Love Brewing (Love Brothers #3) (11 page)

“Just go.” Her voice had strengthened, taking on the
familiar all-business edge he’d known and loved for so long. “Check in with me
later.”

He ended the call before he uttered something stupid.
“Daddy, we gotta get up to Louisville. There’s been an accident.”

Of all the things Dominic had prepared for, his baby sister,
hooked up to a machine, her face wrapped in gauze, had not been it. He deflated
once they were let into her ICU room, dropping boneless into the single, stiff,
vinyl-covered chair next to the bed while his gut executed queasy flips.

Their father had roared with fury, demanded to speak to
every single doctor, nurse, and orderly in the place. Lindsay had to
practically sit on top of him to get him to be quiet so they could listen when
her doctor finally did show up to give them the horrific details. Her gaze and
voice remained steady, asking questions, writing down a few things before the
docs scurried off to the next human disaster.

They’d been allowed to see Angelique one at a time, but had
been assured once she stabilized she’d get moved to a room where everyone could
be together. But now, looking at her closed, bruised eyes, her swollen lower
lip still crusty with dried blood, utterly helpless to go back in time and
change anything about it, Dom honestly thought he might be having a heart
attack. But he took long breaths, stroking her arm and trying very hard not to
notice that three of her fingernails had been peeled off during her struggle.
His fingers shook, touching what little of her arm and face he could.

“Baby sister,” he whispered. “Why didn’t you tell us?” Rage
made his vision wonky. But he kept talking to her. “Damn girl, you have four
grown, overprotective brothers, but you don’t once say to any of us that the
boy you dumped was a psychotic freak?” He touched her arm, willing her to
answer him. The bastard had hurt…he gulped…had raped her, beaten her, and left
her in the snow by the side of the road.

He clenched his fists, thinking hard about just what he’d be
doing for the next little while, until he found the asswipe who’d hurt his
sister. Every inch of his skin burned and a strange noise deafened him as he
focused on Angelique, their angel, they used to call her when she’d been a
picture-perfect baby.

Lindsay had been so thrilled to finally have a girl, but the
fifth pregnancy and difficult labor had weakened her. She’d spent a lot of time
in bed while newborn Angelique cried her way through the nights. Anton had
taken over, obsessing over the infant girl, walking the floors, giving bottles,
driving her all over hell’s half acre so she’d finally, please God, quit crying
and go to sleep. Dom and his brothers helped out with her too, even Aiden who’d
been too young to do more than heat up the bottles and empty the smelly diaper
trash.

Dom glanced up when some kind of alarm went off near her
head. A bunch of medical types shooed him out, leaving him outside the window
alongside his family. After a while the nurse poked her head out the door and
motioned for Lindsay.

“She’s waking up, but she should stay under a while longer.
They had to take out her spleen and repair her kidney, so her body still has to
rest in order to heal. It’s okay though. Her wanting to wake up is a real good
sign.”

The woman patted Lindsay’s shoulder and headed down the
hallway. When his mother turned back to the men, Dom felt a split-second of
anger run down his spine at her stoicism. The two Love women had never gotten
along well, almost from the moment Lindsay had emerged after being bed-bound
for a few weeks. Nothing she did would calm or please Angelique as an infant, a
toddler, or a little girl. The girl had firmly bonded with her father. She
would do anything for Anton, and adored her brothers, assisting in their
misbehavior, never ratting anyone out.

Her dance hobby had become something more by the time she
was eleven or so and Dom remembered thinking that maybe that would help her get
along better with Lindsay. Their mother had been the one to drive her to all
the practices and competitions since the boys were occupied with either college
or sports by that time. While things had cooled somewhat, it remained cool in a
way that baffled him since he figured the two women would be thick as thieves
in the midst of all the testosterone suffusing their house.

But it had never quite worked out that way. And now, the
helplessness he felt as Lindsay watched her beautiful, battered daughter lying
on the other side of the thick ICU glass settled over him like a thick,
smothering blanket. His mother bit her lip and put her palm against the window.
A tear slid down her cheek.

“I can’t believe she let this happen. Why in the hell didn’t
she come to one of you?”

“I don’t know, Mama.” He patted her awkwardly.

“Girl always was a silly, stupid romantic. Thinking boys
were the be-all and end-all.” Lindsay took a tissue from her purse. “Can’t
believe I raised such a naïve little….”

“Don’t bad-mouth her,” Anton insisted, pulling Lindsay away
from the window.

“Well, at least now the spotlight’s off you.” Kieran gave
Dom another cup of weak coffee. They sat and sipped as their parents calmed
each other down.

“Let me use your phone. I have to call Di.” He got up and
headed around the corner for some privacy. When she answered, he slumped into
the doorway of an empty room. “I hate hospitals.”

“I know. What happened?”

He told her, leaving nothing out. When he glanced up, fury
choking him all over again, he saw a man in an EMT uniform, hovering and
looking lost.

“Okay, well, she’s there for a while, I suppose.” Diana’s
voice jarred him out of his perusal of the somehow familiar guy.

“Yeah, but I’m gonna head out with Antony. He has to open the
garage and I have to get out of here or I may kill somebody. What does Dale’s
brother look like anyway?”

“Not sure, but I think sorta like a taller version of Dale
only with darker hair. Why?”

“Because I think he’s standing here right now. I’ll be home
in a couple of hours.” He ended the call, before acknowledging he’d called her
house
home
.

“Hi.” The EMT guy approached, holding out a hand.

Dom shook it. “Let me guess, you’re Dale’s younger brother.”

“Well, you’re half-right. I’m older. You’re Dominic?”

“Yeah,” Dom said, liking him already. “She’s over there.
Thanks for…you know….” He had to look down at the floor when his throat closed
up again.

“Well, it’s sure lucky I chose that moment and that spot to
take a leak, I guess.” Cal rubbed his jaw. “Damn, she’d still be laying there
if….” He shook his head.

“You can go see her.” Dom pointed to the half open door.

“No, no, that’s all right.” The man backed away, panic and
longing taking up equal space in his eyes. Dominic decided that, close up, the
guy did look older—probably his own age, even.

“Seriously, dude, it’s fine. What’s your name anyway?”

“Cal. Calvin, but nobody calls me that but my mama.”

“All right, Cal, go on in and see for yourself she’s all
right, thanks to you. But if you have any idea where that sorry son of a bitch
who did this to her might be, you’d better tell me now or we ain’t gonna be
buddies anymore.”

Cal shrugged, keeping his gaze on Angelique’s door. “I wish
I knew. But I do know the investigating officer real well. I’ll make sure he
talks to all of us…to all of you, I mean.” Cal’s skin reddened at his slip-up.
Dom clapped him on the shoulder.

“She’s lucky you came along, man.” And for more reasons than
one, he thought as he pushed the hapless, obviously love-struck man through his
sister’s hospital door.

Antony pulled into Diana’s newly plowed drive and threw the
car in park. He white-knuckled the steering wheel for a minute, then glanced
over at Dom.

“I will fucking murder that asshole. After I slice off his
nuts, make him eat them, then shove his dick up his own nose.”

“I’m with you, brother, but after some sleep. Let’s talk in
the morning. Aiden’s staying up there with Daddy and Mama tonight.” Dom climbed
out into the biting wind, head pounding from lack of food and an overabundance
of rage.

He stumbled into the kitchen, propelled by the wind and
exhaustion. He knew he should rest, but also knew that he probably
wouldn’t—he’d be too obsessed pondering the pleasant possibility of pounding
Angelique’s former, soon-to-be-dickless, boyfriend into a pulp.

Head aching and heart pounding, he snagged a bottle of
bourbon from the liquor cabinet, decided not to dirty a glass and took a long,
warm drink from the neck of it. After a couple more of the same, he poked up
the embers in the grate, put a few more hickory logs on top of them, and sat on
the floor, mesmerized by the dancing flames, contemplating his upside-down
life.

A pair of familiar bare feet appeared next to him. Blurry,
he reached out and put his hand on the strong, smooth calf, then got up on his
knees and tugged down the shorts he encountered. He gripped Diana’s ass, kissed
her stomach, then lower, finally landing where he wanted to be.

Her fingers gripped his hair. She spread her legs and let
him taste her, touch her, tease her. Shivering, she dropped to her knees and
brushed at his face. He took a long breath, teeth chattering with a combination
of desire and deep, dark remorse.

“Diana—”

“Shh…it’s all right.”

She tugged his shirt up and off, shoving down the sweats
he’d thrown on what felt like weeks ago while still at the gym.

Something about the moment was definitely wrong, but his
body demanded he act on it. “I don’t think this is a great plan.” He exhaled
when she fisted his dick right before he kissed her.

She kept rubbing, slowly, surely, knowing what he liked. He
groaned into her mouth, his fingers buried in her hair.

“That’s my boy….”

The memory of his father’s words made him groan, knowing he
shouldn’t do this with her, here, now, after all they’d been through. He had no
idea what he wanted. He knew he should get away from her, find someplace else
to live, possibly not even in this town or this state, or even this stupid
country. But she tasted, smelled and felt so…very…perfect….

He eased her down onto the rug, noting how the firelight
threw shadows on her skin. He slid his hands up her thighs, hips and waist then
dropped down over her so he could take first one, then the other nipple into
his mouth. She had her legs up, circling his hips and then, he was inside her,
moving fast, hard, as the room went dark from the outside of his vision.

They lay together on the rug after, her head on his chest,
his fingers in her hair, tears drying on his cheeks. He hurt all over from the
manual labor working for her brother-in-law, managing renovations on the old
barn, setting up the
Kombucha
brewery, basketball, and plain old mental
anguish.

“Don’t leave me,” he said into her hair, knowing even as he
spoke that if Kent showed up, he’d bolt—he’d run from them both in his usual,
cowardly manner. Dom held her tighter when she stirred and tried to get up off
the floor. “Diana, I love you.”

She jerked out his arms, found her shirt and pulled it down
over her head. “No, you don’t. I’m….” She took a long breath and met his eyes,
half her face still glowing in the flames, the other, in shadow. “Lee asked me
to marry him.” She dropped her gaze, stood up and put her shorts on. He sat
rubbing his face and attempting to process her words.

“So that means you’re…getting married?”

“Did I stutter? Didn’t think so. You’re gonna have to move
out. I can’t have you here….” She moved to the sink and turned to face the
window.

“Tempting you?” He dropped onto his elbows, thinking he’d
charm her out of this, and back into his arms.

“Go to hell.”

“Already there, babe, already there. Now, come on over here
and jump into its warm depths with me. I’m still horny.” He wasn’t, but when
confronted with the sort of terrifying emotion gripping him right then, he
usually deflected by being a jerk, or reverting to horn-dog type. She glared at
him, fists clenched at her sides, her color high. And like that, his statement
became a fact.

Dom got up without a word, walked over and kissed her,
aching to be connected again, to convince her that he could be a good guy, if
she gave him half a shot at it. Knowing it was way too late in this game for
it.

She wrapped around him, letting him touch and kiss her
wherever he wanted. “Oh God, Dom, yes,” she hissed as he picked her up and sat
in one of the kitchen chairs, lowering her down onto his aching flesh, making
them both exhale at the moment of connection. She ground down as he felt every
nuance of her onrushing orgasm. When she cried out, gripping him so hard he
grunted, he joined her, face pressed into her sweaty tits, their hips moving in
perfect rhythm.

She paused, giving him a small modicum of hope. But she
jumped up, grabbing paper towels and looking at him with a kind of neutral
expression he didn’t like at all. He tried to take her arm but she sidestepped
and reassembled her clothes, leaving him sitting there, naked, sticky, arms
dangling at his sides, legs sprawled out in front of him.

“I am marrying Lee,” she said. He sucked in a breath at the
firm finality of her words. “You can stay here a few more weeks, but after
that, I’m done with you. For good. Do you get me, Love?” She cupped his chin,
putting her mouth close to his. “Done.” She bit his lower lip, hard, then
walked out of the kitchen, which had gone cold now that the fire had finally
flickered out.

Then

Diana studied her fingers as if from a strange distance.
They were raw from stringing and snapping mounds of beans and scraping corn off
the cobs. But she could barely feel them. She felt nothing much really, other
than the intense pain in the dead center of her chest that only Dominic Love
could inflict.

“Diana.” Her mother’s voice was sharp. Diana glanced up and
caught her sister frowning at her as she supervised the steaming vat of glass
jars. “Make yourself more useful, please. I’m sick of all your mooning.”

A huge sigh escaped her lips as she looked at the bushel of
kale and turnip greens that required picking through, washing and picking
through again before they could be frozen for later use.

“Young lady, if you make that noise that one more time, I’ll
knock you into next week.”

“Ow, Mama.” She rubbed her skull where her mother had
bestowed a not-so-gentle flick of her fingers. The virtual bubble wrap she’d
been encased in since the end of the school year didn’t allow for much in the
way of physical sensation anymore, but she definitely felt the intention behind
that. “Sorry.” She pulled the basket closer and grabbed the first of many
bunches of dark green leaves.

After a couple more hours of work completed more or less in
total silence, Diana excused herself, wanting to escape the house’s steamy-hot
interior and unspoken tension. “I need to…let Pepper out of his stall.”

Her mother shot her a patented, withering glare but waved
her away. Jen followed her to the door, taking her arm at the last minute. “Do
not go to him, Di. I’ll know it if you do and I swan I will drag you away by
your hair.” She tightened her grasp. Keeping her gaze on the back porch and the
expanse of late summer burned up grass beyond it, Diana jerked free and stomped
out the door.

“You’re not the boss of me, Jen.” She whirled around at the
last minute.

“I mean it, Diana.” Jen’s eyes were dark. “You have to break
free of him now, for good. You’re headed to college and have your whole life
ahead of you.”

“Who are you, Oprah? Jesus. Spare me.” Diana stomped down
the wooden steps and ran as fast as she could across the crunchy grass. Inside
the somewhat cooler air of the barn, Pepper whinnied, probably thinking it was
ride time. But Diana merely buried her face in the animal’s neck. The horse
tolerated it about five minutes then started stamping his foot and flicking his
tail so Diana let go and slumped against the wall, hoping she hadn’t landed in
horseshit. Although that would be beyond appropriate right then.

She grabbed the saddle making Pepper prance in excitement.
Diana kept sniffling, recalling how Dom had acted when she’d shown up at his
house to drop off a bushel of cucumbers and tomatoes at her mother’s request.

After an hour of pushing the horse to his limits, she found
herself at the edge of Antony Love’s property, headed toward the pond, having
jumped the fence with little effort.

She dismounted and smacked the animal’s flank, sending him
trotting toward the edge of the water. The sun baked her skin as she dropped
into the grass. She drifted, reliving the horror of the last time she’d seen
Dominic despite her efforts to repress it. He’d looked so much older, home
after his second year of college to work for his family’s brewery. He’d cut his
hair, which she didn’t like. His dark eyes had danced with mischief that she’d
mistaken for delight.

“Missed you at my grad party.” She’d punched his shoulder
playfully trying not to reveal how upset she still was that he’d stood her up
when the rest of his family had attended, looking a little sheepish.

“Yeah, sorry. Had a thing…you know.”

It had devolved from there, ending when he reminded her of
her status—that of his
ex
-girlfriend, in front of a couple of his jerk
off friends and two girls she didn’t recognize all gathered around him on the
patio. She rolled over onto her stomach and in an attempt to force recent
memory out of her brain, observed the tiny ecosystem going about its business
in the grass. The sounds of late-season bugs and Pepper’s gentle snorts drowned
out the roaring in her head long enough for her to relax a few minutes.

“Hey.” A deep voice woke her and she scrambled to her feet
in a panic. “Oh, hey, Di,” Antony said with a smile. Dom’s oldest brother stood
in shorts and a soaking wet T-shirt. His expression, so much like Dom’s, bore
her no anger, but she couldn’t help but read a twinge of pity in them. She
wiped the grass off her front, hoping to hide the flush of embarrassment
creeping up her neck.

“Hi. Sorry. Just dropping by to water the horse.” She moved
to snag Pepper’s reins, but the animal had seemingly disappeared.

“He’s up at the barn.” Antony jerked his thumb over his
shoulder and then knelt down to splash water on his hair. She studied his broad
shoulders for a beat, trying to find words to express why she’d come here.

“I figured y’all jumped that back fence. I really gotta fix
that damn thing. So busy, though, with the baby and all.” He flopped onto his
butt with a groan.

Diana crouched down next to him, poking a stick into the
mud. Words bubbled up in her throat, questions about Dom begging to be asked,
but she swallowed them, unsure how to begin. Antony had always been
intimidating, with his tall, dark, handsomeness and his renowned quick temper.
She had no idea how a guy like him and a girl as bitchy as Crystal Shelton had
managed to not kill each other much less find happiness together. But they’d
gotten married and now had a baby, much to Crystal’s mama’s fury, according to
her own mother. Antony had successfully revived the languishing family car
repair place though, and things seemed to have settled down for the two of
them.

“So, Germany, eh?” She glanced over at Antony’s sharp
profile. He nodded, keeping his gaze across the pond. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s all right. I’m just pissed off at him, mainly for
causing so much trauma for our mother. He’s a real selfish prick sometimes.”

“Yeah. I’ll go with that description.”

He chuckled. “I don’t know why you put up with his sorry ass
for so long, Diana. Honest to God.” He grabbed a rock and chucked it into the
middle of the pond. “You’re headed to college soon, right?”

She swallowed the urge to snap at him for being yet another
person who thought that going to college would in any way dampen her feelings.
Mainly because in the logical part of her brain, she knew damn well her sister,
parents, Dominic’s brother, her friends all were right—she had to move on.

Problem was, she didn’t want to. She wanted Dominic, heart,
body and soul and she had for such a long time she didn’t know how to exist any
other way.

“That’s a good thing. Didn’t work for me, of course. Or Dom,
it would appear.” He smiled and draped an arm over her shoulders. “He’ll be
home soon, I’m sure. What you do about that when it happens is up to you. I
wish he’d just admit that…well, never mind.”

“But, why Germany?”

“He claims he wants to be a master brewer. Which means he’s
gotta go to some school there.”

“School? How will he pay for it?”

She knew that Dom’s father had told him in no uncertain
terms if he got it in his fool head he had to leave his own country to learn
more about brewing beer than he already knew, he would be doing it on his own
nickel. Bad news about other families travelled faster than a scalded cat in
their small town.

“He’s got a fair bit of cash squirreled away and of course,
there is the Bank of Big Brother Antony.” He shrugged. “Yeah, well, it’s mostly
on his own, but I gave him the money for the plane ticket and a few bucks to
get settled. I just hope he doesn’t do anything too stupid to get money for the
school. Oh, wait, sorry, we are talking about Dominic here. I’m sure it’ll be
stupid.” He stood and helped her to her feet.

“Do you think he loves me?” she blurted out.

He raised a dark eyebrow. “Well, I think he ought to. Come
on, let’s go see what we can find for lunch.”

She gulped and followed him. “Pepper all right out there?”
She pointed to a clump of horses standing close, nose to rump, hanging out the
way horses do.

“Sure.” He squinted into the sun. “My two could use a break
from harassing each other. I figure on moving Mama’s fancy horses out here
soon, once she decides to give up her boarding space at Keeneland.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sure she’ll miss going there.” Diana knew
Lindsay Love had been a champion in her day and had given it all up for…love,
she supposed, plain and simple.

“Yeah. Well, sometimes things go in a way we don’t plan, but
it all works out. At least I like to think so since it resulted in me and my idiot
brothers. Hope you don’t mind holding the baby. She’s usually awake this time
of day.”

“Happy to.” Diana smiled at him, thrilled to be anywhere
near Dominic’s family at that point.

He grabbed her arm. “Don’t put up with him, Di. You deserve
better.”

“Yeah, probably.”

He grinned at her, looking so much like Dominic it made her
breathless. “Come on, race ya!”

That night she sat on the screened porch, listening to the
frogs and crickets. The house creaked when an unexpected wind picked up,
ruffling the ends of her damp hair. She’d managed to stay over at Antony and
Crystal’s after a pleasant lunch of tuna salad and iced tea, playing with baby
AliceLynn and watching a Reds game on their television. At one point, she’d
blushed when she’d seen them cuddled up on the couch, kissing.

When the baby had fallen asleep in the middle of the floor,
Diana had tucked her into her crib and snuck out past them. Not that they
would’ve noticed considering how far into a make-out session they’d gone while
she’d been taking the baby to her room.

She sipped her lemonade and put her feet up on the old trunk
used for a table, considering what lay ahead—a life devoid of Dominic Love,
once and for all. Anger filled her chest—at him of course, but mostly at
herself for not being able to let go of him. Crystal Love had put it as bluntly
as anyone while they loaded the dishwasher after lunch.

“Dominic is a lost cause, Diana. Let him stay that way.
You’re way too smart and pretty to pine after a horse’s ass like him, sorry
Antony.”

Antony had been holding AliceLynn, trying to get her to eat
from a spoon and smearing them both with some kind of baby food slime. “She’s
right, Di. As much as it pains me to tell her that.”

Crystal had stuck her tongue out at her husband, and wiped
AliceLynn’s messy cheeks. He’d put the spoon down and grabbed at his wife,
making her squeal before planting a kiss on her bare midriff, bringing a squawk
from the baby at being squeezed between them.

She knew the odds were stacked against Antony and Crystal.
They’d married young, had a baby early by accident, had a mortgage, a business,
and busybody families more or less counting on their failure. But despite all
that Diana knew they’d make it.

She got up and repositioned the ancient box fan so the
breeze cooled her face. When a shadow passed by her peripheral vision, her
heart sped up. But she couldn’t give in to it. She refused to let him use her
for a goodbye mercy screw, despite how much she wanted to have him hold her one
more time before he left.

“Go away.”

The shadow moved again and filled her vision. The screen
door creaked. He knelt in front of her, arms around her waist, his cheek
resting on her bare thighs.

“I’m sorry I was such a dick earlier.”

She ran her palm across the exposed side of his face and touched
her fingers to his lips. “You have to go.” She shoved him off her and jumped to
her feet, trying to put some distance between them.

He rose, unfolding slowly, more graceful than any man-boy
had a right to be. She bit her lip, moving away from him until her butt hit the
doorknob. He kept moving toward her, half in shadow, broad shoulders crowding
out everything else in her universe. When he touched her cheek, she leaned into
his palm, knowing she’d do whatever he wanted.

“I’ll be back, Diana. I promise. Wait for me?” He pulled her
close, tucked her hair behind her ears and kissed her before she could protest.

“Yes,” she sighed into his mouth. “Yes. Yes. Yes.”

He picked her up and carried her to the couch, and drove all
thoughts of the colossal mistakes she continued to make over him from her
brain. As he entered her body after drawing a bittersweet climax out of her
trembling body, she cradled his face between her hands.

“Don’t close your eyes,” she demanded. “Look at me,
Dominic.”

He did as he moved against her and when he came, he said as
clear as day, “I love you.”

She sucked in a breath and held on tight, wanting to believe
him and knowing she was the world’s biggest fool for doing so.