Chapter 6
The girls were takingan awful long time upstairs, Brandon thought. He’d already washed his hands and now he was checking his phone to waste time.
He couldn’t believe he’d kissed Leah out on the porch. But her smart mouth was quickly becoming addicting. So much so that he couldn’t wait for each and every word to come out.
And that kiss...he was thirty-three and he’d kissed a lot of women. But none had knocked him on his ass like the one with Leah. And now that he’d kissed her, he wasn’t sure that he ever wanted to kiss anyone but her again.
A thought like that should freak him out. But it didn’t.
Instead it made him kinda warm and tingly inside.
Like when he was just on the verge of being drunk but not yet over the line.
Maybe he was drunk on Leah.
He heard footsteps and then saw Leah, Carly, and Melanie all emerge at the bottom of the stairs.
“Dinner is served, ladies and gent,” Carly said when she got to the kitchen. “Help yourselves.”
She’d made meatloaf, mashed potatoes and homemade rolls that he knew to be his mom’s recipe.
“This smells amazing, Carls,” he heard Leah say.
After he filled his plate, he went to sit down at the table and only the seat next to Leah was open. He wasn’t sure if it was better than sitting across from her where he’d have to look at her or not, but he didn”t really have a choice.
During their meal, the three girls talked about the new studio with him listening and not really saying much. Until Melanie asked him a question.
“Oh, Brandon, I forgot to ask. What’s happening with the robbery?”
“Not much,” he said around a mouthful of potatoes. “We have no leads and no real evidence.”
“That stinks,” Carly said.
He shrugged. “At least nothing was stolen so we are kinda thinking that maybe it was just teenagers trying to be cool.”
His knee bumped Leah’s leg and he felt his heart start to beat faster in his chest.
“I wish I would have seen something that could help,” he heard her say. He was so focused on his breathing from just that small touch of her leg to his. He really needed to get out of there.
Finishing his food quickly, he dropped his fork. “Thanks for the food, Carls but I really should be going.”
He pushed back from the table, knocking Leah’s knee again with his. “Sorry,” he said, not looking at her.
“Brandon,” Leah whispered and her voice forced him to glance at her face. Her eyes were saying ‘don’t go, stay.’ And as much as he wanted to say screw it and give her what she wanted, his heart was already too involved.
“Have a good night everyone,” he said and stood. Once he was outside of the house, he took several deep breaths and demanded that his feet keep going toward his car. If he dawdled too long he knew his dick would start to outrank his brain.
He was halfway home, which was only about a mile from Carly’s house when his phone rang.
Seeing it was his brother, he picked up. “Hey, Logan, what’s up?”
“I think I have something that might be useful to you,” he said in lieu of a greeting.
“I’m all ears.” Logan was two years younger than him and at thirty-one he was a gifted photographer. He could be taking pictures all over the world and he had, but three years ago he’d decided to move back home to Cedarville. Now he took mostly family photos with the occasional shoot for a magazine thrown in.
“Meet me at Gayle’s in ten.” It wasn’t a question, which was classic Logan.
What he really wanted was to go home, take a hot shower and jerk off one or two dozen times. But he hadn’t seen Logan in days and family was important to him.
“I’ll be there,” he said and hung up. Gayle’s was a local watering hole that pretty much everyone went to at some point. It sat on the lake, so when the boats were on the water, they could dock and go in for food and drinks.
Pulling up to Gayle’s, he parked and noticed it wasn’t very busy. That was pretty normal for this time of year but, come June, it would be packed.
Waving to Todd, the bartender, he made his way to the back where he knew he would find Logan.
“Hey man,” he said when he spotted his brother at his favorite booth. “What’s up?” he sat across from him. Logan looked tired. More so than usual.
“I just got back into town about three hours ago.”
That’s right. He had been in France for a ten-day photo shoot. “How’d it go?”
“Good, just long.” He took a sip of his beer. “I’m starting to really hate these trips.”
“Then don’t do them.” Todd brought him a beer and he took a long drink.
“I only have a few more that I’ve committed to and after that, I am taking a long break. But that’s not why I called you here.” He reached beside him and produced several photos. “I developed these when I got home today and I found something that might interest you.”
He looked down at the pictures his brother slid across the table to him. “What am I looking at here?” It looked like Main street.
“Before I left to go out of town, I set up a few cameras in town.” At Brandon’s quizzical look he explained. “I’m working with the Mayor to get some good pictures for a new town brochure.”
“You set up cameras in town?” He took a closer look at the pictures.
“Yeah and one of them caught your perp from The Rinky Dinky.”
“No shit,” he said and held the pictures closer to his face. Sure enough, he could see the back of someone as they smashed in the window. But the next picture was what interested him most. It was a car and it clearly showed a license plate.
He dropped the pictures back on the table. “This is a huge help. We had no leads at all.”
He saluted. “Happy to be a help.”
He set the photos aside. “Did you hear that Carly’s college roommate moved to town?”
“Yeah, Mel mentioned it. It seems like they’re both really excited she’s here.”
“She’s nice,” he said and took another drink.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Logan put his hands up. “What was that face just now when you said that?”
“What face?” He hadn’t made a face, had he?
“Oh my God, you like her. You fucking like the new girl.”
“Am I fucking wearing a sign?” He let out a heavy sigh. First Melanie and now Logan.
“You do!” he burst out.
“Can you shut up,” he shushed him. “I don’t need the whole fucking town in my business.”
“Is there business for them to be all up in. Has something happened?”
“When did you turn into a girl?”
“Come on,” Logan said. “This is a first, you actually liking someone. I’m entitled to be curious.”
Brandon sighed. “If I tell you this, you have to keep it to yourself?” He couldn’t care less if people knew but he knew that Leah seemed to be a private person and he did not want people gossiping about her.
“Scouts honor.” He held up three fingers of his right hand.
“Her name is Leah.” He felt the smile appear on his face. “And she’s sassy and brazen and shy and beautiful.”
“Holy fuck,” Logan whispered. “You like her.”
“I just said that, dummy.”
“Yeah, but I was thinking you liked her a little. From your description and the look of infatuation on your face, you really like her.”
He scrubbed a hand over his two-day scruff. Shaving had not been a priority that morning. “There’s something about her, Logan.”
“So you’ve slept with her then?”
“No,” he asserted. Unless you counted dream sex.
“Said that pretty quickly there, bro.”
“I’ve only known her for two days.” He wasn’t about to tell his brother that she’d asked for sex and he’d turned her down in those two days.
“That’s not something that has stopped you in the past.”
Brandon took another long sip of his beer. His brother was right, but what could he say that wouldn’t make him sound like a complete sap.
In the end he went with, “She’s different.”
Logan nodded. “Is she aware that you are alive or is this just a one-sided crush?”
“It’s not a crush,” he said defiantly, “and yes she knows I’m alive. I had dinner there tonight.” Sure technically, Carly had invited him to dinner and both she and Melanie were there, but Logan didn’t need to know that.
“I’d say be careful but you are more careful than anyone I know.”
“You’ll like her,” was all he said.
“Did you see Mel and Carly tonight too.” Dammit, Logan was too smart for his own good.
“Yeah,” he said and Logan gave him a sly smile. “Carly made meatloaf and mom’s rolls.
“Ahh man.” Brandon saw Logan’s eyes glass over. He knew that their mom’s rolls were one of Logan’s favorites.
“If you would have told us you were back in town, I’m sure she would have invited you to dinner too.” Logan was notorious for just leaving town and not telling anyone and then never having an exact return date.
“You know I don’t know until the last minute.”
“But you know before you board the plane,” he said, sounding a little more angry than he meant.
“Dude, are you mad at me for not calling or something?”
“Fuck,” he swore. “No, I”m just frustrated and not with you. With everything.”
“Maybe you need to go talk your lady into bed so that you can stop taking your frustrations out on innocent bystanders.”
“She’s not my lady,” was all he said.
Logan raised his eyebrows and smirked. “Perhaps, you should do something about that. You could always arrest her.”
Brandon laughed. If Logan only knew that he’d already conjured an image in his head of Leah in handcuffs, strapped to his bed.
Yeah, maybe he did need to do something about it.