Where It All Began (Phoenix Falls Series)

After Kaleb finishes sheathing the hay pastures he takes his cue to dip.

“Why’s he leaving? Doesn’t he like me or something?” River asks as Kaleb re-emerges from the cabin, newly showered and dressed in clothes that aren’t ninety-percent hay.

I flash my eyes over to her. “Er, not exactly.”

“Then why isn’t he helping Tate and Madden finalise the new panelling on the barn? We aren’t sleeping in his room, so I didn’t think that us hanging out this weekend would be a problem.”

Yeah, they aren’t sleeping in his room, they’re going to be sleeping in the guest room.

Meaning that Madden is now on the market for a new location to crash.

My brain does a fizzy short-circuit when I think about where that situation could lead.

I shiver. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

“He wants to stay over with some of his other buddies whilst the band is having their downtime. They never get to stay in town so it’s a treat for him.” Half true, so that’s good enough.

“Oh.” Slightly perkier now. “So who’s he staying with?”

I let out a nervous chuckle. “Um, some guys who were in the same year as him at high school. You might remember them – er, Chase and-” I lower my voice. “A guy called Tyler.”

Her eyes flick to mine, shimmering with newly awoken interest. “And why is Tyler’s name a secret?” she asks.

I whip around to ensure that Madden isn’t in the vicinity and then I hiss, “It isn’t.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Convincing. It wouldn’t have anything to do with M-”

“Yes, fine, yes it does,” I say quickly and she quirks me a pleased little smile.

“Go on,” she encourages. Shameless. For some reason we’re also heading over to where Kaleb’s hauling ass into the Chevy so hopefully he’ll be able to act semi-normal around River today.

I whisper quickly, “Tyler used to be in the band but dropped out before they went on tour. They sort of fizzle when they’re near each other. Maybe they both mutually hate each other or something.”

“Or both mutually like you,” she mutters, giving me a pointed look.

I blush and then look away, grateful for the impending distraction of watching Kaleb pee his pants.

He must have heard us coming because he sighs once we’re right behind him.

“You gonna keep those rain clouds away from my hay whilst I’m gone?” he asks, his back to us as he stuffs some of his junk up in the backseat of the truck.

I roll my eyes. “Your hay?” I ask, amused. I turn to River and mumble, “The guy cuts the fields down once and suddenly it’s ‘my hay’.”

A laugh tinkles out of her and apparently it shoots right up Kaleb’s spine because he instantly jerks upwards and smashes his head against the roof of the car. He grunts, rubs a hand through his hair, and then hauls himself out of the truck, an expression of sheer panic on his face as he looks down at us. Well, more specifically, as he looks down at her. He takes one glance at her little gingham dress and his pupils dilate like he’s on crack.

“Er, sorry,” he says, for no reason whatsoever.

“What for?” River asks, smiling cutely. Totally oblivious to the sweat running down his cheekbone.

“Er, nothing, sorry.”

I have to physically restrain myself from face-palming this idiot.

“Have a nice time with your friends,” she says, her cheeks apple-ing.

Honestly Kaleb should count himself lucky because if he wasn’t my brother there isn’t a cat’s chance in hell that River would be wishing him a polite adieu.

He swallows. “Thanks.” Then he clumsily shoves himself into the driver’s seat. He’s giving off busting-for-the-bathroom vibes but interestingly River doesn’t seem too spooked. She gives him a quick wave and then we turn for the barn.

“That was nice of you,” I say, eyeing her curiously.

“I fucking love your truck,” she mutters, and a laugh bursts out of me.

Of course she wasn’t saying goodbye to Kaleb. She was saying goodbye to the truck.

“That makes a lot more sense,” I confess, and she gives me a guilty smile.

“Anyway,” she says, chipper again. “Why not make the most of having all of these handymen around to do your work for you today, and give your high school best friend an evening of fun on the farm?”

“First of all,” I say, holding up a halting hand. “This is a ranch, not a farm.”

“Tom-ay-to, tom-ah-to. I saw your hot tub earlier and thought that maybe I could get Tate to drive me into town, buy a bikini, and then we can do a…” She wafts a hand through the air like she’s summoning the rest of her sentence. “A girls’ night. Sounds cute, right?” she asks, excitement making her cheeks flush raspberry pink.

Tate must hear us coming because he walks around from the side of the barn, paint splattered and glistening with sweat. River walks casually over to him, curls bouncing all glossy and plush, and she stands onto her tippy-toes so that she can give his jaw a peck.

He looks down at his palms, dirty from the work, then wipes them on his jeans before enveloping them around her shoulders.

“We’re having a girls’ night,” she explains, before turning to give me an enthusiastic grin. “But I need a bikini,” she adds.

I’m about to watch their exchange unfold when the barn door swings open, Madden attentively checking the hinges. With the music that’s playing in there he probably didn’t hear us, so he seems sincerely surprised to see us gathered outside.

He flicks his eyes to River and Tate and then, noting that they’re currently enraptured, he steps towards me, gaze scanning just over my shoulder.

“Your brother gone?” he asks, his voice low and gruff.

I nod my head when his eyes meet mine.

He gives me a steady once-over and then breathes a deep inhale, a warm glow spreading up his cheeks.

He asks quietly, “You got plans tonight?”

My three second pause makes him tug at his lip-ring.

“Um, well-” I begin.

I’m cut off by a sharp, “Yes, she does.”

Madden’s eyes flash over my shoulder and River appears at my side.

“She has plans with me tonight,” she says, pretending to inspect her nails.

Tate moves to stand beside Madden. Neither of them seem particularly happy with this arrangement.

Madden’s jaw muscles bunch and roll.

“Right,” he mumbles, his flush growing more severe. “Okay, that’s fine. I’ll just be…” He turns to face the interior of the barn which, admittedly, he has renovated incredibly over the past few days. It looks brand new with its fresh panels and a lick of paint.

He looks into my eyes again, his sharp silver irises like a stab to the gut. He really is devastatingly beautiful.

“I’ll just be in here if you need me,” he says at last, and with one parting look he goes back inside.

*

“I’m thinking about getting a belly button piercing,” River says, fingers prodding keenly around her innie.

It’s night-time and the sky has turned dark and velvety, tiny stars winking like crystals above the horizon.

I look at her belly, warped by the bubbling hot tub water.

“A belly button piercing,” I repeat, a little sceptical. I look over to the barn wherein Madden and Tate have been hanging out all day. Tate’s since gone inside to get a shower but I can still sense Madden’s presence out here from the pulse of his Alpha pheromones.

“For Tate?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

She glances over to her left hand, safely out of the water and holding onto the ledge of the pool, and her rock sparkles back at us.

“Maybe,” she says, a little smile on her lips. “I can’t tell if he’d love it or hate it though. I think I should ask him about it tonight.”

I nod absentmindedly and close my eyes. The warm evening air combined with the piping hot water is giving me the spa night that I didn’t know I needed. Sometimes I really underestimate my body’s need for soothing.

When I open my eyes again River says, “When Tate and I leave you can come with us if you want, so that you can practice Kaleb’s guitar at our place, where Madden won’t hear you.”

I contemplate that and nod. The bun on my head wobbles dangerously.

“That’s a good idea,” I agree, re-knotting my hair.

“Although I’m sure he would love to know you can play,” she adds, her eyes watching me cautiously.

I scrunch my face up. “You know what the problem is? It’s that I think that I know that. Seriously, I’m more worried about him liking it than anything else. If he finds out that I can play guitar, and sing, and that I want to potentially pursue a music career more seriously myself, I’m scared that he’ll be so into it that Kaleb will realise there’s something going on between us, freak out, ban me from using his guitar, and then totally scupper my chances of having my voice being heard in the first place.”

It comes out in a fast anxious blurt and River’s eyes are wide by the time that I’m done.

“Kit,” she says. “If Kaleb’s that insecure then that’s his problem. He needs to get over it.”

I shudder, shaking off all of my Kaleb and Madden related anxieties, and I reach into our fishbowl of candy, propped up on a chunk of chopped tree bark. We’ve essentially cooked up a candy salad.

River observes my perusal with a smile on her face and then asks, “What’s with all the sweet stuff? Your cupboards look like they’ve been stocked by the Pied Piper.”

I stuff a Red Vine between my back teeth and then rip it apart like a savage. Chewing, I say, “Other than the stuff that I bought when my parents first left, I actually have no clue. Since Kaleb got here he’s been stocking up on all of my favourites.”

I suck up the rest of the stick between my lips and then I get to unwrapping a strawberry Starburst.

“Kaleb you say,” she murmurs, her gaze boring into me intently.

I shrug. “Yeah, I guess. Who else would be doing the shopping?”

She stares at me for a few long beats and then shakes her head. “Yeah, you’re right I’m sure. I just had a thought is all.”

I’m trying to work out what her mysterious thought was when I see a figure exiting the front door of the cabin. I give River a little splash.

“Here comes your probation warden,” I whisper, and she gives me a wily little smile.

She lazily tilts her head in the direction of my gaze and Tate’s hulking frame, backlit from the sconces surrounding the cabin, grows larger and larger until he’s bearing down at us from the edge of the tub. I sink down into the foaming bubbles until I’m nothing more than a pair of razor-sharp eyes slicing into the darkness. River recomposes her face so that she’s in alluring vixen mode, a small smile threatening the corners of her lips.

She turns around, the strings of her pink bikini floating around her waist, and she asks teasingly, “Are we having too much fun, Officer?”

Tate’s large tan fingers, emblazoned with River’s name, drum lightly on the ledge of the hot tub. He jerks his chin towards the house, chest heaving as he watches her bob amidst the ripples.

“It’s getting dark out, baby. We should get to bed.”

I roll my eyes. Just act like I’m not here then.

River covers Tate’s knuckles with her palms and then heaves herself so that she’s exposed from the belly button-up, a siren about to lure her bounty. The water cascades down her bare back like a rapid and then sloshes noisily into the whirring pool.

Tate’s eyes dip down to River’s chest and, after a momentary pause, he swallows hard.

“Five more minutes,” River whispers. I can hear the smile in her voice.

Tate nods, hypnotised, and then leans down to kiss her chastely. I look away to give them their privacy and my eyes wander to the open door of the barn where Madden is aligning the replaced beams, lit by the glow of an oil lamp like a Victorian serial killer.

When Tate’s shadow shifts across the shimmering ripples in the pool I turn my attention back to him, hoping that by having my stare burning deeply into his skull he’ll get the hint and skedaddle. He’s no longer kissing her but he is still standing here.

I hook a toe in River’s bikini bottoms and give it a little tug. She throws me a smile over her shoulder and then sends her fiancé on his way, his gait heavier after the little preview that she just gave him.

“Jesus,” I mumble when he’s out of earshot, his large silhouette ascending the porch steps. “I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a man that infatuated.”

River makes a happy humming sound, her sparkly nails dancing with indecision over the candy bowl. She plucks up a lolly, unwraps it, and shoves it in her mouth. Then she scooches next to me so that we both muse over her giant diamond.

“It’s because I’m a pain in the ass,” she replies, twisting her hand so that the ring catches in the light. “He wants to service me, it’s in his caveman DNA – much like-”

She glances over her left shoulder in the direction of Madden’s hushed grunts. I can hear the soft thud of the wood as he dutifully stacks the panels. When River turns back to me her eyes twinkle behind her glasses.

“Fascinating how impassioned that guy is about fixing up a barn that isn’t his. One might assume that he’s…” She pauses for extra drama. “Interested in its owner.”

She pulls the lollipop out of her mouth, it’s bulbous head a pretty powder-puff pink, and then she holds it out in front of my lips.

It reminds me of the lollipop that Madden got for me at the bar that night – the lollipop that we shared in the woods. It sets a kindling alight in my stomach and I give River an eyebrow raise after glancing at the lolly. We share a long silent glance, riddled with things that we don’t usually talk about. Words like bisexual and exploration come to my mind. Tate Coleson and will murder me follow quickly after.

We’re only messing with each other so we both start laughing at our giddy girlishness, and warm flecks of hot tub spray tickle at our faces.

Suddenly a hand darts out from above us and snatches the stick away.

“Absolutely not.”

The water splatters as we recoil in shock and I arch my neck backwards so that I can see our second warden. He’s upside down and absolutely livid. I’m not sure if the steam in the air is radiating from the hot tub water or literally from Madden’s chest.

He chucks the lolly onto the ground, his eyes never leaving my own, and River makes a noise of disgust, rolling her eyes as she lowers herself into a jet-stream.

I roll around and scowl at him.

He crouches down in front of me and then leashes a hand in my hair.

I’m so shocked that my body jolts and pinches, the warm pool in my belly battling an onslaught of confused surprise and heating arousal.

“You want her spit in your mouth?” he asks, his voice deep and menacing. His eyes are so molten that I almost burn looking into them.

“Don’t be such a Neanderthal,” I bite back, attempting to detangle his hand from my hair.

He grunts and grips at me tighter. He looks so incensed, so jealous and enraged, that pleasure throbs between my thighs.

He looks over my shoulder and jerks his chin at River. “Think you could…?” His sentence trails off but it’s obvious where it’s headed.

Think you could leave us to it?

“Kit?” she asks, prodding her long toe in the back of my leg. I turn my head over my shoulder to look at her, Madden’s grip slackening slightly so that I can twist, and she raises an eyebrow, asking for my confirmation.

I feel Madden’s fingers begin to slide up and down the back of my neck and all common sense trickles out of my brain.

I nod my head and she heaves herself out, quickly bundling up in her towel and flip-flopping back up to the cabin without another glance.

When I turn back around to Madden his eyes are running across my clavicle, then up the centre of my throat. His grip re-tightens when he finally reaches my eyes.

“Sorry. For being a thug,” he says hoarsely, his thumb rubbing circles into the side of my neck.

“No you’re not,” I whisper, pressing up against the very edge of the tub so that I can be as close to him as our barrier allows.

“No I’m not,” he murmurs, his other hand dipping into the water and caressing against my lower back.

Waves of anticipation flood through my body and long-dormant need reignites down below.

“I wanna kiss you,” he grunts, his lips millimetres from my own. “I need to kiss you.”

I bob in the water, revelling devilishly in the push and pull of our new game. The hate to want you, but can’t help but need you game.

His concentration wanes momentarily as he zeros in on my lips and I take the relaxing of his hand around my neck to pull away from him completely, moving backwards until I’m on the other side of the hot tub. He blinks as if startled and then looks at me questioningly.

I smile at him like a little imp and then, with the swish of my foot, I flick a spray of sparkling water droplets up the front of his shirt.

“Then come and get me.”