A Perfect Mistake (27 page)

“River…”

“Hush up,
Braxton. You’ve said more than enough. I got the message loud
and clear.”

We all could see the
angry sheen of unshed tears in her eyes and sympathy tightened my
heart.

She grabbed the
handle to the sliding glass door, but before she could pull, Brax
said, “It is the way it is.”

She whipped around
and I saw that reckless look in her eyes and I knew some shit was
going to go down. “Is it?!”

She dropped
everything on the deck and strode up to him. Without a word, she
reached out and grabbed a handful of his shirt, pulled him against
her and planted a kiss on him. I mean a passionate, no-holds-barred
kiss. I heard Braxton’s grunt of surprise, then his indrawn
breath. While he was still recovering from that, she snatched up her
stuff. “Why don’t you think about
that
,
smartass?” Then she was gone.

Braxton dropped his
head as if he needed a moment to compose himself. He looked even more
taut and intense.

“What the fuck
was that about?” Booker said.

Brax scowled. “None
of your goddamned business!” Then he strode out the sliding
glass door. We all heard the front door slam and the roar as he
revved up his bike and disappeared into the distance.

All four of us sat
there in silence. Aubree looked at me like,
oh
no, the shit has hit the fan,
and I gave her an uneasy look right back.

“Serves him
right,” Booker said. “He needs to recognize that he has a
hard-on for River Pearl and just deal with it.”

“Booker,”
Aubree said, hitting his shoulder.

“It’s
true,” Boone said. “Ever since high school. He’s
been making himself miserable over her and he should just do
something about it.”

“Isn’t
he with someone else?” Aubree said.

“Yeah, but
that’s just fucking. That’s what Brax does. Fuck,”
Boone said.

Booker snorted.
“Look up emotionally unavailable and you’ll find Brax’s
face right next to it.”

“Poor River
Pearl.”

“She’s
better off heading back out of Suttontowne. Brax is a stubborn son of
a bitch. When he makes up his mind about something, it’s hard
to change it,” Booker said. “But if any gal can, my money
would be on her.”

After that, Boone
and I went back to his place. The mood was kinda subdued. I tried
calling River Pearl, but she didn’t answer. I decided Aubree
and I would have to pay her a visit tomorrow whether she liked it or
not.

Before I could go
into his house, he took my hand and nodded toward that sleek black
motorcycle. “You wanna go for a ride?”

I was already on a
wild ride, but the thought of getting on that machine and wrapping my
arms around Boone’s hard waist gave me a thrill like no other.

I just stared at him
like he already knew that answer and he laughed. “Okay, then.”
He walked over and lifted a helmet off a peg and handed it to me,
grabbing the second one. Fitting it over his head, he straddled the
bike and backed it out of the garage.

He turned to look at
me. “Get on, darlin’.”

He didn’t have
to tell me twice.

We rode through the
warmth of the late afternoon as the sun began to dip to the horizon.
I pressed myself against Boone’s back while we wound our way
further into the bayou. I thought he must be out of his mind. The
mosquitoes would haul us away if we stopped anywhere here.

We pulled up to a
dock with several moored boats and a beautiful, well-built house on
stilts. A crude sign said, “Bait and Tackle. Fresh Seafood”
underneath.

“What is this
place?”

“It’s
Chase Sutton’s.”

“River Pearl’s
brother. I haven’t seen him in a long time.”

“Looks like
he’s here. He rents out boats to fishermen and tourists.”
He took my hand and we walked up the sturdy stairs to his shop.
Looked like he’d combined his home and his business. Inside, it
was really modern and carried all the latest and greatest fishing
gear. I walked over to a rack. “Oh, man, my daddy would be
crazy about these flies.”

“Hey, Boone.”

“Hey, Chase.
This is…”

“I know who it
is. You’ve grown quite a bit, short stuff.”

My heart caught a
bit at his childhood nickname for me. “Hi, Chase. How are
you?”

“I get by.
Whatcha need?”

“Well for one
thing, a few of these flies.”

“Pick out the
ones you want.”

River Pearl’s
wayward brother hadn’t changed much. He was still six feet of
pure hunk, even with his hawk-like gaze, chiseled cheekbones, the
lean angle of his jaw, and the nose that gave the clean lines of his
face an unexpected boyish appeal. He had crystal blue eyes, the same
color as his sister’s, but where her natural hair color was
honey brown, Chase’s was more a burnished bronze.

The heir to the
Sutton fortune was eking out a living in the bayou. What could have
set him off and sent him away from his family like that? I’d
always wondered, but River Pearl never said, and the gossip was that
it was over a girl. But I didn’t think so. If it had been about
a girl, Chase would have stood up to his family. I knew him, and he
wasn’t one to back down, ever.

Who was I to say
that what he was doing was strange or bad? He looked happy and
healthy.

Chase had been good
friends with Ethan, but when he’d lost it, he’d lost
touch with my brother, and Ethan had felt the loss. He might not
admit it, but it was clear to me. Now Chase had been out here in the
bayou for three years.

“If you want,
short stuff, I can make you something custom.”

“You tied
these?”

His mouth kicked up
at the corner. “Yeah. Don’t sound so surprised.”

“No, it’s
just that I didn’t know.”

“Puts bread on
the table.”

“I want to
rent one of your boats. The one with the screen,” Boone said.

“Ha, wuss. The
tourist one?” Chase’s mouth kicked up into a cute grin.

“Yes, we want
to avoid the mosquitoes.”

“It’s
gassed and ready to go.”

Boone paid while I
chose three flies I knew my daddy would love.

Chase just wrapped
them up for me and when I went to pull out my money, he waved it
away. “No good here. I hope your daddy enjoys them.
Verity…how’s Ethan?”

“He’s
getting out soon. Coming home.”

“Is he really?
Dumbass, going into the Marines. I’m sure glad he got out in
one piece. Tell him I said hey, would you?”

“For sure.”

He held my gaze for
a few minutes, then handed Boone the key. “Have good time.”

“You ever been
on a bayou ride?” Boone asked.

“No, and I
love the bayou.”

“Well, then,
let’s go.” He is head tipped boyishly, that irresistible
smile canting his lips. He held his hand out to me.

I took it and
stepped aboard the boat as it wobbled a little, but Boone’s
hand was already at my waist steadying me. The boat effectively kept
out all the bugs, because it was basically a screened-in area on
pontoons. The roof was waterproof canvas with an alligator print that
made me smile. Boxes of begonias bloomed between cushy benches that
faced each other. He started the engine and moved the boat out into
the middle of the stream.

As the sun dipped
further in the sky, I took in the passing scenery, the businesses
that backed onto the bayou and the tumble-down boat houses that were
tucked along the bank behind them, the houses that lined the bank
farther down, many with people in the yard gardening, talking with
neighbors or watching children play. Normal scenes of people with
normal lives.

I wanted that. The
last year had been such a struggle, just to keep myself from falling
into a million tiny broken bits. Since coming home it had been drama
and a sudden and strong desire for Boone.

Sighing, I slipped
off my sandals and stepped across the opening to snuggle up to Boone.
He put his arm around me, and I let go of the tension and eased
myself into his embrace. We passed the church, its steeple soaring
above the trees, looking majestic among the live oak and magnolia
trees.

I felt a pang,
because it had been home for all of my life and now I was moving past
that and growing up. Then civilization grew scarce—the
occasional plantation house visible in the distance, the odd tarpaper
shack hovering above the black water on old pilings.

The scenery grew
lusher, wilder. Trees crowded what land there was, their crowns
entangling into thick canopy of green that blotted out the evening
sun.

We passed through a
shadowy corridor of trees where no land was visible at all, evidence
of the constant battle between water and earth.

Boone stroked his
fingers through my hair absently as we continued on in silence. I
could tell he knew this area like the back of his hand, as we
branched off, then branched off again. I felt safe and comfortable
with him.

“Ethan and I
used to run through the bayou like crazy wild animals,” I said
softly. “We would pretend we were scouts or explorers. Of
course, we never were allowed to go far, but it felt like we were in
another world.”

“We used to
live in one of those tarpaper shacks. The bayou was our playground,
too. We hunted and fished and horsed around.”

“You’re
very close to your brothers.”

“Yes, I love
them. Couldn’t imagine my life without them. We’re
connected by blood, grew together in my ma, and were born at same
time. Sometimes I think we can almost read each other’s minds.”

Finally, we emerged
from the lushness into an area where the bayou grew wide, looking
more like a lake than a stream. Boone maneuvered the pontoon into a
spot near the south bank, positioning us so we had a panoramic view
of the swamp as the sun slid down in the west. He cut the rumbling
engine and rose to throw the anchor over the side.

“The sky.
There isn’t anything like a bayou sunset.”

I shook my head
remembering my life in the concrete jungle. “I really enjoyed
my work, but had been homesick for this…this beauty. Homesick
because my roots were here, in the bayou and this was my home. It
feels even more so now, with you, Boone.”

He
smiled, his eyes soft and warm and, yes, I swooned.

A chorus of
bullfrogs sang while the sky darkened to a smudgy purple, then faded
into indigo that paled into an opaque white that became a stunning
saturated orange to the west, where the sun was a huge ball of flame.
Before us lay the swamp, isolated, lovely, and full of its own
secrets.

The boat floated
gently at anchor and I relaxed back, bringing Boone with me.

“You said
something when I was sick. Something I’ve been meaning to ask
you about.”

“What did I
say?”

“You said
you’d been discounted. What did you mean?”

“All my life
I’ve been pushed and prodded into being somebody that I never
was. The illusion of someone who fit into this world my daddy
created. I’m not the perfect preacher’s daughter. I have
bad thoughts, and I wanted to cut loose. I wanted to do things that
weren’t exactly what he preached about.”

I took a shuddering
breath, because this was at the core of me. “All I had inside
me was this constant fear of falling short. And, I did. I fell short.
So many times. And the worst part is, when I tried to tell him, I was
discounted…my feelings, my thoughts, my hopes and my dreams.
All of it was just shunted aside for something I didn’t want. I
couldn’t help thinking that, how could I live up to all that?
And now, Boone, now I know I couldn’t. I was just human and
imperfect.”

“That’s
why you said you were lost like me.”

“Yes, I was.
So lost. We’re alike because we both have endured expectations
and been thought of in general terms instead of as the individuals we
are. You by the townspeople and me by my daddy.”

“I’m
happy we got the chance to get to know each other.” He caressed
my face and pressed a soft kiss against my mouth. “I’ve
been drawn to you.”

“It’s
too bad we didn’t act on this and instead let ourselves be
isolated, not only from each other, but from ourselves.”

He nodded and kissed
me again, then we held each other and listened to the song of the
swamp, soothing and familiar.

#

Verity

“Verity?”

I heard Boone’s
voice as I entered the last number into his brand new spreadsheet.
“Here,” I called.

He came into the
office and glanced around with a look on his face that was
incredulous. Where the hell is all my crap?”

“Filed in
folders and you have new spreadsheets. Ways to bill and for receipts.
This will help with your taxes.”

“Holy shit,
Verity,” he said. “This is great. You really are
organized.”

“You’re
welcome. Just keep up with it and it won’t take you any time at
all. You bought Quicken, but didn’t even use it. Silly man.”

“I hate
paperwork. Wow, you organized my drafting table too. I like the cup
holder for all my pens, markers and shit.”

I smiled and stood.
“I’ve got to get going.”

“You have to
leave already?” he whined.

“Yes, I do.”
I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck.

“I was hoping
you’d show up in my weight room again,” his blue eyes
were quite full of hope.

“I meant to
ask you about that.”

“Yeah?”

“What other
jocks do you have in that drawer?”

His eyes went sly.
“Do you want me to model them for you?”

I had to take a deep
breath. “I’m not sure how many we’d get through and
whether or not you’d keep them on your delicious body.”

“Hmmm, sounds
damn good to me.”

I laughed as he
dragged me to his room. I was definitely going to be late calling
Aubree for a River Pearl intervention.