Read Online Beautifully Used (The Beaumont Brothers Book 2) by Susan Griscom - Free Book Online Page B

time, except for that episode with Lena, the day he tried to save her life. He’d been quick to come to her rescue. That was something we’d all been surprised about with our good ol’ dog.
    “Good thing. I don’t think the women in this house would have liked you r backwash,” I said, unable to hide the negative mood behind my tone. I opened the fridge and took out a beer, popped the top and guzzled half before stopping.
    “What’s eating you?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Something.”
    “Nope.”
    “Are we going to continue this one word at a time conversation for long? Because if we are, I’m gonna need a beer.”
    “Better have a glass of water first. I don’t have first -hand experience, but I’m not too sure a beer will settle very well with the milk you just drank.”
    Jackson nodded. “You might be right.” He walked to the cupboard, grabbed a glass and headed to the fridge, filling the container to the rim with cold , filtered water from the spout. Then he drank down the entire contents. “So, what’s the deal?”
    “Grab your beer. Rufus, come on boy, let’s go get some fresh air.” If there was o ne thing that got Rufus excited, it was the prospect of being outside sniffing around. Bloodhounds were naturals at tracking, and the first thing he did when he got outside was put his nose to the ground. I watched him as he sniffed his way toward the back of the property, following the trail of some squirrel no doubt. The raccoons don’t come around anymore now that they know Rufus is here. When he was a puppy, they’d come around and try to steal his food in the middle of the night. Now that Rufus was full-grown and ate his food quickly, they’d stopped coming.
    I walked to the middle of the yard, stopped, and took another swig of the beer I held as another bolt of lightning cracked, but not as bright as before. A few seconds later, thunder boomed in the distance. The storm was heading south. I glanced around the yard, dimly lit by the single porch light. “The grass needs cutting,” I mumbled.
    “The gardeners were here a few days ago.”
    “Maybe they should lower the blades on their mowers then,” I suggested. “The grass always grows twice as fast in the summer months.” My eyes fell upon the old hammock our uncle had tied up between the two oak trees. I pointed my finger at it. “The netting on that needs to be replaced before your wedding.”
    “So now we’re talking about things that need to be done around here. Okay. At least we’ve graduated from one-word sentences. I’m well aware of what needs to be done.”
    “Gabrielle .” Her name flowed past my lips with a heavy breath.
    “What about her?”
    “ How much do you know about her?”
    “ Not much. Just things Lena has told me. She started singing in Weezer’s band several months before Lena left it. They’d become close in those months. Gabby attempted to keep in touch, but apparently Troy never let Lena know she’d tried. Why? Has she done something wrong?”
    “No. Nothing like that. Nothing wrong. Just … strange.”
    “As in?”
    I glanced back at the house. Not wanting anyone, especially Lena, to hear what I had to say. “A few minutes ago, I was coming down the hall. I’d just gotten out of the shower, was towel drying my hair and hadn’t been looking where I was going. I smacked into Gabrielle.” I recounted the whole story about how Gabrielle spilled the milkshake and then became all weird, apologizing and sounding like a scared little girl. “I’m telling you Jackson, she wasn’t herself. The way she stared at me, blotting the sticky stuff off my chest and stomach, saying, ‘Please don’t be mad, I promise I’ll clean it up, please don’t make me,’ like I was somebody else and was going to punish her in some weird way.”
    “Make her do what?”
    “I don’t know. She wouldn’t say. She just ran from me into her room and locked the door, or blocked it, because it wouldn’t open when I tried to