Fragile Hearts (Poplar Falls Book 4)

by Amber Kelly

  “Let’s get it done, then,” he says as he removes the tool belt from his waist and hands it off to me.

  I go up the first time, and it’s awkward to try and hold the gutter in place and screw at the same time, but once I get the hang of the drill and overcome my nerves at letting go of the ladder and extending my reach, it isn’t so bad. Payne and I rotate, hanging and holding the rest of the sections until the entire front and right side of the roof is done. Walker and Foster have been tackling the back and left side. They beat us by a good twenty minutes, but we still make good time for being the team with a rookie member.

  “Impressive, Doc. You are strong as an ox under those scrubs. Hanging gutters is not for sissies,” Payne acknowledges.

  “I appreciate your patience with teaching me. I want to learn everything I can.” I thank him.

  “Stick around. With everyone getting married and having babies, we tend to do a lot of construction nowadays. You’ll be a pro in no time.”

  “Thank you, baby,” Walker says as he takes the cooler from Elle.

  He opens the top and tosses Payne and me a cold beer.

  Braxton headed home to his wife an hour ago, and Jefferson and Emmett were right behind him.

  “Are we back tomorrow night?” Payne asks.

  “Nah, they are calling for storms tomorrow. I’ll be at Rustic Peak late, helping to keep an eye on the fences and trees. We’ll call it a week. I’m having the sealant put down on the concrete floors Thursday, and that needs time to dry and set,” Walker explains.

  “That means, you’re free Friday, right, babe?” Elle asks.

  “Yes, ma’am. I’m all yours.”

  “Excellent. Bells and I want to go hike at Hickory Nut Gorge,” she requests.

  “We can do that,” he agrees.

  “We? I hope you aren’t including me in that we. My hiking days are behind me,” Payne states.

  “Since when? We always have a blast while hiking,” Elle asks.

  “Since I almost broke my tailbone that last hike,” he reminds her.

  “That shit was funny as hell,” Walker goads.

  “It wasn’t funny to Dad when I couldn’t run a tractor for five weeks because of a chipped coccyx,” Payne complains.

  “Damn, brother, I didn’t know you’d hurt your manhood. Hope it healed okay. Of course, the ladies appreciate a bit of crooked—” Walker interrupts.

  “Coccyx, jackass. Not cock. My manhood is just fine, thank you.”

  “If you say so.” Walker shifts his focus to me. “What about you, Doc? Don’t leave me hiking with two females alone. If anything happens, I can’t carry them both out. I’ll have to sacrifice one. You don’t want that on your conscience, do you?” he asks.

  “Um …”

  “Jeez, will you stop?” Elle hits him in the chest. “If you want a buddy to come out and play with you, ask nicely. Besides, I’m planning to ask Sonia if she and Ricky want to join us when I stop into her mom’s shop to check on the poodle skirts for Aunt Doe’s party.”

  “Noooo,” Walker whines.

  “Yes,” she insists.

  “Doc, would you enjoy an evening of friendly companionship while engaging in physical activity that is good for your health but potentially dangerous to your coccyx, pretty please?” He bats his eyelashes at me and waits for an answer.

  “Sure.”

  “Yes! Thank you.” He does a fist pump.

  Payne snickers. “I’m almost compelled to put my manhood in jeopardy to watch Ricky make Walk’s head explode.”

  “It’s a strong possibility,” Walker agrees.

  “If you do anything that causes Sonia any grief, your manhood will be the one in jeopardy,” Elle dares.

  Walker’s hands protectively cover his lap. “You’re a mean woman,” he accuses.

  “I can be, or if you are a nice boy, I can be a very, very good woman.” She grins at him coyly.

  “See what I’m talking about, Doc? Sexual persuasion. She uses it as a weapon, and I fold like a cheap suit. Every damn time.”

  Elle winks at me, and Payne bursts into laughter.

  Bellamy

  Elle meets me at the clinic after closing, and we walk down to Sonia’s mom, Kathy’s shop. She is an excellent seamstress, and she does most of the alterations and embroidery for Poplar Falls. She owned a small fabric and craft store uptown, but this past spring, she rebranded the space and opened a new consignment shop for both vintage clothing and furniture. She gives them a face-lift before adding them to the racks or show floor. The shop is aptly called Plum Nearly New. It’s wicked cool. I’ve found so many unique additions to my wardrobe there.

  The shop is closed, so we tap on the window and get Kathy’s attention. She comes up and unlocks the dead bolt to let us in.

  “Hey, girls,” she greets us with a hug. “Sonia will be down in a minute. Come on into the back, and I’ll show you what I have done so far.”

  Sonia and Ricky live in the one-bedroom apartment above her mom’s store. Her parents gave it to her to live rent-free as a graduation present. Ricky moved in right before their wedding.

  We walk into Kathy’s workspace in the back of the store. She has a clothing rack with an array of wool skirts in different colors and sizes. Each one has a hand-stitched poodle in the bottom-right corner.

  “These are amazing!” Elle gasps. “Exactly what we wanted.”

  “Which one is Doreen’s?” I ask.

  Kathy thumbs through the skirts until she plucks a powder-pink skirt with a black poodle.

  “She’s going to die,” I say in approval.

  We have a skirt, bobby socks, and saddle shoes for Doreen, so she can change once we get her to the party and the cat is out of the bag.

  “Mine?” I ask.

  “Yours isn’t ready yet, Bellamy. I had to send off for the turquoise-blue material you’d requested. It should be here the first of next week, and I’ll have it done in plenty of time. Same with Sophie’s. I failed the first attempt to create a maternity poodle skirt, but I found a pattern online, so I’m giving it another shot.”

  “Okay, I’ll go ahead and pay you for these completed ones and get them out of your way. I’ll pay for and pick up the rest next Friday,” Elle tells her.

  “Sounds good. The skirts are twenty each. That covers all the materials and also a crinoline for each. I’m going to donate my time for Doreen’s birthday gift.”

  “Oh no, we want to pay you. It’s a lot of work, and we ordered two dozen of them.”

  Elle tries to convince her to charge more, but she refuses.

  “Nope, I want to do them. Now, scoot,” she demands.

  Sonia comes in, and we order a pizza from the Pie Junction next door.

  We sit on one of the couches and eat and gab as Kathy sews away.

  “I’m so happy we are getting to spend a minute together. It feels like we never get to do this anymore,” I tell them.

  “Same,” Sonia agrees.

  “Speaking of time together, Bells and I are taking a couple of the fellas and going for a hike on Friday. Are you and Ricky free? We’d love for you guys to join us,” Elle invites.

  Sonia grimaces. “We can’t. It’s Ricky’s poker night, and we’re going to his friend Scott’s house,” she informs us.

  “I thought Saturdays were poker night?” I say.

  She nods. “They are.”

  “So, you have to go to his friend’s house and hang out with them two nights in a row every weekend, but he can’t come to spend one afternoon with us?” I ask her to clarify.

  “I know. It’s just … he gets the impression that my guy friends don’t like him, and he says he doesn’t want to spend an evening playing pretend just to make me happy.”

  “Do you like all his friends?” Elle asks.

  She shrugs. “They’re okay. Of course, they aren’t you guys, but I can enjoy myself with the wives while the husbands play, I guess.”

  “You want to come with us? Let him go to hi
s poker game, and you come out and then spend the night with us. We’ll have a slumber party, for old times’ sake,” Elle pushes.

  “I can’t. I like taking Ricky and being able to drive him home. They get so sloshed when they play, and I stay sober because I like to sleep in my big bed, not in the tiny twin-size guest beds they have.”

  “All right,” Elle huffs.

  “He’s my husband,” Sonia murmurs.

  Elle presses her lips together.

  “I know. And we don’t want to steal you guys’ time together with his people. We just miss you. That’s all.” I pout.

  “We’ll figure something out so that we can see each other more,” Sonia promises.

  Elle sticks out her pinkie finger, and Sonia wraps her own around it.

  “Pinkie swear. Now, you’re legally required to make it happen.”

  “Now, let’s talk about Bellamy and Brandt Haralson.” Elle turns the conversation onto me.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Progress report,” Elle says.

  I blow out a breath. I don’t really want to discuss Brandt and me at the moment because I have no idea what to report, but the three of us tell each other everything. We have no secrets. So, I tell them all that has transpired up to this point.

  They both sit there with their mouths agape.

  “Wow, in the river and the shower?” Sonia asks.

  “And the bathroom counter?” Elle adds.

  “Yep,” I confirm.

  “Ricky and I have only had sex in a bed or on a couch,” Sonia complains.

  “Walker and I like to have sex outdoors too,” Elle confesses.

  “Outdoors?” Sonia shrieks.

  “Yep, on hikes, on the hood of the truck in parking lots, and in the fishing boat.” She ticks off each place on her fingers.

  “The fishing boat that he took Beau and me out on?” I ask in disbelief.

  She nods.

  “How? That thing is tiny,” I ask, fascinated.

  “I straddle him while he fishes. The last time, I climaxed as he reeled in our dinner.”

  “No way. You just made that up,” Sonia accuses.

  “Cross my heart. It was just last weekend.”

  “He’s changed you. You went from my sweet, shy friend to a sexual deviant,” Sonia tells her.

  “Wicked—that’s what he makes me feel. And that’s because I feel safe enough to be myself with him. Just him. It’s everything.”

  A mournful expression casts over Sonia.

  “I thought we were talking about Bells’s sexcapades. Stop deflecting and spill.” Elle brings the attention back to me.

  “Not much else to tell. That’s all the progress that I have to report.”

  “So, are you a couple now?” Sonia asks, clearly back in the game.

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so though. He doesn’t seem ready for anything with a label.”

  “You came for him three times the other night, and Elle didn’t even get to second base when they dated. I’d say he flew right past the casual stage with you.”

  “Maybe I seduced him. Not intentionally, but I did strip down and jump in the river,” I admit.

  “You devil temptress,” Elle teases.

  “I was,” I insist.

  “If he didn’t want you, he wouldn’t have chased you into the water. He could have easily turned around and walked back to the house. Men aren’t as helpless against us as they let on. They are helpless only if they want you bad enough,” Sonia declares.

  “She’s right. I can get Walker to agree to anything if I attack him but only because he likes it. We know there used to be a gaggle of women willing to do whatever he wanted to get more from him, and he didn’t fall for their antics. He ignored them. He doesn’t ignore me because he doesn’t want to. Sometimes, I think he says no to stuff he wants to say yes to just so I will try to change his mind.”

  We all giggle.

  “So, you guys think I should do, what?” I ask because I need some advice.

  “Tell him what you want,” Elle suggests.

  I wrinkle my nose at the idea.

  “Or just keep showing up and see if he makes the next move,” Sonia counters.

  I like that idea much better.

  Chicken.

  Brandt

  “Slow down, woman. This isn’t a race,” Walker calls ahead to Elle and Bellamy.

  The two have been happily gabbing and trotting carefree up the trail. The very long, steep trail. Walker and I, on the other hand, have had to take several rest stops and water breaks while they stand and impatiently wait for us.

  “This is why you don’t date younger girls. At first, it’s all thrilling and hot, and then at some point, you realize the woman is trying to kill you,” Walker mutters.

  “Oh, quit whining, old, fat guy, and keep up,” she calls back to him.

  “She knows being mean and bossy turns me on. She’s playing me like a fiddle,” he gripes.

  The sound of their giggles drifts back to us.

  Walker whistles low and elbows my side.

  “Would you look at that? Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?” he asks, awe clear in his voice.

  I look at the twin mountain peaks in the distance with clouds dancing around them. “Spectacular.”

  “Fucking incredible. And I’m not talking about the view,” he clarifies.

  He is not wrong. The two friends tangled together ahead of us are exquisite.

  “We are some lucky SOBs, Doc,” he states.

  The four of us run into a couple of male hikers who are making their way back out of the trail, and as they pass Elle and Bellamy, who are still a considerable distance ahead of us, they stop and turn to watch our girls as they walk on, oblivious to the attention.

  Our girls?

  “Tongues back in, boys. They would chew you up and spit you out. You don’t need that kind of trouble in your life. Go hump a cheerleader or something,” Walker says as we pass the drooling duo.

  Then, we watch as the girls hook arms and chatter away as they keep walking, full steam ahead.

  Two hours later, we reach the apex of the grueling trek. Bellamy and Elle are at the top when we crest the edge. They are standing to the side, framed by a breathtaking view, and Bellamy has Elle riding piggyback. She is holding one of Elle’s legs clamped around her with one hand, and she has her cell phone extended in the other. The two of them are making silly faces into the camera and snapping selfies. Elle starts slipping down Bellamy’s back, and her running shorts start to slide with her. Bellamy lets out a yelp and drops Elle and her phone, and they both tumble to the ground in a heap of female limbs. They are squealing and laughing and rolling in the grass.

  “What did you two get into while we were back there?” Walker asks as we stand over them.

  They stop wiggling and look up at us. Tears leaking down their cheeks from laughing.

  Walker leans down and extends both arms to them. They each grasp a hand, and he pulls them to their feet.

  “Can’t take you two anywhere.”

  We all sit on a log that faces out to the view until the sun starts to set. Elle ends up on the grass in front of Walker, and he wraps her in his arms to shield her from the cold wind that is kicking up around us.

  “Are you cold?” I ask Bellamy, and she tells me she’s fine.

  I see the gooseflesh down her exposed arms and know that she’s lying.

  I pull off my long-sleeved moisture-wicking shirt and pull it over her head. She bites her lip and then raises her arms, so I can slip it on her.

  “Thank you,” she whispers.

  I thread my fingers into her hair and tug the band loose. Her gorgeous hair falls down her back and around her face.

  “There, that will keep the wind off your neck,” I say in explanation. But the truth is, I love her hair. I like it down and wild.

  Her expectant eyes look up into mine, and I bring my hand to the side of her face, rubbing my thumb o
ver her cheek. Her lips part slightly at my touch, and I can feel her pulse quicken at her throat. My touch does that. My gaze drops to her mouth, and a need to taste her again rages under my skin. I lean in and run my nose to hers, and just as my mouth finds hers, a bolt of lightning flashes in the distance followed by a loud, thunderous boom that shakes the ground beneath us. I jerk my head to look out at the horizon.

  “Shit, how close do you think that is?” Walker asks as he looks to me over Elle’s shoulder.

  “About three, maybe four miles. We’d better head back,” I tell him.

  He stands and pulls Elle to her feet. I help Bellamy up and guide her in front of me. We move quickly, but this time, Walker and I stay close to them. Before we can make it off the trail, the lightning is on us, and we can see it striking ground around us. I shield Bellamy with my body, and she is trembling.

  “You okay?” I ask as we speed up, Walker and Elle staying in step with us.

  “I don’t like lightning,” she divulges, and I can tell she is closing her eyes and not watching where she’s going.

  Fat, cold raindrops start to fall heavily around us. Bellamy stumbles over her feet, and I grasp her shoulder and keep her upright. She is terrified. I halt her and turn her into me.

  “Hop up,” I tell her.

  She looks at me, and I open my arms in invitation. She jumps up, and I hoist her up and feed my arms around her hips. She wraps her legs around me tightly. She buries her face into my neck, and I take off sprinting toward the opening to the trail that leads out to the parking area.

  By the time we make it to Walker’s truck, the rain is pounding down on us in sheets. I hear the truck beep, and the locks disengage just as Walker skids up to us with Elle in his arms. He drops her on her feet, and I set Bellamy on hers. They cling to each other as I move to pull open the door for them as Walker hops in and gets the truck started. I guide them both into the backseat, and I run around the truck to get in the passenger seat.

  There is no way Walker can see to head home. The rain is too heavy. I look back, and the girls are huddled and shivering. I turn the heat on full blast, and I aim the vents toward them.