Eve Langlais - Apocalypse Cowboy

An urge came over her to run her fingers down his new masculine face, to kiss away the lines he’d so harshly earned. Creases she knew would increase when he learned what else had happened. A secret she suddenly dreaded sharing.

A commotion and a bellow sounded, pulling her thoughts away from the past.

Brody’s body went tense, and Hannah hastened to reassure him. “It’s just Uncle Fred. I had him and Bethie go down to the cellar as a precaution when we heard the motorcycle.”

“That old coot’s alive?” Brody’s face lit up. “I’ll go give him a hand.”

Brody brushed by Hannah, his memory of their home apparently intact as he headed for the basement. Hannah’s breath sucked in at the brief touch of their bodies. He’d kept in shape and still felt hard as ever, a noticeable fact that made her flush with heat.

“Oh isn’t it wonderful? Brody’s back and more handsome than ever.”

Hannah frowned at her younger sister. “He’s not back for long. You watch, he’ll be gone before the day’s out. There’s nothing here for him now.” She didn’t quite believe her own words. She said them because she had to, anything to try and stop the hope that had taken root since she’d heard his voice and the tingles that even now ran through her body at the thought of being able to touch him again. She couldn’t allow herself to fall in love with him-she wouldn’t survive his leaving a second time.

For a moment Beth lost her smile, only to replace it with a sly one. “You’re just saying that because he left you. It’s a new world now, and a man like him is going to be looking for a woman to settle down with. You know you could get him back if you wanted to.”

Hannah looked at her sister in disbelief. Take him back? After what he did to me. Has Beth lost her mind?

“Not even if he was the last man on earth,” Hannah replied although her body and heart protested otherwise.

* * * * *

Brody caught her words as he wheeled Fred toward the kitchen to join the girls.

“Well, kitten, seeing as how few of us are left, you might want to rethink that stance.” He couldn’t resist goading her, and the flush on her cheeks and sparkle in her eye made it well worth it, even if he knew she was spitting mad. Folks always said love and hate didn’t lie far apart.

“You,” she said, pointing at him. “Outside. Now.” Off she stalked, that plump ass he’d loved and never forgotten swinging sassily in front of him. If she hadn’t been so pissed he’d have slapped it.

Out the front door they went to stand on the porch. Hannah crossed her arms over her ample chest and regarded him with a pinched expression, her full lips tight with ire.

Brody just grinned and leaned casually against the porch railing. He figured she had a right to vent. And besides, the way he saw it, she wouldn’t be so pissed if she didn’t still care.

“I want you to leave.”

“Why?”

“Because you don’t belong here.”

“Says who?” Brody enjoyed watching her, even though right now she exuded anger, an emotion which made her cheeks bloom with color. He wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her and kiss her ‘til her eyes glazed over.

“Says me. I don’t know why you came back, but there’s nothing for you here, so please leave.”

Brody detected a crack in her facade when she said the last. Proof to him she still felt something. He arched one brow at her. “And I say there’s plenty of reasons to stay.”

“Name one.”

“You.”

Her derisive laughter hit low. “Oh please. If I wasn’t enough to keep you a year and a half ago, why would you think I’d fall for that now? I realize the pickings are slimmer these days, but I refuse to be the last choice.”

Brody’s heart stilled at her words. Did she really think she could ever be his last choice? She’d always been his one and only. “I made a mistake. I know that now. I never should have left.”

It was Hannah’s turn to arch her brows. “Really? And it took you this long to figure that out?”

“I knew it the day I left.”

“I don’t believe you. Now go.” Her lips trembled, and her eyes brimmed with tears.

“No,” he said, taking a step toward her.

She took one back, trepidation on her face. “You don’t belong here.”

“I do, I was just too young and stupid to realize it at the time.” She crept away from him even as he drew closer, unable to fight the magnetic pull she exuded.

“You’ll just leave again.” She whispered those words, the pain in them stabbing him. It was his fault she wore this wounded look. I never meant to hurt you.

“I won’t leave you again,” he promised, his voice tight as he closed the distance between them.

She scuttled from him, stopping only when her rear came up against the far porch rail, but he invaded her space so she had nowhere left to go. He cupped her face and peered into her eyes where he could see confusion warring with desire. He leaned in to kiss her. Her lashes fluttered, and he felt her soft breath flutter over his hovering lips. Lightly, he pressed his mouth against hers, willing them to part for him.

For a moment, she relaxed and her lips softened under his. Brody reached a hand up and brushed the back of his knuckles across the downy skin of her cheek, which proved to be a mistake as she stiffened and shoved at him. While he didn’t move-he didn’t want to-the railing behind her did. With windmilling arms, she fell backward. Brody reached out to grab her, managing to grasp only the thin linen of her top. The sound of cloth tearing almost drowned out her shriek. He stared at the ripped blouse in his hand and then down at his plush kitten flailing in the tall grass in her bra and laughed even as she cursed him.

You’re not immune to me, kitten, and I think I might even enjoy those new claws you’ve grown while I was gone, especially if you dig them into my back.

On that thought-and with a painful erection-he hopped down to help his spitting mad kitten.

Hannah fumed in her room, the sounds of revelry below making her hide. Brody hadn’t left-yet. She knew it was just a matter of time. If he’d found the town small and stifling before, then what would he think now when only Hannah and her family had survived?

She paused in her internal ranting. Did he know about his family? He must. She couldn’t see him not going to his home first. But he had to have expected it or part of it, at least. The plague had spared so few. Hannah knew it had to be something in their genes that allowed her small family to survive. She wondered which of their parents had given them the lifesaving gene, one that most of the world lacked.

All those protests and fears over bioweapons and nukes ending the world. Ha. Humanity met its doom in the form of a sneeze-or was it a cough? Didn’t matter, the result ended up the same.

The guy on the corner of Main and Queen was the only one who saw it coming with his sign raised high saying, "The end is nigh!" He’d been preaching that for fifteen years, so maybe that was why nobody listened. Of course, even had someone had believed, it wouldn’t have made a difference.

Sometimes she wondered why she’d been spared. Her life wasn’t a bad one, but it lacked…sparkle. It needed that something that made a person want to get up in the morning and say today would be a beautiful day.

Brody could keep me company and be that something I need. An insidious thought that had no merit. Brody hadn’t been able to stay when things were going good; why on earth would he stay now that things had gone to hell?

It pissed her off a part of her wanted to believe his words on the porch that he would never leave again. She hated that she longed to feel his strong arms around her, hugging her tight, telling her things would be okay. Touching her… Oh how she missed the secure feeling that came with knowing someone loved her.

But it had taken so long for her to get over his leaving the first time. If he did it again, she didn’t think she’d have the strength this time to survive. Her heart had been battered enough.

Finally the house quieted, and she lay on her bed listening and, truthfully, waiting to hear the sound of his bike as he left her-again.

She fell asleep to uninterrupted silence.

The sunlight woke her, slanting across her face with its brilliance, signaling the start of a new day and the chores that came with it. Remembering the events of the previous day, she sat up and listened. The chirping of birds were the only apparent sound.

The window of her bedroom faced the front yard. Holding her breath, Hannah peered out of her lace curtains into the front yard, the empty yard. It wasn’t disappointment she felt when she noticed his bike gone; after all, he’d done exactly what she expected. And what you told him to do.

Telling herself she had dust in her eyes-no way am I shedding another tear over him-she dressed in ragged jeans and an even worse shirt, clothes that matched her wretched mood. A quick brush and she caught up her jagged curls into a sloppy ponytail. Exiting her room, she jogged downstairs to the surprising smell of breakfast.

Beth is up already and cooking?

A surge of warmth filled Hannah. Her sister must have finally realized how upset Brody’s visit had made her.

She stumbled when she walked into the kitchen and found herself presented with a black t-shirt stretched over a broad back. And the jolt of pleasure that shot through her had nothing to do with the fact he’d stayed.

“What are still doing here?” she asked crossly. “You’re supposed to be gone.”

* * * * *

“Morning to you too, kitten.” Brody didn’t turn to face Hannah, even though he wanted to. He’d been disappointed when she’d fled to her room the day before and not come back down, but her absence had given him a chance to pump Beth and Fred for information, most of it hard to listen to and increasing the guilt he already felt. Not even six months after he’d left, Hannah’s parents had died in a car crash, leaving her alone to fend for her younger sister and invalid uncle. His gut had tightened when he’d heard of how Hannah had stopped attending college to work full time in support of her family. She’d been so close to finishing her degree in business when he left.