Kaleb (2 page)

“Zoey
doesn’t have any say in what her father does with that land.” Kaleb added as he
watched the wheels turn in Zane’s head. His little brother was going to piss
him off, he could feel it.

“Yeah,
but she likes you.” Zane goaded. “I’m sure if she goes running to daddy,
telling him her boy toy wants to buy the land, he’d sell it in a heartbeat.”

Boy
toy?
“I know you’ve got something better than that.” Kaleb pushed.

Kaleb
had grown quite fond of his own dick over the years, and he didn’t have any
intentions of losing it, thank you very much. Carl Stranford would just as soon
cut off Kaleb’s dick than let him date his daughter.

Carl
was an overprotective son of a bitch when it came to his one and only daughter,
and he and Zoey had had to clarify their friendship on more than one occasion
over the years. Granted, Carl was close to eighty now, and Zoey was very much a
grown woman who didn’t let her daddy tell her whom she could see, but still...

Hell,
he’d expected Carl to answer the damn door with a shotgun in his hand the night
he had taken Zoey to her senior prom. Thankfully Carl hadn’t, but that was
probably due to Zoey’s mother who had liked Kaleb. Not that Kaleb could blame
the man. If a nineteen year old man had the balls to show up on his doorstep
asking to take his seventeen year old daughter to the prom, Kaleb knew damn
well that young man would know how acquainted he was with his gun collection.

But
true to his word, even back then when he was ruled by hormones alone, Kaleb
never laid a finger on Zoey, no matter how badly he wanted to. And to this day,
he’d never so much as kissed her, and his dick knew it all too well.

Shaking
off the thought, Kaleb pushed himself out of his chair. “I’ll go talk to Carl.
Until we get that land, Travis won’t let it go.”

“Nope,
he won’t.” Zane agreed as he stood. “Tell Zoey hello for me.”

“Fuck
off.” Kaleb grinned as he walked out the back door.

Not
fifteen minutes later, Kaleb was pulling up to Carl Stranford’s house, wishing
like hell he didn’t have to do this again today. Thankfully Zoey’s truck wasn’t
in the driveway, which meant she was probably working – something Kaleb
should’ve been doing. Instead, he’d get the pleasure of explaining to Carl yet
again what he wanted and why he was there.

He
pulled around to the back of the house, put the truck in Park and climbed out.
Stealing himself for the conversation to come, Kaleb took a deep breath and
looked around. With the sun shining bright and not a single cloud in the sky,
Kaleb took in the vast landscape, looking off to the south as he tried to
picture the entrance to the resort as Travis envisioned it.

He
could see the massive wrought iron gates in his mind, the ones that would be
manned twenty four hours a day by security, allowing only those invited to come
inside. Kaleb had seen the artwork for the gates design, including the large
“A” and “I” that would be welded into the intricate iron design.
Alluring
Indulgence
, the name he and his brothers all agreed on.

Given
the type of resort they were looking at creating, the name suited it. The goal
had been to come up with a name to reflect the carnal temptation they fully
intended it to be. So, thanks to an online dictionary and a case of beer,
Alluring Indulgence was born.

He
wouldn’t lie, he was anxiously waiting for the day they opened their doors, but
in order for that to happen, Kaleb had to convince Carl to sell him the land.
With a resigned sigh, Kaleb shut the truck door and made his way to the side
door of the house.

Rapping
his knuckles on the wood frame, Kaleb waited like he always did until Carl’s
gruff voice instructed him to “Come in.” The man never bothered to get up, nor
did he bother locking any of his doors so Kaleb let himself into the large,
typical farmhouse kitchen.

“Mr.
Stranford.” Kaleb greeted Zoey’s father as he stepped into the living room.

Instead
of a greeting, Kaleb was met with a muted “Hmmphh”.

Figures.

“How
are you today?” When Carl pointed to the couch, Kaleb took a seat, keeping a
smile on his face and his eyes on the old man sitting in the chair.

Just
like in recent days, Kaleb felt an overwhelming sense of nostalgia sitting on
the couch in the Stranford’s dated living room. With the dark wood paneling,
well-worn hardwood floors and a ceiling fan that had to have been produced in
the 1980’s, he was hit with flashbacks from his teenage years. There was even
the faint smell of cigarette smoke still lingering, although Kaleb knew Carl
had quit smoking long ago.

He
and Zoey spent many days sitting right there on the very same maroon and green,
flowery couch Kaleb sat on now, talking, laughing and avoiding the glares of
one ornery old man who continuously traipsed back and forth through the room,
making sure the up-to-no-good teenage boy in his living room wasn’t somehow
taking advantage of his sweet little girl.

“Was
doing fine until you showed
up.
”

That
was definitely the Carl he’d grown accustomed to. He much preferred the ornery
old man to the fragile, forgetful one he’d spent hours with, as well. Carl had
been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s within the last year, and as each day passed,
Kaleb recognized more and more symptoms. At times, he was positive Carl didn’t
know who he was, even though he pretended to.

“If
you’re looking for Zoey, she’s not here.”

Kaleb
barely heard him over the television turned up loud enough for Carl to hear
without the hearing aids he refused to wear. Glancing over at the TV and then
back at Carl, he bit back a laugh when Carl sighed dramatically before turning
the volume down with the remote on the arm of his chair.

“I’m
not here to see Zoey, Mr. Stranford. I’m here to see you.”

“Ahhh.”
Carl didn’t look any happier than he sounded by the news. “Out to try and steal
my
land again, are
you?”

“No, sir.”
Kaleb said, forcing back a smile. He was, of course, looking to
acquire
some of Carl’s land, but in his opinion, the offer was more than fair. So, no,
he was not looking to steal anything.

“So,
why is it that you can come over to talk to me about my land, but you aren’t
here trying to woo my daughter?”

Kaleb
couldn’t tell whether Carl was serious or trying to jack with him.
Woo?
Seriously?
Who said woo anymore?

He
couldn’t very well tell Carl that he’d been thinking about “wooing” his
daughter for some time now, but had never gotten up enough nerve to do so. No
matter how Carl sounded, Kaleb wasn’t convinced he’d take any man’s intentions
toward his daughter as a good thing. Not after her devastating divorce.

Shaking
off that train of thought, Kaleb focused his attention on Carl once more. “Mr.
Stranford, I wanted to stop by to see if you’d come to a decision about the
land.”

“What
are you planning to do with my land again?”

Kaleb’s
hands balled into fists, but he kept them hidden. He was fairly certain Carl
knew exactly what he and his brothers intended to do with it, but he figured he
had no choice but to oblige him.

“Sir,
we’re looking to build a hotel.” Well, it was more of a resort, but he didn’t
want to go into the details.

“A hotel?
Like what?
A La Quinta?”

Fighting
the urge to laugh, Kaleb shook his head.
“No, sir.
Not
a La Quinta.” Not by a long shot, he thought to himself.

“What
do you plan to do with my house if you build this hotel?” Carl asked,
sincerely, his forehead creased with worry.

“We
don’t have any plans for your house, Mr. Stranford. We aren’t looking to buy
the land that your house sits on. We’re only looking to acquire the one hundred
acres that sit adjacent to my father’s land.”

“One hundred acres, huh?”

Oh,
brother.

“Yes, sir.”

The
amount that Kaleb and his brothers were looking to purchase was about half of
what Carl owned in total. Even though he was certain Carl didn’t have any intentions
of using the land in the future, they didn’t want to go overboard. In Kaleb’s
opinion, Travis was riding a fine line as it was.

Since
Travis was insistent that the entrance face the south, for a number of reasons
he’d been told, this had been their only option.

“And
how much are you offering me?”

Kaleb
was pretty sure he saw a twinkle in Carl’s eye, and if he wasn’t mistaken, the
man was trying to catch him in a lie. Well, that was one thing the Walker’s
didn’t do. They didn’t lie, and they didn’t try and cheat someone out of what
was rightfully theirs.

Taking
a deep breath, Kaleb settled in for the long haul. For the next half hour, he
repeated the same conversation he’d had with Mr. Stranford for the umpteenth
time.

♀♂

To
say Zoey was tired was an understatement.

She
and V were going on hour number three of their weekly visit to the Wilson’s
gi
-freaking-
normous
house in
which they scoured the five thousand square foot monstrosity from top to
bottom. Sometimes she wished she wasn’t quite so gullible because when Victoria
Wilson had bragged about how well kept her house was, Zoey had actually
believed her.

Ummm...
That was
so
not the case.

“V?”
Zoey called out, her voice echoing off of the Travertine floors and twenty feet
tall ceilings. “Where are you?”

Making
her way to the master bedroom downstairs, Zoey had a good idea where V was, and
she smiled at the thought.

Noticing
that the master bedroom was in tip top shape, Zoey continued toward the master
bathroom and the sound of V sighing.
Loudly.

“Are
you almost done?” Zoey asked when she found V on her hands and knees near the
toilet – the one thing V absolutely detested about cleaning houses. For a
while, she had tried to convince Zoey that she was allergic to toilets, and
some of her excuses had bordered on insane, but knowing V, Zoey had never given
in.

“Does
it look like I’m almost done?” V snarled. “If someone,”
cough, cough
,
“understood how much I truly hate this part of the job,”
cough, cough
,
“they might’ve agreed to handle the bathrooms all by herself.”

“Ummm...
In case you didn’t know, I’ve already cleaned the other four. And you’re just
lucky I volunteered to clean the kid’s bathroom.” Zoey snarled back,
remembering all too vividly what the Wilson’s son’s bathroom had looked like before
she went in there.

Unfortunately,
the bathroom hadn’t been the worst of it this time. She wasn’t sure what it was
the Wilson’s did to make this much of a mess in a seven day period, yet each
week it seemed to get worse. With six children – Zoey had no idea how they kept
up with six kids – it was a wonder the house was even still standing.

“Well,
what’s one more?” V asked, still scrubbing away before flushing the toilet and
standing. With a little wiggle of her hips, V managed to straighten her skirt before
tossing her hair back over her shoulder.  

How
the woman could come to work – cleaning houses, mind you – looking impeccable
day in and day out was beyond her. If she didn’t know better, Zoey would’ve
thought V worked in the corporate world for all of the trouble she went through
to get dressed up each day.

Not
Zoey. No way. Her outfit for the day consisted of her soft, faded jeans and an
oversized t-shirt that had clearly seen better days. But, neither her shirt nor
her jeans had holes in them, and that was about as good as it got for her.

Staring
back at her friend, Zoey realized they looked like polar opposites, what with V
wearing wedge heels and a flouncy skirt. V was also tall and curvy in all the
right places while Zoey was on the short side. Like day and night, Zoey smiled
to herself.

After
V stripped the latex gloves off, tossing them into the sink, she turned her
attention to Zoey. “What’s left?”

“I
think we’re done.” Zoey smiled. “As long as you’re done in here, that is.”

“Oh,
I’m done.” V said feigning exasperation.

“What
do you say I buy you a drink then?” Zoey asked, turning toward the kitchen to
pack up the rest of their things.

“Throw
in dinner, and you’ve got a date.” V stated, tossing the last of her supplies
into the bucket they used to haul them back and forth from the truck.

“Can’t do dinner tonight.”
Zoey grinned. “I’m meeting Kaleb.”

“Ohhhh...
That’s right. I almost forgot. You’re weekly date.” V pretended to be offended,
but Zoey knew better. “I’m being shunned for that sexy, hot neighbor of yours.”