Page 15 of Between Brothers

“We all have to be up early,” Blue murmured and he was right.

“I keep thinking today is Saturday,” I said shaking my head.

Cell barked a laugh, “I like your style of thinking, darling, but nope…” he let out a gusty sigh, “It’s Sunday. Back to the grind in the morning.”

I let out a harsh sigh of my own and finished off my beer. It was a good half an hour walk from where we were to the parking lot and I wasn’t even slightly buzzed. I looked around for the trash and spotted someone with one of the heavy duty gray fifty-five gallon trash cans on a wheeled platform and a five gallon bucket.

I watched the young man pour bottles that were barely dregs into the bucket and toss the empties into the trashcan before pulling it along behind him to the next table. It was honest work. Hard, but honest. I smiled at him when he came near and pulled out bottles from the table. I felt the guys’ eyes watching me as I smiled at the young man and emptied our own bottles and threw them away. He smiled at me and ducked his head saying, “Thank you; ma’am.”

I returned to where Blue and Cell waited and Cell was once again watching me with that calculating look of his.

“Well that was right nice of you,” he said in a bit of a mock country twang.

I didn’t take the bait and simply said, “It was nothing.” He picked up my stuffed unicorn that he had won me, waved it back and forth making it trot on air and handed it to me. I couldn’t help but laugh and took it from him, hugging it to me.

“Thank you for the day, Hayley,” Blue said softly. I turned and couldn’t not smile wider, hugging the unicorn to my chest tighter, the chill starting to get to me.

“Thank you for asking, and thank you both for the dances.”

I jumped when the warm, heavy leather of Cell’s jacket enveloped my shoulders. Blue smiled and Cell said, once again, in that low, sexy growl just beside my ear, “What kind of assholes you take us for, darlin’? You didn’t honestly think we’d let you walk to your car alone did you?” he chuckled and straightened up and Blue slung an arm over my shoulders, steering me away from the dancing, music, and the light cast by the naked full sized bulbs strung back and forth over the plywood dancefloor.

Cell walked on my other side. He’d peeled the vest with colored patches off of his jacket and wore it over his maroon tee shirt, the tail of it hitched up to either side of his hips so he could cram his hands into the pockets of his faded, work-worn Levi’s.

“Thank you,” I said shyly and he gave me a grin and a wink.

“Don’t mention it.”

We walked in a comfortable silence for a time before Cell had me stop so he could retrieve a cigarette from his jackets inside pocket. I turned and stood still while he fished inside the pocket, the back of his hand brushing against my breast. I held my breath, the problem I was having with the contact not that it made me uncomfortable, at least not in the way that he was touching me when I didn’t want him to. Rather, I found the small touch exciting and that I wanted to explore more…. with both of them…just not maybe at once and maybe not sex. I mean, wouldn’t that make me some kind of harlot or slut?

He put the cigarette to his lips and cupped his hands around it, flicking the plastic lighter to life with his thumb. The flame cast his face in high relief and I realized that Cell was handsome in his own way. Angular features, his jawline rugged and strong, dusted with a day or so’s growth.

The flame went out, and he tucked the lighter back in the pocket and drew the two sides of his jacket closed, the smoke swirling around us.

“Which way to your car?” he asked in that half growl and I looked out over the fairgrounds, past darkened rides that were all closed down. Goodness, it must be much later than I realized.

“This way,” I pointed and he nodded and struck out that direction leaving me and Blue a few paces behind.

Blue’s arm returned to across my shoulders and he hugged me into his side for warmth. I leaned into him and walked with the two of them out the temporary construction fence that’d been erected around the perimeter of the large field the festival was taking up.

“I had a really good time today,” I said, leaning a hip against my tired Golf’s dark blue door. Blue stood in front of me while Cell stood somewhere around the front of my car behind me finishing off his cigarette.

“You could have more good days,” Cell called and I laughed a little.

“It’s a lot… I still need to think about that,” I called back.

“Take your time,” he said but it didn’t sound very happy or convincing.

Blue rolled his eyes quickly over his wry smile, his hand drifting up and cupping the side of my neck, his thumb caressing my jaw as he stared at me suddenly serious as if trying to memorize my face.

It was dark and very hard to see by just the light of the half moon, but I was well aware that we were alone out here, even though there was a fair bit of cars still scattered throughout the field that was being used as a parking lot.

“I may never have a chance like this again…” Blue breathed and it sounded agonized. My heart broke a little at his tone, but before the pieces could fall, he bent and his lips were gentle along mine. I gasped, surprised, but then my body took what I so desperately wanted before my mind could resist.

I melted against him, my lips parting for him, inviting him to deepen the kiss and he did. It was as if we were suspended in time, the moment one of the handful of absolutely perfect moments I had ever experienced in my life.

When he broke the kiss I stood for a heartbeat, eyes still closed, savoring how gently he’d touched me, how sweetly his mouth had moved against mine.

Hard muscled arms pulled me gently back against an equally hard chest. One of those arms wrapped around my waist holding me back against him.

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