Love Heals Read online

  “Not stupid, a sign from your gut indicating that you’re ready to give another relationship a try. Your problem is that who your heart double beats for doesn’t work into your plan of staying in control and not opening up your heart for disappointment and pain.”

  “You forget, or my body to become a punching bag.”

  “Charlie. That wouldn’t happen. You know the signs, the personalities of men who are batterers. You’ve helped plenty of men and women get out of those types of relationships. The Mullen brothers would never strike you.”

  “I don’t know them well enough to make an assumption like that. Especially not Aleck and Mavis.”

  “Just because a person suffers from PTSD doesn’t make them violent, or capable of hurting those they love. It all depends on their environment and who they let in, who makes them feel secure and safe.”

  “I don’t want to be a therapist to them.”

  “That wouldn’t fly anyway with men like that, so what about simply a woman with her men, dating, getting to know one another before moving on to something more intimate.”

  “That’s funny.”

  “Why is that funny?” he asked.

  “You haven’t been kissed by them.”

  Now he laughed. “No, and don’t want to either, but that right there, you're acknowledging the effects their kisses have on you tells a lot. You like them, are attracted to them, but the fears of your past are in the way of pursuing your future with them. You need to start letting them into your life and spending more time with them. You’ll know when you're ready.”

  Aleck pulled the truck into the parking lot by the hardware store. He got out, and his brother Mavis followed. Before they even reached the front door to the place, Mary Beth Walters and her friend Maybelline Ray smiled wide and greeted them.

  “Oh my God, you guys are back home? When did you get here?” Maybelline asked and stepped closer to kiss Aleck hello. He was hesitant. Knew the two women had a crush on the two of them but they were both twenty-two years old, and way too young for them. Besides the fact that their eyes were set on another woman, Charlie who they had yet to see.

  “Been home for several weeks. Busy with things on the ranch. How is the job hunting doing after college? You finished up months ago, right?” he asked as a reminder of their young age.

  “I’ve been working in an insurance firm in Castings, and Mary Beth has been working right here in town at Mavis’s law firm,” Maybelline informed him.

  “Well good for you. You both have a great first start in careers. We need to get moving,” he started to say when his brother Mavis gave his shoulder a little tap then motioned with his chin toward the cafe. Aleck completely ignored what Mary Beth was saying as his eyes landed on Charlie. Holy God did she look amazing, and definitely a little thinner then he remembered, and he, too, was instantly concerned. The sleeveless burgundy dress she wore accentuated her large breasts and perfectly round ass that looked tight and lifted in the dress. Add in the heels, and boy, did she look hot. When she turned their way, her blond hair whipping over her shoulder was much longer than she ever wore it, and her eyes landed on him, his brother, and of course the two young women still talking.

  “Excuse us a moment,” Aleck said and pushed right past them along with his brother Mavis. However, Charlie turned away and started to walk toward the entrance to the café when two guys stopped her. That sick, deep, jealous feeling hit his gut, and he felt ready to pounce on the men and declare that she was their woman, and they better take a hike. As they approached, they recognized the men, younger, closer to Charlie’s age.

  The men instantly said hello, but he barely looked at them as he took Charlie’s hand, eyed her over, and inhaled her scent before he drew her in for a hug hello. She was rigid in his arms, but he wouldn’t release her as he whispered against her neck and told her how much he missed her. The two men got the message as Mavis got rid of them.

  Aleck kissed her neck. “Damn, woman, you feel so good in my arms. I missed you,” he said, and when he eased back, her face was flush.

  “Aleck.” He shook his head, licking his lips as he stared at her lips when Mavis placed his hands on her shoulders. She gasped, turned, and Mavis pulled her into his arms and did the same thing Aleck did. Kissed her neck, told her how he missed her and then asked her how she was doing. They towered over her by a foot, and she definitely was intimidated. He, however, was totally aroused as he watched Mavis move his hand over her ass, then back up toward her lower back.

  “Mavis, please,” she said and stepped back. She ran her hand along her throat and then over her belly.

  “You look so good,” Mavis told her and reached out to stroke her jaw.

  “Thank you. How have you two been?” she asked as she straightened out her shoulders, but before they could continue their conversation, they heard her name and saw Athena approach with Fox and Chase.

  “Hi,” Charlie said to her, greeting Athena and two of her men. Chase and Fox shook their hands hello.

  “How are you guys doing? Haven’t seen you in Cherry Hill. What’s going on?” Chase asked.

  “Just been busy working on the house. We had some plumbing issues this morning and need some new fittings. We were on our way to the hardware store when we saw Charlie,” Aleck said to them and then looked at Charlie, couldn’t help but to eye her over. The attraction was so strong, and it was difficult not to push her further to reciprocate the attraction.

  “Yeah, we were having some issues earlier in the week with the garbage disposal. In fact, Fox and I are going to hit the hardware store, too,” Chase told him.

  “But not Sparks for lunch. You promised,” Athena said and gave him a look like she was onto him.

  “Hey, we need to eat, too,” Fox said and gave her a firm expression. Athena immediately lowered her eyes and shook her head.

  “She’s safe with me. You both know I’ll watch over her and make sure no one flirts with her,” Charlie said.

  “And who will make sure no one flirts with you?” Mavis asked Charlie. Her face went flush, and Athena widened her eyes but then cleared her throat.

  “We’ll be just fine. No lunch here, go somewhere else. I will text when we’re done,” Athena said, and then she and Charlie headed into the café.

  Aleck was disappointed as he watched them go.

  “You guys busy or do you want to grab some burgers at Borders?” Chase asked Aleck and Mavis. Aleck looked at Mavis.

  “I guess so,” Mavis said, and they started walking down the block.

  “What’s wrong?” Athena asked Charlie. She looked away.

  “Come on and share it with me. I bet it has to do with the Mullen brothers? They are very big, kind of like your brothers.”

  “I walked from my car to the café, and I saw two much younger women talking to them, kissing their cheeks hello and then they walked away from them to come over, and Aleck pulled me into his arms and kissed my neck and told me how much he missed me. Aleck? That isn’t even his personality.”

  “Are you sure? I mean, how well do you know the four of them?” Athena asked and popped a fry into her mouth.

  “I know Titus and Corey the best.”

  “But you’re attracted to Aleck and Mavis the same way?”

  Charlie looked at Athena and exhaled. “It’s hard to explain why I hold back, and, fear getting involved with them. Actually, with any man.”

  “So not just them but any guy who has flirted or taken an interest?”

  “Yes.”

  “I know a little bit about what happened to you.” Charlie swallowed hard. “Not all the details, but enough to know your fear.”

  “Athena, it’s different. Hard to explain.”

  “Hmm…let me see.” She leaned closer, looked around to be sure no one could hear. “I was held prisoner by a man I didn’t know who was older, abusive, and a rapist. Ripped from my life, my beginning, my profession and controlled and held prisoner. I had no say, no rights, and wanted to di
e. When I escaped, I was set to live on the run and to never trust, forget about love or even accept any type of relationship with anyone, never mind an intimate one. I feared your brothers. I feared their muscles, their military capabilities, their dominant ways. God, when Kane would stand on the corner and wait for the bus I took to arrive in Cherry Hill, I could hardly speak I was so scared and intimidated.”

  “What you went through was traumatic, so of course everything you’re saying makes sense.”

  “I know you understand. I also know you felt pain, guilt, and a series of other things that you need to process. However, sometimes you have to take the risks based solely on emotions, and your gut.”

  “That isn’t easy to do.”

  “When you intervened and helped Kyle in town, you knew in your gut or at least believed in your heart that he wouldn’t hurt you, but that he sought you out for help. It’s the same thing. Titus cares. Perhaps his brothers do, too, but you won’t know how much, or how sincere they are if you don’t spend time with them.”

  “I’ve thought about it more and more. I’ve honestly considered seeing where things go, but then I panic over how fast they can change. How they seem unhappy about my profession and what I do.”

  “Probably not unhappy, Charlie, as much as they are worried and protective. Kane said that Titus was worried about you overseas. Did you miss them or think about them when you were gone?”

  “I did, but I was pretty busy and focused a lot on the people I was helping, and the friends I made,” she said and looked away.

  “Oh, like you met someone there?” Charlie was shocked as she looked at Athena. Athena smiled. “It’s okay. You weren’t involved romantically with the Mullen men.”

  “I didn’t cheat on them. I mean I didn’t do anything to feel guilty over.” Athena looked at her like she read right through her words. She was very easy to talk to, and she was her brothers’ woman. She was family now.

  “I couldn’t do it,” Charlie whispered.

  Athena nodded. “Well, there ya go.”

  “Not really. It confused me more and made me feel like it was a challenge and that I should go for it and prove that I’m normal, that it isn’t all men I can’t be intimate with, and it went wrong.”

  “How so?”

  “Without getting into details, it went pretty far and then I put on the brakes. I kept thinking about Titus, Corey, Aleck, and Mavis and then analyzing the type of guy Donovan was. A commanding officer. A leader, all badass, big muscles, six feet four, drop-dead gorgeous, I mean a fantasy come true and could have been no strings attached and just let go, and I chickened out.” Athena laughed.

  “You didn’t chicken out. You obviously take intimacy seriously, and it would have been just sex. There isn’t anything wrong with that. Throw in the fact that it was the Mullen brothers you thought of, and of course you couldn’t just have sex with the guy, despite how totally hot he sounds.”

  Charlie chuckled. “Want to see a picture?”

  “God yes I do.” Charlie picked up her cell phone and found a picture. She showed it to Athena, and Athena’s jaw dropped.

  “Wow,” she said and stared at the phone. “Have you spoken to him since?”

  She handed back the cell phone, and Charlie looked at it and remembered what it felt like in his arms and to be kissed by Donovan and how it didn’t compare to Titus’s kiss, or Corey’s for that matter and never mind how it felt to be held by Aleck and Mavis. They were just as big, strong and sexy.

  “We texted a few times.”

  “I can see why you were attracted to him. He looks like Titus and Corey, was in a high military position and in the field like Aleck and Mavis. Hell, he even has the same hair color and the scruff along his cheeks,” Athena said.

  “Yeah, well that fact hit me too and added to me turning it all down. It didn’t feel right, and I felt guilty.”

  “So you do like them and want to see where this attraction leads?”

  “I just don’t know,” she said, and then the door chimed to the café. They both looked and saw Maya, Leann, and Candice walking in. Of course, the women came right over to say hello, and then the lunch turned into a gossip session and Charlie supposed a normal conversation between women close to her age.

  As they discussed hanging out and going to some event in Cherry Hill, Charlie thought about the things she had missed out on being so serious with Tavern, and how she gave up the last three years of making friends and doing fun things and went straight to being serious and a professional therapist. Like the whole bar scene, flirting with cowboys, fooling around never enticed her and life’s tragedies made her hard.

  “You have to meet us there, Charlie. It’s a great place in Bentor,” Candice told her, and before long she was agreeing to meet them there and perhaps grabbing some last-minute opportunity to not miss out on the things she should have been doing the last three years instead of being a workaholic and not enjoying life.

  Chapter 2

  Sheriff Titus Mullen got the call over the radio about the bar fight. The last thing he expected was for Hurley Jones and Pace Jones to be so violent. As he joined the deputies in trying to dislodge the bodies as fists were flying, he grabbed Hurley by the back of his collar and tossed him back. The mistake Titus made was reaching for another guy when Hurley slammed Titus in the back, hard. Titus turned in a rage as one of his deputies grabbed Hurley, and Hurly punched him in the nose, breaking it. Hurley then went to hit Titus who hit him first but took a hit to his cheekbone. Titus snagged Hurley by his shirt and punched him back several times until Hurley lay on the ground.

  It was a damn mess, and he could feel his cheek and eye throbbing.

  “Son of bitch, Titus. That looks bad,” Manderine Forester, a Texas Ranger, said ten minutes later as backup helped to disperse and arrest the crowd of disorderly drunks. Hurley and Pace Jones were making threats and telling Titus that he better watch his back. That they were coming for him.

  “Shut the fuck up. You won’t be coming for shit. See how you like spending the next several days behind bars sobering up and then going before the judge,” Deputy Lotus McCuen told them as they got them into the back of a patrol car.

  “Those two are nothing but trouble. I swear Hurley isn’t right in the head and his brother, forget about it. I got a call about Pace attempting to lure an intoxicated female into his van two weeks ago.”

  Titus felt the scowl form, and he immediately wished he could lock those men up for a long time. “Well they caused some damage here tonight. However, there were others involved too so we can’t exactly pin it all on them.”

  “Assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest, double time for hitting you and Lotus should put him behind bars for sometime.”

  “Maybe. Depends on the judge. Let’s get this shit wrapped up.”

  “You, my friend, need ice,” Manderine said, and Titus could feel the pain getting worse.

  He shook his head and went about getting these men to jail and sobering up.

  “What the fuck happened to you?” Aleck asked when Titus walked into the kitchen dressed for work.

  “Don’t even ask. I can’t fucking believe how bad it looks.”

  “Someone got a hit in on you?” Mavis asked, and Aleck could tell his brother was surprised.

  “Hurley Jones and his brother Pace decided to cause some shit at Borders last night. About ten guys were brawling when Lotus and I got there and then Manderine and a few others as we were tossing men out of the circle. Then that asshole Hurley gives me a cheap shot in my kidney. I turn, and we fight, and he gets that shot in as I break his nose. Seeing how this looks, I wish I could have done more to the asshole.”