Unexpected - 2. Chapter 2

It was now starting to get dark and the street lights were flowing through the car as we headed to Chewy’s address.

“Why did you give Chewy my number?” I spat at Callen.

“He asked for it.” Callen shrugged his shoulders.

“Oh really, and what did say to make him ask for it?” I was getting angrier by the minute. Looking out the window at the lights flowing by and had my arms folded across my chest and my left leg bouncing on the ball of my foot in agitation then turned and gave my brother the stink eye while I waited for his answer.

Callen had a smug smile on his face, shrugged and kept silent.

This version of Chewy is turning me into a damn 15 year old. “Fine” I looked back out the window muttering to myself about not understanding why I had to go to the BBQ.

After about 20 mins of silence we pulled into a gravel driveway, there were cars parked all over the front yard. We stepped out and walked to the front of the truck facing the house. The place was huge. It was all brick and tile in a light sandy color. The roof and guttering was that nice red rusty color it made a nice contrast. A porch that wrapped around 3 sides of the house with nice green potted plants evenly displayed across the front. Double doors smack in the middle of the front of the house painted the same color as the roof. To the left side of the door was an old fashioned bell where you pull the chain. Lights were perfectly spaced across the outside walls of the house and lit up spectacularly in a nice warm yellow. And you could see the back yard was lit up in a warm glow from the trees surrounding the place.

“Whoa! Big place, whose place is this, does he belong to the Mafia maybe sell drugs or something” I asked.

Callen laughed “No not that I’m aware of. He owns a construction company and has done really well for himself as I understand it.”

“Yeah, Jase said something about him taking over his Uncles business but I didn’t expect him to be this financial”

“Looks can be deceiving Trace, don’t ever forget that. For all you know he could be in hock up to his eyeballs.” Callen sighed. “Are you going to be polite and gracious like you have always been in the past, I’m not going to have to drag you out of there am I.”

“You don’t get it Callen. I embarrassed the crap out of myself this afternoon. And I’m sorry if I embarrassed you also.” I looked down at my feet and kicked a few pieces of gravel away.

He lifted my chin so I would look him in the eye, then clamped his hands on both my shoulders and said. “Don’t look down bud, always look up and in the face of what’s to come with confidence whether you feel it or not. You didn’t embarrass me or yourself. You want to tell me what happened, what was going through that pretty head of yours that made you act that way.”

See what I mean, I have been behaving like a child all afternoon. I embarrassed him and myself and he is still trying to build me up and give me back my confidence and he’s not even the least bit put out with me. I love my brother. He will absolutely make the world’s best Dad someday. Doesn’t mean I believe him though.

“See you do think I embarrassed you!”

“No I don’t, but you weren’t being your normal self either. That I noticed. But you definitely didn’t do anything to be this upset about.”

My eyes became watery and I thought I was going to cry again. What the hell is wrong with me. Chewy was always such a jerk when I was a kid and I don’t even recognise him or his new self. Well new to me. It is hard to forget what he was like then just because he is different now. I turned away so Callen couldn’t see me. But I guess he did, because he just sighed and said “Okay, we’ll talk about this later. Take a second and get yourself together because we are going in there and you are going to have some fun. Do you understand me?”

“Yes” Looking him in the eye with a sheepish smile.

“Great. We deserve some fun and it looks like everyone’s here already” Callen chuckled and slapped me on the back as we walked toward the front door or should I say doors.

As we approached the doors you could hear the music through the house as well as laughter. Callen rang the bell and we waited. No one came to open it so my brother tried the door handle and the door opened. I grabbed his arm and shook my head. He cocked his eyebrow and shrugged his shoulder and walked through. I shrugged my shoulders and followed.

We walked in and stood there for a second it was a foyer, which then thinned into a short hallway to what looked like a family room on the other side. A mirror that took up half of the wall to our left and had a tall thin wall unit underneath with a flower display sitting on it which came up to the bottom of the mirror. The wall to the right had a big wall art piece made from wrought iron and wood. I looked away and then my head snapped back, that was my wall art. I made that for my final piece in college and all final pieces were then displayed at the college gallery, we could have them marked for sale if we wanted. Holy crap how did he get this he would have had to be in North Carolina.

“Callen, look at this do you recognise this?” I grabbed his arm and turned him toward the piece.

“Umm…It looks familiar”

“Seriously, this was my final piece for College. Did you know he had this?”

“No, I had no idea.” Callen rubbed the back of his neck and tilted his head like he was thinking. “He did come and see me up in Charlotte just before you graduated; I told him you were finishing up Art School at Duke."

I didn’t know what to make of this. So weird, I wonder if he even knows it was my artwork. Surely he would I’m positive they put our names with the artwork in the gallery. Why hadn’t he said anything, or come and seen me not that we got along or anything but still. What the hell am I even worrying about it’s not like he’s gay and I could have him anyway. I don’t really know anything about him except he was a jerk when I was younger, he looks different now, he plays hockey and seems to have had a personality transplant. Oh yeah and he’s really HOT!!! I am never going to survive this move or hockey team.

We moved through the hallway to the other side. There was a mixture of guys and girls around the place. It was a huge open room with the kitchen with all granite tops and silver appliances up against the front wall starting from the edge of the hallway with a breakfast bar wrapped around it so it finished the kitchen space off as well as a barista size coffee machine. Who is this guy. A red wrap around lounge and chaise made from what looked like soft leather and a glass coffee table pointed toward a 60” television in the corner to the right. And to the left was a professional card table with four guys playing cards of some sort. I didn’t see any chips so it wasn’t poker. There were a few green potted plants, placed sporadically around giving the room a homey feel. Ceramic black tiled flooring, the wall to the left was painted black and the rest in a cream with a tinge of grey. Under the TV there was black cubed shelving full of blue ray and play station games. There were a couple of guys playing Madden on the PlayStation, ribbing each other with smack talk and laughing. The back wall was fully glass concertina doors and opened up the entire back of the room out to the pool. THE POOL!!! Who is this guy.

I turned to say something to Callen and at that moment Chewy appeared from the corridor past the kitchen wearing blue board shorts and a Hawaiian shirt opened all the way and you could see his hairy chest with those hard pecks, six pack and that gorgeous white smile. This is embarrassing, instant erection. Well this is confusing I don’t know whether to hate this guy or throw him on the breakfast bar and have my way. Damn it. He was followed by some skinny bimbette laughing at whatever he had just said. Would you look at that erection gone. Chewy saw us and threw his arms up and his smile got bigger walking towards us using his outdoor voice as he clapped his hands together.

“Great you guys made it.” He stopped in front of Callen. Looked at me and winked. Stupid Furry Creature.

“Who are you?” I threw at him as I walked off toward the guys playing cards. I heard my brother explain that I thought he was a mob boss or drug king pin. To which I heard Alex shout out with laughter.

“Hey gents what ya playing” I asked.

Remmy looked up and smiled at me “Euchre”

“Are you winning?”

“We would be if I could work out how Colin and Mozzy are cheating” he chuckled. The other guys started to protest as I laughed along. My eye caught Jase out by the pool so I moved in that direction. As I walked through the doors he saw me and ran over.

“Awesome you came, I didn’t think you were coming” Jase smiled at me. “You coming in, we’re about to play volleyball and we need another player.”

“Uh.. sure, why not!” I put my bag down on a chair nearby. “Geez Jase! This pool is huge. What is with this guy?” I looked around the yard. It was shielded by 6 foot shrubbery with a gate at the corner of the house. A huge grill with a kitchen area which included a sink next to it, placed on tiles. A huge picnic table which would probably seat eight people minimum covered by cloth sail shades and pool chairs surrounding the pool area. There was a grassy area behind the chairs of about six or eight feet leading to the shrubbery, with a fire pit and giant logs around the pit to sit on.

Jase chuckled “This is just the entertaining part of the back yard. There is still the workshop area which is a 3 door tractor barn. Plus the yard and barn stall next door for 6 horses.” I just shook my head in amazement.

I shucked my flip flops and t-shirt, walked over to the pool. I looked at the water, crap, this is going to be cold. I closed my eyes and prepared to jump straight in and get it over with. Why do I feel like I’m flying, SPLASH!! I’m enveloped by a cold wet feeling and I feel my feet hit a hard surface so I automatically push upwards and come up to the surface gulping for oxygen. I could see Jase just about wetting himself at the side of the pool. Reaching back with my hand and launching as much water as could in his direction laughing as he jumped backwards.

“You shit” I laughed “I think my package just moved permanently into my throat.”

All of a sudden I’m gulping water and some went up my nose. The tiny bastard just bombed right next to me. As I cough and try to grab him he swam underwater away from me like a fish and resurfaced laughing.

“That’s ok buddy I’ll get you back later” waving my finger at him “Just you wait when you least suspect” I’m still laughing. He just grins, shrugs his shoulders and swims to the other side of the pool. Rotten shit head I will find a way to get vengeance for my poor nut sac.

Okay volleyball net is up Jase is still down the other end of the pool and we are on opposite teams. Let’s get him boys. First serve comes straight over the net at me and I lean forward and pop it into the air and Brad slams it back over the other side and it hits water. Wahoo to us point 1. I poke my tongue out at Jase, he just flicks water in my direction. The next serve comes at the speed of light over the net and slams into the water right in front of me as I am too late to reach it. I was distracted by Callen and Chewy walking over to the grill. My brother calls out “C’mon Trace, get your head in the game” while he chuckles, so I flip him the bird. He now laughs and turns back to help Chewy with the grill.

Everyone seems to have migrated around the pool area now, just chatting and watching the volleyball. The game proceeded and folks yelled encouragement or smack talk from the edge. The score is now 9-8 our way. The serve goes up over the net straight to me I bring up my fist to pop it and it takes a wild right hand turn and smacks some poor unsuspecting girl right in the side of her face that sucker came fast so I bet it hit her hard.

“Shit!” I exclaim as I’m jumping from the pool “I’m so sorry, are you ok” I grab her and sit her in a pool chair and kneel next to her. She looks at me with disgust.

“How do you think I am genius?” she’s charming. My brother is now right next to me and pulls me to the side.

“Come on now it was an accident” he says to her as he checks out her face where the ball landed. He turns to me and says “Trace, go get some ice and a small cloth to wrap it in so we can stop any swelling.”

“Okay” I move inside the house to the refrigerator just as Chewy comes in the with hot dogs and burgers and puts the tray down on the bench.

“Everything okay out there” Chewy asks.

“Yeah, I just need some ice and a small towel to put it in for her face” Chewy turns and opens the bottom draw next to the dishwasher.

Handing me a towel he says “Ice is inside the door of the freezer, just hold it against the cup bar until you have enough” shifting his weight away from me he asks “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I didn’t mean to hit her with the ball. But she kind of acted like I had until Callen came over and then she was all sweet and nice.”

“Yep, that’s Sasha she can be a little prickly. She’s harmless and been eyeing your brother all night. Now that she has attention she’ll forget about you smacking her in the face with a ball.”

“I swear I didn’t mean to it just came fast and I had no control, it kind of just glided off of me straight into her.” I start rambling like an idiot.

Chewy chuckled, squeezed my shoulder, looked at my sympathetically and said “I know you didn’t Trace. Take the ice out to Callen and come back and give me hand to get these vultures fed.”

“Sure” I replied as I walked back outside and handed Callen the ice. Everything outside seemed to have resumed activity.

“Is she okay?” I asked. Callen looked at me, smiled and patted my arm to indicate everything is alright. “I’m going to go and give Alex a hand.”

“No worries bud.”

I turned to walk away and looked back and she gave me an evil glare. Wow, what a bitch. Walking back through the doors and to the kitchen area Chewy handed me a basket with all the condiments standing up in it and a butter tray and knife.

“Take those out to the table and then come back and grab these salads. Okay?”

I took the butter and condiment basket out and put them on the table then went back in to grab the salads. As I walked passed I heard Sasha cooing all over Callen. Talk about loss of appetite. As I reached the kitchen after I had put the salads out Chewy handed me another basket with sour dough and rye buns in it.

“Cool, thanks Tracy once you’ve got them on the table call out and let everyone know that grubs up and grab something for yourself before the others get there. Oh and take these napkins.” Chewy grabbed the meat, and followed me out to the picnic table. I put the buns and napkins down and start walking toward the pool and around to Callen.

I call out to everyone “Foods ready” then turn to Callen and Sasha as people start departing the pool and dashing to the table while others mosey on over. “Can I bring either of you something to eat?”

Sasha looks at me with distain and says curtly “I can get my own thank you very much”

Callen seems to think this was cute, smiles and says to me nicely. “Nah! We’re fine bud we’ll get something in a minute.”

Returning to the picnic table I sit on the end and grab a napkin and a bun and start making a hot dog. Everyone’s talking over the top of each other in conversation, there’s laughter and some teasing going on. Everyone seems to be in high spirits so I join in while we are eating. Most of the guys seem great there are a couple I can’t seem to warm to but its early days yet. They were giving Jase a ribbing and he just laughed along but his eyes gave him away if you were looking for it. I changed the subject a little.

“So who won the Volleyball game?”

“Well after you tried to take out Sasha with the ball” Ric chuckled “We started winning, must be karma” A few others around the table snickered.

“Seriously though Tracy, you might want to warn your brother about what he is getting into there.” Brad kind of whispered so only the table could hear as Callen and Sasha were still over on the pool chair.

“Definitely not a fan myself, but I could never do that. Just because she doesn’t like me, doesn’t mean she isn’t right for my brother. That man has sacrificed his adult life for me so far and never complained once. I would not like to interfere with any type of happiness he could have no matter how I feel about it. Sorry.” Brad just looked at me for a second, nodded and seemed to accept what I said.

I saw Chewy from the corner of my eye he tilted his headed and shook it then got up from the table and lit the fire pit, so folks would start migrating over that way. Not being quite comfortable with the crowd yet I start clearing all the left overs off of the table and taking them to the kitchen. I was rummaging through the doors and drawers looking for trash bags to clean up all the throw away plates and napkins from the table. Chewy tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up into his beautiful baby blue eyes, which have rendered me speechless. After about a minute or an hour I don’t know. He says “Trash bags”. I gulp and nod yes. “Third draw down on the end set of draws near the pantry.”

“Thanks” comes gravelly out of my mouth. As move toward the draws he says.

“You don’t have to do this. Go out and sit by the fire with the others I just took all the smores fixings out there and Colin has his guitar. It will be fun you’ll see.”

Callen approached us. “I’m going to take Sasha home, she says she has a headache. Will you be right to get home bud or do you want me to come back and get you.”

“Umm..”

Chewy cut me off. “He’ll be fine, I’ll make sure he gets home don’t worry about it.” Chewy winks and smiles at my brother.

“I’ll see you tomorrow bud, I have to go in early so I’ll see you after work probably.”

“Okay, have fun” I say weakly as he retreats from the kitchen. I snap off a trash bag and go to the picnic table to clean everything away. As I’m walking back toward the house Chewy comes out with some drinks and hands me a beer.

“Thanks. Where do you want this trash bag.”

“Just leave it there. It will fix it up before I go to bed.” I left the bag leaning up against the fence.

Chewy put his arm across my shoulders and steered me to the fire pit. His arm warms my entire body and I can feel myself plumping because he smells fantastic, like BBQ, soap and man. ‘Yummy’

“I really admire what you said to Brad, but don’t let her walk all over you. She can be a tad aggressive when she wants something and I don’t think your brother would like to find out she is bullying you just because you don’t want to upset him.” I stop walking, pull away and look at him. Pointing his finger in my chest gently he continues “Your brother loves you more than anything else on this planet. He always has even when you were younger he used to drag you everywhere with us. Drove me nuts but he didn’t give a shit. I can see you love him just the same. I’ve always envied your relationship. As you know my family is baccarat crazy and would gladly trade them. Come on let’s join the others.”

“Actually, I might get changed first but someone has moved my bag.” I didn’t see it over on the chair where I left it.

“Oh that was yours, I hung it in the closet in the hallway toward the foyer. The bathroom is down that corridor to your left.” Chewy pointed.

“Cool, thanks.” And I sauntered off to change into my jeans and hoodie. I didn’t know anything of much about his family except he had 3 sisters and another brother. Maybe he’ll tell me about them one day. Or maybe Callen will fill me in.

I went and sat between Dom and Jase when I returned to the fire pit a lot more comfortable now. I bumped Jase with my shoulder and joined in with the singing. He looked over smiled and bumped my shoulder back. After about an hour everyone started leaving, it was like a mass exodus. I put out the fire pit and worked my way to the front door. Chewy was just saying goodnight to Dom and his wife.

“Has everyone gone” I asked.

“Oh shit Trace I forgot.” He looked sincerely sorry.

“That’s okay I’ll just call a cab.”

“I’d drive you but I’ve been drinking” he shut the front door and locked it. I looked at him as if to say I need to go through that door. “Tell you what, you can crash in Beth’s room she’s on vacation with her family at the moment so she won’t be needing it. I’ve an early day tomorrow so I can drop you home just before 5am. Is that ok?” Chew seemed to be blushing while he was talking ten to the dozen about our predicament.

“Yeah, I guess. I’m meeting Jase at 5am to go running in the park so that should be fine.”

“Really” he said with a smirk on his face. I just ignored him and followed him to Beth’s room.

<>-<>-<>

I woke up about 4:30am and could hear Chewy roaming around the house so I got up and put myself together, grabbed my bag and walked out into the kitchen. He was making coffee.

“Do you want one for the road I have take-away cups.”

“I will love you forever, you are my hero. Black please.”

With his back to me he says “Well you’re easy to please”

“You have no idea” was my reply. He twisted his head in my direction and winked at me. Who is this guy. He lives like a king, he seems to be independently wealthy and he lives with his cousin. Is he straight, is he gay, is he bi. He just seems so different. He keeps winking at me, what the hell is that about. Although that part I like. He handed me my coffee and we made our way to the front door.

Standing in the foyer I quickly eyed my art piece again, I forgot it was there. He must of seen me.

He said “Do you like that. I got that up at the gallery in Duke, I kept going back to it while I was there so I had to have it. Some girl made it.”

Some GIRL made it. Is this a joke I know my brother told him I was in Art School at Duke and my name would have been with the piece. My heart sank to my knees I was shaking and I could feel the tears coming.

“You are still calling me girl. Geez it’s been like ten years. Go to hell asshole.” And I stormed out and down his driveway, out into the morning. I think I’ll walk this anger off. I knew he hadn’t changed, just an act in front of Callen.