Page 4 of Love Unbound
Free scrubbed one hand down his face, the other draped loosely over the steering wheel as he drove. He still didn’t know what had possessed him to seek her out. When his brother had asked him to come home and stand as his best man in his wedding, Free had told himself he would avoid Jodi Kendall like the plague.
That had lasted all of a handful of hours after making it back to northern Michigan and the place he’d called home for over a decade.
He had hoped she would have forgotten about what happened, hoped that she would laugh it off as a silly teenage crush that she’d outgrow with time, hoped that she would be happily married, something,anythingto absolve himself of the guilt he’d carried for nearly a decade. That hope had been dashed the second he’d seen her, more beautiful and impossibly stubborn now than she’d been before, with those damn blue eyesthat never failed to stir up those old feelings.
The last time he’d seen Jodi was still burned into his brain, a memory he had tried desperately to erase, but couldn’t. As he drove the familiar roads, the memory of that night taunted him, as it had for so many years…
“What the hell is going on in here?” Free had snapped, flinging open the car door and hauling the idiot college kid out by the fabric of his jacket. Jodi had clutched the torn shirt over her exposed breasts, tears streaming down her face. Her hair was a tangled mess from where Will’s hands had grabbed handfuls of it. Her lips were swollen and bruised. Free was shaking with fury as he watched Jodi scramble out of the passenger seat. The headlights of the car shone brightly, illuminating the field beyond. It was unusual for a vehicle to be out in this part of the property and he had been curious enough to check it out, and he was sure glad he had. Free glared into the younger man’s pale blue eyes. “Well? What the hell are you doing?”
Will, Jodi’s tool bag of a boyfriend, shrugged arrogantly. “Just getting what I’ve paid for over the last six months.”
“What you paid for?” The words came out as a feral growl, fury emanating off Free in waves, and he watched as fear flashed through the twenty-year-old’s eyes. Leaning close, he hissed through clenched teeth, “Get in your car, and don’t come back here, do you understand? She doesn’t owe you shit, you little prick.”
Free shoved the kid away from him and got perverse pleasure seeing him scuttle back to his car. Jodi still stood on the other side of the vehicle, trembling and trying desperately to keep the tattered sides of her shirt over her chest.
Free came around the back of the car toward Jodi as Will slammed the driver’s side door closed. Rolling down the window, he spat at Free’s feet and snarled, “Good luck. She’s nothing but a dick tease.”
Free lunged for the door handle but Will saw it coming and peeled away, his tires flinging mud and dirt behind him. “You always had it bad for that dirty cowboy anyway!” Will shouted as he sped off down the dirt trail.
Free swore under his breath as the taillights of Will’s car disappeared through the trees. Jodi was trembling, her arms wrapped tightly around herself, so he took his flannel shirt off and draped it over her shoulders. The late October evening was deceptively cool. She slipped her arms through and pulled it closed, crossing her arms over her stomach. Her head fell back and she released a shuddering sigh, and he watched as tears continued to leak down her cheeks.
“Are you okay, Jodi?” he asked quietly. “Did that bastard hurt you?”
Jodi shook her long dark hair, opening her eyes to look at him. “No,” she whispered, “I’m okay, I promise.”
But tears continued to fall, and a broken sob escaped her. Before Free could stop himself, he had gathered her tightly into his arms and held her against his chest, allowing her to cry openly against his shirt front. Her arms went around his waist, and he felt her fingers curl into fists into the fabric of his shirt against his back. His hands smoothed her mess of dark curls, and he whispered soothingly into her hair.
“Shh,” he murmured, his heart aching at the pain he could feel radiating off of her. He had known Jodi since she was a little girl, had watched her grow. He hated that his feelings of anger and protectiveness were accompanied by a jealous rage at having found her in that douchebag’s arms. He’d done everything he could to not notice how beautiful she had become in the last two years. She was still a teenager and he hated that he wanted her.
Jodi’s tears seemed to finally slow, and eventually she pulled away. She hid her face from his, swiping at the tear tracks down her face. “I’m sorry,” she whispered hoarsely.
“Shh,” Free said quietly. “Come on, let me get you home.”
“No!” Jodi cried in panic, her blue eyes wide. “Please, don’t make me go home yet. I don’t want Mom and Dad to see me like this. They’ll ask questions. I don’t want to tell them what happened—”
“Okay, okay,” Free rushed to say. “Let’s go back to the apartment then, let you clean up, I’m sure I have some of Shane’s old t-shirts in the closet that might fit.”
Jodi nodded, calmed slightly, “Thank you.”
Free led her toward his waiting truck, holding the door open for her and helping her up into the seat. His shirt fell open for the briefest of seconds and he glanced away quickly, self-loathing eating at him even as he wished he could look. Her father would murder him and bury him in the back acreage if he ever knew the thoughts Freeman was having about his oldest daughter.
He rounded the hood of the truck and climbed in behind the wheel. It was a short trip back to the main property. The large ranch house stood a hundred or so yards away from the pole-barn, where Levi Kendall had built an apartment loft for Free and Shane years before.
When Free had first shown up as a teenager himself, younger brother in tow with nowhere to go, Levi had taken them both in, and started him out as a ranch hand. After years of hard work and earning the older man’s respect, Levi had promoted him to project manager for the prestigious building company he owned and had built from the ground up.
Free helped Jodi out of the truck and she followed him up the narrow staircase to the one room loft. It wasn’t fancy, but it was cozy and offered enough privacy for the twenty-seven-year-old. His brother Shane had long since moved into an apartment with several buddies closer to town.
Free crossed the small kitchenette to the open floor stylebedroom that also served as his living room. It had once had two small twin mattresses, but when Shane moved out they had swapped it for a queen sized, which Free had been grateful for. It took up the majority of the floorspace, but he didn’t care. His tall frame needed the extra room.
He opened the tiny closet and dug around until he found one of Shane’s old t-shirts that would be small enough to fit Jodi. When he turned around, she was standing at the edge of his bed, her hands still clutching the sides of his flannel shirt closed. The light from the kitchen cast a halo around her. He handed her the shirt and said gruffly, “Go ahead and get cleaned up in the bathroom, sweetheart. I’ll start some coffee.”
She nodded and entered the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Free busied himself in the kitchenette, preparing a pot of coffee. She had still been trembling, whether it was from the cold or adrenaline he wasn’t sure. He had just poured two cups when she walked out of the bathroom. She must have showered because her hair was wet, and he could smell his body wash on her. She was wearing his younger brother’s shirt, but she had pulled the flannel shirt back on. The sleeves were far too long, and she had the cuffs tucked into her palms.
“Come on, come sit and have some coffee before I get you home,” Free said and smiled gently as he crossed to sit on the couch. He was struggling to remain aloof. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m better, I promise,” she said and came to sit next to him on the old, faded couch. He swallowed hard as she settled into his side. Did she even know what she was doing to him? She looked up and smiled, her sapphire blue eyes capturing his gaze. “Thank you, Free. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t found us.”
“Can you tell me what happened?” he asked, giving in and draping one arm across her shoulders, allowing her to settle intohis side. This was harmless, right? Big brother protecting his little sister? Comforting her?
