Beautifully Used (The Beaumont Brothers Book 2) Page 4

  She rolled her eyes, but took my hand and shook it. “Hi, Gabrielle.”

  “Nice to meet you, Gabrielle.”

  I studied the road as that uncomfortable quiet took over again. I decided it was going to be up to me to make this little adventure a more pleasant one. “So, Gabrielle, how’s life in San Diego?”

  “Not bad.”

  Jeez, this was like pulling teeth. She wasn’t going to make it easy on me that was for sure.

  “You, uh, moved down there for school, right?”

  “Back down there. My parents are from there, but now that the semester is over and I have two years completed, I’m transferring to Chico State this fall.”

  “That’s where I went.”

  “How was it? I mean, I’ve heard stories of kids dying from too much partying and stuff. I was a little reluctant to go there at first, but they have a really good English department.”

  “I only went for one year. Then I joined the San Francisco PD.”

  “The police department?”

  I nodded.

  “I have a hard time picturing you as a cop, but then, I guess the shoe sort of fits.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Well, I’ve heard that cops sort of have a reputation for sleeping around. Not all, but some. It’s probably that whole superhero complex that makes them think they’re God’s gift to women.”

  “Is that so?” I laughed

  She shrugged.

  “I see. And you think I sleep around a lot?

  She gave me a sideways glance and smirked. “Uh, yeah.”

  “I can’t help it if women throw themselves at me. They use me, I use them. It’s a beautiful arrangement.”

  “Brodie, I’m not a prude, but compared to you, I’m a virgin.”

  “You are?” I said in a shocked mocking tone. Then I wanted to kick myself because maybe she was.

  “I said, compared to you. Besides, if I were, I wouldn’t tell you, so you can wipe that silly smirk right off your face.”

  That was going to be difficult, but I gave it my best shot and changed the subject. Sobering my expression a bit, I said, “Weren’t you camping around Turtle Lake with your boyfriend when you spotted Lena at the parade? I sort of remember that guy, Weezer, saying something like that.”

  “I hate that I was the one to give her location away to that creep.”

  “It wasn’t your fault. You had no idea what he had done to her.”

  “I know, but she was—is—a very good friend, and I would never have told him had I known. I just feel horrible about it.”

  “I don’t think she holds it against you.”

  She fell quiet again, most likely feeling guilty about Lena, and I felt like a heel for bringing the subject up. “So, you have a boyfriend,” I asked, trying to lighten the mood. Besides, I was curious about that.

  “Not anymore,” she said softly and twisted her fingers together. For some reason, my insides swelled with giddiness and excitement.

  “You broke up?” My voice cracked a bit, making me sound like an eager fourteen year old.

  “Yeah.”

  “How come? Or is that top secret information?”

  She sat silent for a moment, staring out the window as though she searched the air for the answers, and I thought, shit, maybe it was something she didn’t want to talk about, especially if he had dumped her.

  “No, it’s not a secret.” She brushed a few stray hairs off her face that the air conditioner in the truck kept blowing there. “He didn’t want to leave Oregon when I moved back to San Diego last year, so we decided it was better to just part ways. We weren’t all that serious to start with, and he did too many drugs for my taste.”

  “Why’d you go camping with him then? I mean if he did drugs and you didn’t like it.”

  “I’d gone to appease my girlfriend. She sort of begged me to go because she wanted to be with her boyfriend, and didn’t want to be the only girl in the group.”

  I had a hard time keeping a straight face. I wanted to smile about her breaking up with her boyfriend. I decided a change of subject might be a good idea. “Why English?”

  “What?”

  “Why are you majoring in English? I thought you were studying music.”

  “I was. Am. Music is my minor. But I love writing. I realized that when I tried to write a song and it turned into a short story instead. So, I decided to make English my major with music as my secondary.”

  I wondered what sort of stories a girl like Gabrielle might conjure up. Would they be sweet and innocent like she seemed to be or would a wild side come out on paper allowing her to be someone completely different? We rode in silence the rest of the way into town, my mind on the girl sitting beside me. I knew I’d blown my chances with her last year, but for some reason, I was still pleased as peach pie on a summer evening that she no longer had a boyfriend. I turned the truck into the parking lot, feeling a little better about being stuck with Gabrielle now that I knew a little more about her and we’d cleared the air. I didn’t know much, but I knew some. And that was a start.

  Chapter 8

  Gabrielle

  I stared out the window remembering the real reason Don and I had broken up, and it didn’t have anything to do with me moving back to San Diego, or him doing drugs. He’d gotten tired of never getting anywhere with me. At least that’s what he’d said. Doing nothing but kissing all the time had lost its appeal. I didn’t want to give myself to anybody until I was certain about how they felt about me, or how I felt about them, and I just hadn’t felt all that much for him.

  I wanted to think about something else, and as I continued to stare out the window, my thoughts drifted back to the way I had betrayed Lena when I’d slipped up about her whereabouts to Troy. Sometimes, the guilt from that was very overwhelming, and I wondered how she could possibly still want to be friends with me, but I was thankful and so very glad that she did.

  Caught off guard when Brodie turned into a parking lot, my body accidentally fell against him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to turn so sharply,” he said as he helped me straighten. I quickly righted myself, noting the gentleness of his hand against my arm. A tingle ran down my spine, and I remembered how it felt when he’d laid his hand over my breast that time he’d kissed me, a completely different feeling then. The way I’d reacted, you’d think he’d grabbed me somewhere else. It wasn’t that it was bad. It did happen while he was kissing me, but it had been completely unexpected. I wasn’t ready for it. I knew from what Lena had told me that most girls jumped at the chance to be with Brodie. I suppose I shouldn’t have been so hard on him, knowing that’s what he always expected. Why would he treat me any differently? I still felt a little embarrassed about that virgin remark I’d made. Of all the stupid comparisons I could have used, why did I have to pick that one? So what if I were a virgin? I mean, I technically was. But the fact that it had been practically stolen from me a long time ago was something he didn’t need to know. Nobody needed to know that.

  “You have that list Lena gave you?” Brodie asked after getting out of the truck and locking it up.

  “Yeah, right here.” I pulled a slip of paper out of my purse and waved it at him.

  “Let me see.” Brodie stood a few feet away from me studying the list. This was really the first time I’d gotten a look at him since earlier in the kitchen. His now dry hair hung down close to his eyes, and he pushed it back with this hand. It didn’t help though as the curls settled back onto his forehead. He wore a black T-shirt that said, “Bass. Like a guitar but cooler.” His charcoal grey shorts hung low on his waist and stopped just below his knees. He donned black leather Reef flip-flops on his feet, and I bet they had a bottle opener on the bottom side but I didn’t ask. He glanced up from the list and scanned the area. “This way,” he said, pointing to his left and starting to walk quickly in that direction. His stride was twice as long as mine, so I practically had to run just to stay close behind him. Then he sudden
ly stopped walking and turned his head toward me. He didn’t say anything, but when I caught up, he faced forward and began walking again. This time a bit slower.

  It wasn’t a particularly large downtown area, certainly not as big as I had expected, but the sidewalk was busy with people window-shopping and eating ice cream, or frozen yogurt I guess since we’d just passed a “Yummy’s Frozen Yogurt” store sign a few feet back. The sun kissed my cheeks and warmed my skin. I suddenly wished I’d worn another one of the sundresses I’d brought with me instead of the capri jeans and tank. Except for the issues when getting in and out of Brodie’s truck, the dress would have been a much better choice as far as keeping my legs cool.

  We came to a store opening and stopped at the entrance. The sign outside read, Lucy’s Party Shop. The window decorations held an array of frilly, lacy things perfect for topping tables for weddings and parties.

  I looked at the list I held. “This is the first store on her list. I think we might find some of those things for the tables here.”

  Brodie made some sort of grumbling noise and stepped through the door. We came to a table covered with lace, ribbons, and pearls.

  “Ooooh. I think Lena would love something like this on each table.” Brodie’s eyes went to the vase I was admiring.

  “Maybe.”

  “Oh, and look,” I couldn’t help cooing at the display we stood in front of with all the lace and stuff for decorating tables.

  Brodie laced a string of pearls through his fingers. “Pearls. Yes.” He smiled and wiggled his eyebrows at me. I felt my cheeks flush pink, remembering yesterday and the underwear encounter in the kitchen.

  I took a picture of the small vase with my phone and texted it to Lena. Two minutes later, she responded with “Looks perfect!”

  All we had to do was reserve and pay for the stuff. It would all be delivered on the day of the wedding, so we didn’t have to carry any of it back. I did have the lady bag up one of everything for me to take with us though. I wanted to show it all to Lena in person when we got home.

  After reserving twenty of the vases, and at Brodie’s insistence, an equal amount of pearls to lace around them, we headed to the next store on the list. The flower store. At first, I wasn’t too keen on the idea of picking out all the flowers for Lena’s wedding, but after she showed me some pictures and told me what type of flowers she wanted, I relented. I did, however, send her another text with the cost along with pictures of everything, everything except her bouquet. That was coming from Jackson, and he wanted to surprise her with it. Brodie took care of it, knowing exactly what Jackson had told him to order. He wouldn’t even let me see the design, and he seemed to really get a kick out of that, gently shoving me away when I came too close to the book he was perusing, saying it was a secret. I stood on the other side of the room pouting, and he glanced back at me and grinned. It seemed Brodie Beaumont had a softer side, after all. I knew there must be some major gunk clogging up his brain from his past, wrecking him so badly and destroying the way he felt about relationships. That was the only explanation for him using women the way he did. But now, after spending time with him in the flower store, I was beginning to think that maybe there was another side to Brodie, one that he didn’t let out very often, which meant there was still hope for the guy.

  After paying and making sure the clerk had everything she needed for the delivery, Brodie turned to me on our way out. “You hungry?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good. I know the perfect place. Let’s put all this in the truck and go eat. He reached over and took the bags from me, then grabbed my hand, tugging me along toward the parking lot. After securing the packages in the cab of the truck, he locked the door. “Hope you like burritos,” he said as he grabbed my hand again before waiting for my response. I don’t think he did it to be romantic or anything. I think he held my hand because he was in a hurry to get to wherever he wanted to go eat because there was nothing romantic about the way he pulled me along. My feet had to do double-time just to keep up.

  The restaurant, if you could call it that, consisted of a counter just off the sidewalk with six stools in front of it and one guy behind the counter cooking. Luck must have been with us, because right when we walked up to the place, a guy and a girl stood and left two seats open for us. Just in time too, because after I sat down, I turned to see another couple walk up. They had to stand on the sidewalk and wait for more seats to free up. “This is the best burrito you will ever have,” Brodie whispered in my ear.

  The guy cooking handed a plate with one of the largest burritos I have ever seen smothered in red sauce to the guy sitting next to Brodie, then turned to us. “What’ll you have?”

  Brodie glanced at me. “Um …” I gave a quick look up at the menu above the cook’s head. Feeling a bit under pressure, I blurted out, “A number two,” not taking the time to read all the ingredients except for the word chicken, but I figured I couldn’t go wrong with chicken. Brodie ordered a number one, and I looked to see what was in that one. Carne Asada, but I stopped reading after the words hot green chili sauce.

  Chapter 9

  Brodie

  “You don’t like spicy food do you?” I asked Gabrielle as she stared at the large flour tortilla smothered in green sauce on the plate in front of her.

  She looked at me. “Um, no, I do. I just didn’t expect the green stuff on top. I guess I didn’t read the entire description before I ordered.”

  “You don’t like green chili sauce?”

  “No. I guess. I’ve never had it. It’s more that I don’t like green sauces.”

  “You’re joking right?”

  “No. Why?” she asked as she began scraping the sauce off the top of her burrito.

  “You mean you won’t even try it just because it’s green?”

  “When I was a kid, my mom made me eat brussel sprouts. After I ate them, I puked all over my plate. I haven’t been able to eat any sort of green slimy looking things since then.”

  “Sorry I asked,” I admitted, sticking the green, slimy chili sauce covered bite into my mouth. I laughed. “I’m going to try to keep that visual out of my head while I eat this.”

  “Good idea.” She smiled and took a bite from the inside of her now dry burrito. She ate the entire contents of the inside, never touching the tortilla itself, and was very careful not to let any of it touch any of the green chili sauce.

  It didn’t bother me that she didn’t like green sauces. After all, who was I to put someone down for his or her little quirks when I had plenty of my own?

  Chapter 10

  Gabrielle

  The mattress slumped down as a body crawled onto the bed, waking me from what was probably the most peaceful sleep I’d had in a very long time. I opened my eyes, but quickly shut them as the glare from the morning sun just about scorched them to a crisp, possibly blinding me for life. I’d forgotten to close the blinds again.

  “Wake up.” I squinted my eyes open to see Lena hunched on her knees beside me. The grin on her face was astronomically large and most likely had been there from the time she first woke up. “We get to go try on dresses today!” she squealed and jumped on her knees, making the bed and me shake.

  “Okay, okay. Calm down a bit. My brain needs to process that it’s morning first, then I can get excited,” I complained with a yawn.

  “I can’t wait for you to see the dress I picked out for you. You are going to look spectacular.”

  “Me? You’re the bride. You’re the one that’s supposed to glow with radiance. Nobody is supposed to outshine you on your big day.”

  “Oh, I’ll shine plenty, don’t worry, but you’re going to look so good. I can’t wait to see you in it. So get up and get dressed.”

  “I need coffee.”

  “Got it right here.” She jumped off the bed and handed me a cup that had been sitting on top of the dresser.

  “Thanks.” I closed my eyes, inhaling the robust smell of the caramel colored brew, then took a
sip. Lena knew just how I liked my coffee, a little half and half and a smidgen of sugar. “How soon do we need to leave?”

  “As soon as you’re ready. We need to go into the city.”

  “The city? As in San Francisco?”

  “No, not that city. Redding, where you and Brodie were yesterday.”

  “Oh. Good.” I yawned again. “Because I don’t think I’m up for a super long drive.”

  Lena giggled. “Me either, girl, but we have an appointment at eleven this morning. So we need to get going.”

  The drive into Redding went so much faster this morning with Lena than it did yesterday with Brodie. Maybe because we talked the entire time about the wedding and all the plans she had made, and I wasn’t feeling so self-conscious about Brodie’s hot body sitting right next to me for what seemed like an eternity during that ride. Lena talked most of the time about Jackson and how wonderful he was. This was the first time we’d had the opportunity to talk without Jackson or Brodie being around. The weird thing was, Lena mentioned that Brodie was hardly ever at home since she’d moved in, and she was surprised that he’d been there for the past couple of nights. She said he claimed he didn’t want to cramp their style, but she figured it was more Brodie’s style that had become cramped. That was one of the reasons they’d put a rush on things for the house so they could move out as soon as they were married.

  The sidewalks weren’t as crowded today as they were yesterday when Brodie and I were walking around, and the air had a slight chill in it, I noticed, tugging the sweater I’d worn a little closer for extra warmth. On our way to the dress shop, Lena and I stopped in front of a little shop to admire the shoes in the window. “We should go in here to get your shoes before we try on the dresses. That way if they need to hem your dress, they’ll be able to get the right length.”