The Lemon Sisters Read online

  Linc strode straight to Mindy, cupped her face and tilted it up. “You okay?”

  She nodded.

  “Good.” He dropped his hands and shoved them in his pockets. “Now maybe you can explain to me what the hell you guys were doing brawling at a kids’ birthday party.”

  “Hey, the clown was attacking her,” Brooke said.

  “You mean Michelle? Who Mindy’s hated since elementary school?”

  “She used to spit in my lunch!” Mindy said. Maybe yelled.

  “Yes, because you”—he used finger quotes here—“‘accidentally’ stuck your gum in her hair.”

  Mindy stared into the sexy, wonderful face of the man she loved and adored beyond all imagination, but she didn’t see love and adoration in return. Instead, she saw frustration. She bit her lower lip, then winced as she split it open again. “You’re mad at me.”

  “I’m not mad. What I am is trying very hard. And you’re not.”

  “Okay,” she started. “That’s not fair. I—”

  “Stop.” He grabbed some tissues from a box on the counter and carefully, with surprising gentleness, dabbed the blood dripping from her lip down her chin. “You’re the one who’s angry,” he said softly.

  “Hell yes, I’m angry!” she burst out. “My arch nemesis just went after my sister—”

  “You’re angry at me,” he said. “And you’re taking it out on everyone else.” He scooped her up into his arms.

  She gasped in shock. “What are you doing?”

  “Taking over. I thought I could wait you out, out-patience you and let you come to me in your own time. But I’m tired of waiting, Min. I’m taking action.”

  She threw her arms around his neck and stared up into his face. He’d never been as sexy to her as right in that moment. “What kind of action?” she asked breathlessly.

  “Whatever it takes to get it through your thick skull that you’re it for me, and that I love you. Now,” he said fiercely, staring down at her, “I’m prepared to do this slow and easy, or hard and fast. Which is it going to be?”

  She swallowed hard. “Linc?”

  His expression relaxed. “Yeah, babe?”

  She tightened her grip on him. “Can we do it both ways?”

  Some of the serious sternness left his face, softening his gaze and mouth. “Any way you want. All the ways you want.”

  Chapter 19

  By the time he was finished with her, she was a floppy rag doll, making contented purring noises.

  Brooke watched Linc carry Mindy out of the ER cubicle. “I can’t decide if I’m scared or happy for her,” she murmured, quickly swiping at any lingering tears so Garrett couldn’t see them. “And if you’re here to talk, you should know I’m not in the mood.”

  Not speaking, he came close and tilted her face up to his to study her, his eyes filled with concern.

  “I’m fine,” she said.

  “I will pay you to stop lying to me.”

  She sighed. “What does it matter, anyway, when you always know when I am? And how is it that you know? Because it’s really irritating.”

  “Same way I know when you’re not wearing a bra. God-given talent.” He gave her a small smile. “Linc gave me a blow-byblow of what happened at the party. How Michelle went after your sister and you went after her. Took her down, too, and she outweighs you by quite a bit.”

  “Don’t tell her that. She’ll kill you in your sleep.”

  “I’m proud as hell of you, Bee.” His smile turned into a very male grin. “And a little turned on, too.”

  She shook her head, even as her tummy quivered in a very good way. “Men are dumb.”

  This made him laugh. “No doubt. You’re both clear to leave, by the way.” He scooped her up just as Linc had Mindy, and her body melted into his.

  “Don’t get any ideas,” she said, wanting to put it out there so she didn’t forget. She couldn’t do this with him, knowing he was holding back as well as also holding on to old memories of when she’d shut him out. “I’m still mad.”

  “Makes two of us.”

  “So you’re mad at you, too?” she asked in a smart-ass tone.

  “Funny, but no. I’m mad at you.”

  He said this so calmly, it took a moment for the words to sink in. “Because of . . . last night?”

  Not answering, he took her outside, where the day had gone to night without her. Managing to hold on to her and unlock his truck at the same time, he slid her in, all without jostling any of her aches and pains. And there were a lot of those, just beginning to make themselves known.

  He angled in behind the steering wheel and started up the engine. When he found her staring at him, he flashed that killer smile of his, and she felt an answering tug deep inside her. “Why are you smiling at me? You’re mad, remember?”

  “More like frustrated,” he said. “You wear your past on your shoulder like a huge rock. It’s hard to see beyond it.”

  “Well, then stop looking at it.”

  He gave her a long look.

  Okay. So she was supposed to be a grown-up these days.

  “You won’t address it,” he said. “You won’t even look at it or acknowledge it, and yet it defines everything you do.”

  Wait. How was he turning this around on her? Probably because it was her, this whole problem was her doing. “Maybe I’m just a fiercely independent woman,” she said. “You ever think of that?”

  “Yes, and it’s sexy as hell. But you’re letting the past weigh you down, Bee.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” she said, even as her heart picked up the pace at the accuracy of his statement.

  “If that was true,” he said, “last night wouldn’t have ended the way it did, with you running out on me. Again.”

  She stared out the window as the night deepened. The shadows of the rolling hills conjured up a sense of home and pride and longing, and damn, she loved this place. “I’m trying,” she said softly. “But sometimes I just need a few minutes.”

  He nodded, accepting, and it wasn’t an act. He was incredibly patient and unfailingly loyal. Always had been. “So tell me something,” he said.

  “What?” she asked warily.

  “Why have you never told Mindy about us?”

  Oh boy.

  He took in her expression. “Am I your dirty secret, Brooke?”

  “No, of course not.” She paused. “Just today I told her about our past.”

  “But not our now.”

  She met his gaze. “No. But only because I’m never sure what the now is.”

  He gave a snort, but didn’t say anything more about it. And when he got to their street, he didn’t turn into Mindy’s driveway. Instead, he pulled into his own.

  “Is your dad still here?” she asked.

  “Last night after you took off on me, he got restless. He left me a note that he had something to do and vanished with Snoop. A fucking note,” he said in disgust.

  And then there was what he didn’t say. That once again he’d been left. How had she not connected the dots? She knew Garrett had abandonment issues, deep-seated ones, and he had every right to them. And she’d made them worse at every turn. Her heart actually hurt just thinking about it.

  “I’ve been looking everywhere for him,” Garrett said. “I left messages at the campgrounds, at the store . . . I even asked Mark Capriotti to keep an eye out for him.”

  “Mark Capriotti?” she asked in surprise.

  “Besides being one of the owners of the winery where you just brawled with Michelle,” he said dryly, “he’s a local sheriff.”

  There was a grim tone to his voice that had her looking at him. “You think your dad’s up to his old shenanigans,” she said.

  He shrugged. “Not sure what else I’m supposed to think.”

  Letting his dad move in had been a huge show of forgiveness and strength on his part. But more than that, his clear worry and concern made her chest tighten at the man he’d become. “Maybe he meant what he sa