Filed to story: Crushing on My Enemy Stepbrother
Shouldering the door closed again, he carries me to the front door, somehow managing to unlock and open it without setting me on my feet, stepping inside and kicking the door shut behind us.
Holding me under the alarm, the crazy ex marine at least allows me to punch in the security code myself. Settling me in one of the stools by the breakfast bar, he moves around the kitchen, grabbing mugs and boiling the kettle.
‘Coffee please’ I offer hopefully.
‘No caffeine’ is the gruff reply as he drops a herbal teabag into my cup instead.
Pouting, I rest my elbows on the bar, my chin in my hands as I glare at the man who is denying me my caffeine fix.
‘You can pout all you want’ Caleb calls out to me without turning around, making me jump, ‘you are still getting this. It’s supposed to help with headaches and be calming.’
How the hell did he know I was pulling a face? He’s not even facing a window!
Handing me the steaming cup, he studies me closely for a second before pulling out his phone and texting someone. Putting his phone away, he spots my curious look.
‘My brother and Callan’ he replies to my unasked question, ‘I asked them to come round so I could talk to them about something, they are on their way over now.’
Caleb’s POV
I manage to convince Tessa to go and lie down in her room, promising I will fill her in after my brother and best friend leave. I want to talk to them candidly about the photo I received, and now Tessa was forced off the road after a strange car tried to push her in front of a semi-truck, I can no longer pretend that she isn’t in danger.
I don’t want to frighten the woman, and it’s taking everything in me to leave her alone, even now, sitting underneath her bedroom, I want to run back upstairs, see her, make sure that she’s still OK.
When I saw her in that ambulance, blood staining her face with a gash across her forehead, my heart stopped. She was breathing, I could see her chest moving but I couldn’t accept that she was OK until I held her, felt her heart thump against my chest.
I wanted to run her a bath, help her remove the dried blood from her skin, wash away every reminder of how I could have lost her too. It’s not my place though, the most I can ask for is to sit outside the door as she cleans herself, within calling distance if she feels faint or falls.
The front door opens and I hear my brother and our friend before I see them, the two bulky ex military men storming into the kitchen like they are raiding a compound.
Gage’s eyes sweep the room, ‘where is she?’ he demands tersely.
‘Upstairs in her room, resting’ I reply as I pinch the bridge of my nose fighting against the migraine that I can feel tingling in the back of my eye socket.
‘I’m going to see her’ Gage growls, his tone saying that he’s not going to listen to an argument. I just nod, understanding that my brother also needs to make sure that Tessa is OK with his own eyes.
As Gage disappears from the room, stomping up the stairs loudly toward Tessa’s room, Callan turns to face me, leaning his hip against the breakfast bar, arms crossed over his chest as he studies me.
‘You ready to admit she’s yours?’ he asks gruffly. I flinch, wanting to argue that Tessa doesn’t belong to me, can’t belong to me but my best friend stares me down, cutting off the words before I can utter them. ‘Don’t do it man’ he orders, ‘not to me and not to Gage, you can bullshit anyone else you want about her, f*ck, you can lie to yourself if it makes you feel better, but you don’t do it with us.’
I swallow thickly as I nod, ‘I shouldn’t want her’ I mutter, ‘I’m no good for her.’
‘Bull’ Callan snarls, pushing off the unit and stalking toward me, grabbing my shoulders tightly. ‘If anyone deserves some good in their life, it’s you’ he snaps. ‘You came home broken . . hell we all came home broken, but you were the worst. Gage was losing his mind dude, he was terrified that we were going to lose you, do you know how many nights he slept in his car outside the house?’
I blink, staring at my friend in shock, ‘why would he do that?’ I croak.
Callan laughs harshly, ‘because he thought he’d wake up one morning and you’d be gone’ he huffs. ‘Either you’d get in your car and disappear or you’d decide your weapon was looking mighty friendly.’
I choke slightly as I feel the sting of tears behind my eyes, because I had thought about both of those things more than once. As the darkness of what I’d done, what I’d lost crashed down around me every single night, I wanted it to end, to join my brothers as I should have done that night.
My best friend seems to read me, because he tugs me closer and wraps his arms around me, holding me tightly.
‘You scared us man, both of us’ he growls, ‘even after you came to work for your dad, you still weren’t you anymore. Then Tessa and her mom came here and as much as you fought it, she brought out a side of you that we thought was long gone.’ He pulls back so he can look at me, and I bite down on the guilt at the worry and fear that I find etched in my best friend’s face. ‘We love Tessa’ he says firmly, a chuckle bubbling out of him at my instinctive growl of possession. ‘Not like that you idiot, like a sister. Tessa is the little sister Gage and I always wanted, but you, you didn’t want a sister and you still don’t. Tessa is your woman, Caleb, whether you want to admit it or not, she’s your end game, I know it.’
‘Her mom is married to my dad’ I point out reluctantly.
Callan shrugs, ‘so? It’s not like you grew up together is it? You met just over a week ago. If you’d seen her in a bar, you would have made a bee line for her. True, you’d have f*cked it up and she’d most likely have poured her drink over you, but you’d still have taken your shot.’
I snort loudly, ‘please, I have more game than you and Gage combined’ I grumble.
‘Whatever dude, it doesn’t matter because you are already off the market, you just won’t accept it yet’ my best friend teases.
‘She’s OK, a little sleepy but she told me in not so many words, to go f*ck myself when I offered to sponge bath her so she’s fine’ Gage informs us as he walks back into the room. Seeing Callan and I practically hugging, he frowns, ‘what’s going on here? Did you two become lovers and forget to tell me?’
I push away from our best friend as he immediately starts to profess his love to me, dick.