Infatuation - A Club Destiny Novel (43 page)

Today, just like any other day, Kaleb was
going to give Travis a wide berth, not to mention, knock Zane
upside his head for telling on Sawyer. “Likely never if I had to
guess.” Kaleb chimed in, knowing that was the only sufficient
answer.

“
Did you hear back from
Carl Stranford?” Travis glanced over his shoulder at Kaleb before
returning his attention to pouring his coffee. “You were going by
his house yesterday?”

Suddenly wishing he’d had
more coffee, Kaleb rubbed his hand over the back of his neck trying
to squeeze some of the tension out. There never was a good time to
have this conversation with Travis, but now certainly wasn’t
it.

“
Yeah.”
He definitely stopped by Carl’s, just like he had several times
that week, but his brief conversation hadn’t resulted in anything
other than the expected
‘Let me think
about it, Kaleb, and get back with you.’

“
Shit,” Travis groaned,
obviously knowing what that response had been before Kaleb even had
to say it out loud. “That man keeps stalling, and I don’t know what
the hell for. You’d think he’d be ready to sell off a portion of
that land by now. He’s all but lost every one of his crops and to
tell you the truth, I’m getting damn tired of waiting.”

And if Carl didn’t do something soon, he’d
lose a lot more than just his crops, but Kaleb wasn’t going to
share that with Travis just yet. Until he had the chance to talk to
Zoey about it, he wasn’t ready to spread the devastating news.

Not to mention, it wouldn’t matter what he
told Travis because until he had a firm agreement from Carl, none
of it mattered. His oldest brother would just get even more pissed
off than he already was.

Walker Demolition – the company Kaleb and
his brothers had built from the ground up – had grown leaps and
bounds over the last few years, and instead of being content with
what they’d built, Travis was ready to venture in another
direction, expand their horizon’s he’d said.

Instead of focusing solely on tearing shit
up, Travis had come up with the idea to build a resort. Not that
Kaleb didn’t think it was a brilliant idea because he did. He was
just content with the tearing shit up part.

The plans he’d seen for a mega resort the
likes of which their small town had never seen, were underway.
They’d received the necessary approvals, and now the only thing
left to do was to secure the land. Travis had already bought out
two of their adjacent neighbors, acquiring a good three hundred
acres of decrepit old farmland, but he hadn’t been satisfied with
that. Now he was looking for another hundred that backed up to what
they’d already purchased. Only this land belonged to Carl
Stranford, an ornery old farmer who had been giving them the
runaround for the better part of the last six months.

“
Call him.” Zane’s tone
was laced with sarcasm. “Or better yet, go see him. Maybe some of
your macho intimidation will make him come to a
decision.”

Kaleb groaned.

Zane was the youngest of seven and
considering the age difference between him and Travis, he didn’t
remember much of the Travis they had all grown up with. The fun
loving, hang on by the seat of your pants guy they’d all wanted to
be like. But that man never returned from the four year stint in
the Army. In his place was the grouchy, unsmiling man that sat
before them now.

“
I might just do that,”
Travis snapped, before turning and walking out of the
room.

When the screen door slammed behind their
brother, Zane turned to Kaleb. “Why don’t you go talk to Carl? Or
better yet, Zoey?”

“
What does Zoey have to do
with this?”

Zane liked to give Kaleb shit about Carl
Stranford’s only daughter. Not only had she been Kaleb’s closest
female friend for the better part of the last decade, she was also
the woman Kaleb had always wanted, but never had. Despite the ever
present physical attraction, he’d somehow managed to be friends
with her without ever trying to push it any further, although he’d
wanted to.

More than wanted to.

Since she’d never shown even an inkling of
interest in him other than friendship, Kaleb had opted to take what
he could get and they’d established a very solid friendship. Hell,
the woman knew everything there was to know about him and most of
his brothers, yet she still chose to associate with him, so he
considered himself lucky.

They were infamous in their little town, but
that was mostly due to their wild and crazy behavior since about
the time each of them could walk. They were a rowdy bunch, and
there was a long list of rumors associated with them – some true,
some not entirely true. For whatever reason, Zoey chose to ignore
them, and for that, he was grateful.

Not that Zoey Stranford wasn’t as wild as
they came. That was partly what he found so damn attractive about
the woman. She didn’t care what other people thought about her, and
it seemed her one goal was to have fun and not hurt anyone in the
process.

So, he’d mastered the art of pretending when
it came to Zoey. First and foremost, he was her friend, but that
wasn’t the problem. His issue was in learning to hide the unbridled
lust burning deep and hot for as long as he’d known her.

And since his brothers had dubbed her the
one woman who wouldn’t give him the time of day, they loved to give
him a hard time about her.

It certainly wasn’t a hardship being friends
with Zoey, but it had gotten increasingly more difficult in the
last few years. Ever since she and that jackass Jason Tribbons
divorced, Kaleb did everything he possibly could to make sure he
kept his feelings for her hidden. But hell, he wasn’t a saint and
he wasn’t sure how much longer he could pull off the charade.

“
Zoey doesn’t have any say
in what her father does with that land,” Kaleb added as he watched
the wheels turn in Zane’s head. His little brother was going to
piss him off, he could feel it.

“
Yeah, but she likes you.”
Zane goaded. “I’m sure if she goes running to daddy, telling him
her boy toy wants to buy the land, he’d sell it in a
heartbeat.”

Boy toy?
“I know you’ve got something better than that.”
Kaleb pushed.

Kaleb had grown quite fond of his own dick
over the years, and he didn’t have any intentions of losing it,
thank you very much. Carl Stranford would just as soon cut off
Kaleb’s dick than let him date his daughter.

Carl was an overprotective son of a bitch
when it came to his one and only daughter, and he and Zoey had had
to clarify their friendship on more than one occasion over the
years. Granted, Carl was close to eighty now, and Zoey was very
much a grown woman who didn’t let her daddy tell her whom she could
see, but still...

Hell, he’d expected Carl to answer the damn
door with a shotgun in his hand the night he had taken Zoey to her
senior prom. Thankfully Carl hadn’t, but that was probably due to
Zoey’s mother who had liked Kaleb. Not that Kaleb could blame the
man. If a nineteen year old man had the balls to show up on his
doorstep asking to take his seventeen year old daughter to the
prom, Kaleb knew damn well that young man would know how acquainted
he was with his gun collection.

But true to his word, even back then when he
was ruled by hormones alone, Kaleb never laid a finger on Zoey, no
matter how badly he wanted to. And to this day, he’d never so much
as kissed her, and his dick knew it all too well.

Shaking off the thought, Kaleb pushed
himself out of his chair. “I’ll go talk to Carl. Until we get that
land, Travis won’t let it go.”

“
Nope, he won’t,” Zane
agreed as he stood. “Tell Zoey hello for me.”

“
Fuck off.” Kaleb grinned
as he walked out the back door.

Not fifteen minutes later, Kaleb was pulling
up to Carl Stranford’s house, wishing like hell he didn’t have to
do this again today. Thankfully Zoey’s truck wasn’t in the
driveway, which meant she was probably working – something Kaleb
should’ve been doing. Instead, he’d get the pleasure of explaining
to Carl yet again what he wanted and why he was there.

He pulled around to the back of the house,
put the truck in Park and climbed out. Stealing himself for the
conversation to come, Kaleb took a deep breath and looked around.
With the sun shining bright and not a single cloud in the sky,
Kaleb took in the vast landscape, looking off to the south as he
tried to picture the entrance to the resort as Travis envisioned
it.

He could see the massive
wrought iron gates in his mind, the ones that would be manned
twenty four hours a day by security, allowing only those invited to
come inside. Kaleb had seen the artwork for the gates design,
including the large “A” and “I” that would be welded into the
intricate iron design.
Alluring
Indulgence
, the name he and his brothers
all agreed on.

Given the type of resort they were looking
at creating, the name suited it. The goal had been to come up with
a name to reflect the carnal temptation they fully intended it to
be. So, thanks to an online dictionary and a case of beer, Alluring
Indulgence was born.

He wouldn’t lie, he was anxiously waiting
for the day they opened their doors, but in order for that to
happen, Kaleb had to convince Carl to sell him the land. With a
resigned sigh, Kaleb shut the truck door and made his way to the
side door of the house.

Rapping his knuckles on the wood frame,
Kaleb waited like he always did until Carl’s gruff voice instructed
him to “Come in.” The man never bothered to get up, nor did he
bother locking any of his doors so Kaleb let himself into the
large, typical farmhouse kitchen.

“
Mr. Stranford,” Kaleb
greeted Zoey’s father as he stepped into the living
room.

Instead of a greeting, Kaleb was met with a
muted “Hmmphh”.

Figures.

“
How are you today?” When
Carl pointed to the couch, Kaleb took a seat, keeping a smile on
his face and his eyes on the old man sitting in the
chair.

Just like in recent days, Kaleb felt an
overwhelming sense of nostalgia sitting on the couch in the
Stranford’s dated living room. With the dark wood paneling,
well-worn hardwood floors and a ceiling fan that had to have been
produced in the 1980’s, he was hit with flashbacks from his teenage
years. There was even the faint smell of cigarette smoke still
lingering, although Kaleb knew Carl had quit smoking long ago.

He and Zoey spent many days sitting right
there on the very same maroon and green, flowery couch Kaleb sat on
now, talking, laughing and avoiding the glares of one ornery old
man who continuously traipsed back and forth through the room,
making sure the up-to-no-good teenage boy in his living room wasn’t
somehow taking advantage of his sweet little girl.

“
Was doing fine until you
showed up.”

That was definitely the Carl he’d grown
accustomed to. He much preferred the ornery old man to the fragile,
forgetful one he’d spent hours with, as well. Carl had been
diagnosed with Alzheimer’s within the last year, and as each day
passed, Kaleb recognized more and more symptoms. At times, he was
positive Carl didn’t know who he was, even though he pretended
to.

“
If you’re looking for
Zoey, she’s not here.”

Kaleb barely heard him over the television
turned up loud enough for Carl to hear without the hearing aids he
refused to wear. Glancing over at the TV and then back at Carl, he
bit back a laugh when Carl sighed dramatically before turning the
volume down with the remote on the arm of his chair.

“
I’m not here to see Zoey,
Mr. Stranford. I’m here to see you.”

“
Ahhh.” Carl didn’t look
any happier than he sounded by the news. “Out to try and steal my
land again, are you?”

“
No,
sir,” Kaleb said, forcing back a smile. He was, of course, looking
to
acquire
some
of Carl’s land, but in his opinion, the offer was more than fair.
So, no, he was not looking to steal anything.

“
So, why is it that you
can come over to talk to me about my land, but you aren’t here
trying to woo my daughter?”

Kaleb couldn’t tell
whether Carl was serious or trying to jack with him.
Woo?
Seriously? Who said
woo anymore?

He couldn’t very well tell Carl that he’d
been thinking about “wooing” his daughter for some time now, but
had never gotten up enough nerve to do so. No matter how Carl
sounded, Kaleb wasn’t convinced he’d take any man’s intentions
toward his daughter as a good thing. Not after her devastating
divorce.

Shaking off that train of thought, Kaleb
focused his attention on Carl once more. “Mr. Stranford, I wanted
to stop by to see if you’d come to a decision about the land.”

“
What are you planning to
do with my land again?”

Kaleb’s hands balled into fists, but he kept
them hidden. He was fairly certain Carl knew exactly what he and
his brothers intended to do with it, but he figured he had no
choice but to oblige him.

“
Sir, we’re looking to
build a hotel.” Well, it was more of a resort, but he didn’t want
to go into the details.

“
A hotel? Like what? A La
Quinta?”

Fighting the urge to laugh, Kaleb shook his
head. “No, sir. Not a La Quinta.” Not by a long shot, he thought to
himself.

“
What do you plan to do
with my house if you build this hotel?” Carl asked, sincerely, his
forehead creased with worry.