Page 30 of That One Night (The Heartbreak Brothers Next Generation #4)

Chapter

Twenty-Four

His heart was racing way too fast, despite the fact that he wasn’t moving. Just leaning on the wall, staring at the woman he was quickly becoming addicted to.

“You’re worrying me,” she murmured. “You look so serious. Is it about your mom? About her catching us? You never told me what she said this morning.”

“She thinks we’re having an affair.”

Emery winced and he shook his head.

“Don’t worry,” he added. “I made it clear that it’s all my fault.”

“I’m not worried about that,” Emery said softly. “I’m worried because you look like you’re about to throw up.”

“I don’t like talking about myself.” Wasn’t that the understatement? And yet he needed to. She’d been so damn brave, telling her ex she was coming clean. Telling him that she’d think about moving back to Hartson’s Creek.

She’d put herself out there. He couldn’t pull back now. He wanted her to know him. The good and the bad. He’d been hiding behind his mistakes for too long. Pretending he didn’t care what people thought about him.

But he cared what she thought. That was the truth. And she deserved it.

“I moved back here because I’d been breaking my mom’s heart for way too many years.” He let out a breath, trying to figure out how to explain the constant dread he felt that he was letting her down.

He was a grown man. But he loved his mom. And she’d always deserved better.

“You know about the drugs being found in my locker at school?” he asked her. Because he might as well start from the beginning.

“I remember hearing about it.”

“Trenton put them there. Him and his friends. They were pissed because I’d gotten onto the football team and taken the place they thought he deserved.”

“Trenton planted the weed on you?” Her mouth dropped open.

“He was one of them.”

“I didn’t know,” she told him. “I didn’t, honestly.”

“Of course you didn’t. Why would you? Even my friends thought it was me who’d brought it to school. It fit. I was always the bad kid. The one who couldn’t read. The one who acted out because I was so shit at school. It wasn’t a great leap to believe I was also the kid who hid weed in my locker.”

“You didn’t tell the principal it wasn’t you?”

“No.” He shook his head. “And this is all old history, anyway. The only reason I’m telling you about it was because the day it happened was the day before my dad was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He and my mom were so damn happy. They were going to attend, just the two of them, have some time together alone to celebrate.

And then my mom got the call from the principal and she told my dad to go without her.

” He swallowed hard. “She didn’t blink, didn’t think, just rushed to be with me.

And he went there alone and she missed it. ”

“I’m so sorry…”

“That night, when he was inducted, I caught her crying. She was in the kitchen, in the dark. I could hear her softly sobbing, like she was trying not to let me know how much I’d fucked things up. And I promised myself, right then, that I wouldn’t hurt her like that again.”

His throat felt scratchy, because he knew how fickle that had been.

“That’s why I left home so young. They thought I wanted to explore. To spend time in different countries. Go from one farm to the next, working, learning.” His eyes caught hers. “But I guess more than anything I was running away from being the family mess up.”

She took his hand in hers, staring at him with soulful eyes. “Your mom must’ve hated that.”

“She did. But I figured that way I couldn’t hurt her anymore.

She blamed herself for me getting in trouble at school.

Then blamed herself again for not knowing about my dyslexia earlier.

The way I saw it, I needed to be an adult.

Live my life without causing her problems.” His jaw tightened. “And then last year happened.”

“Last year?” Emery asked.

He took a deep breath, like it was taking all of his effort to form the words on his lips. “I had a fling with a woman. It was a mistake.”

Emery gave him a weak smile. “I know all about those.”

“You do things with a good heart, baby. I had no heart at all. I was only interested in no strings. I didn’t want a relationship. I thought I’d made it clear. But she got a little… attached. And I didn’t care. Hell, I didn’t even notice.”

“What happened?”

“I tried to break it off. And then she told me she was pregnant.”

Emery’s mouth dropped open.

He winced at the memory of it. How oblivious he’d been. How self centred. He hadn’t realized he was hurting her. But he should have.

“She wasn’t pregnant, though. Her best friend came to tell me that it was all a lie.

But when I told her it really was over, she decided to contact my parents.

She called them crying, telling them they were going to be grandparents.

That I was treating her horribly and she needed them to talk to me.

“She had my mom completely convinced she was going to be a grandmother. It was only when Mom was heading to the airport to fly out to meet her that I found out what was going on. She’d built this whole alternative reality where we were going to have a kid and she’d get my mom and dad to persuade me to marry her. ”

“Oh my God,” Emery whispered.

“Yeah.” He let out a breath. “It was a mess. After that, I decided to move back here. It felt like the right time, and this place was up for sale. Uncle Logan helped me with the mortgage and a business plan and here I am.”

“That wasn’t your fault,” Emery told him. “You didn’t know she was going to do that.”

“I treated her like shit. I should have noticed she was getting attached. I spent most of my life not taking notice. Just thinking that I could be casual with people's emotions. That it wasn’t my fault I kept causing pain to the people I shouldn’t.”

Emery stepped toward him, putting her arms around his waist, resting her face on his chest. “It wasn’t your fault,” she repeated. “You have to know that. Somewhere deep inside.”

He dipped his head against her hair, breathing her in. “I just wanted you to know.”

She looked up at him, her eyes shining. “I know you’re a good man,” she whispered. “That’s all I need to know.”

He kissed the top of her head. “I want to be good for you.”

“You’re so good for me,” Emery whispered.

“You’re perfect for me, in fact. You’re all I can think about.

I don’t care what anybody else thinks about us.

I know the truth. You do too. We’re good together.

And I don’t just mean in bed.” She moved her hands to his shoulders, feeling the tension in his muscles.

“I mean you understand me. More than anybody ever has. And I think I’m getting to understand you, too. ”

“I want you to understand me,” he murmured, looking her right in the eyes. “I want you to know me.” He needed it.

“I do know you.” She kissed him softly, moving her hands to his chest. “I know you love animals. Especially goats who flirt too much. I know you love your family, and I know, despite your ideas to the contrary, that they love you fiercely, too.” She traced her fingers over his stomach, making his breath catch in his throat.

“I know what you look like when you’re sleeping. Like you don’t have a care in the world, even though that’s not true.” She reached for the hem of his t-shirt. Pushing her hands underneath it, she made contact with his skin, her palms against his stomach.

“I know how you look at me, like I’m a perfectly good girl you’re corrupting,” she whispered. “But I’m not good, Hendrix. None of us are completely good. Sometimes I’m bad. Like really bad.”

“Oh yeah?” God, he was aching for her already. Just one touch from her and he was a goner. “How so?”

“Sometimes I touch myself thinking about the guy who lives across the street,” she whispered, tracing the ridges in his stomach.

“Sometimes I imagine him touching me. And sometimes I imagine what he’d do if I dropped to my knees and unfastened his jeans and slid my lips over the hardest part of him. ”

His jaw was tight as she looked up at him. “Maybe you should try it and find out.”

Her lips curled into a smile. “See? We even think the same.” She dropped to her knees, her fingers tracing the hard ridge of him pressed against the denim, her fingers curling around his zipper and pulling it down.

“You look pretty good right now,” he said thickly, as she pulled him out of his boxers, her warm hand circling him before she kissed the hot, hard tip.

Her eyes met his and he saw the desire there. The kindness, too. This woman understood him, and for the first time in forever it felt like he wasn’t alone.

Then she slid her mouth over him, and all rational thought went out of his mind.

Hendrix saw the for sale sign at the end of the lane on Monday morning, as he rode over to his uncle’s farm. It was flapping in the heat of the summer breeze, and he stopped to look at it, so damn proud of Emery for going through with it.

“It’s finally happening, huh?” Jed, the Reed’s farm manager, called out to him.

“Yeah. Good for them.” Hendrix nodded. “You okay with it?” he asked Jed. He knew his uncle had already offered Jed a job, but the man was set on retiring. Still, it was one thing talking about it happening, another seeing the for sale sign in front of the farm you’d worked on for decades.

“It’s time,” Jed said, running his hand over his jaw. “It’ll be good for Alice. She needs to get out of here. Emery too.”

Hendrix nodded. “She’s taken on a lot this summer.”

“She has.” Jed tipped his head to the side. “She’s changed a lot, too.” He looked Hendrix straight in the eye. “Seems happier than I’ve seen her in a long time.”

There was something in the way he said it that made Hendrix realize Jed knew about him and Emery. He shifted his feet.

“She deserves happiness,” Hendrix said.