by R. E. Butler
She watched him walk out of the room in only his jeans and flip the light on in the kitchen. Aaron kissed her shoulder and snuggled closer. “Lions take care of their mates, love.”
“Yeah?”
“Of course.” He went up on one elbow and looked down at her. “When we care about someone, we want to take care of them. And when people we love have people they love, we also want to take care of them, too. For example, my nephews Eryx and Ethan have a mate they share named Callie. If they called and asked us to help her with something, any one of us in the family would drop everything in a heartbeat.”
“So, if my car got stuck in the snow and you weren’t around?” She grinned.
He arched a brow. “Don’t get stuck in the snow again. But if you do, and for some clearly insane reason Grant or I aren’t able to come immediately to help you, then any of our brothers would be there in a heartbeat, or our nephews, or even the other lions in the house.”
“How many lions are living in the house with you guys, anyway?”
“Well, besides the six kids, you have our older brothers James and John, James’ son Alek, and then seven other lions who came from our old hometown in King during the last year or so. The house we live in was a boarding house and has a ton of rooms, so although there are a lot of people in the house, it’s big enough that we’re not on top of each other all the time.”
“Sounds nice to have your family and friends close.”
She reflected, sadly, on her lack of friends in Ashland. Granted, she hadn’t been living there very long, but she’d left her friends back in Indianapolis, along with her family. Her family was small. Both her parents had been only children and she was, too. She was very close to her parents. Leaving Indianapolis to escape her past, which hadn’t worked out nearly as well as she’d hoped when her ex showed up at her new job, had seemed like a good idea, but all it had really done was make her realize how lonely she felt.
Aaron touched her nose, and she blinked. “Where did you go just now?” he asked.
“I was just thinking that, even with all the problems you had with the female lions, your family sounds amazing.”
“And?” he prompted.
“And I was feeling a little lonely.”
His brow arched, and he gestured to the rumpled bed. “How can you be lonely with two men at your beck and call?”
She blushed and laughed, slapping his shoulder playfully as she sat up and tucked the covers under her arms. “Before yesterday, I mean. I moved here to escape the bad memories, and some of them followed me. But besides my job, there was just nothing going on for me. I didn’t realize how badly I’d felt until I met you two.”
Grant appeared next to the bed with two cups of coffee. “You don’t feel bad anymore, do you, Sam? You won’t ever be lonely with us.”
She looked between the two men and smiled into her coffee. “I’ll bet.”
Grant tweaked a lock of her hair and disappeared into the kitchen, returning several minutes later with a tray of food. Three plates were stacked in one corner of the tray, and he lifted one and placed a scoop of scrambled eggs from a bowl on it, along with two slices of toast.
“Thanks for breakfast. I’ve never had anyone make me breakfast before.”
Aaron growled slightly, as if he were upset she’d never had a man make her breakfast, and Grant said, “No, that’s a good thing. Makes us special.” He winked at her, and she laughed.
“You guys are plenty special without the breakfast-making skills, but I like it all the same.”
They ate the simple breakfast, and then Grant pulled her robe off the back of the bathroom door and helped her slip it on. They walked out into the kitchen together, where Aaron was busy with the dishes. Grant refilled her coffee and then sat down to pull his shoes on. Her heart fell a little, knowing they were taking off, and she sighed.
“What was that for?” Aaron asked, turning off the water and drying his hands on a small towel on the counter.
“Reality-check, I guess.” When they looked at her in confusion, she clarified. “You have kids and jobs and … I’m just sorry to see you go.”
“We were going to ask if you’d like to come have dinner at our house tonight. Our family does a big Sunday dinner, about six o’clock, and we’d love to have you,” Grant said. “I just have to get over to my brother Rhett’s farm today. I don’t normally work on Saturdays, but he asked me to help out for a while today.”
“And it’s my turn to help cook the meal. I figured you’d like to get some rest maybe, and then one of us will come and get you about six, okay?” Aaron said.
“You want me to meet your whole family?”
“Absolutely. The boys already know you, of course, but yeah. Are you okay with that?” Grant asked.
“Very.”
She walked Aaron and Grant to the door and kissed them both goodbye, shutting the door and grinning. She went from having no one special in her life to having two very special men in the span of a weekend. She was one lucky girl.
After a hot shower, she passed out on her bed, cuddled up against the pillows that still smelled like Aaron’s and Grant’s cologne, and the subtle, wild scent that made her body tighten with desire.
* * * * *
“What did you tell your kids about me, about us?” she asked as Grant opened the passenger door of his truck and lifted her into the front seat.
He shut the door and came around to the driver’s side, opening it and sitting down before he answered. “Aaron and I told them that they were to continue to treat you respectfully at school and that they shouldn’t expect any special treatment just because their dads are crazy about their teacher.”
“Crazy, huh?”
He glanced at her as he put the truck into drive. “Oh, yeah. Certifiable.”
They chatted on the short drive to his home, and when he turned down a long drive into some woods, she realized that she’d driven by the hidden driveway many times and wondered who lived there. Now she knew it was a lion’s den, so to speak.
Grant parked in front of the house, and before she could unbuckle her seatbelt, he was around the truck and had her door open. He lifted her from the truck and put her on her feet, and then tucked one of her hands around his arm and walked her up the front steps of the large porch. Every light in the house seemed to be on, and when Grant opened one of the carved double doors that led into the house, a blast of warm air, smelling of roast beef, fresh bread, and apple pie teased her senses. She heard faint laughter from somewhere in the house, the sound of some type of video game, and a pot lid clang as Grant helped her out of her coat. He hung it on a hook along with her purse.
The house fell very quiet, except for the beeping of the video game, and then the sounds of pounding feet rushed towards them. Five little boys came running into the open foyer of the boarding house.
“Miss Thomas! Miss Thomas!” they shouted, closing around her with bright, smiling faces and eager eyes. She would have fallen over from their combined weight if it wasn’t for Grant’s arm quickly slipping around her shoulders. She laughed and hugged each boy individually, greeting them by name. Aaron joined them, kissing her on the cheek and extracting her from the tangle of little arms and legs.
“I guess they like you,” Aaron laughed.
“I hadn’t noticed.” She laughed, ruffling a few tawny heads as Aaron and Grant led her deeper into the house. Her heart spiked as nerves coursed over her. The boys raced ahead of them, and Aaron and Grant each took one of her hands and led her through the foyer into the brightly lit, large kitchen.
A group of handsome men all stared at her from various places in the kitchen. The two behind the island looked similar to Aaron and Grant, and she was not surprised when Aaron introduced them as their older brothers, James and John. Both men came around the island and shook her hand, grinning from ear to ear.
“My son Alek is working at the police station tonight, so you can meet him another time,” James said, smiling as
he moved back around to the island and began to toss salad greens in an etched glass bowl.
“This is Henry, my son,” John said, gesturing to a young teenager who stood shyly just outside of the kitchen.
Grant introduced seven other young men. Twins Ray and Wesley smiled shyly after saying hello. Ray, with short, dark blond hair and vivid green eyes folded and refolded a napkin on the counter, and Wesley, with black hair cut in a military style with jade green eyes, tapped a spoon lightly on the counter. She recognized their actions as nerves and felt herself relax. They were just as nervous to meet her as she was to meet them.
The three cousins were next — Dylan, Chase, and Hunter — all with the same chocolate brown hair but very different features, from Dylan’s boy-next-door good looks, to Chase’s square jaw, to Hunter’s smile that revealed a deep dimple in one cheek.
Tristan and Micah were the last to be introduced, standing directly behind Henry as if they were using him as a shield. Tristan had short, curly blond hair and robin’s-egg-blue eyes, and his brother, Micah, kept his blonde hair very short, and his eyes were the most striking shade of golden brown.
“It’s time to eat,” James said as he carried the salad bowl to the table. It was the biggest kitchen table Sam had ever seen, with enough chairs for the entire extended family to sit together. Grant had told her that it wasn’t often that everyone was together at the same time, but they tried to eat one meal each week with all of them together. The table was laden with food, and the chairs were packed tightly around the perimeter.
Aaron pulled out a chair near the center of the table, and she sat down as he pushed it in. He and Grant took the chairs on either side, and their kids sat next to them, and the other adults filled in the remaining chairs. Sam hadn’t come from a large family, so she wasn’t used to meals being such a large production.
Even with so many people at the table, she could feel that each person was welcomed and cared for and would be missed if he was gone. She felt honored to be sitting with them, to be welcomed so easily.
First, the lions all bowed their heads and James, seated at the head of the table, said grace. Then the platters, bowls, and serving dishes were passed around the table. Grant wouldn’t let her hold any of the dishes, holding them for Aaron to serve her.
After he had filled her plate with pot roast, mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, and a wedge of fresh bread, she put her hands protectively over her plate and said, “That’s plenty!”
Aaron looked over her plate with a frown, holding a fork with a slice of honey glazed ham. “Are you sure? I don’t want you to be hungry, and with this crowd, there won’t be seconds.”
“I swear, I don’t think I can even eat all of this.” She watched as Grant and Aaron exchanged speaking glances and, finally, Aaron put the ham on his own plate and said, “I’ll save it on my plate, in case you change your mind.”
She chuckled to herself as Aaron turned to put ham on his children’s plates before passing the platter on to Wesley, who caught Sam’s eye. The young man, who Grant said was twenty-four, held it for a moment before blushing sharply and looking away. The men all seemed so shy. She had thought originally it was just Aaron and Grant, a shared family trait of general shyness. But now she thought it was possibly a trait of their mountain lion natures. Or, more likely, the fact that the only women they’d been around had been their own females, who from all accounts were more cyborg than person, cold and unfeeling to the point of cruelty. She heard the children’s chatter mixed in with the adult conversations that were happening all around the table, and she couldn’t imagine giving up such a wonderful gift like a child, the way the female mountain lions had. So heartless that they turned their backs on their own flesh and blood, treating them like strangers and not cherished family members.
Emotion rose up inside Sam, and she tamped it down quickly. She didn’t want to start bawling in the middle of dinner. She had a feeling that if any of the men at the table saw her cry, their clearly compassionate natures would go haywire. She was simply overcome by the thought of the sweet boys around the table being wounded emotionally by their birth mothers. It made her want to scream in frustration and cry in misery. She would have given anything to be able to have children, especially children as sweet as the young boys around the table. She didn’t understand women who would throw them away so carelessly.
She forced herself to think about more pleasant things as she cut into the roast and took a bite. The tender meat was flavorful and cooked to perfection, as was everything else she tried. James and John asked her questions about her work and her family, curious about what it was like to grow up in a home with two parents. They were in their early forties, and she found it strange to talk to grown men about childhood, but as she spoke about her parents and grandparents, the Sunday family dinners and summer vacations, she found herself the center of attention of every single person at the table.
When she finished telling a story about her father getting stung by a bee that flew into the open car window during one vacation and nearly causing him to crash the car, she looked around the table and was amazed at the rapt attention they paid to every word she said.
After a few moments of silence, James cleared his throat and stood. “Anyone up for coffee and apple pie? Kids, help me clear the table.”
Everyone stood except for her, Aaron, and Grant, grabbing plates and taking them into the kitchen. She glanced at Grant and said, “Did I say something wrong?”
His eyes widened in surprise. “What? No, sweetheart, of course not. The life that you have, your childhood, your parents, it all sounds so normal when you talk about it, but it’s not what our lives have ever been like.”
Aaron picked up her hand and squeezed it. “We always wanted more, for ourselves and our kids, but the females refused. Any human women who were brought around the pride were driven away by the females. When Callie came into our nephews’ lives and Ethan and Eryx made the decision to leave the pride for her, it suddenly became clear to us what we had to do. Not just for ourselves, but for our kids. Happiness wasn’t going to fall into our laps the way it had for Ethan and Eryx. We were going to have to make our own happiness, and that’s why we left King.”
Grant slipped his finger under her chin and turned her head so she looked at him. “I’m so glad we left, Sam. It’s so much better for us and the kids here.”
“Don’t you worry about the females, though? That they’ll come back?” she asked.
“They’re up in Canada somewhere. They have no reason to come here. They never wanted or needed us.”
The scent of brewing coffee filled the air, and the three stood. Grant gathered their plates and took them to the sink. Aaron led her to one of three couches in the large family room, and when Grant joined them, she was sandwiched between them. The kids sat on the rug as the adults filled up the remainder of the couches. She declined coffee, knowing if she had some, she’d never get any sleep and tomorrow was a school day. She was too stuffed for apple pie, even if it did smell incredible.
They all talked, the conversation steered away from herself and towards the various jobs that they all held. James, John, Alek, and Aaron were police officers in the sheriff’s department along with their nephew Eryx. Their brother Rhett lived and worked on a farm in Ashland, and their nephew Ethan, as well as Grant, Ray, and Wesley, all worked at the farm with him. Even in the winter, she was told, there was always something to do there. Grant had planned to get his real estate license because he’d sold real estate in King, but the market was so bad that he felt his time was better spent actually working than sitting in a crowded office not making any money. And working on the farm helped him to have more time with his kids, something she respected a great deal about him.
Dylan, Chase, and Hunter worked at the only bar in town, a country joint called Kickers. Dylan cooked, Chase tended bar, and Hunter was a bouncer. Tristan and Micah, the shyest ones of the group, worked at a home improvement store.
&nb
sp; Sam felt like she fit right into their world, as if there had always been a place for her within the walls of the boarding house and all she’d had to do was open the door. She stayed until it was time for the kids to go to bed. They begged and pleaded for her to read them a story, and she willingly did. After one story turned into three, Grant and Aaron firmly reminded the boys that Sam had to teach in the morning. She kissed each one on the forehead and said goodnight.
Aaron got her coat and purse as she thanked James and John for dinner and said goodbye to the other lions.
John asked his brothers, “Will you be back tonight? Do we need to get the kids up in the morning?”
Aaron shrugged into his coat and said, “We’ll both be back. I have to clock in at six in the morning, and Grant is meeting Rhett at the farm at seven.”
That news hit Sam in the face like a wet towel, dousing her hopes for another romantic visit to the bedroom with her two hunky boyfriends. She had forgotten all too quickly that not only did they both have children they needed to be there for, but they both also worked, and so did she. She couldn’t stay up all night with them, even though she would willingly go to school red-eyed and exhausted just to snuggle with them for a few hours.
Both men held one of her arms as they led her down the front steps and towards Grant’s truck. She sat between them on the bench seat of the truck as Grant pulled away from the house and headed towards her apartment.
“You got quiet. Is something wrong?” Grant asked, squeezing her thigh gently.
She pursed her lips for a moment and said, “Nope. I’m just tired, I guess.” Which wasn’t entirely a lie, but it also wasn’t the entire truth. She was sleepy because she’d had two nights with little to no sleep, but she wasn’t so tired she wouldn’t be willing to stay up with them. She reminded herself that making them feel guilty for their duties to their family was no way to start out their relationship.
Grant pulled his truck into an empty parking space next to her car and turned off the truck. Turning towards her, he said, “There isn’t a whole lot that bothers me, Sam, but not being truthful is right at the top. Did we say something that upset you? Were the others staring at you too much or something? We can talk to them about it, but they’re just not used to seeing a woman be so open and talkative.”
