Dirty Thoughts Read Online Free Page B

Cal knew his brother was doing it to get a rise out of him, he couldn’t help wanting to wipe the leer off of his brother’s face. “That’s the last thing I want to talk about.”
    “Okay, so she was hot in high school; I’ll give you that. The legs and the hair. But she got, like, way hot now.”
    Cal growled into his beer.
    “We’re just talking.”
    “No, you’re just talking. I’m trying to watch the game.”
    Brent’s gaze flicked to the TV. “Um, you don’t like either of these teams.”
    “I dunno; thinking I like them a whole hell of a lot right now.”
    “Anyway, you plan to do anything about it?”
    “About what?”
    “Quit playing dumb.”
    Cal sighed. “It didn’t work back then; it wouldn’t work now. Just let it go.” He wondered who he was saying that to—Brent or himself.
    He’d done everything he could to separate himself from that dumb, angry, impulsive eighteen-year-old kid who’d fucked up his future. The kid who’d lost the best thing that had ever happened to him.
    For ten years, he’d been sure that kid was gone. Done. Buried with a tombstone. Covered over with a neat, orderly, simple life where Cal kept a lid on his emotions.
    But he hadn’t anticipated the one wild card in his life to come back and dig up old wounds and feelings. Jenna still saw him as that same angry, hot-tempered teenager, not trusting him with the knowledge that the Charger belonged to Dylan.
    And the worst part was, that bothered him. It dug under his skin like a splinter, painful enough to feel the need to set her straight.
    Why couldn’t he have kept his mouth shut? He was good at that—the not-talking thing.
    Except around Jenna. Around her, he’d always lost control. Spilled his guts. She’d been everything to him once, in a way no one had been before or after. Other than his family, no one could get extreme emotions out of him. He liked it that way. It was safe and comfortable.
    He’d been in Jenna’s presence for ten whole fucking minutes, and the body of their past was already dredged up to the surface. He’d felt exposed, like he’d rolled over and shown her his tender belly. That wasn’t safe. That was the exact opposite of safe.
    He squeezed his eyes shut and gulped down his beer. When he looked over at Brent, his brother grimaced.
    “So maybe I shouldn’t have said anything,” Brent muttered.
    “Ya think?”
    “I didn’t know that there was still—”
    “There’s nothing!” Cal raised his voice, and Brent flinched. Cal took a deep breath and steadied his voice. “There’s nothing still . Okay? I don’t know why Jenna’s in town, but I’m sure she’ll be going back to wherever she came from after I fix her brother’s car. It was nice to see her and all of that, but that’s about it.”
    Brent swallowed. “What if she’s in town . . . for a while?”
    “She’s not.” She couldn’t be. He was sure of it. This wasn’t meant to be anymore, her here in Tory. Single.
    Not with him.
    Jenna had always wanted a family. A husband and kids and cats and all things that he didn’t want. At least, not anymore.
    Back when he’d been with Jenna, he’d thought about having those things with her, and he might have done it, if she hadn’t ended things.
    Cal’s dad had pretty much checked out after his mom left, so Cal had been responsible for his brothers for a long time. He wasn’t eager to fill that dad role again. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Now he wanted to come home from work in silence and drink his beer and eat crappy food and not have to answer to anyone.
    So he’d made his decision, and he was nothing if not stubborn. He had his inner circle of family, and it was a firm boundary. He didn’t want the same things he’d wanted at eighteen. In fact, he wanted just about the opposite of what that impulsive kid had wanted. He’d committed to bachelorhood now, and it would take an act of God to shove him off course.
    Although, Jenna MacMillan had always