Tangled Up In You Read online

  Tangled Up In You

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  S.L. Carpenter

  Letting You In | S.L. Carpenter

  About the Author

  Books by S.L. Carpenter

  S.L. Carpenter

  Copyright © S.L. Carpenter, 2019

  Cover art copyright S.L. Carpenter 2019

  Dedication

  This started as an idea to give back to those who work with and support cancer patients, the ones still with us, and those no longer here. I lost my mom to cancer and wanted to help those that helped her. Thank you to all of them.

  It is also for the people who love romance. You make the world a brighter and better place.

  A Few Months Ago:

  Kayla stepped out of the shower, her eyes swollen and red from crying. A woman should feel good about herself after sharing a night of passion, but she felt cheap and used.

  Her robe hung loose while she dried off. She winced as she noticed a small bruise on her ankle—it was from hitting it against the side of the bed frame when Evan pushed her down.

  In some ways she was ashamed of the way she’d settled and accepted the way things were. It had been a loveless life with a man who used her to simply take care of him. She knew now she’d been his servant. There was no true love anymore. Maybe there never was.

  Thank God she’d had that little implant done secretly so she wouldn’t bring a kid into this fucked-up situation. Even though she adored working around children, the time wasn’t right.

  She looked into the mirror and didn’t like what she saw. This reflection before her—it needed to change.

  “Hey baby, why don’t you come back to bed?” Evan’s yell echoed round the bathroom. “The game is almost starting and I’m in the mood for some nachos and a blowjob.”

  Kayla clenched her teeth, took a deep breath and then looked at her reflection in the mirror.

  It changes now.

  BREAKING UP IS ALWAYS hard. It’s even harder when you have no idea what you’re going to do next.

  Kayla’s first major step involved getting in the car and heading back to her hometown. She had arranged for a transfer from her local school administrator job to the new opening at her old high school in Winnemucca, Nevada, and handed in her notice as soon as the approval came through, saying she was leaving at the end of the week. Her boss wasn’t happy, but she didn’t give a damn.

  Sure, she still felt a little guilt from purposely clogging the toilets with tampons and leaving that road-kill in the oven, but she didn’t care. Besides, he didn’t deserve anything more after he cussed her out because she didn’t want to suck his dick.

  Gathering all the money she had and borrowing a little from her mom gave her enough to get a small apartment behind the house of an old family friend. It wasn’t much. but it would be a start and it was cheap enough for her to afford the rent.

  Going home would be a nice way to restart her life and she found the thought comforting. That was what she needed—something to look forward to with a smile. To slow things down and go back to a time when she wasn’t scrambling every day meet other people’s demands. When she didn’t feel like she had to fight to survive. And most of all, not being stuck having to rely on a man to help her.

  Kayla smiled at Mr. Bronson as he helped her unload her plastic totes from the back of her SUV. There weren’t too many and he seemed eager to help her out, welcoming her with a broad smile. It didn’t seem like she had brought very much with her, but she’d left Evan a “Fuck you, asshole”, note and crammed her clothes and a few good memories into the car.

  “Thank you, Mr. Bronson.” She lifted out the last box.

  He turned quickly. “Please, call me Leonard? I’ve known you since you were little, Kayla. You and Seth used to play here in the back yard as kids. We’re very happy the cottage was available when your mother called. We’d just had it renovated and we both love the idea of you living there.”

  She smiled and plopped the totes in the small living room of the apartment. “Well, thank you again...Leonard.”

  “Now, you can have supper with me and Barbara, if you’d like. You probably don’t have much food yet, and I know she’s making her famous chili tonight. She’d love to spend some time with you, and you can get the lease signed as well. All the loosed ends tied up and we can get caught up on how you’re doing. So suppose we say around six?”

  “That sounds great. It’ll give me a little time to unpack. I’ll see you then and thanks for the help.” She smiled and waved as he walked onto his back porch.

  The Bronsons were one of the best memories from her childhood.

  Winnemucca didn’t have much in the way of industry, but relied on the several gold mines in the area for its income. Sadly, one of the mines had suffered a disaster. Kayla’s father had worked like hell to save most of his crew, but didn’t make it out after going to get the last few men. Kayla’s life changed that day and no other man had been able to fill the hole left by her true hero, her dad.

  The Bronsons were like grandparents to her, and their daughter—Aunt Cassidy—was her mom’s best friend. After the accident, they both her and her mom under their wing, helping out as best they could.

  They had been living proof of old school values, and just amazing people. Kayla was so happy that was still true.

  And man, could Mrs. Bronson cook. She had five sons and one daughter, and never cooked less than an army sized portion for the kids, and eventually the grandkids.

  Kayla had considered moving in with her mom, but admitted she couldn’t because her step-dad was a complete pervert who made her feel uneasy. He’d stolen her panties and taken them into the bathroom and done really odd things. She still had nightmares after seeing him naked and jacking off in the shower with her panties in his mouth.

  The Bronson house had been a home away from home as she was growing up, and it looked like it would be so again, until her life was back on track.

  “Burrrpppp...oh, much better.”

  After two bowls of chili, two pieces of cornbread, a diet soda, and an ice cream sundae, Kayla was stuffed but happy to know Mrs. Bronson could still cook up a storm.

  The dinner was a nice way to catch up on things. They talked about the changes to the city, the people, and how things were so different even after only a few years.

  Exhausted from the drive and from unpacking everything into the cottage, the bed felt like it was calling to her. She finished up the last of it, slipped into her standard Disney princess pajamas and crawled into bed. Lying there, her mind filled with racing thoughts whirling around endlessly. Everything was different now. Everything had changed and nothing was ever going to be the same.

  Kayla curled up into the fetal position, bare, alone and scared. Tears welled in her eyes and the loneliness crept up on her, threatening to overwhelm her.

  Reaching up, she grabbed a small pillow. The soft fabric felt good against her face as she snuggled her cheek into it. Turning onto her back, she held the pillow up in the air with both hands. It should be a face, she thought, a man’s face. Someone who wanted her and would be there for her every night.

  Bringing the pillow close she closed her eyes and kissed it.

  Feeling this alone wasn’t a good thing, and it troubled on her. Even though Evan was a classic douche-bag, he had at least been there. Not in a good way, because he treated her like shit and never even listened to her, but he had been around at the times when she really needed a shoulder to lean on. God. She tried to put a good face on it, but no matter how she looked at it, five years of her life had been wasted.

  She rolled over and slid the small pillow between her thighs. There was another thing she needed. A human being between her
legs instead of a pillow or plastic battery-operated-boyfriend.

  IT TOOK A COUPLE OF weeks, but Kayla quickly settled into her job, and started feeling normal again. She enjoyed her work and the people working with her. She even knew a few of them from high school. It had been a long time, but some things don’t change much.

  One day, she sat at lunch and decided to pull up her high school’s social media page. It had different sections, and several of them showed all the different graduation classes, ordered by year. There were updates and “Remember When” pages full of details about where they all were now.

  Scrolling through, she did notice a lot of people had moved away from Winnemucca. Most were now in the Las Vegas or Reno area. It made sense because the better-paying jobs that people wanted these days would be there, not here in town.

  She saw the names of some who had become friends and recognized others who had been just acquaintances. Real friends stick with you or you meet again and it’s like no time had passed, she thought to herself. Those are the ones you remember most.

  Pausing as she scrolled through photos, she blinked and stared. Holy shit. Maria still lives here. She remembered all the trouble they had gotten into growing up. That girl was hotter than a jalapeño. I wonder if she still is...

  They’d gotten drunk and pulled over by the cops. Then there was the saran wrap over all the toilets in the girl’s bathroom and the laxatives in the chocolate pudding—yeah, they were little troublemakers. And she couldn’t forget the time when Maria’s dad caught them skinny dipping in their neighbor’s pool with their boyfriends.

  That wasn’t such a great time. Especially for the boys, who had run screaming and naked down the street after her dad grabbed his shotgun and chased them off. She’d learned all kinds of filthy words in Spanish that night.

  They had fallen out of touch when Kayla went to college and Maria had gotten pregnant, married, and started raising a family. There had always been a Christmas card with a letter, but Kayla felt guilty that she hadn’t kept track as much as she should. But now that she was back...it would be fun to meet up. She still had Maria’s old number in her contacts list, but would it still work? It had been more than a few years since they’d talked. She could text her, but if that number had been reassigned to someone else, that could make for a real mess. No, she’d play it safe and simply try. If it wasn’t Maria, she’d apologize and hang up.

  Picking up her phone, she entered the numbers and crossed her fingers....

  “Hola, chica...”

  IT HAD BEEN A LONG week, but Kayla got home on Friday night with more than enough energy to shower and dress for an evening out.

  She tried to remember the last time she’d felt so excited about going out, and gave up. She couldn’t. That was how long it had been since she’d really looked forward to just hanging out. The plan was to meet Maria at a newly updated bar, which turned out to be the one that they used to sneak into in their troublemaking years. Had it really been ten years? That’s a long time to be away, and she knew first-hand how life changes people. So she allowed herself the few nerves that made her palms damp.

  Looking at the full-length mirror on the closet door, she saw a different woman to the one who had stared back at her last month. Now, instead of a tired and unhappy face, she saw someone with less stress and a lot more confidence. And after all Mrs. Bronson’s fine home cooking, there was also a bit more of her to look at.

  Her long hair fell down over her shoulders and back. The dress hugged her curves and a wicked grin crossed her lips when she noticed her cleavage. The girls were ready to shake up the world tonight.

  And it looked like that was going to happen. The bar was no longer murky and smelling of old beer and cigarettes. The renovations had replaced the sticky linoleum with shiny planks of wood, the walls had been painted in a rich shade of gold, and there were beautiful lights glowing all the way along the refinished bar. The racks of bottles were still there, but now there were actual clean mirrors behind them, not the half-shattered mess of smoked glass she remembered. She kinda missed the gum chunks, but was happy to see that the place outside where she’d thrown up her first tequila had been planted with a lovely blooming shrub.

  Maria, Kayla soon realized, was still living up to her reputation as a bad girl. She had always possessed a free spirit, but tonight she was free to have some fun, since her husband was home with the kids.

  “Marcus told me to get it out of my system.” She swung her hips in time to the music as they stood around a tall table holding their drinks.

  Kayla laughed, “You and Marcus are still together. That is so awesome. Two kids, and you’re still the same. Of course, the fact that he’s such a good man and father helps.”

  “Oh hell, yeah. That, and he’s a sex machine too. The man never quits.” Maria started to giggle. “I do adore him.”

  As the noise in the bar and grill picked up, Kayla turned toward a group of guys standing at similar table across from them. They all were laughing and having a good time, judging by the grins on all their faces.

  One guy, whose face she couldn’t quite see, caught her eye. She tried to be nonchalant as she glanced across and sized him up from head to toe. Everything seemed to be in the right place and proportioned perfectly. For some reason she began to crave a large kielbasa sausage.

  Maria waved her hand in front of her friend’s eyes. “Hello? Earth to Kayla? Since you’ve been checking out that guy’s ass for so long, the least you should do is go ask him if he prefers hips or lips. Because, chica, you know you been fucking him in your head.”

  “What are you talking about? I have no idea what you mean.” She turned away and felt her cheeks warm with her blush.

  “Hey, I don’t blame you. If I was single, I’d want to get back on the horse. Since your ex was such an asshole you should at least look around. Nothing wrong with window shopping. You may find something you like. Hell, you might even want to take it for a test drive.”

  Taking a sip from her drink, Maria kept going. “I sound like a car salesman. Okay. I’m gonna sell you a real gem.” She laughed at herself. “Lemme see. You don’t want some small car, I can tell. You got class, chica. You want something with a Hemi that can handle all the rough curves.” She rubbed her hands all over her body and laughed.

  “Hola, Maria, you causing trouble again?” One of the guys at the table yelled over to her.

  “Oh shit, Carlos bebé, you know soy una chica mala. Where’s your wife? She needs to come out with us girls sometime. Hey, tell your compañero that my girl here was checking him out.” She felt a swat on her arm. “Ouch, what the hell?”

  Kayla glared at Maria and was beyond embarrassed. “Jesus, woman. Did you have to?”

  “Holy shit. Is that you? Kayla?”

  A man’s voice made her turn around and she finally got a good look at the face of the guy she lusted for. “Seth? Oh my God, I am so...uhh...hello.” She knew her face had to be beet red and she stuttered, just about left speechless as she recognized him.

  It took a while, but eventually her embarrassment faded, and she began to feel at ease in Seth’s company. All the guys had come over to their table, and she and Maria sat around laughing and talking with them most of the night.

  At some point late in the evening, she looked around at the smiling faces, easily talking, joking and sharing terrible jokes over beer and pretzels. Kayla realized that she had indeed come home again, and finally all the drama and the baggage melted away into a shadow she could leave behind.

  Seth probably had a lot to do with that particular feeling. He had always been a safe space for her as she grew up, without her even realizing that he protected her and helped her when she needed it. He was a year older, but they had a lot of firsts racked up together.

  He was her first kiss.

  He had been her first crush.

  He was the first guy she’d ever seen naked.

  He was the first guy she really wanted to be her first.
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br />   And above all, he was the guy who set the bar for the kind of man she wanted. Every time she had thought about telling him how she felt, he’d tell her about his new girlfriend. It had seemed like Fate was completely fucking with her and the timing had never really worked out.

  Looking at him, under cover of the general conversation, she discovered that he’d filled out nicely and had turned into a handsome grown man. She wasn’t surprised. He had a calm way about him that had always made her relax. He still had it, but tonight she found it wasn’t working as well as it used to, because instead of feeling tranquil, she was horny as fuck and was going to need to change her panties real soon. Damn...he was hot. Very hot. Muy caliente, Maria would have said, without a doubt.

  She had a feeling the shower she would be taking when she got home would be longer than usual thanks to this man. Thank God for pulsating shower heads.

  AFTER ANSWERING AT least the fiftieth phone call of the day asking if school was closed on Monday, Kayla let out a deep sigh. “What a day,” she said, hanging up on yet another mother who had forgotten that teacher-parent conferences were on the following Monday, not this upcoming one.

  She was getting ready for her lunch and sat at her desk waiting for the clock to drag itself to noon so she could have some time away from the phone. Today she really needed a break from the chaos, or a winning lottery number, or something positive to happen...

  “Excuse me, ma’am? I’m here to pick up my daughter.”

  Turning around she forced a nice welcoming smile to her lips...and then couldn’t help but laugh. “Hello again, Seth.”

  He shook his head and smiled back. “So we meet again.” He shook his head. “I got a call from the nurse’s office that my daughter wasn’t feeling well. Her name is Hannah.”

  “Give me a moment. I’ll go check with the nurse.”

  Kayla knew Seth was probably watching her as she walked down the corridor. He had always enjoyed watching her walk away. She had a sway in her step that accentuated her ass. And she knew it, because he’d told her about it a long time ago.