Caught Up in You Read online

  It was eight fifteen in the morning when I finally gave up and pressed the doorbell to the lower apartment. It wasn’t exactly the way I’d wanted to meet my new neighbors, but I had no other choice.

  I cringed as I pressed the doorbell for the third time. The same black pick-up truck that had been parked in the driveway when I signed my lease was still there, so I was fairly certain someone was home. I was just about to pull my phone out and make the call of shame to Lou for help when I heard the lock click and saw the door crack open slightly.

  When it wasn’t pulled open all the way, I gave it a little push and popped my head inside. I looked over at the door to the lower apartment just in time to catch a glimpse of a tall guy with messy dark hair going back inside.

  “Thank—” The door was slammed shut before I could finish. “Ok, then…”

  I propped the screen door open and began carrying my meager belongings upstairs. Three suitcases, four boxes, and a few bags was all I had. Within an hour, I had everything I owned put away and my apartment still looked completely empty. It was a little depressing.

  Regardless of the fact I didn’t have much, the place was still mine. I found it on my own, paid for it by myself, and would slowly fill it with things I bought with money I earned. No one was ever going to be able to say I didn’t work for what I had.

  I changed into cut off jean shorts with a black tank top and pulled my long brown hair into a ponytail. Since I didn’t have to work until four o’clock, I decided to take care of the overgrown flower beds and cut the lawn.

  The weather was beautiful. It was sunny and warm with just a light breeze—perfect for spending the day outside. Even though I’d spent the first seventeen years of my life in a suburb just outside of Chicago, something about Baylor Grove Pennsylvania in early June made me feel as if it had always been my home.

  I put my earbuds in with loud rock music and started ridding the flowerbeds of all the overgrowth and weeds. It was the perfect distraction. Although deciding to move out on my own and not relocate with Jen to Boston was my choice, it was still hard.

  Jen met her fiancé David when they were in school at Harvard. David grew up a couple of towns over from Baylor Grove, so when they were done with school, Jen moved back home with him. When things imploded in my life, Jen took me in without a second thought. She moved out of David’s house and got a place for just the two of us. That’s where we’d been for the last three years.

  A year earlier, David got a position working at a hospital in Boston. It was tough on their relationship, but he relocated without Jen. Boston was only five hours away, so Jen drove there a couple of times a month to see him.

  Finally, about a month earlier, Jen broke the news she’d been offered a job at a law firm close to the hospital where David worked. They’d set a wedding date and were going to move in together.

  Jen had been adamant that I was part of their family and that they wanted me to live with them in Boston. David was a really great guy and had always been nice to me. It was tempting to just go with the flow and move with my aunt and soon to be uncle. That would’ve been the easiest route.

  I couldn’t bring myself to do it though. Jen had already sacrificed three years of her life taking care of me—her older sister’s daughter. She’d put off marrying the guy of her dreams to help me heal from all the damage my parents had done. After working hard and putting herself through school, Jen deserved to start building the life she wanted with David without me as the third wheel.

  The hours passed quickly as I ripped out the weeds and cut back the bushes. To my complete surprise, there were actually hosta plants fighting with the weeds for space to grow. Once all the unwanted vegetation was removed and the dirt was turned, it looked pretty good.

  The lawn was next. I fired up the mower and tackled the backyard first. Since the lot was pretty small, it didn’t take any time at all. In all honestly I thought the price Lou had been paying the kid down the block to do it was way too much.

  When I brought the lawn mower around front to take care of the grass, I was met with an icy glare from what were probably the most beautiful blue eyes I’d ever seen. If they hadn’t been attached to a tall broad shouldered guy who looked like he wanted to knock my head off my shoulders, I probably would’ve been swooning.

  I pulled my ear buds out and smiled at him despite the fact it looked he was trying to bore a hole through me with his eyes. I knew by his dark messy hair he was the one who’d opened the door earlier—my new neighbor. I figured I woke him up with the mower. That was probably the second time I’d woke him up since he’d had to let me in earlier.

  Tall angry guy stepped off the porch and gave the mower the same bone crushing glare he’d been firing in my direction before looking back at me. “What the fuck are you doing?”

  I lifted my sunglasses and perched them on top of my head. The tone of his voice matched the pissed off look on his face perfectly. Any and all desire I had to be friendly dissolved right then. “Mowing the fucking lawn.” That wasn’t even close to the response I really wanted to give him, but after all he was still my neighbor.

  “Well, no shit,” he said, raking both of his hands though his thick hair. “You don’t need to be an ass-kissing super tenant—Lou pays someone to do the lawn.”

  I simply lowered my sunglasses and put my earbuds back in my ears. He looked like he wanted to argue and I wasn’t getting into it with someone I had to share a house with. I grabbed the little plastic handle and gave it a hard tug, causing the mower to start up.

  Angry neighbor guy continued standing there as I began cutting the lawn. Despite the fact he was obviously a complete dick, it was impossible not to sneak a few peeks at him as he stood there barefoot, in a snug black t-shirt and worn out jeans. The guy was flawless.

  From working in the bar, I’d been around enough guys to recognize him for what he was. Like all the rest, he probably pretended he didn’t know all the tattoos on his arms and his perfectly tanned skin turned every girl’s glance into a stare.

  I had no doubt he was one of those guys who acted like he didn’t put a second thought into what he wore when the truth was he probably spent more time picking out his clothes than most chicks. It looked like I’d scored a total douchebag for a neighbor—just perfect.

  After I passed him a few times, angry neighbor guy started walking toward me. He was saying something I couldn’t hear over the sound of the engine and the music in my ears. I pretended not to notice and just kept mowing. My plan to ignore him was quickly tossed out when he stopped directly in my path.

  Just before I got to his toes, I stopped pushing the mower but didn’t turn it off. Instead I just stood there waiting. The standoff only lasted a few seconds before he moved. I was ready to relish in a small victory—not to mention check out what he looked like from behind when he went back to the house. Douchebag or not, he was still pretty to look at.

  Rather than going inside, he reached down and pulled the little wire holding the spark plug out, causing the engine to stall. The music filling my ears was gone with one pull by him on the cord of my earbuds.

  “What’s your—” I’d started to yell at him, but lowered my voice, remembering we were outside on our front lawn. “What’s your freaking problem?”

  He looked me up and down. “My problem is standing right in front of me.”

  I just stood staring at him. Every response that popped into my head wasn’t going to make the situation any better. I could’ve sworn Lou said I’d hardly ever see my neighbor, yet it hadn’t even been a full day since I’d moved in and I’d already had my fill of him.

  “Look, I’m just asking you not to dick around out here making all kinds of noise,” he said. “Mornings aren’t my thing.”

  “Apparently you’re not good with afternoons either,” I said, crossing my arms. “It’s after two.”

  “I didn’t get much sleep.” The icy glare I was becoming so familiar with returned with a vengeance. “Some inc
onsiderate—person was laying on my doorbell at the crack of fucking dawn.”

  I held my arm out toward the house. “None of my keys work for the front door!”

  “Lou must have forgotten to tell you about the trick to unlocking it,” he said, pointing back at the porch. “It’s a little complicated.”

  “Really?” He’d probably told me when I was zoning out.”What is it?”

  “You stick the key in the hole and turn,” he said, stalking off toward the house. “Think you can handle that?”

  I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “Asshole.”

  “Well this asshole won’t be crawling out of bed to let you in the house again.” He looked back at me over his shoulder. “So you’d better figure your shit out.”

  Myles

  So much for the new girl not being a pain in the ass. I kicked my apartment door closed and went into the bathroom, pulling off my clothes and throwing them into the corner. She was seriously mowing the fucking lawn in the middle of the day. Didn’t she have school or a god damn job?

  Wearing out my doorbell at the crack of dawn and firing up the mower when I was trying to sleep was going to be a huge problem. The worst part was that I couldn’t even complain to Lou. That was basic shit people who kept normal hours did during the day.

  I turned on the shower and stepped in, letting the water beat down on my head. After taking a minute to calm down, a smile spread across my face. I’d never met a girl who just came back at me the way the new neighbor girl did. As much of a pain in the ass as she was, I couldn’t wait to go for round two with her.

  Even covered in dirt and sweat with no make-up on, the girl was even better looking than I thought she was from the glimpse I’d gotten the day before. Not every girl was better up close than they are from a distance—the girl upstairs was. She wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen.

  Again, I thought about the time when I would’ve stopped her from mowing the lawn and coerced her into taking a shower with me. As soon as that thought popped into my head, something else started popping up. I cranked up the cold water and decided it was time to stop thinking about her. As tempting as she was, there was no way in hell I was going there—especially with a girl I couldn’t send home afterward.

  Three

  Brantley

  My plan to beg my boss Puck for some extra shifts didn’t turn out to require much begging at all. There were only three bartenders working at Puckett’s Pub to begin with, and one of them just up and quit the day before.

  With a little coaxing, I got Puck to agree to let me waitress during the day, and then tend bar at night. It would mean working sixteen hours straight some days, but the money would pile up quick.

  Puck and his wife Maybell knew everything about my past. I probably could’ve gotten away with keeping it all from them since they were a little too small town to do a background check, but when I went into the bar for the first time after seeing the help wanted sign in the window, I knew they weren’t going to hold anything from my past against me.

  That was two years earlier. They never questioned me or acted like they were giving me special treatment because of what I’d confided in them. They were just good people and I felt fortunate to have them in my corner.

  “Small order,” Wyatt said, placing a case with bottles of booze down on the counter. “You probably could’ve waited another week.”

  “Then I would’ve had twice as much to put away,” I said, smiling over at him.

  He cut across the top of the box with a blade. “Wasn’t your aunt leaving for Boston today?”

  I placed the invoice on the counter and pulled out a pen. “She left this morning.”

  “I can’t imagine living in the city again.” Wyatt reached in the box and started pulling out the bottles, lining them up on the bar. “I hated being in Pittsburgh when I was in college. That’s why I came home after a year.”

  “You just didn’t wanna be away from your brothers,” I said, marking off each bottle from the list. “I don’t know how your parents handled five boys.”

  “They couldn’t,” he said. “That’s why they retired to Florida as soon as my youngest brother finished high school.”

  “They probably figured they’d never get rid of you guys. It was easier just to put up the white flag and surrender the house.”

  Wyatt gave me a little smile. “I ran into Lou Martin this morning. He said you’re renting an apartment from him.”

  Ugh. I hadn’t mentioned my place to him intentionally and now I felt trapped. “Yeah, over on Hemlock…”

  “You could’ve just moved in with us,” he said. “We still have a spare room.”

  “Ha! That place is like a frat house,” I said, laughing. “How many of you are living there still?”

  “There’s six now with my two youngest brothers home from school for the summer and our cousin Tom who just moved in.” He plopped his big hand on the top of my head and messed up my hair. “We could’ve used a girl to offset some of the testosterone.”

  I smoothed my hair down as he grabbed the box off the counter and headed out the door.

  Wyatt Dempsey and his four younger brothers were legendary in Baylor Grove. They were all athletes in high school and their good looks made them famous for breaking hearts. I met Wyatt right after I started at the pub two years earlier. He came in every week to deliver our liquor orders. He never once hit on me or tried anything weird. He was genuinely a good guy, despite his reputation.

  When I told him my aunt was moving to Boston and I was looking for a place to live, Wyatt offered up a room in the house he shared with his four brothers. It was a really nice offer, but one I couldn’t accept.

  Jen would’ve flipped out if I’d moved in with five guys. On top of that, the Dempsey boys had a reputation for the revolving door at their house. I didn’t want any part of the guilt by association that would come with living there.

  It was a Tuesday so by midnight the place was all but deserted. I was chatting with the last three customers seated at the bar when my best friend Livvy came strolling in with her latest boy toy in tow.

  Livvy had moved to town two years earlier and started working at Pucks right after I did. We became friends fast and once I discovered there wasn’t much that could shock Livvy, I’d told her every detail of my gory past. That had been the only way I could build a real friendship with her.

  At twenty-three, Livvy had no intention of settling down anytime soon. Since I hadn’t even been out on a date since I was seventeen—when my life was still normal, I got cheap thrills living vicariously through Livvy’s exploits. Pathetic, but true.

  Livvy climbed up on a stool and pointed at the bottle of Jameson. “When I didn’t hear from you all day I totally thought you’d punked out and headed to Boston.”

  I grabbed a couple of shot glasses and filled them with whiskey. “Wow, such little faith in me, Liv.”

  “I’m glad the only girl I know who can make the word fuck work in any sentence is still around.” She nodded toward the guy she was with as he sat on the stool next to her. “This is Tom Dempsey.”

  “Tom…” I said, smiling at the guy as I sized him up. “Wyatt Dempsey’s cousin?” There was really no need to ask. His large frame, sandy blond hair and light brown eyes told me he was.

  “Yeah,” he said, nodding his head. “Our dads are brothers.”

  Livvy grabbed the glass and took a small sip. “Where you staying at now that Jen’s gone?”

  “I’ve got an apartment over on Hemlock near Second.”

  “Well, aren’t you a swanky little bitch,” Livvy said, laughing. “Why would you wanna live on the Buffy side of town?”

  “It was a good deal.” I turned and placed a bottle back on the shelf so I didn’t have to look at Livvy when I lied. “It wasn’t my first choice, but I ran out of time to find something.”

  Baylor Grove consisted of two types of people—the haves and the have nots. I discovered that fact quickly after starting my
job at Puck’s pub. The bar was located right on the edge of the seedy part of town. It was a safe place, and many of the haves frequented it, but it was more of a have not type of establishment.

  Livvy and the others who worked there lived in the not so swanky end of Baylor Grove. Since I worked at the bar, I was automatically lumped in as part of their little club. I didn’t care either way. I just wanted a job with down to earth people, who didn’t ask too many questions. That’s exactly what Puckett’s Pub gave me.

  “So, what’s your place like?” Livvy pushed her cup forward for a refill. “Do you have a butler?”

  “Sadly, no Jeeves was included.” I smiled as I poured more whisky into her glass. “It did come complete with its own resident douchebag though. The guy in the downstairs apartment thinks he’s hot shit.”

  She raised her brow and leaned down on her elbows. “Is he?”

  “Completely. Tats, earrings, and I don’t care hair…” I grinned as a picture of hot angry neighbor guy popped in my head. “He’s proof what they say about judging a book by its cover is true.”

  Livvy laughed. “The cover and binding are fabulous, but the content is shit, huh?”

  “Seriously—this is a quote straight from his mouth,” I said, clearing my throat. “Mornings aren’t my thing.”

  “Holy shit…” Livvy rolled her eyes as she laughed. “Please don’t say he’s got a bike.”

  I held my hand up. “I swear to god there’s a fucking motorcycle on his side of the garage.”

  “That’s it—” Livvy covered her mouth and laughed until tears streaked her cheeks. “I need to come over.”

  “If he could just not talk,” I said, trying to hold my laughter, “—or scowl, we could probably waste a lot of time looking at him.”