Page 3 of Summer Storm
“Nope.” I pop the P, hopefully cutting off this line of questioning. I haven’t even had a chance to delve into my own thoughts and feelings. The also don’t need to know how my heart leapt at seeing Aaron again or how my body simultaneously felt like I was dunked in an ice bath and a hot spring at the same time. Or how my heart seemed to sing as he stared at me that night. And wasn’t that the stupidest thing? I mean he lied…and I lied, or atleast, omitted. It’s not like we discussed his physical address or my soon to be address but that we both were on vacation was definitely implied. And now we’re suddenly neighbors? What are the odds?
“Brielle, we’ll tell him to fuck off if you want us to.”
“Leave it. Alone. If you don’t I’ll assume I have the same right to meddle in your business too.” I warn them both. Nolan scoffs.
“Felicia?”
“Ah, fuck, you wouldn’t!”
“I will. She sent an email to my work account again last week.” Nolan muffles a curse, but I still hear it. I actually wouldn’t tell Felicia a single thing about Nolan, but he doesn’t need to know that. Boy can we pick’em. Brother dear and I are two peas in a pod; we both broke the cardinal rule of dating–– don’t screw crazy. Lesson learned by us both, I guess.
After backing into a parking space, Jericho gets out and opens the back door. I slide across the seat toward him.
“We’re just concerned and want you to be okay, Brielle. Both Nolan and I kinda feel like that bullshit with Franklin and his wife was our fault for being too busy to catch onto what was really happening.”
“I know, and I love you for it, but it wasn’t anyone’s fault but Grant for lying and his wife for being a complete psycho.” The rollicking band playing on the patio is more loud than good and thankfully makes it difficult to carry on more of a conversation, but as we reach the entrance, I tug on Jericho’s arm, he bends closer, and Nolan does the same so they can both hear me. “Let it go, okay? I just want to eat and then go home and go to bed and forget this day ever happened.”
They both look resigned. Jericho finally nods and then takes the lead with me dogging his footsteps and Nolan bringing up the rear as we weave through the bar’s crowd to reach the hostess station.
Chapter 3
The fun brother
Aaron
Sometimes it sucked living in the same house as Ezra. He’s two years older and sometimes because of his serious demeanor comes off more like a parent than a sibling. Especially with the fucked-up mess our parents left as a legacy. Jorie has softened him up a bit, but Ezra is who he is.
I tip the beer bottle back, up-ending the last swallow. Glass clanks against glass when I toss it into the recycle bin under the kitchen sink.
I’m past ready to get the hell out of here. I was able to hold them off earlier because neither Ezra or I was into airing anything personal at work; we’d been through enough of that thanks to our mom, dad, and uncle-dad. I’m really not in the mood for the questions Ezra wants answers to or the gleeful glances Jorie keeps throwing my way.
I know she’s getting off on this. Normally, I’m known as the fun brother but the jealousy and possessiveness I felt when one of the guys this afternoon dropped his arm around Brielle?Not good. At least not for me.
After both Jorie and Jolie gave me hell for glaring like a creeper, they explained that if I’d have been paying attention, I would have heard the two men were Brielle’s brothers. That information helped reign these crazy feelings in some. That was the only thing allowing me to calm down enough to finish the jobs I had on today’s docket… and not make a fool of myself in front of the camera. Still, I was low level restless with my head on a swivel, hyper aware as I tried to catch glimpses of her over at the cop shop for the rest of the day.
Maybe I was making too much out of this, but I didn’t think so. I don’t think I’m making up the connection between us or blowing it out of proportion. This thing, whatever it is, feels too…weighty; like the potential is there ripening into the sweetest most delicious fruit just hanging there waiting for the right moment to be plucked from the branch. Maybe it was having afront row seat to Ezra getting out of his own way and going after what he wanted with Jorie that is influencing my thoughts now.
All I know is, the essence of Brielle has hung within my conscious and subconscious for all of these months. For her to show up here in Wintervale again, has to meansomething, doesn’t it? If I believed in kismet or destiny or star-crossed lovers, it certainly seems like fate is giving me a big ol’ flashing arrow, pointing in her direction, not that I’d admit it to anyone else.
Hell I can just imagine the helping of shit all that philosophical woo-woo crap would garner, but fortune, as they say, also favors the bold. Now I just need to figure out how to go about getting her to talk to me.
Shaking my head, I change my mind and lay it all on the table for Ezra, but it isn’t my brother who gives me perspective and a workable plan, it’s Jorie.
Chapter 4
The woo
Brielle
Pine pitch crackles and sparks on the logs and branches laid out in the new fire pit Jericho and Nolan had dug out and laid bricks around over the last few days. The inside of our new house isn’t complete by any means, but according to the boys, we need fire for survival, or so they claim, and both jumped in to get the patioarea set up. Whatever. It’s kept them busy and out of my hair while I put PB and Jay through their paces and evaluate their training.
That isn’t what is bothering me, though. Jericho leaves on Sunday for his final deployment. In-country always makes me nervous, especially when we can’t talk to him for weeks on end. I’ve never been privy to what his unit does, but I do know it’s dangerous, and as much as I complain about his and Nolan’s shenanigans, I love the big buttheads.
Nolan’s new job isn’t as secretive or as isolating. Starting Monday, he’ll be patrolling the border between Canada and the United States. Border patrol has its dangers too but at least he’s only a phone call and a couple of hours away if I need him or vice versa. I also get to see him regularly. His schedule is a two-week on, one week off rotation, unless he’s covering vacations for the other agents.
Nolan is taking PB and Jay with him, leaving Rudy and I to keep the home fires burning. Now that the shepherds are fully trained, I’ll be spending my time overseeing the rest of the house and training center construction, and also scouring animal shelters, looking for potential trainees, not only for our K9 and security programs but also for search & rescue, therapy and service dog programs too.
We lucked out when I received a call about a pair of Dutch Shepherd puppies caught up in a hording situation. I jumped at the chance to take them in even though our parents wanted to step back from the family business and galivant around thecountry. Two years later, Nolan’s job fell into place and running the family business fell to me.
