parties and dates with a purpose, though, Lisa felt burned out enough to accept an invitation from Brick to attend a fair in Beulah County.
She told herself it was to prove that they were indeed friends. The “lover” part of their relationship was passed, finished, completely done, never to be repeated. If she felt a twinge of regret at the thought, she ignored it. She also told herself she wasn’t the least bit curious about Brick’s family.
At the fair, however, she stared at the sight of all those Pendletons as they crowded outside Brick’s car.
Four tall men of varying ages with dark hair and Brick’s violet eyes stood with three women, two of whom appeared to be pregnant. When Lisa noticed the differences between Brick and his brothers, she saw that Brick was the tallest, his hair was slightly lighter and he exhibited a subtle masculine power that translated to pure sex appeal.
The pull was so strong that even with all these people around she had to force her attention away from him. It took a moment, but Lisa recognized the feminine version of the Pendletons as the young, slim woman who was not pregnant.
Brick instinctively put his hand at Lisa’s back as he made the introductions. “This is Lisa Ransom. She’s—” What? The woman who’d wrecked his mental health. The woman who’d left him because he couldn’t make a commitment. The woman who was planning to marry anyone but him as soon as possible. He began to sweat.
“I’m a friend,” Lisa said, giving Brick a meaningful smile. “I’m glad to meet you.”
He clenched his jaw briefly, then smiled and gestured with his hand. “Daniel and his wife, Sara.”
Lisa shook hands as he continued. “Garth and Erin, Jarod, Troy and Carly.”
A little boy wiggled between Garth and Erin. “Hey, I’m a Pendleton now too!”
“That’s right,” Brick said with a chuckle. “This is Luke, Garth and Erin’s son.”
“Lucky them.” Lisa took one look at the bright-eyed boy with a cowlick on the crown of his head and smudges on his chin, and she fell in love. “And it looks like more Pendletons are on the way, so I guess congratulations are in order. When are you due?”
“September for us,” said Erin, patting her stomach.
“Ours is due in November,” Daniel said, taking Sara’s hand.
Lisa sensed the love that flowed between them and felt a twinge of envy. She brushed it aside, though, and focused on getting a fix on the different personalities of Brick’s family. Daniel was extremely solicitous of his wife, Sara, but she supposed the same could be said of Garth and Erin. Jarod seemed to observe in silence, while Troy was loud.
“Are we overwhelming you?” Carly asked.
“Not really. When Brick told me how many brothers he had, I imagined six ‘Bricks.’”
“Heaven help us all,” Carly said, rolling her eyes.
Lisa laughed. “Now I see that one’s taller, one’s quiet, one cracks jokes.”
“Well, if you forget any names, don’t feel bad. Just ask me and I’ll be glad to give you a prompt. The twins, Ethan and Nathan, live out of state, so you’ll be spared remembering their names this time.”
“You own the riverboat, don’t you?”
Carly nodded. “My husband, Russ, and I do.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize you were married.”
Carly hesitated and lowered her voice. “Brick hasn’t told you very much about us, has he?”
Lisa felt another twinge of pain, despite a hundred silent reminders that she shouldn’t because her romantic relationship with Brick was over. “He, uh, mentioned you a month or so ago and…”
“Yeah, well, he mentioned you to us the last several times he visited.”
That stopped Lisa in her tracks. She glanced at Brick and found him gazing at her while his brother Troy was talking. For an instant, his eyes seemed to meld with hers. She felt a shudder inside her, like the first rumblings of an earthquake. His gaze was so determined. She shuddered again.
The corners of his mouth lifted in a slow, knowing smile that made her heart pound against her rib cage. Lisa absently pressed her hand against her chest to make her heart behave.
“If you decide to stay overnight, you’re welcome at my house,” Carly offered.
Lisa ripped her gaze from Brick’s. “Oh no. That won’t be necessary. I’m not—”
“And if you have any questions about Brick,” Carly said with a mischievous grin, “I’ve known him for twenty-plus years.”
Lisa was severely tempted. A dozen unanswered questions came to mind. She told herself it was normal. After all, she’d been involved with Brick for months, and there was so much she had wanted to know about him.
Before. Not now.
She stifled the urge to ask, and instead mustered a smile. “Thanks, but I think I’ll pass this time.”
Brick overheard Lisa’s response and didn’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved. He fought the overwhelming instinct to stuff Lisa in his car and drive back to Chattanooga. It was tough to explain why, even to himself, but he thought it had something to do with wanting to keep her to himself.
Selfish as hell, he acknowledged, but it didn’t change the way he felt. He didn’t want anyone messing with his relationship with her. He snorted. Why should he worry about them making matters worse when he’d already made a mess of it himself?
Brick dismissed the disturbing thoughts and snagged Lisa’s wrist. “C’mon. Let’s go throw a pie for charity. My old junior high school principal is the target, and I owe him.”
Lisa stumbled after him. “Owe him for what?”
“He stuck me in detention for my whole seventh grade year.”
“And you didn’t deserve it at all?”
Brick stopped and grinned sheepishly. “Maybe a little.”
“How little?”
“It was just a few harmless pranks…involving a frog and the English teacher, a food fight in the cafeteria and…” He hesitated and his smile faded slightly. “And the homework I didn’t do.”
“I can imagine the frog and the food fight, but my father would have killed me if I hadn’t done my homework.”
Brick looked away, squinting his eyes under the glare of the sun. “Yeah, well, my dad wasn’t paying much attention, my mother had died and my stepmother was a witch.”
The breeze picked up a strand of his sun-lightened hair, and Lisa felt a clutch in her chest. “Sounds rough,” she murmured.
He shrugged his wide shoulders. “You don’t want to hear about that, so—”
“But I do,” she said impulsively, then bit her tongue. “I mean, I enjoy hearing about your childhood. You haven’t really talked about it much before.”
He rubbed his thumb back and forth over her knuckles in a mesmerizing motion. “It wasn’t all happy, Lisa, and the time you and I had together was happy and good. Being with you was too special. I didn’t want to drag it down.”
She felt that same clutch again and swallowed hard. “Now that we’re friends,” she said in an effort to remind both herself and him, “maybe you won’t feel like you’re dragging anything down.”
He lifted an eyebrow and glanced meaningfully at her lips. “We’ll see.”
He tugged her toward the pie booth, and Lisa surreptitiously wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. It felt as if he’d put his mouth there, against hers.