“Yeah, man. I feel the pain. Believe me, I feel it.” He stared at her with those knowing dark, brooding eyes. He took his time looking her over. Her mother used to say men who looked at women a certain way enjoyed a simple man’s pleasure. Right now, she missed her mother. Her mother would know what to say, and how to advise her. She needed some advice, and she could use it from someone without the surname Cartwell.
She nervously headed for her dresser, snatched her clothing from the floor and tossed it in the nearby rocking chair. Kane picked up the items and then sat down.
“Out.”
“Nope, not until I have a few words with you.”
“You’re pissed, and I’m not going to explain myself just because the great Kane Cartwell’s ego is bruised.”
“My ego is fine. It’s yours I’m worried about.” He stared at her ass as she pulled her flannel pajamas from her top drawer. Her little round globes were just the right handful for a man who understood what to do with an ass like hers.
He tore his gaze away from her butt, and his voice changed to a soothing tone she’d never heard from him. “My mom used to rock me in this rocking chair. I don’t remember it of course, but I do remember how she rocked Evan.”
He rocked back and forth and back and forth. “Before you moved in, I used to avoid coming in here because at times, when the loneliness set in, I used to hear her…in this room.”
Her chin quivered as he talked about his mother right when she’d been thinking so much about her own. He offered her a weak smile and then continued, “Did Braden ever tell you about her? Our mother, I mean.”
She shook her head. “I’ve looked at her pictures. She was beautiful. I know you must’ve been very proud of her.”
“Yeah well she was too beautiful for her own good. Everyone always thought so.”
“How old was she when she died?”
“Twenty-nine.”
“Too young to-”
“She was too young,” Braden’s voice echoed from the hallway and his gaze immediately fell to her ass. “Nice thong.”
She wanted to die right there. Now, they could plan her funeral and bury her. Braden Cartwell told her she had a nice thong. Braden. Not Evan and not Kane. Braden. Sweet fire and ice, this was a very good day, a defining moment.
“Thanks,” she said. She then studied one very amused Kane. His lips formed a tight restraining line before he finally released an outright chuckle.
“I’ll tell you about her some other time.” He started to get up from the rocking chair. Braden walked over to the bed and sat on the edge.
“Mom started having babies at sixteen. Did he tell you?”
“No.”
Kane decided to stay then and sat back down. It was as if he understood what Braden planned to tell her, as if he needed to hear his brother tell a story about their mother and maybe even those she left behind.
“She had me when she was sixteen, Kane at nineteen and at twenty-two, Evan came along. We have different fathers. All with the last name Cartwell. You can do the figuring on that one.”
“Oh,” she said. She didn’t know what else to say. What’s a person to say in times like these?
One thing she realized quickly. She felt far too comfortable in her panties and bra in front of them, which made her feel free, in a weird sense. She reached for her pajamas again and decided to dress while Braden continued. He didn’t look away from her, and his gaze heated her in a way his brothers did with their lips. It only took a simple look.
Evan walked by the bedroom door right as she stepped into her pajamas. He didn’t see Braden at first. “You’d better hurry and get dressed. He’s home.”
“Yeah, he is,” Braden snapped.
“I uh…failed to see you there.”
“Well now you have, so come on in here and pull up a chair. I have a few things to say to all of you, and it’s high time I said ‘em.”
After she dressed in a pretty pair of pajamas Braden bought for her right after she moved in, mainly because he thought she ran around in provocative nightshirts, she sat down on the floor. She leaned her head against the dresser and watched him with curious eyes. His brothers had looked into those eyes and seen their future while he tried to defy it. Hell, he still planned to fight it. This thing with Peyton, whatever they were doing, had to stop before it went too far, and spun right out of control.
“Mom loved three men, Peyton. She loved ‘em all and according to her sisters, they all loved her as much as she loved them. Trouble was, they didn’t know about the things Mom shared with anyone other than them, at least not at first. See, they were all married to other people.
“By the time they found out about one another, there was so much betrayal to overcome, feelings and emotions no one wanted to sort through and a lot of dangerous anger loomed between them. One night while Mom was in the kitchen cooking supper, something bad happened. No one knows for certain how it all started or who initiated the confrontation.
Peyton shifted on the floor and Kane, as if on a dare, glanced at Evan and then at Braden before he reached for her. At first she ignored his hand but after Evan shot her an accepting smile and Braden noticed, she let Kane pull her onto his lap where she curled up against his chest. He cradled her like a small child.
It proved a point and soon Braden felt the undoing of a grown man. Kane would never give her up. He’d already formed some sort of intimate bond with her and anyone could see it.
Braden felt his heart sink into unfamiliar territory. He didn’t like where they were all headed. History would repeat itself and the only way to change the detrimental parts was to start at the beginning and work through the pain to ensure none of them experienced the kind of heartache lingering in the past.
Unsure if she soothed his breaking heart or he helped keep hers in tact, Peyton leaned against Kane’s chest. He nuzzled her hair and kissed her head while rocking with a timed pace, a silent song.
“Anyway at some point,” Braden continued, “Momma must’ve heard a lot of gunfire, and she ran from the house to see what happened. She rushed out to the barn and found the three men she loved. All of them lay dying in a pool of blood with guns in their hands.”
Peyton’s mouth opened and closed as she tried to imagine what their mother must’ve gone through when she found the three men she loved most dying, all three calling her name, perhaps, needing her beside of them as they took their last breath. “That’s horrific.”
“It’s worse than a horror story, Peyton,” Evan said as he watched her. “It was her life. She caused it. She did it with lies and deception and then when she decided it was too much to handle, what did she do?” He looked up at the beams high above her bed, and Peyton shivered before he said anything.
Kane shook his head. “This isn’t necessary.”
“Oh yes, it is. If you’re going to tell her part of it, tell her the whole thing.” He turned back to Peyton and pointed to the rafters again. “When the guilt ate her insides out, she decided to hang right here so her sons would find her.” His words were drenched in bitterness.
Braden closed his eyes, and Kane glared at the ceiling. Now she understood why Kane didn’t come in her room before she moved in.
It was more than the lullabies he thought he still heard, and it wasn’t the song in her voice he imagined. It was the memory of a life-changing discovery, the image none of them would ever shake.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered against Kane’s chest but she looked from Braden to Evan. “I never knew or heard those stories.”
“Of course not, but now you know and since you do, you might understand why I wanted to help you but why I didn’t want whatever it is that’s going on between you and Kane and maybe even Evan and you, to happen. History often repeats itself, Peyton, and the sins of fathers can fall like a gavel upon their children.”