Page 7

Chapter Six

My phone started to ring. It didn’t make sense, because my alarm hadn’t gone off, and I’d set my alarm for six-thirty. I rolled over and stretched for my nightstand where it was charging. I squinted and saw that it was Trenda calling.

What in the hell would she be calling for so early in the morning? Oh yeah. Something bad.

“Trenda, what’s wrong?” I answered.

“Is he there?”

“Is who where?”

“Drake? Is he at your place yet?”

“What are you talking about? I haven’t seen our big brother since last year. Why would he be at my house at the butt-crack of dawn?”

“Karen called me, and it’s really early in California. Drake found out that Beau’s back in town. He flew out late last night into Nashville, and he’s driving here to talk to you…and probably Beau.”

“Oh, for the love of God.” I threw my arm over my eyes. There went my morning treat. “Is Drake out of his ever-loving mind?”

“Have you met him?”

I heard mumbling from the other end of the line and realized that Trenda’s husband must be talking to her.

“Seriously, Trenda, why would Drake drop everything and come to Jasper Creek? This makes no sense.”

“We all saw how you were when Beau left and didn’t contact you.”

“Not Drake. He was in California and on deployment all the damn time. He had no idea what I was like.”

Trenda didn’t respond.

“Unless... Unless my big sister spilled the beans. Is that what happened, Trenda? Did you tell our over-protective oaf of a brother that I was upset that my best friend blew me off?”

“Oh for goodness sakes, you were more than a little upset. You were devastated. You had no idea why he would have cut off all communication. Beau had been your lifeline for years. All through your childhood, and then poof, he was gone. You were a mess. It was like you’d lost a limb. So yeah, we might have mentioned it.”

I shoved more pillows behind my back and sat up. “What do you mean, we? Are you saying it was more than just you?”

“I plead the fifth.” I heard more mumbling. “Look, I’ve got to go. I need to clean the house. With Drake arriving, we’re going to be having people over, and I want to get ready.”

“We are not inviting people over because of your brother,” I clearly heard Simon say over the line. “Today was a snow day for both of us. You agreed.”

I giggled at the disgruntled tone in my brother-in-law’s voice. Couple that with the term snow-day when it was the month of May and I was totally tickled.

“We are too having people over. I need to clean and cook.” Trenda’s voice was firm.

“I’ll let you two figure things out. Thanks for giving me a heads-up, Trenda, but that doesn’t get you off the hook for ratting me out. Did Karen give you any kind of ETA as to when Drake would be here?”

“She called fifteen minutes ago, and he was in Knoxville. Knowing how he drives, he’ll be at your place in less than an hour.”

“Got it. Again, thanks for the heads-up.”

Simon’s voice was rumbly when I hung up the phone. I figured that the first thing I needed to do was warn Beau not to come over. I scrolled down to his name and called him.

“Isn’t this kind of early for you?” he asked.

“How would you know?” I scowled.

“Come on, Maddie, you were never a morning person. How many times were you late for school?”

I got out of bed and headed for the bathroom.

“I was late for school because I was getting Chloe and Zoe ready,” I lied. I turned on the bathroom light and winced. I really should have dried my hair before going to sleep. It looked like a rat had slept in it.

Beau laughed. “Like Trenda would have allowed that to happen. She was always carping at you for being late. So was Evie, for that matter.”

“Look, I didn’t call for a walk down memory lane. This is important.”

“You sound amped up. That doesn’t sound rested to me. How did you sleep?”

“I was sleeping just fine until Trenda called. Now listen. Drake is going to be here in about an hour. He’s got some kind of bug up his ass about you coming to town, so it’s best that you don’t come over.”

Beau didn’t say anything. “Are you still there?” I asked.

“I’m here, but what does Drake coming to your house have to do with me coming over?”

“According to Trenda, he’s worried about my reaction to you being back in town.”

“I guess I can understand that. I’ll be there in a few.” He hung up.

“What the ever-loving fuck!” I yelled.

All the men in my life were crazy!

I slammed the bathroom door shut and went about my morning business, once again realizing I wouldn’t have a lot of time to get myself together.

* * *

When the knock came at my door, I was halfway done blow-drying my hair. I marched to the door and flung it open.

“You’re going to have to?—”

“What the hell are you doing opening the door without seeing who it is?” Drake roared. He pulled me into his arms and lifted me off the floor in a rib-crushing hug.

I pounded on his shoulder. “I can’t breathe.”

He hugged me tighter, then set me down and looked me over. “Am I too early? Why isn’t your hair dry?”

I shook my head as he walked past me into my house. “Do you have anything to eat? I’m starving.”

“If you’re so hungry, you should have stopped by Trenda’s house, not mine,” I grumbled. “Help yourself to whatever. I have to dry my hair and put on something besides pajama bottoms and a sleep shirt.”

“I’m fine with what you’re wearing,” he said with his patented charming smile. “You look great, Maddie. Better than great.”

I shook my head. “Just go scrounge something to eat and leave me alone.” I grinned. God, it was good to see him.

I hustled back to my bathroom and continued to blow-dry my curls, trying to keep them in check. When I was done, I put on mascara and lip-gloss, then found my favorite pair of boot cut jeans and reached for another one of my crop tops but thought better of it. I didn’t need any shit from big brother. So instead, I took out a Buccaneers t-shirt from the good old days at East Tennessee State University. It still kind of fit, even if I might have gained fifteen pounds since college and gone up a cup size.

Thank God.

“Get out here, Mads. Your waffle is ready,” Drake hollered from the kitchen.

I hustled down the hall just as there was another knock at the door. I don’t know how it was possible, since I was almost at the door, but Drake beat me to it. He looked through the peephole before opening it.

“Beaumont,” he growled.

“Good to see you, Drake.” Beau smiled.

They stood there, not moving. Drake didn’t invite Beau in. He stayed in place, blocking the doorway.

“Drake, get out of the way and let Beau in,” I admonished. I sniffed the air. “Do I smell a waffle burning?”

“Nope.” Drake didn’t bother turning around.

“Waffles?” Beau said. “Guess we don’t need these,” he said, holding up a pink box that I recognized from Down Home Diner. My mouth started salivating. I hip-checked my brother and grabbed the box from Beau.

“We most certainly do need these.”

Drake looked down at me. “You don’t even know what’s in the box,” he muttered.

“It’s from Down Home,” I countered. “Come on in, Beau. Maybe if we feed the beast, he’ll be in a better mood when he starts to cross-examine you.”

“Don’t count on it,” Drake muttered.

Drake followed me into the kitchen, where I took down three plates. “Here, take these into the dining room.”

“I don’t trust you with the pastries,” my brother said.

“So, send Beau in to watch over me.” I goaded him.

He plucked the pink box off the counter and grabbed the plates out of my hand. I grabbed three glasses down from another cupboard and turned around to find Beau behind me. He was smirking. “Seems to be going well.”

I shook my head. “Just you wait,” I warned him.

“I’ve already been through a Drake Avery talk once in my life, and that was when he was a senior in high school, and I was in seventh grade. I think I can handle anything he dishes out today.”

My mouth fell open. “You never told me about that.”

“There was no point. What’s more, he did the right thing. He was worried about you. It was when he was leaving for the Navy. He wanted to make sure that I would treat you the way you deserved to be treated.”

“But we were just friends,” I protested.

“That’s not the way it looked to him. He was worried, baby. Looking back, I can’t blame him. If I had been in his shoes, I would have done the exact same thing.”

“What’s taking you two so long?” Drake bellowed from the dining room. “If you don’t come out in the next two minutes, I’m eating all the cinnamon rolls and leaving you two with just the glazed donuts.”

Beau raised his eyebrows.

“He’s serious.” I turned to the fridge and pulled out a carton of milk and a container of orange juice and pushed them at him. “Go protect our food. I’ll bring glasses and silverware.”

“Bossy.”

I smirked. “You like bossy.”

He bent close to my ear. “You can be bossy everyplace but one,” he whispered.

I frowned in confusion. “Where’s that?”

“My bed.”

He turned before he could see the blush that suffused my face. Shit, that was hot. I stood there thinking of us in bed. Him holding my hands above my head. A slow shiver worked its way down my back, spiraling low in my stomach before I could stop it.

“Where are the glasses, Mads?” Drake hollered.

I grabbed the roll of paper towels and put that under my arm, nabbed some silverware and picked up the glasses, and brought them into the dining room. The heavenly smell of sugar, cinnamon, and cream cheese pulled me into its orbit as I saw the plates on the table. The empty chair with a plate in front of it had two cinnamon rolls.

Score!

Beau and Drake just had one in front of them, along with muffins and glazed donuts. “Why did I make out?” I asked Beau.

“I’d already stopped at the diner before you called me. I’d gotten two cinnamon rolls for both of us, but with Drake here, I figured I’d share my second one. After all, he is here to give me shit. Right, big guy?”

Drake was in the middle of pouring himself a tall glass of milk.

“You’ve got it in one. You’re still enlisted, right?”

Beau nodded.

“How much more time are you going to be spending here in Jasper Creek before you have to go back to Pendleton?”

“Where is Camp Pendleton?” I asked.

“It’s in Southern California. About sixty miles north of me,” Drake answered.

“How do you know he’s stationed at Camp Pendleton?” I asked.

“You explain,” Drake said as he looked at Beau. Then he picked up his cinnamon roll and took a big bite.

“Marine Raiders are based out of Camp Pendleton,” Beau told me. “I’ve got a townhome near base.”

“How often are you in the States?” I questioned.

“Depends.” He took a bite out of his glazed donut. Not nearly as big as Drake’s bite.

“That isn’t an answer.”

“The longest I’ve been home was for three and a half months,” Beau admitted.

Beau was sometimes in the States for that long? I looked down at my plate. I was losing my taste for cinnamon rolls.

Drake looked over at me. “Aren’t you going to eat that?” he asked.

“No.”

He snatched one of the rolls off my plate.

Beau glared at Drake, then turned to me. “Maddie, I can explain.”

“Maybe later,” I whispered.

“You left her high and dry. You were a total prick.” Drake took a long sip of milk to wash down half of the cinnamon roll he’d stolen from me.

“There’s still stuff we need to talk about,” Beau said softly. “Come on, Maddie. Eat your cinnamon roll. You know you love them,” Beau coaxed.

I pushed my plate away and got up from the table. “Look, Beau. It’s water under the bridge,” I sighed. “We don’t need to discuss your time away. But I do think that maybe we’ve been going a little too fast.”

“You tell him, Maddie.” Drake grinned at me, then glared at Beau, who had stood up as well. “She’s kicking your ass to the curb. Are you hearing that, Beaumont?”

“Maddie, look at me.”

I put a smile on my face. I knew it didn’t reach my eyes, but at this moment, I didn’t have it in me to care. “Seriously, Beau. It’s all good. I’ll save my cinnamon roll for later. Right now, I want to catch up with my big brother. You don’t mind leaving, do you? It’s family time.”

“I’m coming back after he leaves.”

“I’m not leaving. Maddie has a guest room. I’m staying here for the duration. We have a lot of catching up to do. Consider yourself gone.” Drake didn’t even get up, but he was still menacing.

Beau shot him a hard look. “I’ll come over whenever I damn well feel like it.”

At that point, Drake did get up. Beau might be six-foot-two, but my brother topped him by three inches. “Try it, and I’ll have you up on stalking charges so fast, your head will spin. That won’t go over well with your commanding officer, now, will it?”

I saw the look of frustration suffusing Beau’s face.

I pointed at my brother. “Drake, cool it.” Then I turned to Beau. “Don’t listen to him, he’s just being him. I agree, we have more talking we need to do. But we jumped fast, and I just need a couple of days, okay?” I looked into his eyes, aching for him to understand.

“You’re right, honey. Anything you need.”

Beau headed for the door and opened it, then he stopped. He dragged his hand through his hair and gave me a frustrated look. “Just know, Maddie, we’re too important to throw away because of the past. Okay?” This time it was him who was pleading.

I nodded.

Then he left.

When I turned to Drake, he was seated again, but he wasn’t eating. He was studying me.

“Is he right, Mads?”

“I don’t know, Drake. I honestly don’t know.”