Undone (A Country Roads Novel) (11 page)

Melanie O’Bryan and Harper Laurence were Grace’s closest friends. After high school, Mel had gone to Florida State University in Tallahassee. She’d gotten her bachelor’s in education and had just moved back to town a couple of months ago. She was now teaching math at the high school. Harper was a massage therapist. She split her time working at a resort on the beach and a spa that was in downtown Mirabelle.

Grace introduced the girls to Paige and then they set up their towels next to them. Brendan watched Paige out of the corner of his sunglasses, trying desperately not to be obvious. She pulled off her tank top and then did a little shimmy getting out of her shorts that nearly killed him. She was wearing a modest green one-piece that did amazing things to her curves.

She lifted her arms to tie her hair up and her bathing suit pulled, showing the side of her left breast where she had a quarter-size birthmark in the shape of a strawberry.

“Did you just groan?” Shep asked, coming up next to him.

“No,” Brendan said, taking the beer that Shep handed him.

“Damn, you’ve got it bad,” he said, shaking his head.

“Shut up.”

*  *  *

Three months of being in this stupid town and nothing had gone right. No job, no friends, no social life. And then a week ago Paige had met Brendan, and poof, all of that changed.

She didn’t want to like him—she really,
really
didn’t. The ache in her chest was just beginning to grow smaller and she knew that Brendan had the potential to crack that wide open. She didn’t want to be cracked open. She wanted to be safe and whole but every time he looked at her she just wanted to let herself fall.

Paige put her book down and propped herself up on her elbows, looking out at the water. Brendan was out there with Jax, Shep, and Mel. All of them had beers in their hands and were talking as the waves rolled in, splashing around them.

Mel and Harper were more than friendly and easy to talk to. They were average height, shorter than Paige, but then again most girls were. Both women were beautiful but in different ways. Mel was slim, with long thin legs and a tiny waist. She had corkscrew honey-blonde curls, amber eyes, and a warm, welcoming face that inspired confidence and trust. Harper was more exotic looking, with long, thick black hair, violet almond eyes, and killer curves.

“You going out there?” Grace asked, rolling over onto her side.

“I was thinking about it.”

“Come on,” Grace said, standing up and grabbing her beer. “You coming, Harper?”

“Yeah,” Harper said.

Paige grabbed her beer and followed them out toward the water. She hesitated on the hard-packed wet sand and let a wave wash up around her feet. The water was warm but it felt cool against her sun-baked skin. They waded out where everyone else was and joined the circle.

“So, Paige,” Mel said, shoving a strand of her curly blonde hair behind her ear. “What did you do in Philadelphia?”

“I worked in the art department of an advertising agency,” she answered, taking a sip of beer. “But when they were bought out I lost my job.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Paige shrugged. “It happens.”

“So you moved here after that?” Harper asked.

“No. I moved down here after my boyfriend and I broke up,” Paige said and glanced over at Brendan.

She wasn’t sure why she’d just told them that. It wasn’t to make sure that Brendan knew she was single or anything. No, she would need him to know that only if she was interested in dating him. Which she wasn’t. Not at all. But Brendan didn’t say a word and she couldn’t read his expression because his sunglasses covered his eyes.

“It seems you haven’t had the best of months,” Shep said as they all jumped to dodge a wave that would have slapped them in the face.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “But it’s getting better,” she said, unable to stop herself from looking at Brendan again.

*  *  *

Brendan’s mouth quirked. He couldn’t seem to help it when Paige was around. Something about her always made him want to smile. He was also ridiculously happy to hear that she was single. He’d been pretty sure she was, but now that she’d just confirmed it he was ecstatic.

“So what kind of art do you do?” Jax asked.

“Everything really. Painting is my passion, but for the advertising agency I did graphic art, but I didn’t enjoy that as much. And I also take pictures.”

“I wish I was artistic,” Mel said. “But I was only ever good at math. That’s why I teach it now.”

“What grade?” Paige asked

“Ninth through twelfth. Mirabelle High School is pretty small.”

“Go Pirates,” Shep said.

“The boys all played baseball together. They won state their senior year and they still bask in the glory of it,” Grace said.

“Hey,” Brendan said, pointing at Grace. “We’re still pretty good.”

“Shmeh. You’re okay,” Grace said, shrugging her shoulders.

“You better watch yourself, Princess,” Jax said to Grace. There was something about the way Jax said
princess
that caught Paige’s attention. It wasn’t a taunt at all. It was a term of endearment.

“So do you guys still play?” Paige asked.

“Yeah. There’s a county league,” Jax said. “Eighteen and older. I pitch, Shep is shortstop, and Brendan is the catcher.”

“So you’re still good at catching things?” Paige asked Brendan.

His mouth quirked again.
Was that a challenge?

“Things I want to catch,” Brendan said. And boy, did she fit firmly into that category.

“They have a game this Saturday,” Mel said. “You should come.”

“I just might.”

“Are you a baseball fan?” Jax asked.

“Every once in a while I’d go to some of the Phillies games with my friends.”

“The Phillies are okay.” Jax nodded.

“But not the best?” Paige asked.

“Nope.” He grinned. “That would be the Yankees.”

“No, that would be the Red Sox,” Grace said.

“Oh great,” Mel mumbled. “They’ve started.”

“Listen up, Princess. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you, the Yankees are the best,” Jax started in on Grace.

Harper rolled her eyes and turned to Paige. “We’ve heard this argument enough times to last a lifetime. We’re going to head in. I’ll take those for you,” she said, reaching for Paige and Brendan’s empty beer cans.

Shep took Jax and Grace’s cans, neither of them even acknowledging him as they continued to argue with each other.

“Look at who’s won more World Series,” Jax said.

“Past winning doesn’t prove anything against current talent,” Grace snapped back.

Brendan moved in closer to Paige as the others wadded to the shore.

“Do they always do that?” Paige asked, glancing over at Jax and Grace, who were about three yards away and at full volume.

“All the time.” He laughed. “Shep, Jax, and I have been fans since we were little. When Grace was six, she started rooting for the Red Sox just to spite us all. She and Jax tend to debate it. A lot.”

“I can see,” Paige said, glancing over at them.

“So what happened with you and your boyfriend?”

“We broke up,” Paige said, turning back to Brendan. Her mouth turned down into a frown and he wanted to reach out and soothe her lips.

“Yeah.” His eyebrows raised. “Why?”

“It didn’t work out.”

“That’s all you’re going to tell me?”

“He didn’t love me.” She shrugged and looked out to the horizon.

“Did you love him?”

“I thought I did,” Paige said, looking back to Brendan. He couldn’t see her eyes past the dark lenses of her glasses, but there was something about the rest of her face that said pain.

“Yeah,” he said, nodding and taking a step closer to her. “I know a little about that.”

“Would that be Marty?” Paige asked.

“How do you know about Marty?” he asked, confused. His lips formed a frown that mirrored hers. Thinking about Marty tended to make him scowl.

“Grace and Lula Mae mentioned her and how Sydney hated her.”

Brendan laughed. “Yeah, well they had a mutual dislike of each other.”

“Did you love her?”

“No.” He shook his head. He’d never been in love before.

“What happened?”

“She sailed off with some guy who promised to take her around the world in his boat. She came back six months later. Alone and broke.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, it was pretty bad at the time, but I’m grateful it happened. She wasn’t the one,” he said simply.

“I wish I was that levelheaded.”

“Time heals all wounds,” he said sagely. Well, maybe not all wounds, but it had healed the whole thing with Marty.

Paige laughed, and he felt it everywhere from his head down to his toes. He could listen to that laugh for a lifetime and never get tired of it. A wave came up and both of them jumped with it. Water splashed up around Paige and hit her in the face. Brendan moved in closer to her and pushed a strand of hair that clung to her cheek behind her ear.

“Thank you,” she whispered. There was a moment where they just stared at each other before she dipped her chin. “What’s your tattoo of?” she asked, reaching for his left arm. She grabbed his elbow and he let her roll his arm to get a better look.

“It’s an oak tree,” he said, trying to focus on anything besides her hands on his skin.

He was unsuccessful.

“It’s beautiful,” she said, tracing the intricate branches with her fingertips.

If he turned his head just a couple of inches, he’d be able to press his nose into her hair.

Next thing Brendan knew he was underwater, Paige’s body firmly pressed against his. They had both lost their balance as the wave crashed down around them. Instinctively, Brendan wrapped his arms around her and pulled them up. She started coughing when they surfaced, her hands gripping his hips for balance.

“You okay?” he asked, on the verge of losing his mind. He could feel every single one of her curves pressed up against his body. He blinked the salt out of his eyes and let go of her.

She took a step back, pulling her sunglasses off her face and wiping her eyes.

“Yeah.” She nodded, still coughing. When she caught her breath she looked up at him, her gray eyes wide with shock. “Sorry, I, uh…” She shook her head, still staring at him. “Thanks for pulling me up,” she said, putting her glasses back on.

“No problem.”

“I, uh, I’m going back up to the beach,” she said, backing away from him.

“Okay.” He nodded.

She turned around and practically ran out of the water. Brendan turned to see Grace and Jax staring at him—Grace with an excited smile, Jax with an exasperated shake of the head.

Yup, Brendan was sinking fast and he didn’t even want to search for an escape hatch.

Chapter Six

Free Falling

P
aige woke up early on Monday morning to go running. She’d had to do something or she was going to go crazy. She’d barely slept the night before, tossing and turning and remembering what it felt like to be plastered up against Brendan’s body. After the wave incident, Paige had tried her hardest to act like a normal human being, but that was pretty much impossible. She couldn’t think clearly around him, couldn’t focus on anything but him when he was around. Every time he talked to her she had the urge to pounce on him and kiss him.

Abby had been almost impossible on the phone.

“You were plastered up against his wet, shirtless body? I want exact details, leave nothing out,” Abby had begged.

“What’s with you? You need to get a boyfriend.”

“I can’t. No time. Work has been crazy so I choose to live vicariously through you. So start with this tattooed bicep…”

Yup, exactly what Paige needed, to think about Brendan in detail.

At nine that morning, Paige stopped by the funeral home because she needed to tell Mr. Adams she was going to be driving around for the day and looking for pictures to take of the local scenery.

“Good,” he said, going through a stack of papers. “We’re going to have services on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so you’ll need to be able to put those tributes together.”

Paige stopped by Tara’s desk on her way out for a short chat to go along with her morning cup of coffee.

“You have a good weekend?” Tara asked.

“Yeah, painted a little on Saturday and then I went to the beach with Grace and a few people on Sunday.”

“One of them being Brendan?” Tara said, grinning.

“Yes,” Paige said, trying to affect an air of nonchalance.

“And?”

“It was uneventful really. Very relaxing.”

“Hmm,” Tara said, studying Paige’s face. “You’re really bad at lying. Just admit it already; you have the hots for him.”