Free My Mistake (Stories of Serendipity #7) by Anne Conley Page A

You and Summer were in the kitchen making cookies and got all pissy because I ate too many.”
    “I fell in love with you that day, Brent. I would have been happy to feed them all to you.”
    “You were what, eight?”
    “I was nine, thank you very much.”
    “You fell in love with me then, huh?” The pain in his eyes was gone, replaced with a mischievous glint.
    “Yeah, and then I fell in love with you again when you were stuck babysitting Summer when Nana had to go tend her sister in Abilene, and Summer got that stomach virus. You were the pissy one then, telling me to go home, so I wouldn’t get sick too.”
    “Summer was miserable that weekend. I really didn’t want you to get sick too. As it was, I got it later that week. It wasn’t fun at all.” His thumb stroked the back of her hand, the coarse pad rubbing circles on her skin.
    “And then again, when you had that party, and Michael wanted me to play spin the bottle with you guys, and you punched him in the face.”
    He ducked his head and blushed. “Yeah, well…He didn’t want to play spin the bottle, he wanted to play sixty seconds in Heaven, and I had stories of what he could get up to with sixty seconds in a closet…”
    “And that night that we went skinny dipping.” She watched his head snap around to hers, his eyes wild at the memory. “I really wanted you to catch me.”
    “Yeah, but Les did, didn’t he?”
    “Yeah, he did.” She sighed at the memory, but it must have been the wrong response because Brent’s hand tightened on hers painfully. “Easy there Cowboy. Nothing happened. I was too nervous, and couldn’t stop giggling. He finally gave up and let me go.”
    “Yeah, but he still caught you…He held your wet naked squirming body against his.” The torment in his eyes killed her.
    “Brent, that was all so long ago…”
    He let go of her hand and raked it through his hair. “You don’t understand, Case. I’ve loved you since the cookies. I never stopped loving you.” He pulled the truck over onto the shoulder right outside of town and took both her hands in his. “I remember all those times, just like you do. But you were my kid sister’s friend. I couldn’t do anything. When we played that weird catch a tiger tail game while skinny dipping, I tried to catch you. Les knew I had a thing for you, and he beat me to you. On purpose. After that, I was a complete wreck. I had already told myself I would let you know how I felt, Summer be damned, but then Les caught you. He goaded me that night. Then, when we were at that FFA thing, on the bus, I did tell you how I felt about you.” He sighed. “No. I didn’t actually tell you. I tried to show you, but your innocence overwhelmed me. You hadn’t ever done anything like that before, had you?”
    He looked to her, eyes filled with regret, and she shook her head slowly, remembering with suddenly vivid detail how his fingers had brought her to climax in the dark back of the bus. His kisses had given her a fever she couldn’t break, a thirst she couldn’t quench. Casey had itched for him for months afterwards.
    Brent continued. “I knew that when I went off to college and left you alone, you would miss out on things because your boyfriend was away, and I couldn’t do that to you. So I just told myself you were better off without me.”
    “I didn’t mean to bring it up…” His hand on her lips stopped her.
    “Let me finish.” She figured this was something he’d have to get out before he could go on, so she let him finish.
    “That was my mistake. I should never have let you go, because without you, I made so many other mistakes. Mistakes I never would have made if you’d been a part of my life. Then when Summer was in your wedding, I thought I would die. I’d lost you, and someone else had found you. You don’t know the level of self-loathing I sank to.” His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white. “I wanted to kill him, kill you,