she’d spent a lot of time in England over the years.

  And single. A fact she’d just confirmed.

  All things that made her perfect for us…

  Except…

  None of the stories prepared me for how young she looked.

  When Ben mentioned that he wanted to meet Isabella, it had been around a discussion about his need for more business teachers at the college campus. And from what his mother and Julie mentioned, Isabella had an executive MBA from Queen’s University. The same degree he had, although his came from the University of Manitoba. That should have put her closer to our age. Instead, she looked like some of the teens that I saw occasionally in the emergency room or maybe some of the first-year students that liked to wave hi to Ben while ducking their heads so we didn’t see their pinked cheeks.

  I took the stairs two at a time not wanting to leave her alone with Ben for too long. The longer they spent together the more attached he’d become. And while I felt that same sort of zing that my dad mentioned when he spoke about meeting my mom for the first time, it had to be wrong. Like when Ben thought he’d felt it with Meredith. There was no way that we could pursue anything with Isabella. She. Was. Too. Young.

  So despite how perfect she was, I’d be keeping my dick in my pants. The legal age may have been sixteen, but I still didn’t need the hassle of dealing with a complaint about me robbing a cradle. And Ben needed it less than me. As the Dean of Academics, falling for someone who could be mistaken for his student, the rumours alone could end his career.

  Besides, she was just beginning her life, starting a new business. The last thing she’d need would be two men in their mid-thirties who were looking for a woman to raise a family with.

  Her purse and keys were right where she said they would be—on the kitchen table. If the room could be called a kitchen. I mean, it had a fridge, a stove, and a sink, but they all looked like they’d been purchased at least fifty years earlier. Despite the press for time, I took a quick look around before heading back downstairs. The rooms on the second floor appeared to be on the edge of unliveable. Like she’d begun to work on them, but never finished before she started work on her store. Not only was the kitchen hopelessly out of date and questionable in its usability, the bathroom was in the same shape.

  If she had to come home on crutches, living upstairs would be difficult. That was if she could even navigate the stairs.

  With a sinking sensation in my chest, I knew that my wish to keep Ben away from her until this infatuation ran its course would not happen. Not when she’d need a place to stay while she recovered.

  It took only seconds to lock up. Voyageur Bay didn’t have much of a crime rate, but it was still there. And there was no way my conscience would allow me to be the cause of a potential robbery. Not when it appeared that she was sinking everything she had into this business venture. If she had extra money, I’m sure she would have used it to hire help.

  As I walked—more like jogged—the two blocks to where we’d parked our car, thoughts of how we could help her roamed through my head. That was a great thing about living in a small town, people were willing to help others during a time of need even if they were new to town. I didn’t know what all she planned to do to her store before opening, but from the pile of boxes scattered around the room we’d found her in, there was still a lot to do. And from the advertisements I’d seen around town, she planned to open in a week in conjunction with August’s long weekend festival.

  My mom would spread the word and gather a crew to help if I asked. She’d be curious as to why I was bringing the request, but having spent almost the last half century as a small town doctor’s wife, she’d understand. She wouldn’t make the big deal out of it that Ben’s mother would. Now that was a woman who’d have Ben hitched to Isabella—without any complaint of his I was sure—before fall semester started in six weeks.

  While the idea of being married to Isabella warmed my insides, Ben’s mother wouldn’t be factoring me into the equation. Choosing to be in a long-term polyamorous relationship wasn’t something we’d informed our parents of yet. Poly relationships weren’t a hot topic of conversation, although that was changing. Josh and Jake, a couple of young local rodeo stars, had been photographed kissing what appeared to be the same young woman. No one would confirm anything, but there was talk. And as one of the local doctors, I knew that Voyageur Bay contained some hidden poly relationships since a couple of them were patients of mine. Besides, no matter how much Ben’s mother may want his marriage, this wasn’t something Isabella would want. Not at her age.

  Before I reached the end of the first block, Ben pulled up, cutting across the road to stop beside me. I hopped into the back seat with Isabella. As soon as I climbed in and the door latched, Ben stepped on the gas, spinning the car into a U turn, and sliding me into the door. I grabbed the oh shit handle. “Where’s the fire, Ben?”

  “She’s hurt. You said so yourself.”

  I rolled my eyes as she laughed. “I said she needed to be checked out. I didn’t mean you needed to kill us to get there. I mean, you could have waited the two extra minutes it would have taken me to walk to the damn parking lot.”

  Ben didn’t answer, but his foot lifted off the gas enough to slow us down.

  “Thank you,” Isabella whispered as I picked up both her legs to drape them over my lap. Her ankle already swollen to nearly twice its normal size. Shit. I should have grabbed some ice, but I didn’t even know if h
er freezer had ice or even worked. Thankfully, we’d be at the hospital in under ten minutes because I didn’t know how long I’d be able to hold on to my vow to keep my dick contained if I had to touch her silky skin or breathe in her earthy floral scent for longer than that.

  Isabella

  Goosebumps raised all the little hairs on my arms and legs as I sat under the air conditioning in one of the bays in the emergency room. Both Ben and Caleb had stepped out to allow me to change into a gown. Not that I understood why I needed to be in the gown when I had been in shorts, but the nurse handed me the gown while making eyes at the two men, so I acquiesced. If she wanted me in less clothing while Caleb examined me, who was I to complain.

  It felt strange to call them by their names when we hadn’t been formally introduced. It wasn’t something done in my family. In fact, my mother would have considered it the height of rudeness—probably the reason why saying their names in my head gave me a perverse pleasure.

  “Ready for us, dove?”

  A shiver ripped through my body, giving my voice a breathless quality as I answered. “Does a tea kettle whistle?”

  The curtain surrounding my bay whipped open as a chuckling Ben forced his way past a smiling Caleb. “You are too cute, sweet-tea. My dad is going to love you.”

  The grin nearly swallowed my face as he leaned his hips against the stretcher I sat on. His warmth heated up my non-injured side, sending another shiver through me.

  “Cold?” He wrapped his arm around my shoulder, drawing me into his body without waiting for my answer.

  I glanced toward Caleb who gave Ben an indulgent smile before meeting my gaze. “Sorry,” he mouthed toward me, but the twinkle in his eyes proved he found Ben’s antics humorous.