Bent Not Broken (A Cedar Creek #1) (20 page)

From down here, I could also see a big loft with a huge desk and lots and lots of shelving filled with books.

Wow.

I looked back down to the living room and decided to sit on that big comfy couch and enjoy the view while Cal was cooking in the kitchen behind me. My plans were thwarted when Tommy came running out of a room that I assumed was his bedroom and slid towards me on his socks. That looked like fun, and the thought of me doing that with him made me giggle.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me in the direction he had just come from, informing me excitedly, “I am giving you a tour! Let’s start with my room.” I sure as hell wasn’t going to say no to that. I was very curious about how Cal and Tommy lived.

As promised, Tommy showed me his room first. It was just like I imagined, but better. He had a bunk bed with a couch underneath it, books strewn all over it. The wall opposite his bed was covered with built-in bookshelves and cabinets, and they were filled with books and picture frames. He had a deep window seat with cushions on it, and seeing as his window also faced the mountains, this made it the perfect spot to curl up in with a book. On the other side of the room there was another door, which lead to the en-suite bathroom. Nothing fancy, but everything a boy growing up would need. His room was spacious, and I was surprised I didn’t see a mess of toys or a game console anywhere. No TV either.

“Do you have a separate toy room?” I asked, looking around.

“Ivey. I’m eleven. I don’t play with toys anymore,” Tommy responded, He sounded a little insulted.

“Oh. Sorry,” I apologized and smiled sheepishly at him.

He grinned back at me. “We have a game room in the basement that has the TV and game console in it. And a pool table and darts.”

“Oh,” I said again. “That sounds fun.” And it did. Sounded like Cal and Tommy knew how to occupy themselves in the midst of winter when it was too cold and snowy to go anywhere if you didn’t have to.

“Next on the tour: kitchen and bathroom down here,” Tommy took me out of my reverie. He led me back out of his room, through the living room and into the kitchen where Cal was chopping peppers and onions. He looked up and gave me a small smile without interrupting his chopping.

Impressive. I was a pretty good cook, but I would totally chop my fingers off if I ever tried that.

Cal looked extremely sexy chopping the food in his kitchen. I had no idea men could look sexy while cooking, probably because I had never really seen a man cook in real life, no less cook for me. Seeing Cal chopping veggies and giving me his sexy smirk, made my belly go all gooey. It was so sexy it was unreal.

“What would you like to drink?” Tommy asked me with his head inside the fridge. “We got water, pop, juice, milk—”

“The wine on the bottom shelf, bud,” Cal answered for me.

“I don’t really drink wine,” I informed Cal.

“No?” I shook my head. “What do you drink?”

“Seeing as we’re living near the Napa Valley of Beer, which Lloyd referred to as ‘a place where the beer flows like wine’ that’s what I’ll have.” I was a simple girl. “A dark Lager if you have one.”

“Lloyd?” Cal’s eyebrows went up.

“Yeah. Lloyd. From
Dumb and Dumber
.”

“You know
Dumb and Dumber
?” he sounded incredulous. Why he would sound incredulous at the idea that I had seen one of Jim Carrey’s funniest movies, that every time I watched it made me laugh through the whole movie in sheer hilarity, I had no idea. “Uh, yeah,” was my response, but it sounded like ‘uh, duh,’ which made Cal burst out laughing.

“A woman after my taste,” he said, grinning, “I have a Black Lager. That work?” He went back to the topic at hand. Yes, that would absolutely work. Actually, any beer from the New Belgium Brewing Company would work. “Absolutely,” I said, nodding my head and smiling at him in appreciation for his good taste in beer. His response was a grin. “Son, you got it?”

“Yeah, dad. You want one too?”

“Yeah,” he answered, then focused his attention back on making dinner, though I could tell he was still laughing silently. I gratefully accepted my beer from Tommy and took a long gulp, then hummed as the liquid ran down my throat. Delicious. At the sound of a grunt coming from my left, I turned my head that way to see Cal staring at me with hungry eyes.

“What?” I whispered, confused as to how his mood had shifted so drastically and what I had done to make him look at me like that. He narrowed his eyes at me and said in a voice that could only be interpreted as a promise, “I’ll show you what. Later.” His voice was far from amused now. It was deep and growly and sexy and hot.

“Okay,” yes, I was still whispering and now even more confused.

“I’m showing Ivey the house. How long until dinner?” Tommy rescued me from his dad’s piercing stare and me trying to figure out what was going on. “You got about a half hour,” Cal responded.

“Cool. Come on, Ivey, let’s go upstairs.” I pulled my eyes from Cal’s, which, to be honest, took some effort, and followed Tommy to the stairs that lead up to the library slash office.

It was the library slash office of my dreams. Being a loft, there was a lot of light streaming in through the big windows. The furniture was heavy but warm with its rich dark brown leather, desk matching the floor to ceiling shelves against the far wall. It was tidy in the way that you could still see that the office wasn’t just for show, but was actually being used to work, with papers on the desk, but organized in neat piles and stacked at one end, a laptop open, but turned off in the middle of the desk, pens and pencils next to it on top of a notebook. The shelves held all kinds of different books. It looked like even the books were all organized, not only by genre, but also by ownership, seeing as one of them held all kinds of architectural books and crime novels and the other one held what seemed to be Tommy’s books, from children’s books to YA literature to classics. Tommy was standing proudly in the middle of the room with his arms stretched out at his sides. “What do you think?” He asked me.

“I think you are one lucky kid. This is heaven!” And it was. I would have loved to have a room like this in my house.

“More heaven than coffee and cookies and chocolate?” Tommy smirked at me teasingly.

“Well…nothing is more heavenly than coffee and cookies and chocolate, but just saying if you ever need to bribe me again…” I let that sentence hang and winked at him, which gave me a short boyish laugh as reward.

I kept looking around the room and noticed a number of photographs placed in the bookshelves. At closer inspection I realized they were photos of family and friends. Tommy in all stages of his life with either his dad or Betty or Pete or all three of them. There were a couple of pictures of a woman holding a small baby. I walked over to take a closer look.

“That’s my mother. I don’t know why dad keeps her pictures up.” His voice sounded sad and a little guarded. I could tell that his mother was not something he liked to talk about, but I could also sense that he was trying to downplay his emotions. He had a mother who had left him when he was a baby, who didn’t care enough to fight for him. Yes, he had a great dad and loving grandparents, but he was still a kid who had been abandoned by his mother, and I could relate to what that felt like. I walked over to where he was still standing in the middle of the room and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Tommy,” I whispered. His eyes flashed to mine and the sadness in them made my breath hitch. “You know, if you ever need someone to talk to about anything, I’m a pretty good listener.” He swallowed and gave me a small nod before he averted his eyes and straightened his shoulders, getting a handle on his emotions. I squeezed his shoulder, then let go, and changed the subject.

“You gonna show me that awesome game room of yours you were bragging about? Maybe challenge me to a race or a game of pool?” Tommy smiled up at me in gratitude for changing the subject before he walked around me towards the stairs while saying, “I’m still trying to get the hang of pool and I don’t like racing games, but we can play
World of Warcraft
. There’s a new version coming out next month, so for now we’ll have to make do with W
arlords of Draenor
. It’s awesome! Have you ever played it?” I had no idea what he was talking about, but was willing to give it a try. “Nope, I haven’t, but I’m all game if you are.” That earned me another grin.

Tommy and I were deep into the alternate universe of
Draenor
. It was all very confusing to me with its demons and clans and dungeons and raids, but I tried to pay close attention to what Tommy was doing on the screen while he tried to explain to me what was going on and who was who and what was what when Cal came downstairs informing us that dinner was ready.

“Oh, thank God,” I mumbled under my breath after Tommy had dropped his controller on the couch and was sprinting up the stairs. Apparently, he was hungry again. “Not a fan?” Cal came over to where I was sitting on the couch and grabbed my hand to pull me up into his body. I dropped my controller and leaned my forehead against his chest. “That game is confusing as hell. I think I’m getting old,” I whined. Cal chuckled.

“It’s not you. If you want to understand
World of Warcraft
, you have to start at the beginning, not at the end.” I gave him a look that communicated that there was no chance in hell I would start at the first version and play my way through the end of number five to be up to speed. Seemed like he understood me perfectly, because what he did in response was kiss my forehead and mumble, “Never mind. Let’s go eat.” Excellent idea.

I grabbed my half-finished beer from the table and let Cal lead me upstairs to the kitchen, where the table was set for the three of us.

The scent that assaulted me upon entering the kitchen made my mouth water. I loved Mexican food, but could never quite succeed in getting a handle on cooking it myself to my satisfaction. Going by the delicious smell and look of what was laid out for us, Cal knew exactly what he was doing in the kitchen.

“That smells great!” I complimented Cal enthusiastically and headed towards the table.

Tommy was already sitting down and loading up his first taco when Cal and I made it to the table. I surveyed all the goodness and started building my own beef taco with fresh peppers, black beans, tomatoes, cilantro, cheese and lots of sour cream and guacamole. When I took my first bite, my eyes bugged out at the sensation of all the flavours exploding on my tongue.

Yes, Cal definitely knew what he was doing in the kitchen.

I leaned my head back, closed my eyes and let out a deep and satisfied groan, that’s how delicious it was. At the feeling of my neck prickling, telling me that I had eyes on me, I tipped my chin back down to face Cal, as he was the one I suspected was watching me. The look in his eyes made me stop chewing abruptly. Just like earlier in the kitchen, his eyes were hungry and he was staring at me.

Though this time I wasn’t confused.

Not in the slightest.

I could read his expression without any doubt as to its meaning.

He was looking at me like he wanted to eat me, which was probably exactly what he intended to do. His promise of ‘Later’ became clear now and my body started tingling all over. I had to close my eyes as to not be overwhelmed by the shiver that was threatening to run through my body.

“Baby,” Cal called. There it was again.

Baby.

This time in a growly voice that made my body tighten in anticipation.

I opened my eyes and looked back at him, held captive by his eyes.

“You gotta tune it down. Have some mercy,” he growled.

“Okay,” I quickly answered.

Cal roamed his eyes over my face, then grinned his sexy grin at me and started digging into his own food, while saying, “Told you my tacos would blow your mind.” He was absolutely right. His tacos were mind blowing. No, not mind blowing. They were mind
blasting
.

During the rest of dinner the three of us chatted about everything and nothing and laughed about Tommy’s stories on how the girls in his class were making gooey eyes at him and following him around. It was too funny. Already, it was clear to see that Tommy would be the king of high school and could pick and choose whoever he wanted to date. What shocked me a little was the fact that at eleven years old he already had a good head on his shoulders when it came to girls. “Gonna keep my eyes open for a good one. There aren’t that many out there, so I gotta start looking now.” He didn't mean this in a demeaning or condescending way, but more like he knew what he wanted and would make sure he would get it in the end. It seemed to me like Cal was doing a fantastic job of raising a respectful son who would turn into a good man. That made the warm and gushy feeling in my stomach return.

Cal

It felt good to have Ivey in his house. She looked comfortable here and he had liked hearing her voice when she was talking to Tommy on their tour while he was cooking their dinner.

Like a family.

Until that moment, he hadn’t realized that he longed to give Tommy a family, that he wanted a woman to complete their family of two. But having Ivey here in his house and seeing how Tommy reacted to her, solidified his already firm plans for their future in his mind. She fit in with them perfectly, belonged with them. And he was going to make damn sure that she would stay exactly where she belonged.