Fight or Flight

Who the hell was Carissa and what did she do?!

“Ava is definitely not Carrie. And what I’m doing with her is definitely not your business, but I’m going tae tell you anyway so you’ll shut up. Ava and I are just friends. Neither of us is looking for anything serious.”

I scowled at the doorway, wondering why that pissed me off when only a few short weeks ago it had reassured me.

“A woman like that is always looking for something serious. As in serious money.”

“You don’t know the first thing about her and what’s she been through. Trust me, she doesn’t do serious. As for money, she has her own and plenty of it.”

My irritation with his brother was eased by Caleb’s defense of me. Although the altercation only drove home the similarities between the two of them, because hadn’t Caleb treated me with the same condescension at first? He judged me before he knew me. Apparently the brothers were very alike.

“Okay,” Jamie finally said. “I just dinnae want you making the same mistake twice.”

What mistake?

“Learned that lesson the hard way, brother.”

What lesson? WHAT LESSON?!

I hurried silently over to the other side of the room and was pretending to peruse his bookshelves again when the brothers emerged. I turned on my heel, keeping my eyes on Caleb, since I wasn’t comfortable with his judgy little brother. “Is the powwow over? Did you decide on nail polish color and which unfortunate hanger-on gets to run your errands tomorrow at school?”

Caleb smirked at me. “Funny.”

“That was semi-amusing.” Jamie shot me a perplexed look as he wandered by me heading for the kitchen.

“Semi-amusing, pfft. I’m funny,” I called after him, and added pointedly, “I’m freaking awesome.”

Caleb startled me, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist so he could nuzzle my neck. “Fancy ordering some takeout?”

I looked up at him. “I should probably get home.”

He squeezed me. “Stay. I’m not finished with you yet.”

Unbelievably, I felt my body tingle to life at the thought of a round three. “Okay,” I answered immediately. “Do you have an extra toothbrush?”

“Aye.”

I cocked my head to the side in thought. “Did you buy it just for me?”

He shook his head, smiling. “I’ll never tell.”

I grinned at his playfulness, about to say something when I thought I heard Jamie mutter as he passed us with a beer, “Just friends, my arse.”

There was a possibility I heard right because Caleb growled at him. “Shut it or I’ll shut it for you.”

Unperturbed, Jamie settled onto the couch and switched the mute button off the television, the sound of The Big Bang Theory filling the apartment.

“You have a TV in your room,” Caleb said, still holding on to me.

“Aye, so do you,” his brother said, as if to say, Your point being?

Instead of arguing with him over the television, Caleb grabbed my hand and led me back into his bedroom.

I didn’t see Jamie again that night because his big brother kept me all to himself. I was okay with that. Things were confusing enough without having to deal with his judgmental not-so-little brother.

Around one o’clock in the morning, after Thai takeout, some television, and a round of playful sex, Caleb spooned me.

I felt him start to drift to sleep, but my mind refused to shut down. All I could hear was Jamie saying the name Carissa over and over again. Who the hell was she? And why was she a lesson Caleb had to learn from? It didn’t make sense that there could be a woman of that kind of importance in Caleb’s life, because he’d told me he’d never gotten serious with a woman. And Caleb never lied to me … right?

“Caleb?” I whispered.

“Mmm,” he murmured sleepily against my hair.

Knowing he was already halfway into dream world, I did something I shouldn’t have. I deliberately used his half-consciousness against him.

“Did you miss me?” I whispered, already tensing up in anticipation for his reply.

“Mmm, aye, missed you, wee yin,” he mumbled. “Sleep.”

And then he was out, his soft, even breathing filling my ears.

An ache spread out across my chest, the claws of it burrowing deep to my heart. What were we doing?

“I missed you too.”

Twenty-three

ONE MONTH LATER

Surprised?”

I quirked an eyebrow at Caleb, a smile prodding at my lips. “Not in any way.”

He grinned and turned back to the television.

We were at his apartment, and he’d told me that he would surprise me with his movie choice for the night. What was now flickering across his huge flat screen was in no way shocking.

Goodfellas.

I shook my head. “You could have at least tried to be original.”

“It’s a great movie,” he argued, throwing popcorn into his mouth.

“It is,” I agreed honestly. “But if you’d asked me to guess what movie you would choose, it would have been a toss-up between this and The Godfather.”

“Let’s watch that next.”

“Are we not having sex tonight?”

He gave me “a look.” Of course we were having sex tonight. After all, we were friends with benefits. However, since he arrived back in Boston a month ago, Caleb had really been embracing the friends part. In truth, he was so busy in his new role at work, and I was so busy with new clients, that finding time to see each other had become a little trying at times. I felt like we were both frustrated by it, but neither of us would admit it.

“Then I don’t think we have time for The Godfather on top of Goodfellas,” I said. “Plus, if we watch The Godfather we’ll want to watch The Godfather: Part II and even though it’s not my favorite you can’t watch parts one and two without watching part three. And we definitely don’t have time for a Godfather marathon on top of Goodfellas.”

“Is it wrong that the fact that you enjoy mafia movies turns me on a wee bit?” He grinned, one filled with wicked boyishness.

My chest fluttered with too much feeling. Over the last month I felt like I was getting to see the real Caleb. The relaxed, nice, down-to-earth Caleb. I didn’t know if it was having Jamie around or if it was us settling into a real friendship, but I liked this side of him either way.

“It’s a little wrong,” Jamie answered for me, striding out of his bedroom, covered in flecks of paint. I hadn’t seen inside his room, but Caleb told me he had let his brother turn the guest room into a bedroom/ art studio.

“I wasn’t asking you.” Caleb threw a piece of popcorn at him.

“And yet here I am sharing my opinion for free. I’m such a good brother.” Jamie sighed dramatically as he passed us.

“If you’re heading into the kitchen for a beer, you’ll be an even better one if you bring us one too.”

“I’m working,” Jamie called to us, having disappeared out of sight. “So I’m on water.”

I glanced at the open doorway of his room, but all I could see was the head of a bed and a nightstand. Curiosity was compelling me to get up and have a wander into the room, but my good manners quelled the compulsion.

“He won’t let me in either,” Caleb said quietly, having noted my interest. “He keeps his work private until it’s finished.”

“He has a huge social media following,” I said, as if that explained my curiosity.

“I do.” Jamie appeared from out of the kitchen. “And I have great hearing.” He handed us beers and kept hold of the bottle of water in his hand. He pinned me to the sofa with his ice blue gaze. I found it remarkable that two brothers could have identical beautiful eyes and yet only one of them made my heart flutter when he focused on me.

“You been stalking me, Miss Breevort?” Jamie teased.

The upside to hanging out with Caleb as a friend was that Jamie was around in the background during most of those times and he’d gotten to spend a little time with me. Although I still sensed his hesitancy with me, for whatever weird reason (Carissa?), he was at least congenial enough now.