Chapter 19 – Gentry
nineteen
GENTRY
Sitting beside her while everyone else talked, she felt like a million miles away.
I couldn’t stop myself from touching her if I tried. The barely there touch that she’d allowed me to continue against her leg would have to do. For now.
Later, I was going to suggest we talk.
After dinner, everyone helped clear the table and took all the dishes inside. Ainsleigh stayed far away from me while her and Aspen insisted they do the dishes.
“Do y’all want to light a fire outside in the fire pit and make s’mores?” Holden suggested as Leo and Brooks stood in front of the island.
“I’ve never had a s’more,” Aspen admitted, causing Leo and Brooks to gasp in disbelief.
“That’s an atrocity we must remedy. You can’t live your whole life and never have a damn s’more. That settles it,” Leo insisted.
The brothers grabbed the graham crackers, chocolate bars, and marshmallows from the pantry as I grabbed the skewers from the drawer of the island.
The four of us took all the supplies outside and placed everything around the fire pit that was just off to the side of the pool.
Holden turned on the lights outside so that we could all safely see and turned the lights on to the pool.
We often came out here at night in the years Ainsleigh was gone and drank a few beers and just talked about random shit.
I was thankful every day her brothers still accepted me into their fold with her gone.
I truly felt like a part of their family, never the outsider that they could’ve made me.
Especially with my family still hating theirs so intently.
Ainsleigh, Aspen, and Dylan came outside a few minutes later, just as her brothers and I had sat down after we got the fire going.
I looked over as I heard them approaching and noticed that she now had a cover-up over her bikini and several thin blankets in her hand.
The air outside was still hot, but Ainsleigh always ran a bit colder than most and loved cozying up with a blanket by the fire.
We’d done that so many times after she had to stop sneaking around.
I, of course, always had to sneak over here when we were younger because my parents made it blatantly clear they would never accept our relationship.
The Courtright’s had money, and my family didn’t.
They didn’t want me to see how the other side lived and always thought us being together was a mistake.
Which they made clear shortly after Ainsleigh left.
Dylan sat beside Holden, and Aspen took the seat next to him. Leaving Ainsleigh to sit by me yet again. This time we hadn’t planned it, but I was thankful nonetheless.
Brooks held his phone in his hand and had a serious expression on his face. Something had him bothered. Especially if he had his phone out. That man hated technology, and his phone could often be used as a paperweight with how little he used it.
“What’s going on, Brooks? Why the long face?” Holden questioned, speaking what we all were likely thinking as everyone stared at him.
“Callie just texted me about someone bothering her at Whiskey On The Rocks while she was trying to leave. She’s scared the creep is going to follow her home,” Brooks answered, never taking his eyes off his phone.
“Tell her to come here. No one is going to have the audacity to mess with her if she’s seen pulling up into our place,” Leo replied as a serious expression marred the playboy’s features.
“Who’s Callie?” Ainsleigh asked.
“She moved to Haven Valley about six months ago. She lives in the neighborhood, just further down the street. She works at the bar. Brooks here seems to have taken a liking to her and is very protective of her,” Leo replied with an emphasis on the word very.
He grinned over at Brooks who gave him a deadly stare, communicating to him without words that he’d better shut his damn mouth if he knew what was good for him.
“Protective huh? What’s that about, Brooks?” Ainsleigh asked with a hint of laughter in her tone.
She wanted to rile her brother up, and bringing up Callie would achieve that goal. Anytime any of us razzed him about it, I thought he’d bust a blood vessel in his neck or forehead with the way the veins would protrude.
“She’s got no one here. I’m just being friendly,” he bit back as he answered his sister.
“Lots of people have no one when they move to Haven Valley. Hence the name. I don’t see you getting all protective over them,” Ainsleigh goaded.
She had a point. She was just the only one with enough guts to confront him about it.
“Nothing, and I mean nothing is going on between us. She’s as young as you are, Ainsleigh. We’re just friends.”
“I believe someone doth protest too much,” Ainsleigh replied, this time not containing her laughter as she doubled over in her chair.
The sound of her laugh always did something to me.
As Ainsleigh reined in her laughter, the siblings continued to razz each other. I missed hearing them rile each other up. The brothers still picked on each other, but having Ainsleigh here to participate felt like we were coming full circle.
The back door of the house opened, and Lillian pointed outside to where we all sat.
Callie warily walked in our direction, her eyes finding Brooks.
Brooks jumped out of his chair and rushed over to her.
They spoke in hushed tones, and everyone turned their heads, trying to figure out what they were speaking about.
Moments later they walked over to where we were all gathered around the fire, causing the lot of us to divert our attention away from them.
Yeah, this crew was a rowdy bunch.
Brooks grabbed another chair for Callie and made room for her beside him.
She was a meek and quiet person outside of the bar.
While she was working, she was always upbeat, but never drew too much attention to herself.
What she didn’t know was that her looks did that enough for her.
She had beautiful tan skin and long black hair and an innocent look about her.
Guys around here talked about her when she first arrived, but if Brooks had heard one word uttered, he always quickly shut it down.
Holden, Leo, and I were stunned when he took a liking to her, especially considering he hadn’t shown interest in anyone before.
Most people who came to Haven Valley were just passing through, but others like Callie, they stayed for longer periods of time.
With the way Brooks was looking at her now, I realized that his feelings ran deeper than friendship, but he was too much of a chicken do anything about it.
“Hey, Callie. I’m Ainsleigh, Brooks’s sister. How are you doing tonight?”
“I’m better now that the creep is gone,” she whispered in a tone barely audible over the crackling of the fire.
“Did he happen to follow you once you left?” Leo asked full of concern.
“I don’t think so,” she said, shaking her head. She was clearly shaken by her encounter with this guy. When I met Callie, I could tell she had her secrets, but we never pushed new-to-towners into revealing anything.
“Good. Now let’s make some s’mores, shall we.
Aspen here has never had one, so we’ve got to show her what she’s been missing out on.
There’s plenty. You game?” Ainsleigh cheerfully asked Callie.
I could tell Ainsleigh was trying her hardest to make Callie feel better, and it seemed to have worked as a smile slowly crossed Callie’s lips, and she nodded in approval.
“You see here, Aspen, the key is to make sure the marshmallow is just perfect. Not too burnt, but just enough to where it melts the chocolate just right,” Leo instructed as he grabbed a skewer and placed a marshmallow on the tip, holding it over the flame.
“You have to make sure to turn it so it gets all sides evenly,” Holden said as he did the same.
I could tell by the smirk on both of their mouths that they were up to something, and it’d likely cause all the girls to blush.
These fools always had something up their sleeve, but if it helped Ainsleigh have fun, I just couldn’t seem to care how bad they were about to embarrass the girls.
As the marshmallows were toasting, Leo grabbed two graham crackers from the box and broke off a large square from the chocolate bar.
Just as the marshmallow caught fire, he pulled it away and blew out the flame.
He placed the piece of chocolate on top of one piece of the graham cracker and put the marshmallow still attached to the skewer on top. Placing the other piece of cracker on top, he pulled the skewer back and the marshmallow slid off.
“See, the perfect amount of gooeyness in the center is key to the perfect s’more,” he said as he picked up the s’more from the side of the fire pit.
“It aids in melting the chocolate just right so it’s nice and creamy and warm on the inside,” Leo said as he took a bite.
All the girls then burst out laughing.
“You always have to throw in something sexual. How’s it possible that you managed that while talking about a s’more?” Ainsleigh questioned through her laughter.
“What? I didn’t do anything. I’m innocent here. All I was talking about was s’mores. Not my fault ya’ll’s minds were in the gutter,” he countered with a cocky smirk as he continued to chew.
“You and innocent go together as well as oil and water,” Holden joked as he blew the flame out on his marshmallow. The marshmallow was completely black, charred to a crisp, but he didn’t seem to care as he took a bite right off the skewer once it’d cooled down.
“You must think we’re stupid if you believe for one second we didn’t know what you were really referring to. I was born during the day, but it sure wasn’t yesterday.” Brooks laughed as he helped Callie make her s’more.
“Y’all are the perverts here. I was just talking about how well marshmallow and chocolate go together. Not my fault y’all took it the wrong way,” Leo countered, still feigning innocence.
“Right. We know you too well, big bro. That’s why we knew exactly what you were referring to,” Ainsleigh responded as she took a big bite of the s’more she’d just finished making.
Marshmallow oozed out the side of the graham crackers, and a little dripped down the side of her lips. I longed to be able to lean and get a taste, but refrained for fear she’d punch me in the face.
Instead, I did the gentlemanly thing and leaned over, using the tip of my thumb to wipe the remnants away.
The not so gentlemanly thing was I licked the tip of my thumb before pulling back and softly moaned so only she could hear me.
“Delicious,” I whispered, waiting until she looked up at me.
Our eyes locked for a beat, and I winked before settling back into my chair.
This bonfire couldn’t end fast enough.
Hopefully she’d end up back in my bed tonight and would fall asleep in my arms where she belonged.