My Mistake (Stories of Serendipity #7) (8 page)

He released her and turned toward the shower, a small glassed in enclosure that didn’t look very big. She raised an eyebrow. Breathless from his declaration, she didn’t have the words to speak her wishes, but she wanted him again, and the shower sounded like a lovely spot.

As if reading her mind, he turned to her with a smirk, “We’re going to get creative.” His twangy drawl was so sexy, it spread the smile on her face so wide it felt as if it would crack in two. She nodded, while he turned the water on.

C
asey could hear Brent whistling while he shaved his face in the sink, as she finished up her shower. The hot spray pleasantly eased aching muscles, while she slathered Brent’s shampoo in her hair. She didn’t really want to wash the scent of their mingled sex off her body, but the idea of smelling like his body wash was incredibly erotic as well. She giggled to herself when she realized that Brent was whistling ‘Eye of the Tiger’ to himself, probably oblivious.

As she rinsed her hair, she was struck by the domesticity of the tableau. She in the shower, while Brent scraped a razor up his neck to remove the stubble that had branded her so completely. The casual intimacy was overpowering, and she risked a peek out of the shower curtain.

Brent’s back was to her, and she could see his well-formed backside outlined by the towel. He leaned over the sink, holding his chin up, scrunching up his mouth while he scraped the razor up the skin of his neck, leaving a clean path in the shaving cream. He swished the razor in the sink water before tapping it on the edge of the sink and making another clean path up his neck. Soon his neck was finished, and Casey relaxed against the side of the shower to watch him complete his task. He puckered his lips to the side of his face and stretching the skin taut with one hand, scraped the razor down one side of his cheek, swished it in the water, tapped it on the sink. His practiced movements were hypnotic, and Casey caught herself staring, mesmerized by his movements. She watched his shoulder muscles bunch as he moved his arm up and down, watched his massive hands as they spread the shaving cream remnants around, feeling for rough spots he’d missed before shaving them again. When he covered his face with a wet washcloth to wipe the remaining shaving cream off, she ducked back behind the curtain, not willing to admit that she’d been so taken with his menial task.

She listened to him whistle while he rinsed his face and then the smell of his aftershave assaulted her nostrils before he left the bathroom. She turned the water off and grabbed a towel.

“Do you have an extra toothbrush?” She called out, hearing him opening drawers in the next room.

“Look in the medicine cabinet.”

Opening the mirror above the sink, she saw toothbrushes, deodorant, aftershave, toothpaste, a box of condoms, and numerous other items. She shook the condom box, noticed it was nearly empty and then put it back on the shelf, wondering who else he’d been having sex with.

Not that it mattered. She had faith that they were together now, and he wouldn’t screw around on her. Not like Kevin.

Although she’d been married to Kevin, and there had been two hundred witnesses to his vow of chastity and loyalty.

She continued her nosy rummaging in his medicine cabinet, finding a flat box with the words, ‘buprenorphine – take one half strip sublingually once daily’. Raising her eyebrows in question, she grabbed a toothbrush and took the box to the next room where Brent was.

“Hey, stud…what’s this?” She held the box up and watched his face shadow over with guilt before it cleared into a smile.

“It’s a supplement mix, to help anxiety and sleep issues I have occasionally. No big deal. Did you find the toothbrush?”

She held up her other hand, waving the toothbrush before going back into the bathroom to load it up and brush her teeth. She put the box back in the medicine cabinet, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that Brent had just been less than honest with her. Served her right for snooping.

After she was clean and wearing a pair of Brent’s gym shorts which hung to her calves and a T-shirt she tied in a knot at her mid-drift, she walked into the kitchen to find Brent’s beautiful jean-clad tush sticking out of the fridge door. She slipped up behind him and swatted it. He rose, hitting his head on the top of the inside of the refrigerator and swore before turning around and taking her in his arms.

“You trying to hurt me?”

She shook her head, eyes widened painfully in innocence, aware of the undercurrents in his voice. He was speaking of something else, and she wasn’t sure what. Memories of their past surfaced, and she squashed them, not wanting the unpleasantness to invade the peace of their new-found beginning.

He kissed her, a slow tender kiss. “I don’t have any food. Do you want to go into town to eat? I’m starved.” She nodded, her stomach had been growling as well.

Brent took her hand, kissed it and then led her out to his truck. Mooch waited on the porch, and Brent tossed a handful of food in the eager dog’s bowl, before giving him a quick scratch behind his ears. He ushered Casey inside the passenger seat and walked around to the driver’s side. She took that moment to quell the excitement inside. She and Brent Baum were a couple! They had made love last night, all night, and this morning, she was deliciously sore, and he’d called her his. She was his. And she had the marks to prove it.

Giddy with excitement, she grinned a goofy smile at him when he cranked the truck. Brent put it in gear and then clasped her hand while he circled the truck around the yard and then down the drive to the highway.

“I know this is too soon, but I’ve always loved you, you know,” he said quietly.

The declaration sent a dangerous tingle to her toes. She couldn’t answer straight-away, the quiet rumble of his voice took her breath away.

“I was such an ass to you. Thank you for giving me another chance.” He was stopped at the highway intersection to leave his property, and his eyes on hers were sad.

Casey turned and stroked his cheek. “You don’t have anything to apologize for, Brent. We’ve talked about this. It’s in the past. Please don’t beat yourself up over it.”

“I have more in my past that I’m ashamed of, Case. Stuff that will make you hate me, I’m sure. But I don’t want to tell you and ruin this.” There was pain in his eyes, and she wanted it to go away. Casey could see the beginnings of a true heart-to-heart, and she really didn’t want to ruin the beautiful day they were having.

“Brent, we’re starting something here. Something beautiful. Let’s not go there just yet. We’ll have time later. Let’s just enjoy this day. Okay?” She patted his hand that held hers, changing the subject.

“Do you remember the first time we met?”

“Yeah, I came into the house after baseball practice, all sweaty and mad at something the coach had said. You and Summer were in the kitchen making cookies and got all pissy because I ate too many.”

“I fell in love with you that day, Brent. I would have been happy to feed them all to you.”

“You were what, eight?”

“I was nine, thank you very much.”

“You fell in love with me then, huh?” The pain in his eyes was gone, replaced with a mischievous glint.

“Yeah, and then I fell in love with you again when you were stuck babysitting Summer when Nana had to go tend her sister in Abilene, and Summer got that stomach virus. You were the pissy one then, telling me to go home, so I wouldn’t get sick too.”

“Summer was miserable that weekend. I really didn’t want you to get sick too. As it was, I got it later that week. It wasn’t fun at all.” His thumb stroked the back of her hand, the coarse pad rubbing circles on her skin.

“And then again, when you had that party, and Michael wanted me to play spin the bottle with you guys, and you punched him in the face.”

He ducked his head and blushed. “Yeah, well…He didn’t want to play spin the bottle, he wanted to play sixty seconds in Heaven, and I had stories of what he could get up to with sixty seconds in a closet…”

“And that night that we went skinny dipping.” She watched his head snap around to hers, his eyes wild at the memory. “I really wanted you to catch me.”

“Yeah, but Les did, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, he did.” She sighed at the memory, but it must have been the wrong response because Brent’s hand tightened on hers painfully. “Easy there Cowboy. Nothing happened. I was too nervous, and couldn’t stop giggling. He finally gave up and let me go.”

“Yeah, but he still caught you…He held your wet naked squirming body against his.” The torment in his eyes killed her.

“Brent, that was all so long ago…”

He let go of her hand and raked it through his hair. “You don’t understand, Case. I’ve loved you since the cookies. I never stopped loving you.” He pulled the truck over onto the shoulder right outside of town and took both her hands in his. “I remember all those times, just like you do. But you were my kid sister’s friend. I couldn’t do anything. When we played that weird catch a tiger tail game while skinny dipping, I tried to catch you. Les knew I had a thing for you, and he beat me to you. On purpose. After that, I was a complete wreck. I had already told myself I would let you know how I felt, Summer be damned, but then Les caught you. He goaded me that night. Then, when we were at that FFA thing, on the bus, I did tell you how I felt about you.” He sighed. “No. I didn’t actually tell you. I tried to show you, but your innocence overwhelmed me. You hadn’t ever done anything like that before, had you?”

He looked to her, eyes filled with regret, and she shook her head slowly, remembering with suddenly vivid detail how his fingers had brought her to climax in the dark back of the bus. His kisses had given her a fever she couldn’t break, a thirst she couldn’t quench. Casey had itched for him for months afterwards.

Brent continued. “I knew that when I went off to college and left you alone, you would miss out on things because your boyfriend was away, and I couldn’t do that to you. So I just told myself you were better off without me.”

“I didn’t mean to bring it up…” His hand on her lips stopped her.

“Let me finish.” She figured this was something he’d have to get out before he could go on, so she let him finish.

“That was my mistake. I should never have let you go, because without you, I made so many other mistakes. Mistakes I never would have made if you’d been a part of my life. Then when Summer was in your wedding, I thought I would die. I’d lost you, and someone else had found you. You don’t know the level of self-loathing I sank to.” His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white. “I wanted to kill him, kill you, then kill myself.” Her beautiful eyes widened in shock and he felt ashamed of his vehemence.

Grabbing her hand, he continued. “You don’t understand. I’m sorry for sounding so…intense, but I was in a bad place, Case. You have no idea.” He turned to her, and the tears were there in his eyes, and Casey reached for him, stroking his shoulder, overwhelmed at the depth of feelings pouring from Brent. “And then you came back, and now you’re mine, and my life’s too good to be true. I don’t want to wake up from this dream.”

Casey unbuckled her seatbelt and crawled into his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him as tightly as she could until his hands finally unclasped from the steering wheel and his arms returned the hug. He was breathing heavily into her shoulder.

“You have no idea what I went through because of that one mistake. I’m so sorry.”

“Hey…Hey.” She whispered into his neck. “Who’s to say high school Brent and Casey ever would have worked out? What if that would have been the mistake? We can’t go back and change time for a reason, Honey. We needed this time apart to become who we are, to live the experiences that made us fall in love so intensely again.”

Her fingers tugged at his hair until he was looking at her again. “Don’t you see? What if we wouldn’t be right here, right now, if we’d gotten together back then? Huh?” She kissed him sweetly. Just a peck on his lips to show affection and squeezed his neck again before crawling off his lap. “Now can we please stop talking about all that stuff? It’s depressing. Let’s focus on the positive. Okay?” She buckled her seatbelt. “What position do you want to try next?”

Brent sniffed loudly as he rubbed his face with his hands. When his face emerged again, it was redder, but there was a trace of a pained smile. “I don’t deserve you.”

“Sure you do.” She eyed his crotch appraisingly. “You ever done it against a wall?”

Brent’s groan and his shifting his pants made Casey giggle. “Woman, you are killing me.”

“Well it’s definitely something to think about for next time.”

“I’ll be thinking about it, that’s for sure,” he muttered.

Her stomach growled and they both laughed before Brent pulled off the shoulder and continued their trek into town for breakfast. It was almost noon.

“I
had no idea. I feel awful for not calling her.” Casey’s eyes watched the swirl of the cream as she poured it into her second cup of coffee.

“She probably wouldn’t have answered, even for you. She’s in a bad place right now, and I’m a little worried.”

They were seated in a booth in the back of Sam’s, a diner on the outskirts of Serendipity. There was a lunchtime crowd, but together, they seemed to coexist in their solitary booth, as if they were on an island in the sea of people.

Brent was filling Casey in on Summer’s troubles.

“I’ll call her this afternoon. Maybe I can get her to go to lunch with me tomorrow. We can commiserate or something.”

Brent looked at her, his steely gray eyes intent on her face. “You don’t have anything to commiserate about. You’ve got me, now.” His mouth set in a stern line.

She reached across the table for his hand, clasping it reassuringly. “Yes, I do. And so does Summer. But we’ve both been dumped recently, so we can commiserate. Don’t feel threatened by it.”

“I’m not threatened.”

The guilt of not seeing her friend before now turned to amusement at Brent’s transparency. He was jealous of a man he’d never meet, a man Casey had absolutely no feelings for anymore. It was cute. She squeezed his hand before letting go and blowing on her coffee. She watched him eat.