Celina (Connelly Cousins #1) (15 page)

Losing her appetite, Lina pushed the plate away and poured herself another cup of coffee. She didn’t have to wait long before Jamie was there, sliding into the booth across from her.

“Jamie, what’s wrong?” she asked, taken aback by his unkempt appearance. He looked almost as bad as she felt. His hair stuck out at odd angles as if he’d been running his hands through it, his white button down shirt was wrinkled, and an unexpected chestnut scruff shadowed his normally clean-shaven face.

“Did something happen? I thought you were supposed to be in Chicago till tomorrow.”

“I was,” he said. Meg came by with another ceramic mug and saucer, which he gratefully accepted. “I took the red-eye in last night. I had to see you.”

“Why?”

“Lina, I’ve been thinking. These last couple of weeks have been ... difficult.”

“Difficult?” she blinked.

“Yes. Being away made me realize that I don’t want to be without you.”

The bit of breakfast she’d managed to consume roiled uncomfortably in her stomach. “Jamie, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying I want you to marry me, Celina.”

As if she was in some kind of bizarre dream, she watched in horror as Jamie reached into his pocket and pulled out a black velvet ring box.

No, no, no...

“I realize this might seem like it’s coming out of left field, but I’ve been thinking a lot about this. You and me, we make sense.”

Unable to speak, she gaped at him, horrified.

“We’re both at a point in our lives where marriage is the next logical step. You are everything I’m looking for in a wife, Celina. You’re smart, you’re beautiful. You’re kind and funny and –”

“No.” The word came out as a choked whisper. 

“What?”

“No,” she said, stronger this time. “I can’t marry you, Jamie.”

“Why not? We get along great together, and I’ll make a good husband. I’ll take care of you, and - ”

“You would make a wonderful husband, Jamie,” she agreed, “and I care for you deeply, but ...”

“But what?”

“But I’m not in love with you.”

His face fell. He dropped his hand to the table, staring at the box as he turned it over and over in his fingers.

“I’m so sorry, Jamie. I never meant to mislead you.”

He laughed and shook his head. “Mislead me? No, you didn’t mislead me, Celina. You just made me fall in love with you.” Jamie palmed the box, then shoved it back into his pocket. His downcast look became one of grim determination.

“I’m not giving up that easily.”

Could this morning possibly get any worse? “Please, Jamie, don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”

“I could say the same to you.”

Feeling as though her head were about to explode, Lina grabbed her backpack. She had to get out of there before she completely lost it. “I’m sorry, Jamie. I just can’t deal with this right now.”

Lina only paused long enough on her way out to kiss her grandfather on the cheek. “Sorry,
Daideo
, I’ve got to run. I promise I’ll stop by again soon.” And then without looking back, Lina walked out the doors to the back lot, feeling the heavy weight of Jamie’s stare until she turned the corner.

L
ina opened up the throttle as much as she dared, putting Jamie, O’Leary’s, and Birch Falls behind her. Tears streamed unchecked down her face; some were from the wind, some were from the fingertip hold she had on her emotions. First her epic fail at seducing Kyle, then a wholly unexpected proposal from Jamie. What was next? 

Nearly an hour later, she arrived at the cabin. With a substantial decrease in speed, she turned into the almost-hidden drive. Had she not known exactly where she was going, she would have missed it entirely. Waist-high weeds and growth concealed the potholes and roots, making it difficult to navigate. Unwilling to damage her bike, she dismounted and walked it the rest of the way.

She stared up at the wooden structure, bracing herself against the inevitable wave of nostalgia. Surprisingly enough, it didn’t hurt as much as she’d thought. Nearly all of her memories of this place were good ones, and that helped temper the feeling of loss.

Thank God for small favors
.

Lina parked her bike outside the detached garage. Then, with a deep breath to steel herself, went inside.

It looked exactly as she remembered it, if a bit dusty. Old sheets covered the furniture, and a fair amount of cobwebs adorned the walls and corners. A closed-up, musty smell permeated the air, but nothing more than she would expect for a cabin left empty for a few years.

The first thing Lina did was open all the windows to air the place out. Then she turned on the taps and let the water run for a few minutes to flush out the pipes. Cleaning was a great way to exorcise demons, but that would have to wait until later, because she just couldn’t summon the strength.

Lina pulled a bottle from the still-fully-stocked liquor cabinet, blew off the dust, and sat on the big U-shaped couch. Her phone buzzed with an incoming text. She turned it off without bothering to check it. Feet up, she stared at the breathtaking view of the lake down below and sipped from the bottle of Jameson’s until the pain eased and her mind was sufficiently quiet to fall into a dreamless sleep.

It was dark when she woke, her neck stiff and her left arm numb from laying on it too long. A brief check of the mounted pendulum wall clock showed it to be after midnight. Had she really been out for almost twelve hours?

She yawned and stretched, wishing she’d remembered to pick up some food on the way when her stomach rumbled. Thankfully, a brief forage through the kitchen pantry yielded some non-expired canned provisions.

While her soup heated, Lina decided to bite the bullet and turn her phone back on. In the thirty seconds it took to establish a mobile data connection, the device blew up with messages. Some were from Jamie, which she promptly deleted without opening. A slew from Amy, first wondering how things had gone, then asking about dinner, then increasingly frantic texts because she hadn’t responded. There were even more from Johnny, which meant that Amy had probably called him.

Crap!
She’d forgotten all about sharing her hide-away plans with Amy. She quickly typed out an apologetic text:
So sorry! Lost track of time. Everything’s fine. Don’t worry.

Lina had just hit send when the sound of the front door opening commanded her attention. Two questions slammed into her head, one right after the other.
Who the hell is that?
Followed closely by,
Didn’t I lock the door?

Her self-preservation instincts wiped the last of the mental lethargy away. Lina snatched a cast iron frying pan in one hand and a marble rolling pin in the other, then crouched behind the counter, prepared to defend herself against an unwelcome houseguest/attacker. The voice that called out was neither.

“Lina? Are you in here?”

“
Michael!
” Lina leaped up and charged toward her oldest brother.

With a smooth, skillful move, he disarmed her even as she leaped into his arms, tossing the nefarious kitchen implements out of immediate reach. “Hey, little one,” he said in greeting.

“What are you doing here?” she asked excitedly, then pinned him with a stern glare. “When did you get back in town? And where the hell have you been for the last year and a half?”

Michael chuckled as she fired off a series of questions, giving her a squeeze before setting her down. “First things first. Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”

He gave her a look that told her he knew she was full of shit. “Because Johnny’s convinced you’ve been kidnapped or worse.”

“Crap.”

“Yeah, crap. What the hell is going on, Lina?” Without waiting for her answer, Michael thumbed his phone and put it to his ear. “Yeah, she’s here... Yeah, she’s fine... Yeah, she’s alone.” At the last, Michael looked at her questioningly.

She nodded in affirmation.

“Okay. Yeah, no worries. I got this. Talk to you tomorrow.”

Michael disconnected the call and slid the phone back into his pocket. “Start talking.”

Lina stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest. “Not until you tell me what you’re doing here and why I haven’t heard from you in eighteen months.”

He sighed. “Long story. What smells so good?”

“Canned soup, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“What kind?”

She shrugged. “Whatever was in the cupboard. I couldn’t make up my mind, so I mixed a few kinds together.”

“Good, then there’s enough for both of us. We can talk while we eat.”

It was as much of a concession as she could hope for. Michael was every bit as tenacious as Johnny, but where Johnny tended to have a volatile temper, Michael could simmer indefinitely. Of the two, Michael was definitely the more dangerous, and the least likely to fall for any attempt at misdirection.

“Fair enough.”

Lina washed a few bowls and spoons while Michael cleaned off the table. Once they were seated, Lina sniffed and took an experimental sip from a can of soda. There were several cases left in the pantry, and surprisingly, it didn’t taste too bad.

“So what are you doing here?” she asked, hoping to forestall her own inevitable confession.

“I was in Pine Ridge, talking to Uncle Jack and the boys about opening up a new fitness center over there.”

“A fitness center?”

“Yeah,” he shrugged modestly. “I’ve got a few now. Thought Birch Falls and Pine Ridge would make good locations.”

A spark of cautious hope lit deep in her chest. “You’re coming home? To stay?”

“Maybe,” he hedged. “What about you? I didn’t know you were back in town.”

“You would if you called once in a while,” she sniffed. “Where the hell have you been? It’s like you dropped off the face of the earth.”

“In a way, I did.” He held his hand up. “And before you ask, I can’t say any more than that.”

Lina nodded. Like their cousins in Pine Ridge, Michael enlisted in the service right out of high school. But where they had gone into the Navy SEAL program, Michael had opted for the elite Army Rangers.  

“Enough stalling. Tell me what has my normally intelligent baby sister hiding away from the world and who I have to kill.”

* * *

I
t took a while for Kyle to realize the loud pounding currently splitting his brain apart was coming from his front door and not inside his head. He half-rolled, half-dragged himself off the couch, knocking over several recently emptied bottles, now containing only a ghost of the spirits they once held. The crashing sound was enough to convince him that his ears were, in fact, bleeding.

It seemed that no amount of alcohol had been able to completely dull the pain, so he made do with drinking himself into a stupor until he passed out. At least then he didn’t have to face the crushing weight on his chest that made it hard to breathe, or the ache in his heart that made him want to cut it out himself. It seemed like a good plan. Got him through yesterday. And the day before that. Would probably do the same again today.

He was such a bastard. As much as he was suffering, he should have been suffering ten times more for what he had done. A hundred, maybe. But it was still better than what would have happened had he ruined Lina.

Squinting against the daylight – surely his eyes were bleeding now, too – he dragged himself over to the door and managed to turn the center of the knob enough to unlock it. His fingers tried to grasp the doorknob and slid off. 

Fuck it
.

“Where is she?” his younger brother Jamie demanded, pushing the door open too fast, too hard. Too goddamned loud.

“Who?” Kyle was not up for playing guessing games. Why the hell had he even answered the door? He looked longingly back at the couch.

“Who?!? You know goddamned well, who, Kyle! Lina. Where is Lina?”

Even her name was like a knife in his gut.  Of course Jamie was looking for Lina. He was in love with her. And Jamie was what Lina needed – a responsible, dependable man.  Not a tattooed, hell-raising biker. A fresh wave of misery swept through him. “How the hell should I know?”

“Was she here, Kyle?”

Yeah, she was, bro. And I nearly fucked her brains out but then decided to break her heart and toss her out on her pretty little ass instead.
“Was. Gone now.”

“When?” Jamie persisted, getting up in his face. “When did she leave?”

Too fucking long ago. Not long enough.
“I don’t know. What day is it?”

“Jesus. Saturday. It’s Saturday.” Jamie made a sound of frustration. “Son of a bitch, Kyle. If you hurt her I’ll - ”

Hell, yes, I hurt her
. “You’ll what, Jamie? Damn it, you know what I am.” Kyle sunk back onto the sofa, pressing his palms into his eyes, welcoming the blackness and the shooting white stars that flew across them as he applied more pressure. Maybe if he sat here long enough, Jamie would just go the hell away.

No such luck.  “Did you sleep with her, Kyle?” Jamie’s voice held a mixture of hope and dread. Little hope. Lots of dread.

I tasted her sweet flesh, made her come with my tongue, but got no more than my swollen head in her before I kicked her virgin ass out.
“No.”

* * *

K
yle was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a liar.  If he said he didn’t sleep with Celina, then he didn’t. It still didn’t explain why she’d been here, though. Jamie exhaled forcefully and looked around, noticing the state of things for the first time.  Not only was the place a mess, but Kyle looked like he hadn’t showered or shaved in days.

“Christ, Kyle, you look like shit.”

Kyle made a kissing noise and leaned against the back of the sofa. Jamie scowled and picked up one of the bottles strewn about, sniffing the open top. The pungent aroma was enough to make his eyes water.  “Looks like you’ve been on one hell of a bender.  What gives?”  He eyed Kyle suspiciously.

Kyle reached between the cushions and pulled out a half-full fifth of Captain Morgan.  Apparently he and the Captain had been real tight the last few days.  “Shit happens.  Life’s a bitch.”  Raising the bottle to his lips, he drank deeply.  Jamie watched his Adam’s apple bob up and down with each swallow before snatching it out of his hands.