A Perfect Mistake (3 page)

And
on top of everything else, I’d never liked Billy Joe Freeman,
and I liked him even less now. I didn’t like the way he looked
at Verity. It made me want to punch his self-righteous face. He had
flat-out lied to her just so he could coerce her into dinner. And
she’d defended him. Well, maybe they deserved each other.

The
two fucking liars.

I
opened the truck door, tossed the tablet onto the passenger seat and
climbed inside.

I
took a shuddering breath and my hands clamped around the wheel.

Lace
bra.

She
had on a lace bra beneath her wet shirt. The elusive design outlined
against the white tank top was unmistakable.

Black
lace.

On
the preacher’s daughter.

Verity
Fairchild liked black lace.

And
I liked black lace on Verity Fairchild.

It
would be so good to take it off her.

Fuck
me.

I
wanted to trail my finger along the fine material, everywhere it
covered her full breasts, pull down those cups and take what was
purely feminine beneath into my mouth. I wondered how she would
react. Would she close her eyes? Would she make a sound in her
throat? That purely ball-tightening, carnal sound a woman made when a
man touched her with the wet suction of his mouth.

Fuck.
I’d always had thoughts like this about Verity. I just never
let them have their way with me.

Now
I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I wondered how her mouth
would taste if I took it hard and fast like I wanted to when she was
spitting fire. I’d been tempted, and that right there should
have made me back off.

But
now I couldn’t. She was the one who’d crossed the line,
and there was no going back until I found out why.

I
couldn’t work today because of the rain, and I was much too
angry and agitated and turned on to stay here. If the rain stopped, I
would come back later. But I had a paying job over in Lafayette
waiting for me. I drove there and met with a lady who had the dream
of an English garden. She loved my sketches and ideas. After
promising to get something solid to her next week, I drove back to
Suttontowne, and by this time it was after lunch.

I
stopped at Outlaw’s and went in, waving to Marcy at the bar. It
was packed as usual. As I headed to the kitchen, she waylaid me.

“Hey,
Boone. I didn’t expect to see you here so early. I was
wondering if you wanted to hook up after closing tonight.”

Verity’s
slap and dark, accusing eyes made me shift. I needed some easy and
temporary comfort. Marcy had been trying to get into my jeans for a
while. I smiled at her. “Darlin’, you’re on.”

“Great.”
She smiled with pleasure and I moved on into the kitchen. Once I got
a good whiff of what Brax was cooking, my stomach grumbled loudly.

The
kitchen was a bustle of activity and my brother was in the middle of
it. He was standing near the back door, talking to Chase Sutton,
brother of River Pearl Sutton. River Pearl was best friends with
Aubree Walker and Verity. Chase had a cooler in his hands and Brax
was giving him cash. Once he took the container, he walked to a
counter in the kitchen and set it down. I waved to Chase as he left.

He
turned to go back to the stove and saw me. “Hey, Boonie. Where
you at?”

“It
was raining, so I couldn’t do the job at the church. Met with a
client in Lafayette instead.”

“Why
the fuck you volunteered your time at the church stumps the hell out
of me. Most people in this town think we’re the trifecta of
evil. You trying to polish up our rep?”

“No.
I just noticed that they could use a spruce-up, and we get a lot of
people visiting for the Founders Day Festival. It’s good
publicity for me.”

Brax
shook his head. “All I know is you’re doing a lot of
moping lately. It coincides with you beginning that project. Any
correlation?”

Damn,
he was an observant bastard.

“Why
would there be?”

Brax
shrugged, and his knowing blue eyes, just like mine, pinned me. “You
tell me.”

“Nothing
to tell.”

He
gave me a skeptical look, but let it go. “You hungry?”

“Starving.
What you got?”

“Jambalaya.”

Brax
removed the lid of the pot on the stove and dished out a thick stew
filled with Andouille sausage, peppers, onions, tomatoes, and
vegetables. He handed me the bowl and a hunk of cornbread.

I
dug in and closed my eyes. Geezus, my brother could cook. Even though
he had no formal training, he could easily out-cook any fancy chef
anywhere. “Brax, this is good.”

“Damn
right it is,” he said as he opened the container from Chase.

Confidence
had never been my brother’s problem.

Me,
on the other hand….

“What
was Chase Sutton doing here?”

“Delivering
fresh seafood. I have a standing order with him for oysters,
crayfish, frog legs, and such.”

“Weird
the way he went off the deep end and disappeared into the bayou. I
wonder what it takes to make someone bolt like that.”

“Why
don’t you ask our daddy?”

“The
law was after Daddy, so that doesn’t really count. I wondered
about Chase when it happened. He always seemed to have his shit
together.”

“Everyone
handles pressure differently. His daddy likes to keep a tight fist on
all his children.” He gave me a sidelong glance as I shoveled
the stew into my mouth, his eyes assessing.

He
huffed, then sighed. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.
Why are you asking me that?”

“Because,
Boonie, you’re Mr. Sunshine, and I don’t see no sunshine
today.”

“It’s
raining.”

“Ha
fucking ha. You crack me up. You should take that on the road. We’ve
already been through the Booker and Aubree mess. Really, Boonie,
don’t put me through more of that shit.”

“Then
why the fuck did you ask?” I snapped and set the bowl into the
sink a little too hard.

“Because
you’ve got complicated girl vibes messing with my triplet
radar.”

I
turned to stalk out of the kitchen. He grabbed my arm and shoved me
back. “Geezus you are on edge today.” He set his hands on
his hips and sighed like he’d rather be asking me anything
else. He wasn’t big on talking about our feelings, but I knew
he cared. “Spill, huckleberry.”

I
tightened my lips. Talking about Verity with Braxton wouldn’t
serve any purpose except to just piss me off more. I knew exactly
what he would say. That she wasn’t the type of girl Outlaws
could expect to snag. And if I wanted to get down and dirty, then I
should look elsewhere.

Dammit.
For the whole year she’d been gone I thought I might have
gotten over this infatuation I had for her, this curiosity, but
apparently not. I still remembered the graduation party when she’d
walked in with Stacy Chambers. Stacy was a party girl and Verity
wasn’t. I had to wonder if Verity had decided to cut loose that
night. As far as I knew, Verity and Stacy weren’t exactly
friends and most definitely didn’t run in the same circles.

Of
course I’d been drinking, which was nothing unusual. But when
she sat down next to me I could smell her clean, fresh girl scent. I
had gotten this hollow feeling in my chest. She was close to me as
she conversed with Stacy in soft tones, her voice just as sweet as
her disposition.

Craving.

Not
many people understand what it is to crave like that.

It
ties you up in knots, twists you into a pretzel and makes your gut
hurt so bad that you trip over your words and stutter like a fool.
You get distracted and turned on and don’t know what to do with
your hands. All you can think is you want to put them everywhere,
touch and feel until all that sweetness seeps inside you and changes
that painful longing into one of blissful satisfaction.

That’s
when I had proceeded to drink myself into a coma, trying to drown
that damn longing. Passed out in the bed of my truck and woke up the
next day stark naked.

Brax
crowded me against the sink. “Boone. You think I don’t
know when there’s something wrong with you? I feel it like an
itch I can’t scratch. It’s the curse of us triplets. So,
I’m in your business and you’ll probably be in mine for
the rest of our lives. Booker’s brother senses are probably
tingling right now, too. The guy’s a fucking do-gooder.”

I
cracked a smile. I couldn’t help it. Braxton was the most
sarcastic son of a bitch.

“I
just got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. That’s
it.”

“All
right,” he backed up. “I’m not going to get all
Oprah on you if you don’t want to talk.”

“Oprah
ain’t got nothing on you.”

“Whatever.
Get outta my kitchen. I got work to do. Go use your Boone Swoon on
Marcy.”

I
laughed. “Ha. Boone Swoon. I haven’t heard that since
high school.”

“Yeah,
if I remember correctly. When you flashed that grin and your baby
blues, you had all girls swooning. You still got it, huckleberry. Go
get laid.”

“That’s
your answer to everything.”

He
spread his arms and gave me a cheeky grin. “I’m an
uncomplicated guy. Sex, food, music. I’m good.”

As
soon as I stepped out of the kitchen door, my cell rang and I pulled
it out of my back pocket.

Booker.

Shit,
Brax wasn’t off the mark at all. I pushed ignore. There was no
way I could talk to Booker right now. If his tripdar was acting up,
I’d just wait until he was back in town from his trip with
Aubree to New Orleans to settle when he would move there and where
they’d live while she was in school.

Can’t
say I was thrilled to have him two hours away. But things were
changing and we were growing up. It was inevitable that we would go
our separate ways eventually. But I knew that I would still have
daily contact with my brothers, no matter where they were. That’s
just the way it was.

I
wandered out into the bar area. I really didn’t want to go back
to the church. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to face
Verity. I did, but that girl had something powerful going on and it
had something to do with me. I knew it.

She
didn’t want to talk about it. That was clear.

I
didn’t give a damn. I was going to get it out of her.

Why?

She
was driving me crazy with the way she was staring at me. All the
time.

I
could feel it when I was sketching and taking pictures at the church.

I
gnawed on my bottom lip and slipped my fingers into the loops of my
jeans. Why the hell was Verity so mad at me? I wasn’t going to
be able to rest until I found out. And what was that slap all about?
It seemed so out of character.

But
maybe my perception of Verity needing updating.

Marcy
smiled at me again. She was pretty and sweet. But Verity’s
snapping brown eyes, like warm cinnamon, and her beautiful, long dark
hair, intruded. It had come over me slowly, but by my junior year,
there hadn’t been a day when I hadn’t thought about
wrapping all of that gorgeous hair around my fist and pulling her
head back to get to her creamy throat. I wanted to kiss the hollow of
it, run my mouth against her collarbone, taste her skin.

It
was long past time for me to have her and get her out of my system,
and that would be the end of my infatuation with Verity.

Yeah.
That’s right. I had a hard-on for Holy Mary Verity.

The
things I wanted to do with Verity…to Verity…yeah, I was
going straight to hell.

But
it would be fucking worth it.

#

Verity

“Why
did you make us come here?” Billy Joe groused.

“What?
Is Outlaws not good enough for you, Billy Joe?”

He
glanced towards the bar, where Boone was tending. I could feel his
presence every time he shifted, spoke, moved.

I
felt his eyes on me, too.

I
saw a woman wobble over to the bar and walk right behind it and wrap
her arms around Boone’s neck. A frisson of heat exploded low in
my gut.

She
tried to kiss him and he was acting all sweet and Southern. Calling
her darlin’ and trying to remove her hands from around his
neck. “I can’t imagine what happened to your daddy and
momma.”

“Huh?”
I said, returning my gaze back to Billy Joe. His eyes narrowed, his
lips tightened.

“Your
momma and daddy…”

“Oh,
they’re working at the hospital tonight. You didn’t know
that?”

“No,
how would I know? Your daddy told me to ask you to dinner. I thought
he said he would be here.”

Either
Billy Joe was lying to me or my daddy was setting me up. Either way
it was unsettling. I picked at my excellent Cajun chicken pasta. I
didn’t really have much of an appetite because I couldn’t
stop thinking about my run-in with Boone in the rectory kitchen. How
he just didn’t seem like the bastard I’d believed him to
be. Helping me with my flat tire, then the groceries, warning me
about Billy Joe, and the way he was with that little boy. That got to
me the most.

I
knew what happened that night, but could I be wrong? Do people change
that much?

“Verity!”

I
jerked my head up. Billy Joe was looking at me like he was waiting
for an answer.

“I’m
sorry. What did you say?”

“I
said I’m glad that your parents aren’t here. I wanted to
talk to you.”

“About
what?”

He
looked at me like I was being deliberately difficult, and maybe I
was.

“Well,
us, actually.”

I
frowned and sat back. “Billy Joe, there is no us. I thought I
made that clear.”

“There
could be. I like you, Verity and I think we’ll be a good team.”

“You
like me? Team?” That was the most insultingly lukewarm proposal
I’d ever received. Obviously Billy Joe Freeman was happy to go
along with my daddy’s plans. Well, I wasn’t.