Dirty Little Secrets

3. Brooke

3

Brooke

What was Luca Mendez doing in Baldwin’s Shore?

Why had he come back?

Was his father sick? One could hope.

And why did Luca have to look so horribly good?

The last time I’d seen him, he’d been standing solemnly at Nonna’s funeral in his dress uniform, although he’d looked kind of blurry through my tears. The asshole. First, he’d treated me like a virtual stranger that day—he’d hugged my brother, then shaken my freaking hand—and afterward, he’d left town without saying goodbye. I understood that he’d felt awkward after I offered myself to him on a plate—okay, his bed—but I’d been a month past my eighteenth birthday and stupid. Couldn’t he cut me a little slack?

“Vega’s torn his cruciate ligament, Ms. Bartlett,” the veterinarian said, dragging me back to the present. Vega tried to slurp at his face, and he ducked out of the way with practised ease. The dog seemed to lick people as a defence mechanism, I’d noticed. Almost an apology. Please don’t hurt me. “See the way his tibia slides forward when I move his leg? It’s not meant to do that.”

“Please call me Brooke,” I said out of habit.

“And I’m Isaac.”

Isaac Ward had bought the veterinary practice after Dr. Stockton retired to Florida to be near his daughter. I’d never visited before, but Darla had brought her cat for shots a few months ago, and when she got back to the store, she’d giggled and said he was a definite improvement. And now I knew why. His bedside manner, obviously—nothing to do with his tousled brown hair or the way those blue eyes twinkled when he looked up at me.

Isaac’s charms didn’t have the same effect on Luca, though. He leaned against the wall by the door wearing the faintest scowl, which I ignored. It wasn’t as if I’d asked him to come inside, anyway. He could have waited in the car.

Or gone back to Deals on Wheels.

Or flown to a whole other country.

Isaac cleared his throat. Ah, right, Vega’s leg.

“Will it be okay? I mean, will it heal?”

“In a smaller dog, an injury like this can improve with rest, but for an animal of Vega’s size, surgery’s the best option.”

“S-s-surgery?”

When I adopted Vega from the shelter, I’d been looking for a guard dog, but I also wanted to give him a happier life. He’d looked so sad sitting at the back of his kennel, head hanging down, and the volunteer who showed me around the dogs said most people walked right on past because he never came over to greet visitors. But I saw him. And I saw that he’d lost his spirit the way I’d lost mine.

So far, he’d kept to himself at home, or as “to himself” as he could keep in a one-bedroom apartment. In the evenings, he curled up in his bed in the corner of the living room, but he liked his dinner and he happily trotted along beside me on walks. Last night, he’d crept along on his belly as I watched TV, getting closer and closer to the couch. He’d stopped halfway, but it was definite progress.

And now he was hurt. Because I couldn’t keep my fear under control, he was hurt, and I’d only had him for two weeks. Well done, Brooke. You score a D-minus as a pet owner.

“It’s a fairly straightforward operation, and there’s an excellent orthopaedic surgeon in Coos Bay. If Vega doesn’t have the surgery, his limp might improve slightly, but without stabilisation, the bones will rub together, and that’s going to lead to arthritis later in life.”

“How soon can we get an appointment?”

“I’ll send over a referral right away.”

“Do you know how much it might cost?”

“With today’s appointment, the surgery, medication, and follow-ups, I’d estimate around fifteen hundred dollars.”

I swallowed hard, but what choice did I have? Vega deserved the best treatment. I had money set aside to buy bathroom fittings for my new apartment at Deals on Wheels, but who needed faucets anyway? The Crowes’ garage apartment came with the basics, and I could stay there for as long as I wanted. Renting for a few more months wouldn’t kill me. Adeline’s grandma had been good friends with Nonna, and the Crowes charged me way less than they should have.

“Right. Okay.”

Isaac must have felt sorry for me. There was no mistaking his look of sympathy. Had he heard about my sudden move back to Baldwin’s Shore? Or the fact that I was always first in line at yard sales? That was the problem in a small town—gossip travelled faster than a hat in a hurricane.

“The surgeon might be willing to work out a p*****t plan. Do you want me to call the practice and see what they can do?”

“Thank you,” I said around the lump in my throat. “I’d be grateful.”

Vega expressed his thanks by farting—again—and Isaac wrinkled his nose.

“Maybe I’ll just open a window first.”

That’s what I did at home, but only the bathroom window and the small one above the kitchen sink because an intruder couldn’t fit through those. The rest of the time, I lived with the smell. And got angry. Angry that a man’s selfish actions had left me jumping at my own shadow. Angry that he’d come back to torment me. Wasn’t scaring me out of Coos Bay enough for him?

Speaking of Coos Bay, the specialist veterinarian had one appointment left that afternoon, and if I skipped lunch, I could make it in time. I owed that much to Vega.

“I’d better check that Deck doesn’t need his truck this afternoon.”

What was Luca talking about? “Why does that matter?”

“Because it’ll take us a half hour to get to Coos Bay and a half hour to get back.”

“I’m sorry—us?”

“You were planning to drive yourself? How are you gonna lift Vega out of your car at the other end?”

“I’ll manage.”

“You already hurt your back, Brooke.”

I’d rather take Tylenol than spend another minute in the truck with Luca Mendez. It would be less painful, both to my heart and to my head. I already had red-hot needles stabbing behind my eyeballs. And could he stop scowling, just for a minute? Yes, I understood that he’d rather be somewhere else, a fact that made his offer to come to Coos Bay all the more mystifying.

“So? I might as well get used to carrying him—I live in a walk-up apartment.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose the way he always used to when he got stressed. “Fuck.”

“Luca, what are you doing here?”

“Driving you and your dog to the veterinarian,” he said, using his “isn’t it obvious?” voice.

“No, I mean why did you come back to Baldwin’s Shore? Why now?”

“It’s my home.”

“But you always hated the place. You couldn’t wait to leave.”

“No, I hated living with my father. There’s a difference.”

“I thought that maybe you’d come back to see him. He broke his arm falling out of the Cave not so long ago, and…”

Now Luca turned to look at me, and that gaze had only grown more intense over the years. I was close enough to see the gold that flecked his rich brown irises, to wonder whether the network of fine lines around his eyes had been born out of laughter or out of stress. I knew from my brother that he’d transferred into special forces soon after he joined the army, and every time I heard a news story about soldiers being injured or killed in a high-tech operation, or a daring raid, or a rescue mission, I’d prayed Luca’s name wouldn’t be mentioned. But I’d never thought about the toll the job would take on him. Probably because I’d tried to avoid thinking about him at all.

“I didn’t even know for sure that my father was still alive, and I don’t give a s**t that he broke his arm. I always figured he’d drink his way into an early grave.” Luca sighed. “Why did I come back? Habit, I guess. I always used to crash with Aaron in New York when I came to the US on leave. But don’t worry; I’ll be leaving soon.”

“Worried? Why would I be worried?”

“I’m not a fuckin’ i***t, Brooke. I feel the daggers you shoot at me every time my back’s turned.”

Had I been doing that?

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration.”

They were more like…craft knives. And the blades retracted and bounced right off him anyway. Luca was one big wall of muscle.

Luca’s shrug said that he either didn’t care about my thoughts or didn’t believe my words. “While I’m here, I promised I’d help your brother out, and that means carrying your dog into the veterinarian’s office. He’d be pissed if I let you hurt yourself. And one of us will carry him into your apartment too. He said you were staying at the Crowes’ place?”

I might be able to convince Luca to leave me the hell alone, but when it came to Aaron, I had no hope. Ever since our parents died in a car crash, he’d played the protective older brother. The overprotective older brother. Even when he was living in New York, he’d called or texted every day and come home to visit whenever he could. He’d drop everything if I was in trouble. During his first year at college, I’d slipped and fallen during a late snowfall and fractured my wrist, and he’d flown back to Oregon the very next day to help me out. And then struggled with his first set of exams because of all the lectures he’d missed.

Which was why I hadn’t told him about what happened in my apartment that night last year. He’d been preparing to sit his finals at law school, and if my stupidity at letting my guard down on a night out had led to him failing, I’d never have forgiven myself. And by the time the exams were over and he’d passed, it was too late for me to spill my secret. He’d only have been hurt that I’d kept it from him in the first place, and I’d never dreamed that it would come back to haunt me a year later.

“Yes, I’m staying at the Crowes’ place.” My turn to sigh. “Thanks for helping.”