Beautifully Wounded (The Beaumont Brothers) by Susan Griscom Read Free Book Online

placed my hand on his back. “Doc, thanks. I’ll see you later. Come in early. I’ll buy you a beer before you go on tonight.” I patted Doc on the shoulder as we walked toward the door. I wanted to make sure to lock it after he left.
    “ Yeah? Fucking A, you can buy me a few. How’s that?”
    “ Deal.”
    After shutting the door and locking it, I turned to see Brodie standing on the other side of the bar drying a beer glass with a smirk on his face, shaking his head. I pointed a finger at him about to tell him to wipe the smirk off his face and mind his own business when Lana walked out of the office, tugging her coat tightly together.
    She didn’t make an excuse to bolt as I thought she might. Instead, she smiled with chagrin and went to sit back at the bar.
    “ Oh, Lana, this is my brother Brodie.”
    “ Hello,” Brodie said still wiping the same glass he’d been drying for the past couple of minutes.
    “ Hello.”
    I wanted Brodie to leave, so I gestured my head toward the back, but he ignored me. “Don’t you have some beer to put away back there?”
    “ Oh,” he said, feigning stupidity, or maybe it was real. “Yeah. Ah ... nice to meet you, Lana.”
    I poured her more coffee after dumping the cold one out, again.
    “ Um ... Jackson.”
    “ Yeah?”
    Her eyes connect ed with mine. “Actually, it’s Lena,” she said, finally admitting to lying about her name. “And thanks. Sorry I lied about my name.” Progress, I thought and smiled, keeping my eyes on hers. God, beneath the black and blue and the swelling, she had gorgeous eyes.
    “ You’re welcome, Lena. According to Doc, you need rest and time to recuperate.” I was glad she decided to trust me enough to tell me her real name—at least her first name.
    “ I got that. Only problem is I don’t know where that should be. Are there any inexpensive hotels around here?”
    “ No. No inexpensive ones, but today’s your lucky day. Well, lucky from here on out.”
    “ How’s that?” she asked, sipping the hot coffee.
    “ Well, lucky you walked in to my bar, and lucky that just last week the tenant who rented the cottage above my garage moved out, and I haven’t re-rented it yet. You can stay there while you heal if you’d like. It's furnished.”
    She fell silent for a moment then asked, “How much?”
    “No charge.”
    “No. I couldn’t do that.”
    “ Yes you can. Please, trust me.”
    She sighed and shook her head. “Trusting you isn’t the issue. I want to, but I’m not a charity case. I would like to pay you.”
    “We can discuss that later. For now, you need to be somewhere safe , and my cottage is perfect.”
    “ Are you sure?”
    “ I insist.”
    “ I could pay you some now. I don’t have much money, but ...”
    “ Tell you what, when your eye heals, and you feel well enough, you can provide me the pleasure of hearing you play some more on my guitar. Maybe join in some night here at the bar. How’s that sound?”
    “ I don’t know why you’re being so nice to me, nor do I know if ... well, my gut tells me I should trust you. But then, I don’t know. I haven’t done so great in the trusting-men-department lately, so forgive me if I sound a bit skeptical here, but why do you care?”
    “ Let’s just say I like the way you played my Dreadnought.”
    Brodie came out from the back room carrying a case of beer. “Don’t you think we should open the door now? It’s getting close to eleven-thirty.”
    He set the case down and started stocking the fridge.
    I looked at Lena as she grabbed her coat closed tighter. “Give us a minute and we’ll be out of here. I’m going to show Lena the cottage and get her settled in.”
    “ The cottage?” Brodie frowned then shook his head as he lined the small refrigerator with the rest of the beer, emptying the case. We were close for brothers, not only in age—Brodie being only eleven months younger—but close friends as well.
    “ Okay, Jackie,” he said with a bit of a