Page 48 of Brooke's Bliss
“He was your dad, too.”Bay’s hands kept moving on hershoulders and up her neck.Gentle but firm.
“He was my biological dad.He didn’t do much for me beyondthat.”Shane opened the basket and pulled out a bottle of wine.A familiarbottle.
“Oh, that’s my favorite,” she said.
“I know.”There was a smile on his face as he used thecorkscrew to open it.“The good thing about a small town having few choices isevery shopkeeper knows what their customers like.The liquor store alwaysbrings some in when they know you’re coming.”
“How would they know?It was a…” She sighed.“My brothers.Iwould bet they keep a couple of bottles, too.”
“Probably.I was also told you like cheese and this one…What did she say?”Shane asked, passing her a glass and then taking out someplates.
“It pairs well with the wine.That’s what the beekeeper ladysaid,” Bay replied, his thumbs rubbing over her skin.
She was relaxing but more than that, she was gettingaroused.She took a sip of the wine and it was utter perfection.Crisp andcold, with notes of green apple and pineapple.Delicious.
What had Shane said?She opened her eyes and watched himunwrap the cheese and crackers.“You said you werehalfbrothersand you shared a dad.But you’re close in age.”
Shane nodded.“When my mother realized Dad wasn’t going toleave Bay’s mom, she dumped me on their doorstep and never looked back.”
“She left you?”Brooke sat up.
Shane put the cheese plate where she could get to it andthen sat back down, pulling her feet on his lap.“I don’t love talking aboutthis so if we’re going to, you have to let me do something I do like doing.”
He pulled her shoes off and then she groaned as his stronghands moved across her aching feet.
This was dangerous.The night before had been about passionand crazy lust.This was something different.This was caring.She should setboundaries.She should tell them she was going to the Movie Motel or let Lucyget her a room at the lodge.The last thing she should do was let them surroundher with sweetness and allow their stories to touch her.
“She left you?”She couldn’t do it.The truth of the matterwas she wanted this time with them.No matter what the outcome would eventuallybe.
“She did.”Shane seemed intent on making herbonelesslyrelaxed.She hadn’t realized how much walkingtoday had affected her.Or maybe some of it was the ruthlessly athletic sexshe’d had with them.“I was a kid.I don’t remember much about her, though mystepmom did like to talk about her a lot.According to her, my biologicalmother’s professions included whore, homewrecker, and certified gold digger.”
Bay snorted.“Our father never had any gold to dig.I stillhaven’t figured out how that hypocritical jackass managed to get two women tosleep with him.”
She was confused and a little horrified at the thought of ababy being left behind by his mother.Her own mother had died and her dad hadtaken off, but she knew her mom loved her, and she’d had her brothers.Theyhadn’t left her on someone’s doorstep, and it would have been easy to.“Theytook you in?I mean you were a kid.You didn’t cause the situation.”
“I think a psychologist would say the situation wascomplex,” Shane replied like they were simply talking about what he’d done withhis day and not how awful his childhood had been.
“What he means is dear old dad was a deacon at thefundamentalist church we were forced to attend,” Bay continued.“The preacherand his wife found out about Shane and basically informed my mother that shecouldn’t consider herself a woman of God if she didn’t take Shane in andforgive her husband.She had to stand in front of the congregation and forgivehim and ask for his forgiveness since a man didn’t sin if he didn’t havereason.You know what they didn’t make her do?Ask for forgiveness for beatinga kid because she couldn’t hurt anyone else.”
Her heart threatened to break.She thought they’d likelyleft behind a nice home so they could party and live the cowboy life.She knewmen who did.They worked for a while and then played until they needed morecash.They had a woman in every city.Sometimes two or three.
“You didn’t start in this life because you wanted to, didyou?If no one took you in, you aged out of the system.”She knew a bit aboutfoster care.It wasn’t great for the eighteen-year-old.
“My father’s family ran a small cattle ranch.My dad didn’twork it.He was a salesman.Mom was a stay at home, but they would send us bothout to the ranch on weekends and summers, and Grandad would teach us.He was anold man and bitter because he missed our grandmother so much, but he did whathe could,” Bay explained.
“Teaching us how to work the ranch was how he showed heloved us.I don’t claim my father, but I loved my grandfather,” Shane admitted.“The time we spent at the ranch was heaven for me.”
“Why didn’t you stay?”
“He was too old to handle a kid, and by the time I wasn’t ahandful, I realized I needed to stay home.”Shane’s voice was so steady.
Bay’s fingers found her hair, and he moved them along herscalp.“He didn’t go live with our grandfather because he thought if he did, mymother would take out her rage on me.And he was probably right.I know I’m theartistic one, but Shane knew how hard it would be on me when he was ten yearsold.He made the choice to take the abuse so I didn’t have to.”
“Stop,” she said, unable to simply sit there.Did they thinkthey could tell her all of this and she would just… Emotion threatened tooverwhelm her.
They weren’t party boys.They might tease her brothers andbe assholes from time to time, but wasn’t everyone?They were real men withreal problems, and so far they had treated her like she was made of gold.
They treated her like she was the one who got all theaffection and comfort, and she didn’t have to give it back unless it wassexually.
