Fate Interrupted 3

Fate
Interrupted 3

by

Kaitlyn
Cross

Fate
Interrupted 3

Copyright
© 2014 by
Kaitlyn
Cross

Cover
design by
Victorine
Lieske

All
rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced,
scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission
.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are
the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events,
or locales is entirely coincidental.

Chapter
One

A light breeze
ran its fingers over Dean’s swept back hair as a foreboding seed sprouted in
the pit of his stomach. This was a bad idea. Shaun and Jon could not be
trusted. Even after Brooke’s friendly little sit down with Evy – the one about
letting go of the past – Dean knew the idea still haunted her. Always would. Just
the same, Evy had slapped on a brave face, acting like she was totally fine
with it, but behind that black veil Dean knew old ghosts die hard.

Shaun waved to
him from the other side of the sun splashed patio where he held down a table with
Jon. Dean pushed his shades up and waded through the throng of chattering lunch
goers, the conversation level bubbling with anticipation of the weekend at hand.

“What up, big
baller
!” Shaun set his plastic cup down and extended a
fist. “Glad you could make it on this beautiful finally Friday.”

Dean
unenthusiastically bumped Shaun’s fist before sliding out of his gray suit coat
and sitting down. He exhaled a long breath. “This place is always a madhouse,”
he said, loosening his lavender necktie.

“Everyone loves
them some Panera,” Shaun replied, sinking his teeth into a Smokehouse Turkey
Panini.

“
You going
inside?” Jon asked, a thick grilled cheese
sandwich with bacon spilling over the sides clenched between his greasy fingers.

“I had some
donuts at the office.”

“
Donuts
?”
Shaun exclaimed
with a short laugh, brushing crumbs from his pink IZOD. “Don’t tell me Dean
Jacobs is going soft!”

“Yeah, now that
he’s getting married watch he puts on fifty pounds.” Jon bit into his sandwich.

“That’s what
happened to me,” Shaun said, rocking his beer gut with one hand. “Now I hate
mirrors.”

Dean peered at
Jon over the top of his shades. “For your information, I was at the gym at six
this morning. What time did you go?”

Jon’s chewing
slowed,
his face a blank slate. “Does that one hot redhead
still work there? Tracy?”

“Stacey. And yes
she does, which makes scanning my card fun every time.”

“Hey, you play
with a redhead, you get burned,” Shaun said, wiping his mouth with a crumpled
napkin.

Jon furrowed his
eyebrows as he thought about it. “Isn’t she the one who let you
roll
video?”

“No. And stop
bringing that up! That shit’s in the vault.”

A young girl
with pigtails accidentally kicked Jon’s chair on the way to her mother’s table.
He leaned back and ran a greasy hand through his long blond bangs, his eyes
surfing the busy patio. “Why do we always come here?”

Shaun followed
his gaze, a breeze tickling his sandy brown locks. “There’s nothing wrong with
Panera.”

“Yeah,
if you’re a soccer mom or a metro-sexual.”

Shaun stopped
chewing. “Are you implying I’m a soccer mom?”

“Every time we
come here I feel like buying a CUV, strapping a kid in the backseat and rolling
out to the mall playground,” Jon grumbled, washing his sandwich down with some
pop.

Dean arched an
eyebrow. “That doesn’t sound good.”

Shaun leaned in
closer. “This place is a sleeper cell of
hotties
, and
you know what I always say…
married not
buried
.” He jerked his chin behind Dean. “Check out the super
hottie
at twelve o’clock.
Bout to get my
boner on.”

Dean and Jon
looked in opposite directions.

“
Twelve o’clock
,” Shaun whispered with a
stronger jerk of the chin.

“My
twelve or yours?”
Jon craned his neck around like a barn owl.

Dean’s brown eyes
landed on a pretty brunette sitting three tables away, her face buried in a
thick paperback. Her short hair accentuated her toned shoulders and when the
butterflies and bright lights failed to show, Dean turned back around with a smile.
There was only one woman for him now and he couldn’t be happier. The thought of
returning to the life he had lived before, the one with a different woman every
other week, made him shudder. It had been fun but always left him feeling alone.
That repetitive chapter was over and there was no going back. “So what’s the
plan for tomorrow night?” he asked, changing the subject.

“She could be
hotter than Evy, Deano.” Shaun drained his Pepsi with a loud gurgle, ignoring
Dean’s question while eying the raven-haired beauty. “You could have pulled
that at one time.”

“He still
could.” Jon took his sunglasses off. “Couldn’t ya, Deano?”

Dean shifted in
the iron chair. “I don’t know if you guys have been keeping up on your current
events or not, but I’m getting married two weeks from tomorrow.”

Jon laughed. “You
think this one will take?”

Dean puckered
his brow. “Dick.”

Jon set the
shades on the table, studying the pretty twenty-something across the way. “I
bet I could hit that.”

A sharp laugh
shot from Shaun’s mouth.
“Yeah, maybe with your car.”

Jon sighed. “Somewhere
out there, some poor guy is sick of her shit, and she knows it. That’s all you
have to remember.”

“What up, guys?”

Shaun looked up
and smiled. “Benny Boy!” he said, fist-bumping him.

Ben set a round tray
of food down and pulled out a black chair, his tight RC Cola t-shirt revealing
the tattoos spiraling around his bulging guns. “What’d I miss? Shaun
tell
his famous
squirter
story
yet?”

Dean laughed. “You’re
just in time for some more of his bullshit.”

Shaun held his
hands out, mouth gaping. “Why would I lie about something like that? It was
disgusting.”

Jon bit into his
grilled cheese. “Shaun likes to confuse his glory days with his fantasies.”

“Oh yeah, like
my fantasy is to eat some chick out until she squirts in my face!”

Pigtails and her
mom looked over, horror dripping from the mom in gooey globs. She reached out
and turned her daughter’s attention back to her lunch.

Dean hid behind
his hand, face flushing with heat. “I don’t think everyone on the other side of
the patio heard you, Shaun.”

Ben took a huge
bite of his sandwich and glanced over his shoulder. “I think it would make a
great Penthouse Forum letter.”

Jon frowned.
“They still do those?”

Shaun rested his
elbows on the table, making it rock, and clasped his fingers together. “Look,
I’m telling you that stuff really happens.
Google it.”

Ben stopped
chewing and frowned. “What?
Girls peeing in people’s faces?”

“It wasn’t pee!”

Pigtails and her
mom turned back to them and Dean wished he had worn a hat to hide beneath. The
sun was hot on his face so he scooted more into the umbrella’s shifting shade.

Shaun flashed
the mom a sheepish smile before continuing in a softer voice. “It was an orgasm,
not urine, and it really happened. That stuff is not an urban legend.”

Ben took a drink
of his Mountain Dew. “You mean urban legend like every time a girl nips out it
means she’s super horny urban legend?”

Jon shook his
head from side to side. “That’s no urban legend, my friend. That is a
scientifically proven fact.”

Shaun laughed.

“Speaking of super
horny, is Tasha in town yet?” Jon asked
,
sinking his
teeth into his sandwich and pulling loose a piece of bacon.

Ben checked the
bulky watch strangling his wrist. “She’s probably rolling into the shop right about
now.”

“Good,” Dean
said. “They need the help. Maybe Evy will get the day off for her wedding.”

Shaun crossed
his legs like a girl and flicked a crumb from his khakis. “God, I’d like to hit
that Tasha one time. I bet that girl would let you do whatever you wanted to
her.”

“You’re not
fat
enough,” Jon said flatly.

Shaun hoisted
his spare tire with both hands. “What do you call this?”

“Baby
fat.”

“I almost
did
hit that once,” Ben replied, stuffing
the rest of the sandwich half into his mouth. “Thank God I didn’t.”

“Jeez, slow
down, Ben,” Shaun said, watching Ben
snatch
up the
other half. “Carrie took the girls to Bradford Beach and I’ve got all afternoon
to kill. Now, start from the beginning.”

Ben swallowed.
“I
gotta
get back to the shop.
Got
an oven on the fritz.”

Dean peered over
the top of his shades at him. “And things are never…
awkward
between you and Tasha?”

Ben shook his
head. “We never even kissed.” He stared at the other half of his sandwich
through vacant eyes. “I thank God every day I made the right choice that night
at Mandy’s Halloween party.” His eyes rose to find everyone staring back at him
in silent wonder.

Jon’s eyebrows
dipped. “You think Brooke would ever go for a threesome with you and Tasha?”

“Only
if I’m lucky.”

Shaun and Dean
broke into laughter.

Jon leaned back.
“So the thought has crossed your mind?”

“Not really,”
Ben replied, wiping his mouth. “I would never do anything to screw things up
with Brooke, and
that
would
definitely screw things up.”

“What if Brooke
gave you a get-out-of-jail-free card for one night and one night only?” Shaun popped
a chip into his mouth and raised his brow.

“She’d be more
likely to cut my nuts off.” Ben stopped chewing.
“Not my
style anyway.”

Jon laughed. “Not
your style? You don’t know what you’re missing, dude. This one time in college,
I hooked up with my girlfriend
and
her younger sister who had come to visit for the weekend.” He nodded proudly at
them. “Shit got weird.”

“Anyway,” Dean
said, pushing his shades up his nose, “thanks for going low key tomorrow night,
guys
. I really appreciate it.” He laughed a little as
a light breeze ruffled his dress shirt. “I never thought the day would come
when I would be getting married
and
buying a house.”

“That makes two
of us,” Jon said under his breath.

“This oughta be
good,” Shaun snickered. “Can you imagine Dean mowing the yard?”

Ben chuckled.
“Now, that would be a sight to see.”

Dean spread his
palms. “What’s the big deal about mowing a yard? I’ve mowed a yard before.”

“When?”
Jon asked.

“When…I
was at summer camp one time.”

Shaun took the
lid off his drink and sucked on some ice cubes. “What’d you mow the whole damn
camp?”

“No, just around
my cabin where I got busted trading Playboys for candy bars.”

Jon swallowed
with a gulp. “God, I admire you.”

“Seriously
though, Deano, you’re going to love owning your own house,” Shaun said. “You
really will.”

“Yeah,” Ben
said, grabbing a napkin. “Just think of all the free phone books you’ll get
every few months.”

“Why do they
still do that when everyone has a smartphone?” Shaun asked, running a hand
through his thinning hair. “It’s like, oh thanks for dropping off five pounds
of garbage on my front porch.”

Ben grinned at
Shaun. “Hey, can you see Dean raking leaves? That’d be hilarious.”

“He’ll probably
be wearing Diesel gloves and a matching scarf.”

“What the fuck?”
Dean muttered.

Ben tipped his
head back and laughed. “Or how about changing the oil on the lawn mower? I’d
love to get a picture of that and post it on Snapchat.”

Dean arched an
eyebrow at him.

“Don’t worry,
Deano, it’ll self-destruct in six seconds.”

“He’ll hire out
a lawn service,” Jon added. “Dean doesn’t like getting his hands dirty.”

“I will mow my
own yard, thank you very little.” Dean took off his shades and rubbed his temples.
“But about tomorrow night…”

“I can’t wait.” Ben
took another big bite. “Have you guys fished out there before?”

“Lake
Michigan?”
Shaun rattled ice cubes around in the cup. “It’s so awesome, Ben. They mount
rods all around the boat and when one
hits
they hand
you the line and you just start reeling.”

Ben rubbed the
scruff on his cheeks as he chewed. “Sounds like a nice little bachelor party.
What will we catch anyway?”