Chapter 14
Brody
I wake up to the sound of my phone ringing. I reach over to the nightstand and pick it up.
‘Hey, this is Brody.’
‘Hey, open the garage.’
‘What?’ I sit up. ‘Who is this?’
‘Nick. I’m waiting outside your garage. Didn’t you see my text?’
‘No.’ I look at my phone and see it. ‘Sorry, I was asleep. I wasn’t checking my phone.’
‘Asleep? What the hell? It’s after nine.’
I look at the clock. It’s ten after nine. How did I sleep this late?
‘Brody?’ I hear Kate mumble.
Looking behind me, I see her in my bed. Her back’s to me and the sheet’s down around her legs. My eyes lower to her naked ass and I feel my cock twitch.
‘Brody?’ Nick says. ‘You still there?’
‘Yeah. Just give me a minute. I need to get dressed.’
‘Hurry up. I’m freezing out here.’
‘Yeah. I’ll be there in a minute.’ I end the call and find my jeans on the floor. As I’m putting them on, Kate turns to me, her eyes closed. Damn, she’s hot. She has small tits, but they’re perky and plenty big enough for her size. And I love her ass. I couldn’t stop touching it last night.
Shit, now I’m thinking about what we did and how I want to do it again.
We did it twice. The first time we were drunk, but the second time we were completely sober.
And Kate’s the one who initiated it. I got up to use the bathroom and when I came back, she started kissing me, which led to us having sex again.
‘Hey,’ she says, opening her eyes, a sleepy smile on her face. ‘Are you going somewhere?’
‘Nick’s outside. I gotta let him in.’
She sits up, suddenly very awake. ‘Your brother’s here?’
‘He texted he was coming over, but I didn’t see his text. I didn’t know it was this late.’ I yank my shirt on.
‘Why is he here?’
‘He thinks he might be able to fix the plow.’ I go to the dresser and take out a hoodie. ‘You should probably get up in case he comes inside.’
‘You’re not going to say anything, are you? About us?’
I turn back and see her covering herself with the sheet. ‘I wasn’t planning to.’
‘Good.’ She nods really fast and turns away from me.
I walk over to her. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing.’ She smiles, but it looks fake.
I sit beside her. ‘You don’t regret what happened last night, do you? ’
‘No,’ she rushes to say. ‘Not at all.’
‘You sure?’
She looks at the door. ‘You should get out there. You don’t want him waiting in the cold.’
‘He’s fine. He can wait in his truck. Tell me what’s going on.’
‘Nothing’s going on.’ She smiles at me. ‘Go. I’m going to take a shower.’
I leave, but I still feel like there’s something she’s not telling me.
She said she didn’t regret last night, but maybe she does.
Maybe she thinks it’s too soon after breaking up with her ex.
I’d probably agree with that if they’d been living like an actual couple, but living in different states and not having sex doesn’t seem like much of a relationship.
When I open the garage door, I see the snow has stopped and the sun is out. I look for Nick and see him waiting in his truck. He gets out when he sees me.
‘What took you so long?’ he asks, coming into the garage.
‘I told you, I just woke up.’
‘You never sleep this late. You sick?’
‘No. I was just tired.’
He eyes me, giving me that big-brother look of his that I find really annoying.
It’s the look that says he knows something’s up and he’s going to force me to tell him.
He can try, but I’m not telling him about Kate.
I don’t even know what Kate and I are after last night.
Friends with benefits? Roommates who have sex?
Or maybe last night was it and we won’t do it again.
‘Brody,’ Nick says.
‘What?’ I look for him and see him standing by the plow.
‘You coming over here? ’
‘Yeah. Sorry.’ I walk up to him. ‘So what are you thinking is wrong?’
‘The plow and the connection to it all look good. I’m thinking it has to be the controller.’
‘I think so too, but I can’t figure out what’s wrong with it. It might just be defective.’
‘Let me take a look at it.’
Nick and I walk to the truck. He stops before getting inside. ‘Is that girl here?’
‘Yeah, she’s in the house.’
‘Did you and her .?.?.’ His brows rise.
‘No,’ I say, but my tone sounds defensive, something I know Nick will pick up on.
He shakes his head. He knows. ‘Seriously? The girl just broke off her engagement.’
‘We didn’t do anything,’ I insist, hoping he’ll believe me.
‘You slept late. You didn’t see my text. I’m not stupid.’
I sigh. ‘Okay, fine, but it’s not as bad as you think. She hasn’t been with that guy for over a year.’
‘You really believe that?’
‘Why would she lie about that?’
‘To get you to do shit with her. Maybe the guy cheated on her and she wanted to get back at him by being with you. You two hook up, she feels like she got even with her ex, and they get back together.’
‘That’s not what she’s doing. She’s not getting back with him.’
‘You just met the girl. You’ve known her for like two days. And you’re believing everything she says?’
‘She wasn’t using me to get back at her ex. And even if she was, you think I care?’ I smile. ‘It was a damn good night. She can use me all she wants.’
Nick rolls his eyes. ‘Just be careful, okay? The casual sex thing doesn’t always work out.’
‘Meaning what?’
‘Meaning sometimes feelings get involved, and if only one of you is feeling something, that person will end up getting hurt.’
‘And you think I’m that person?’ I laugh. ‘When have I ever had those types of feelings for a girl?’
He shrugs. ‘It can happen without you realizing it. And then it’s too late.’
‘Too late for what?’
‘To not get your heart broken.’
‘Trust me, my heart is not involved. She’s only here a few weeks and then she’s leaving. That’s not long enough for me to get all crazy about her.’
‘A few weeks?’ Nick gets that crease in his forehead that shows up when he gets concerned. ‘I thought she was leaving when the storm ended.’
‘She has a few weeks off from her job so she decided to stay.’
‘Here. With you.’
‘Yeah. Why? What’s the big deal?’
‘You don’t find that strange? That some girl from Chicago wants to hang out in a small town with a guy she just met?’
‘She doesn’t want to go home and have to deal with her family. She wants time away from all that. And she’s paying me rent so why wouldn’t I do it?’
‘She’s paying you to stay here? ’
‘That’s the deal. If she wasn’t paying rent, I would’ve told her to leave.’ I wouldn’t have, but I’m not going to tell Nick that.
‘And you’re sure you can trust this girl to be alone here when you’re out doing jobs?’
‘Yes. What do you think she’s going to do? Steal my shitty furniture? If so, she can have it. Can we stop talking about Kate and work on the plow?’
He gets in the truck and picks up the controller. ‘Can you get your toolbox?’
I get it and bring it over to him. ‘What do you need?’
‘Some pliers, a flashlight, and maybe a screwdriver.’
I hand him the tools. ‘I think the controller’s bad. I read online that people have had problems with that one.’
He leans down to look at something. ‘I think I found the issue.’
‘What is it?’
‘Get in on the other side and I’ll show you.’
I go around the truck and get in on the passenger’s side.
‘This fuse was loose,’ Nick says, showing it to me. ‘I just tightened it.’
‘I swear I checked that last night.’
‘There’s more than one fuse. Is this the one you checked?’
I lean down to look at what he’s pointing it. ‘Yeah, that was it.’
‘It’s the other one that was loose. If that’s all it was, we may have fixed it. Let’s test it out.’
I get out of the truck and walk over to the blade. ‘It’s moving!’
‘Guess that was it,’ Nick yells from the truck.
I’m so relieved. Now I can get out there and make some money, money I desperately need.
Nick shuts off the truck and gets out. ‘I got dirt on my hands. I’m going inside to wash up.’
‘Thanks for your help,’ I tell him as we go into the house. ‘You totally saved me. If I’d had to wait until Friday I might’ve lost half my customers.’
‘I’m happy I could fix it.’ Nick heads to the kitchen, stopping when he sees Kate coming down the hall. She stops too, looking like she doesn’t know what to do.
‘Kate, this is Nick,’ I say. ‘My older brother.’
‘Hi.’ She walks up to him. ‘It’s nice to meet you.’
‘Good to meet you, too’ he says, smiling when he sees her clothes. ‘It’s nice of you to advertise for us.’
She laughs. ‘My clothes are in my car, which is in a ditch, buried under a foot of snow. It was either this or wear something of Brody’s.’
Nick looks at me. ‘You got that stuff at Finkle’s place?’
‘Yeah, the only thing he had in her size had our name on it.’
‘I don’t mind,’ Kate says. ‘I’ve never been to the orchard, but I’ve heard of it. I have friends who have been there.’
‘Nick runs the place now,’ I tell her. ‘He took it over from our dad last summer.’
‘Do you like it?’ she asks Nick. ‘Running an orchard?’
‘I love it. I don’t know if Brody told you, but I used to be an attorney in New York. I tried to convince myself I liked it, but I actually hated it. I’m much happier spending my days outside instead of in front of a computer.’
‘My parents are lawyers,’ Kate says. ‘They wanted me to be one too, but I have no interest in law.’
‘So what do you do? ’
‘Financial planning for small businesses.’ She shrugs. ‘It’s not very exciting, but it pays well.’
‘You should probably get going,’ I say to Nick.
‘Yeah, and you need to get to work.’ He goes to the sink to wash his hands.
‘Nick fixed the plow,’ I say to Kate.
‘That’s great!’ She hugs me, then quickly lets me go, remembering Nick’s here.
It’s too late. He saw her hugging me. But he knows about us now so it really doesn’t matter.
‘Be safe out there,’ he says, coming up to me. ‘And if you have any more issues with the controller, just give me a call. I’ll be at the house all day.’
‘Thanks, Nick.’