Breaking Brent (23 page)

“No. I know you better than that. What’s the deal, Peyton?”

She closed her eyes so that any judgment or accusations he might throw her way would be missed and then spilled her guts.

“I just couldn’t go through it again.”

“Go through what, babe?” She felt Carter move his body closer to hers and the closeness helped free the emotions she had kept buried for so long.

“I couldn’t go through with hearing all the whispers. All the faint voices that started as soon as I walked passed. I can’t handle anyone feeling sorry for me or pitying me. I just can’t do it. The last time I was the main focus of the town gossip nearly broke me, and I’m not about to go through it again.”

“Was it really that bad?”

“Yes, it was that bad.” She propelled herself to her feet and paced a worn spot in her carpet and ranted and raved and let everything out. “Do you know what it’s like not to be able to go to the grocery because you know that someone is going to stop you, pat your hand and tell you everything’s going to be okay when you know it’s not?” Carter tried to speak, but she cut him off. “Do you know what it feels like to walk passed a group of women, women who are supposed to be your friends or your mama’s friends or your aunt’s friends and hear them whisper and wonder what went wrong behind your back instead of to your face?”

Again, Carter opened his mouth, but Peyton stopped him by holding up her hand.

“You know what the worst was? The worst was having to hear those three little words a girl never wants to hear attached to her name.”

“What three words are those, babe?”

“‘Bless her heart’, and stop calling me babe. I know you’re only trying to help, but it’s really starting to wear on my nerves.”

“Sorry, ba… Sorry. Bless her heart?”

“Yes, I know it’s not a big deal to you, but it is to me. Everywhere I went I heard it. Bless her heart, she looks pitiful. Bless her heart, she must be heartbroken. Bless her heart, I wonder what happened? As if they really cared. All anyone wanted to know was why it happened, when it happened and where it happened. Nobody really cared what it was doing to me. They just wanted something to talk about in the church parking lot after preaching.” Her tirade left her spent. She collapsed on the bed in a huff and covered her eyes with her arms, blocking everything out.

Blocking her room.

Blocking the fading daylight.

Blocking Carter—and her tears from his view.

“You done having your moment?”

Peyton didn’t lower her arms from her head, but she did answer him by nodding.

“Good, now that you’re finished losing your mind we can get down to business and get this whole mess worked out.”

“It is worked out. We aren’t engaged anymore. I have to tell my parents, my brothers, my cousins and my grandfather. What else has to be worked out?”

“This whole thing between you and Brent.”

“Color me crazy, but I don’t think that my ex-fiancé needs to be helping me get back together with my ex-boyfriend. It just seems wrong on too many different levels.”

“It is wrong on too many different levels, but we were friends first and we’re friends now, and friends help each other out.”

“Why would you do that?” Peyton propped her body up on her elbows and watched Carter smile down at her.

“Because I love you.”

“I love you too.” She pushed away from the bed and hurled herself into Carter arms and gave him the hug of his life.

“I’m going to need this back.” Peyton didn’t realize what he was talking about until she felt the ring slip from her finger. “You can’t hide behind it any longer.”

“I know.”

“Good, that’s a start. Now let’s me and you figure out how you can get Kiel and his overabundant amount of pride to listen to sense long enough so that you can tell him how you feel and how you can’t live without him.”

“I never said I couldn’t live without him.”

“You didn’t have to, darlin’,” he said with a smile on his lips.

“Fine. Lead the way Obi-Wan. And don’t call me darlin’.” She made her point by poking him in the ribs with her fingers.

“Would you prefer, well, bless your heart?”

“I hate you so much right now.”

“No, you don’t. You couldn’t even if you wanted to.”

She hugged him and squeezed his shoulder tightly before letting him go for the last time.

“All right, let’s pop some popcorn, do each other’s hair and figure our way outta this mess. Sound good?”

“You’re such a girl.”

Carter pounced on her and tickled and rolled her body until she was at his mercy and begging with every breath she could catch for him to stop. Peyton couldn’t help but notice this was the closest they had been in years. She liked it—it felt right. She wished that everything in her life felt as right as it did when she laughed with Carter. Her heart wished for a thousand things a second, but she knew that only a few of those wishes would ever come true. Some of the bigger ones would never come true at all—no matter how much her heart wanted them to.

After what seemed like forever, Peyton and Carter’s laughter stopped and the emptiness in her chest was settled low once again. She needed some space. Some time to clear her head and she told Carter so.

“How long you plan on being gone?”

“Not long. I have to be on shift at eight so I won’t be going far. Why?”

“No reason. Just wondering if I could borrow your car for a spell seeing how mine is still in Amarillo.” He gave her a boyish grin and she gave in.

“Fine, just be careful, and be back here by 7:30 at the latest. I can’t be late for work.”

“Man, your boss is a bitch.”

“Carter—”

“I’ll be back before you know it. Have a nice walk.” He was down the stairs and out the door before Peyton could count to ten. Peyton didn’t linger in the house either. As soon as she heard Carter back out of the driveway, she was out the backdoor, off the patio and into the pasture. She walked straight into the sun, loving how it moved farther from her as she moved closer to it. She found it ironic in a way, beautiful in another and heartbreaking to say the least.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Oh shit.”

“What?” Nick asked and then followed Hayden’s gaze and mimicked his brother’s sentiment. “Oh shit.”

“Hey there, boys. How’s it goin’? Been awhile.” Nick and Hayden both stared in Carter Nash’s direction, neither muttering a word.

“Is your brother around? I’d like to talk to him.”

“Which brother would that be?” Nick watched as Hayden stepped around the mare and closer to Carter. “If you’re looking for Chase, he’s on his honeymoon, I reckon you heard he got married.”

“Yeah. Sorry I couldn’t make it. Good for him though. Tell him I said so, but I’m actually looking for…” Hayden stopped him before he could go any further.

“We know who you’re looking for.” Nick watched Hayden cross his thick arms over his thicker chest and level Carter with his gaze. Being the older brother, Nick stepped in.

“I don’t think Brent wants to talk to you right now, and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to talk to him either.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t, but we need to talk. We’ve needed to talk for awhile.”

“You’re right.”

Nick’s eyes flew from Carter and landed on both Brent and Jace who stood just inside of the barn.

“Oh shit,” Nick and Hayden murmured at the same time.

“We need to talk.” Carter turned his back on Nick and Hayden and focused on Brent and Jace. Nick figured that was for the best. Carter needed to see whatever he had coming.

“I got five that says Brent takes the first swing,” Nick heard Hayden whisper into his ear.

“That’s a bullshit bet and you know it. I’d be a fool for taking it.”

“Twenty says Carter lands Brent on his ass first.”

“You’re on,” Nick said, and he and Hayden shook on it. It was probably in bad taste to bet that your brother would pummel his onetime best friend, but twenty bucks was twenty bucks.

“Say what you have to say, Carter.” Brent moved closer to Carter. Jace moved closer to Brent, and Nick and Hayden moved farther away from the entire mess. If the past had taught them anything, it was to move before being told to move.

“You’ve got to be one of the stupidest bastards I ever had the pleasure of knowing.” The barn was silent after Carter’s statement and Nick saw Hayden wince and take another step back.

“Is that what you came all the way out here to tell me?”

“That’s part of it.”

“Well, what’s the rest?”

“I’m getting to that.”

“Well, get to it then. What the hell’s taking you so long?” Brent crossed his arms over his chest and waited. Nick recognized the look he had on his face and, just for a moment, felt sorry for Carter and willed the man to leave before all hell broke loose. Carter was a decent enough fellow. His only mistake was taking what Brent considered his.

“I’m just wondering what she sees in you is all?”

“What who sees in me, Carter? If you’re going to talk in riddles I going to leave you to it and get back to what I was doing to begin with.”

“Peyton.” Carter flung her name in Brent’s direction and Nick knew it had struck a chord somewhere inside of Brent. Brent’s shoulders tensed, his fists clenched and his jaw tightened to the point that Nick thought it would break, but he never said a word.

“Whatever it is, she’s seen it forever. Made me mad as hell at first that she chose you, but then I realized it wouldn’t have worked any other way. Her heart was here with you and that’s what made her happy, then you had to go and fuck that whole thing up.” Carter said, his words soaked with the truth.

It was Nick’s turn to wince and wait for Brent to smack Carter a good one, but the punch never landed. To his and everyone else’s amazement, Brent remained still and silent listening to Carter’s detailed analysis of his stupidity as it concerned Peyton.

“Tell me something, did you think she was like every other girl you ever dated or had been with? Did you think she would lock herself in her room and wait for you to come back? Is that what you wanted? Did you need your ego boosted? You shoulda known better. You should have known Peyton wasn’t like the girls you usually surround yourself with, or used to anyway. You should have known she was better than that—better than you.”

“You about done?” The growl attached to Brent’s words echoed in Nick’s ears. He wished Carter would just shut the hell up, leave well enough alone, leave and marry Peyton so that his brother could have some closure—if there was any closure to be had.

“Hell, no. I’m just getting started.”

“Good to see you, Carter.” He tipped his hat, turned on a booted heel and walked toward the entrance to the barn.

“What the hell just happened? Did I miss something?” Hayden whispered into Nick’s ear, and he could do nothing more than shake his head in confusion. This indeed was new.

The last time Brent and Carter had been in the same proximity they both had walked away bloodied and bruised. Judging by Carter’s words and his insults, that’s what he expected to happen as well. He was goading Brent. He was pushing him. Nick realized why just as Carter stepped forward to follow Brent.

He was pushing Brent to know what feelings he had left for Peyton. He was pushing for a fight from Brent to see if Brent cared. Nick knew Brent cared, cared more than he let on, and knew that Carter was tiptoeing at the edge of an ass whooping. Nick figured he could help a fellow out.

“Carter,” Nick said, stepping around the man and blocking him from moving closer to Brent. “Just stop man. You’ve made your point. Just leave it alone. There’s no need trying to get blood from a turnip.”

“Or an emotion other than pissed off from your jackass of a brother.”

Nick glanced over his shoulder to see if Brent had stopped—he hadn’t. He was going to walk away from it all. Nick turned back to Carter. “You’re going to have to do better than that,” he said under his breath so only Carter could hear.

The look on Carter Nash’s face was priceless. It took him a minute, but Carter finally realized that Nick was indeed on his side. “You need to find a different path, my friend, because the one you’re on is not accomplishing shit. Make him mad. Make him have to stay. Make it to where he can’t walk away from you or how he feels about Peyton.”

“I can do that, but you might want to move in a minute unless you want a piece of his attitude.”

“Don’t worry about me. I can handle Brent. I’m just wonderin’ if you can?”

“I can hold my own.”

“I hope you can. Good luck.” Nick stepped to Carter’s side, saw Hayden cast him a questioning look and shook it off. The shit was about to hit the fan, and Nick had a front-row seat—he wondered if he really wanted one though.

“To tell the truth, I’m kinda upset about leaving town. Now that me and Peyton have called it quits I’d love to stick around and see how many men in this town line up to have a go at her.”

That was news to Nick. It was news to everyone. When the truth about Carter and Peyton fell from Carter’s lips, all the Kiel’s responded in turn. Hayden’s mouth fell open. Brent stopped dead in his tracks and turned to stare at Carter, who only smiled back at him and nodded his head. And Jason ran flat into Brent’s back when he stopped. It was a comical scene to say the least, but Nick knew the laughs were about to end.

“Peyton’s something to look at all right. All curvy in just the right places, places you and I both know every man in this town would give his left nut to see. I just wonder who’ll be the first to take our place? Wonder who she’ll compare them to in bed? Me? Or you?”

“You’ve made your point, now shut your fuckin’ mouth.”

“My mouth? It’s not
my
mouth you should be worrying about. It’s all these other fellows in town and their mouths. I can see them licking their lips now. Waiting in the wings to get a taste of Peyton James. I have to admit, it is something worth waiting—”

Carter never got a chance to finish his thought. Everything happened so fast Nick could barely keep up. Brent’s fist connected with Carter’s mouth a second before he could deliver his last pride-pricking word. Carter recovered quickly and returned the punch. It landed just below Brent’s right eye, but it didn’t stop his charge.