Page 10 of Breaking Bristol

“Us womenfolk have our secrets, too.” She took a dish out of the fridge and handed it to me, condensation pooling on the inside of the plastic wrap. “If she’s not there, then I guess you can have it.”

“I’m wounded.” I put my hand on my chest. “You don’t make a plate for your nephew to take home?”

She rolled her eyes and pulled a casserole dish out of the freezer. “This should shut you up.”

I peeked inside when she opened the lid. “Lasagna. Nice.” I took it out of her hands and set the other plate on top, then kissed her cheek. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Don’t be a stranger now.”

“I won’t. Tell Uncle Lou I said goodbye.”

She walked me out and I waved as I drove down their long, winding driveway, almost forgetting to turn down the path that led to the small log cabin with a wraparound porch. About twenty-five yards away was also a man-made pond that used to be filled with fish. I’d have to ask Uncle Lou if it was still stocked.

I parked on the side and grabbed the plate, then made my way around to the front.

The place looked the same as the pictures of when Uncle Lou and my dad first built it almost forty years ago. I loved coming here as a kid and running around the woods with Susie… and my brother. Until that day. The day that started the spiral.

I actually couldn’t remember the last time I was here, and when I glanced to the right and saw the stump, moss covering the sides and debris on the top so thick I couldn’t see the rings, I had to clear my throat from the ball of agonizing memories choking me.

Squaring my shoulders, I rounded the corner and stopped dead in my tracks at the sight before me. “You’ve gotta be shittin’ me,” I muttered as I watched Bristol moving her hips and singing along to whatever was playing in her earbuds.

She was unwinding lights from the porch rails, and I bit back a smirk at her awful tone. My eyes were glued to her ass in a pair of tight black leggings, a cropped sweatshirt hanging off one shoulder exposing her bare skin, and I just knew she wasn’t wearing a bra.

It had been a long time since I’d looked at a woman as anything other than a patient or an acquaintance, and I planned on keeping it that way. I told myself I was done. I’d survive jacking off for the rest of my life because the thought of trusting another woman was revolting. Until I’d met Bristol.

I wasn’t expecting those amber eyes of hers to punch me in the gut, but they did. So did her smile. And the velvet of her voice. Everything about her was desirable in ways I’d never felt before, with anyone.

It was irrational, probably just wishful thinking after the nightmare I’d been through, but I figured because I’d felt so helpless that the idea of helping her appealed to a part of me that had been dormant the past year and a half.

I didn’t want to startle her, so I stayed where I was, and when she got the string of lights off, she turned to toss them into a box and screamed as she leaped backward. “What the hell are you doing here?” she yelled. “How did you know where I was? Are you stalking me?”

“Might wanna take those off.” I pointed at her earbuds, and she yanked them out and scurried up the two steps to get closer to the front door.

“Answer me.”

I held up the plate. “My auntie wanted me to bring a plate to the woman who rents her and my uncle’s cabin.”

Her body loosened a tad. “Your aunt and uncle?”

“Yup. Auntie Heidi. Uncle Lou. Louis. My dad is Heidi’s brother.” I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and put it on speaker to prove I was telling the truth.

“Did you forget something, hon?”

I looked at Bristol while I talked. “No, Aunt Heidi. I forgot to ask how to cook the lasagna you sent home with me.”

“You’re a grown man, a doctor for cryin’ out loud, and you can’t figure out how to cook a lasagna?”

Bristol grinned, and so did I. “I could figure it out, but it’s easier to call you and ask.”

She sighed. “Put it in frozen and cook it at three fifty for forty-five minutes covered with foil, then take the foil off and cook it for another twenty minutes or so.”

“All right, thanks.”

“Did you bring Bristol her plate?” Heidi asked.

I raised a brow at the woman herself. “I did.”

“Oh good. I hope she likes it.”

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