Late June…
Brady Buchanan drove his Porsche up the driveway and parked it right in front of his grandfather’s mansion. The door opened and it was Nigel, his grandfather’s loyal butler. Brady got out of the car and ran up to Nigel, giving him a great big bear hug. Nigel returned the warm embrace with a few quick pats and led Brady inside.
As Brady walked down the quiet halls, he knew his summons was serious. His grandfather, Asa Buchanan, health was failing and Brady knew he was his grandfather’s heir to Buchanan Enterprises.
As he approached his grandfather’s study, he paused. A family portrait of him, his mother and father, Troy and Anna was propped up on a hallway table. It as taken when he graduated high school. All though Brady would never admit it, he put the same picture on his desk in his dorm room.
After graduating high school, Brady was accepted at Harvard. His major was business and the past two years had been academically challenging to say the least, but he was doing well and that was what mattered. And yes, he’d dated in college, but nothing serious. No, he’d go out with a chick for a month or two, get tired of her and change up. Nothing satisfied him in that regard. Not only that, getting good grades was what was important. He was the heir to Buchanan Enterprises. And he would have the best education in the world.
He was on summer hiatus right now between his sophomore and junior year, and what had initially brought him back to Llanview was his father’s retirement ceremony from the Llanview Police Department, which would be in a week. He’d just gotten into town last night when he had received his summons to his grandfather’s residence that morning while he was having breakfast with his mother.
Without another moment’s hesitation, he opened the door, not knowing what to expect.
“Boy! It’s good to see you!” bellowed Asa. He was sitting on a couch, facing the door, smoking a stogie.
Brady smiled.
“Grandpa!” he cried. He briskly walked over to Asa and gave him a hug, noticing his grandfather’s arms were weak.
He sat down next to Asa and looked at him seriously.
“Should you be smoking that?” asked Brady sternly.
“Boy, it don’t matter now,” said Asa.
“It matters to me!” protested Brady with concern.
Brady drew in a deep breath, “How long?”
“Months. Weeks. And until then, I’m gonna’ enjoy all my old vices. I lived my life with a bang kid, and I’m going out with one,” said Asa taking a long, satisfying puff on his cigar. “I’m just glad I got to see all you kids grow up. Especially you, Brady. You’re my only kin whoever showed any interest in Buchanan Enterprises and knowing that my company is going to you, well, it does this old man proud.”
Brady steeled up his shoulders, determined not to shed any tear in front of his grandfather.
“Now look boy, I gotta’ make plans and you’ve gotta’ make some serious decisions,” said Asa stoically.
“Decisions?”
“Now I know you’re in school. I can put a board of directors in charge until you graduate or you can drop out and start working there now,” said Asa.
“You’re serious?”
“Dead serious.”
“A board of directors? What about my dad? He is retiring,” cried Brady.
“Bo? Bo doesn’t care about it like you would. Don’t get me wrong boy, I love your pa, I do, but he’s not an option.”
“Why not?”
“When was the last time you and your pa didn’t have a fight. I’m sorry, I don’t trust him to watch the company for you. His heart isn’t into it,” said Asa.
Brady sighed. While his relationship with his mother was decent, his father’s disapproval had haunted him his whole life.
“Good point,” said Brady. “Look, I need some time to think about this.”
“You got a week,” said Asa.
“A week? Sure…” muttered Brady.
“If you need a place to stay you stay here, at the Lodge or my penthouse downtown,” said Asa. “You don’t need to be staying with your parents. You’re a man now. You should live in a man’s house.”
Brady stood up. “Yeah, okay, yeah. I need time to think. About a lot of things.”
“And don’t be a stranger,” said Asa puffing on his stogie.
“I won’t,” said Brady. And then quickly he turned around and walked out to his car finally allowing a single tear to fall down his cheek.
********************
Brady hadn’t been in Llanview for a while but some places never changed and he needed to go to a familiar place, to think, to be by himself. He’d felt as if his grandfather had just laid a bomb on him and he had to step up to the plate.
He stopped by a local store and bought a pair of bathing trucks. His next stop, Castaic Lake, right outside of Llanview. He wanted to swim, something he was good at. It was something he didn’t have to think about and he didn’t want to think right now. Right now, he couldn’t help but feel.
The beach was moderately filled but Brady ignored it, swimming back and forth from the shore to the raft in the middle of the lake, just trying to come to terms with his grandfather’s haunting words. Finally spent, Brady made one last lap and as he walked onto the sandy beach he saw her.
She was gorgeous, more so than the girls he’d been with in college. She was of medium height, long chocolate brown hair, thin yet tone, sparking eyes full of life and all the curves in all the right places. He hadn’t seen her in a few years but in those years she’d obviously grown into one hell of an attractive woman.
Stimulated, he ran toward the beach house and disregarding the “women” sign, ran right into the woman’s locker room.
“Taylor!” he desperately cried.
“Huh?” came a befuddled cry.
He ran to the sound of her voice, finding her in the shower area wearing only a two-piece bikini, the water glistening over her olive skin.
“Taylor Manning!” he cried again upon seeing her. Old, powerful, lingering emotions and feelings were awakened in his loins.
Taylor’s mouth dropped, “Brady?!”
“Taylor!” he said lowering his voice, approaching her, pining her up against the wall of the shower room.
“How about getting off of me, huh, Brady?” she quipped as he felt the pressure of his body against her, awakening similar feelings in her.
“You’re gorgeous, Taylor…” he said, unable to fully articulate how he found the changes in her body so attractive. Not realizing his own body’s reactions to hers, he rubbed his strong, muscular leg against her thighs.
“You’re…ah, you’re pining me against the wall, Brady,” she pointed out, noticing his physical reaction and becoming distracted by it herself.
“You’re wicked gorgeous,” he whispered as he stared into her face.
“Brady! Stop!” she weakly protested, actually not wanting him too.
Arrogantly and realizing that wasn’t what she really wanted, he leaned over and bushed his lips against hers, blown away by his surprising actions, she placed his hands on his muscular chest, initially wanting to push him away, finding herself instead, caressing his hard, broad chest, lightly rubbing her fingertips over his fine chest, finding it excited her that much more.
Finally the duo breathlessly parted and stared into each other’s eyes.
“I didn’t tell you could kiss me,” said Taylor definitely, trying to regain her own senses.
“But you let me. And you liked it,” he pointed out.
“Brady, huh, I don’t understand? What are you doing in Llanview? I thought you were away in college,” pointed out Taylor.
He took a deep breath and ran his hand through his wet hair not moving away from her, “I’m here for my father’s retirement.”
“Oh. Look, Brady, this is a woman’s locker room. You need to go,” she said softly.
“Do you have a boyfriend? Is it my brother?” he asked.
“None of your business!” she protested.
“That means no. Come to dinner with me tonight,” he said, confident she’d take him up on the offer.
“Tonight? I can’t.”
“You’re trying to avoid me like you did in high school, Taylor and you don’t have too. We’re not teenagers anymore. We’re adults. I’m 23. You’re 21. Don’t think you have haunted my dreams in college. Don’t think for one moment I dream about you because I do…” he purred seductively as he said the soft words into her ear. He could feel her quivering under his body.
“Brady,” she said calmly, fighting her own body’s impulses, “I have to go my sister’s rehearsal tonight.”
“Rehearsal?”
“She’s getting married. I’m the maid of honor,” added Taylor.
“Oh.” He awkwardly paused. “I want to see you, Taylor. No, I need…to see you.” He said emotionally.
Taylor could tell something was troubling him by the tone of his voice. No, whatever it was he needed to see her about, it wasn’t about the chemistry between them.
“Come to the wedding then.”
“I don’t have an invitation,” he said.
She flashed him a smile, “I know.”
“You want me to crash it? Because I will, Taylor…” he continued to purr into her ear.
“ARGH! There’s a guy in here!” said a girl as she walked into the shower area with another girl. They made faces at Brady.
“Well, he is kinda’ cute,” said the other girl.
Embarrassed, Brady tore himself away from Taylor and turned red in the face, “I…ah, I was just leaving.” He muttered as he turned around and walked out.
Taylor lingered by her bag for a bit and then took a quick shower to clean up. It had been so long since she’d seen Brady, since high school and so much had happened to her since then, so many ups and downs but there was no denying the chemistry she had with him. Chemistry she had shared with no other boyfriend. The sparks between them were obvious and had been rekindled upon this encounter. Not only that, Taylor hadn’t lost the ability to see that Brady was hiding something – something he thought he could only confide in her.
Oh, Troy had to know Brady was back in town. And while she “technically” wasn’t seeing Troy they didn’t go out of their way to see anyone else either.
As Taylor Manning grabbed her swim bag and headed out to the parking lot, her thoughts were definitely on the older Buchanan Boy and the feelings he had awakened for him within her. Brady was as handsome as ever and she realized she could have ran her hands over his chest for hours. This time, she thought, the rekindled fire, the obvious chemistry between them might not be denied, despite who they might end up hurting in the process.
TO BE CONTINUED...
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Copyright by DimWitt 2002. Published on "Dim's Fairytaleland and Other Stories." Copyright owner provides the information on this server to anyone but retains copyright on all text. This means that you may not: Distribute the text to others without the EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION of the copyright owner. You may: print copies of the information for your own personal use, store the files on your own computer for your own personal use, reference hypertext documents on this server for your own personal use.
