So, he chose to let it go.
That didn’t stop him from moving closer to her.
“Hunter,” I growled. “I’ll tell Stella that you couldn’t keep your hands to yourself,” I warned when Sway moved to my father.
Hunter shot me a grin, but he backed up until he hit my chair, and then slammed his hip into it.
I grunted as pain burst through my body.
“Fucker,” I grumbled, my hand going to my neck in reaction.
My mother’s eyes were glaring daggers at Sway as she moved from person to person, introducing herself.
“Isn’t it kind of rude that you’re not introducing us?” Harrison drawled from where he was standing next to my mom.
I sighed, long and loud, and turned to Sway.
“That’s my mom, Sally. My brothers, Harrison, Holden, and Hunter. And that man you’re standing next to is my pop, Drake.”
Sway’s smile was brilliant.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” she said genuinely. Then ruined it with a lie. “Hancock’s told me so much about you.”
I barely contained the urge to snort.
Instead, I busied myself with leaning forward and eating the soup she’d made.
My diet was shot to hell this week, and I promised myself that I’d try to do better.
“Darling, do you need some bread with that?” my mom asked.
I had just opened my mouth to reply to that when Sway jumped.
“Oh!” she clapped. “My mom brought some of hers over earlier. Let me go get you some.”
My mother glared at her back the entire way into the kitchen.
Once she was completely in the kitchen, the questions started.
“When did you meet her?” Hunter asked.
“Where did you meet?” Holden questioned.
“She’s cute,” my father grinned.
“Isn’t she the athletic trainer I saw helping you when you got hit in the throat at the game?” Harrison asked.
“What is she wearing?”
That was my mother.
I turned to survey my mom.
“She’s wearing jeans and a t-shirt. What does it look like she’s wearing?” I snapped at her.
My mother sniffed.
“I can see too much cleavage,” she hissed.
I rolled my eyes, which only seemed to infuriate her more.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me, boy.” She pointed her finger at me. “I’ll have you know that I brought you into this world, and I sure can take you out of it.”
Holden laughed, as did my dad.
“Take a chill pill, Sally,” my father said as he took a seat on the couch and lifted his feet to the coffee table I was eating on.
“Dad, you have cow shit on your boots,” I told him. “Please remove them from my face.”
Dad didn’t remove his boots.
He never did.
Everyone, even me, was used to cow shit.
When you owned a ranch, shit was normally part of the equation.
It just wasn’t in my fucking house, which was why I picked my soup up and walked to the bar that separated the kitchen from the living area.
Each step I took jarred my head.
My throat felt like fire, and my eyes were getting heavy.
I would eat, though, because I knew if I didn’t, I’d likely wake up in the middle of the night starving.
The moment I sat down I could see into the kitchen, and my head tilted as I watched Sway stare blankly out the window. Her eyes watched the river flow, and I wondered if she liked my sanctuary as much as I did.
Then a rough cough tore from between my lips.
“Oh,” Sway jumped, startled when she turned around. “I was just about to bring this out to you.”
She held up a couple of slices of bread.
“Just one, please.” I held out my hand for it. “I’m not sure I can swallow it.”
She smiled and came unstuck from where I’d caught her contemplating the lake.
“What’s wrong?” I asked once she was close enough.
She shook her head, and before she could retreat from handing me my bread, I grabbed her hand and pulled her to me.
She couldn’t get very close, but it was close enough that I didn’t worry that my family would overhear what I had to say next.
“Tell me what’s wrong,” I demanded gruffly.
She pursed her lips.
“I just think it’s time for me to leave,” she admitted. “Now that your mom is here, I don’t think you need me anymore.”
“Do you need to leave?” I tilted my head.
She shook her head. “No.”
“Do you want to leave?” I continued.
She shook her head, not replying this time.
“Then stay.”
“But your mom,” she whispered, looking over my shoulder. “She doesn’t look like she wants me here.”
“My mom’s like this with all the new women that enter her boys’ lives,” I told her bluntly. “It’s like she wants to test their will or something. See if they have any gumption.”
I had no doubt that, by the end of the night, Sway would have my mother wrapped around her finger.
Sway was easily the funniest and sweetest woman I knew.
Not to mention she wasn’t a gold digger like the rest of the ladies I met nowadays.
I’d never met someone that I wanted to spend more time with…not until Sway.
When I woke up in the hospital and saw that she was no longer with me, I demanded for her to be brought back to me for over thirty minutes.
The only reason she had been brought back to me was after the doctor overheard. Then he’d intervened on my behalf and demanded the nurse go and get ‘my fiancée.’
Not that Sway had heard that little tidbit.
“Hey,” Holden called as he marched up to my side. “Do you have any extra of that?”
He pointed to my soup, and she nodded.
“I do. Do you want some?” she asked.
“Yep.” He sat down. “Order up.”
I elbowed Holden in the ribs and gave Sway an apologetic look.
“My brothers are heathens,” I told her. “Ignore them if you need to.”
She grinned, but got my brother some soup, and then sliced him off his own slice of bread before placing both in front of him.
I took a sip of my own soup as I tried hard to swallow it.
It wasn’t that it was bad. It was that my throat hurt like a motherfucker.
Even water was a killer to swallow.
“Do I have any ice cream in that freezer?” I asked Sway.
She shrugged and turned, presenting me with her lush ass as she bent over and looked into the pullout freezer.
Never before had I wanted to give an appliance a hug, but there was certainly a first time for everything.
She nodded and unearthed a carton of Blue Bell Great Divide, which was a Texan’s term for chocolate and vanilla, and set it on the counter.
“Which kind do you want?” she asked me, raising her eyebrows in question.
“Both,” I said. “Otherwise they’ll be uneven, and I’ll have to buy a new carton.”
She looked at me strangely, and I crossed my arms as I waited for what I knew was coming.
“That’s the oddest thing I’ve ever heard,” she finally said. “But it’s not unusual. My brother does the same thing. We call him the Divide King.”
I snorted and watched as she struggled to spoon the ice cream out.
“Can you help her, dillweed?” I nudged my brother.
Holden sighed long and loud, but got up and easily scooped the ice cream out.
“Can I have some, too?” Sway’s eyes were pleading.
Holden nodded and started scooping again.
After two scoops, one from each side, she held her hand up.
“That’s enough,” she ordere
d. “If I have more than that, it’ll go straight to my hips.”
My eyes went down to the hips in question and I barely contained the urge to moan.
Even sick as a dog, she had a way to make my dick hard.
“Well, if Holden’s passing out ice cream, I want some!” Harrison yelled loudly as he walked around the counter into the kitchen.
He walked straight to the cabinet with the bowls, lifted another out, and then held it out to Holden.
Holden ignored him as he left the spoon where it was and went to the sink to wash his hands.
“Asshole,” Harrison growled.
“I don’t know how your mother does it,” Sway interrupted Harrison’s fit. “Y’all all look so much alike. I’m already lost on who’s who.”
“I do it because I know my kids,” my mother sniffed, placing her hand on my back. “And I’ve got about thirty years of experience on you.”
I was glad to see that my mother was at least addressing Sway now, but that might have a lot to do with the talk I could hear my father having with her while I was trying to choke down the soup.
“You don’t like your soup?” my mom asked hopefully.
I nodded my head.
“I like it,” I told her. “But it hurts to swallow it. I’m going to try ice cream.”
She patted my back like I’d done the right thing. I was sure it was more because she was happy I wasn’t enjoying the soup that Sway had made especially for me.
“Oh, my God,” Holden moaned. “This soup is the bomb!”
My mother’s hand stopped patting my back, and I could see out of the corner of my eye that she was now glaring at Holden.
“You should try this, y’all,” Holden urged. “I’ve never tasted anything so good in my life. And this bread is to die for.”
“You sound like you’re having an orgasm,” Harrison muttered. “Oh, God. It’s so good! Harder, Sway!”
I stopped with my spoon halfway to my mouth, dumped the ice cream back into the bowl, and launched the spoon at my brother’s head.
It hit him in the forehead, causing him to cry out, but continue to laugh.
“Oww!” he yelled between bellows of laughter. “You asshole! I was only teasing!”
I rolled my eyes and took the spoon that Sway handed me.
“To be honest,” Sway surmised as she looked at the welt rising up on my brother’s head. “I would’ve left the ice cream on it when I threw it. At least he did you that favor.”
I winked at Sway, then returned to licking my ice cream.
“Well…” my dad said. “I have to take a shit, so I’ll let y’all deal with this while I commune with the gods.”
I closed my eyes as a laugh built in my throat.
When I opened my eyes again, it was to find Sway’s smiling eyes on me.
“If you think this is bad…” she grinned. “I can’t wait for you to meet my family.”
Chapter 11
It’s only an extra bottle of beer if you don’t drink it.
-Hancock’s words of wisdom
Hancock
“Your brother’s name is ‘Holden Peters.’” She stared at me, her face cracking into a grin.
I snorted.
“Yeah, my parents weren’t really thinking that through at the time, were they?” I asked as I sat down onto the bed.
“You need any help?” she bit her lip.
I shook my head.
“No,” I leaned back slowly until my head hit the pillow, my whole body protesting the movement.
“Alright,” she said as she came to my side of the bed and stood over me. “Gentry texted you to say he’d bring your dog home in the morning.”
I grinned.
“I think Gentry thinks he wants her,” I murmured.
“He doesn’t?” she asked. “You could’ve fooled me.”
I nodded.
“She’s good for him because he gives her treats.” I shifted until I was facing her. Her eyes took me in as I gazed up at her. “But the moment she realizes that he’s not going to give her goodies every single day, she’ll go back to her asshole self.”
Sway’s brows rose.
“She’s an asshole?” She had laughter in her voice. “Why is she an asshole?”
“She’s spoiled rotten. Eats my shoes. Swims in the water and then tracks mud all over the house. Sometimes I find her in the weirdest places.” I shook my head. “You have no idea of the weird places.”
Sway’s lips twitched.
“Like what?” she asked. “The bathtub?”
I laughed.
“No,” I shook my head. “More like on top of the fridge. On top of the dining room table—which, as you can see, is bar height—and once I found her on my book shelf.”
“What kind of dog is she?” She leaned her hip against the bed, and I moved my hand to cup the outside of her thigh.
“A Husky.”
She grinned. “I always wanted a Husky. What does she look like?”
“Pure white.” I smiled. “Although, I’m not sure she’s completely one hundred percent Husky. The lady I got her from said that she was knocked up by one of her dogs. One was a Husky, and the other was a wolf hybrid mix.”
Her mouth dropped open.
“You could have a wolf?” she gasped.
“Or, which is the more logical answer, she’s a Husky,” I pointed out. “She could go either way.”
She pursed her lips.
“I’ll let you know what I think when I see her again.”
I patted her thigh, and my eyes closed involuntarily.
“Alright,” she patted my hand and pulled away. “I’m going to go since your mom’s here to take care of you now.”
My eyes opened into slits.
“Don’t you dare leave me here with them,” I ordered.
She smiled at me, thinking I was joking.
I was far from joking, though.
“I can’t handle them on the best of days when I’m at a hundred percent,” I informed her sleepily. “When I’m sick like this, there’s no way I can handle three of my brothers under my roof. Please save me from them.”
She smiled at me like she thought I was joking, but I wasn’t.
“Please,” I pleaded.
“You’re serious,” she shook her head.
I nodded my head.
“I am.” I nodded my head. “Come to bed.”
“I can’t sleep in here with you.” She crossed her arms. “And all your other guest rooms are taken.”
I patted the bed behind me again.
“Pleaseeee,” I poked my lip out, putting a little bit extra whine in my pleading.
She sighed, long and loud, and I felt, more than saw, her move around the room.
My eyes were heavy, and it took everything I had not to give in to sleep.
“I don’t have anything to wear,” she said. “The only clothes I have in my car are too small. I’ve gained about twenty pounds in the last month.”
“Good weight,” I informed her. “You look edible.”
She snorted. “I don’t look edible,” she sniffed. “I look fat.”
I rolled over until I could see her staring at herself in my mirror above the dresser. “You’re not fat. If you were fat, I’d tell you. And you, woman, are not fat. You’re juicy and delectable. Not to mention every time I see your luscious ass in jeans I want to fuck it.”
She lifted her nostrils in the cutest grimace I’d ever seen.
“I’ve never done that,” she admitted.
“What?” I pushed. “Had anal sex…or had sex all together?”
Was that hopefulness I heard in my voice?
Hopefully she wouldn’t hear that in my voice, because it made me sound like a caveman to want my woman virginal upon meeting her.
“Anal. But I can’t say I’m a sexual connoisseur either.” She admitted. “I haven’t had any time. I’ve been
working my ass off since I was eighteen to get where I am, and everyone in my family, except for my dad and brother, is in the medical field. There’s no way I would randomly sleep with a stranger in this day and age. I met Langston, and we did give it a try, but...well…he was kind of sucky so we didn’t do it more than twice before he’d decided I was no longer worthy of being his.”
I tried to keep it cool, but I was unsure if my voice or face betrayed me.
“What does your dad do?” I asked as I grabbed for the covers and bunched them up over my hardening dick.
“He’s a cop.”
That did it.
My dick went down instantly.
“Bummer,” I muttered. “You can wear one of my shirts.”
I pointed to the dresser she was standing in front of and she grimaced again.
“They won’t fit me,” she hedged.
“Then sleep naked,” I countered.
She glared.
Slipping the shirt off over my head—which proved to be a lot harder than normal—I bunched it up in my hands and launched it at her.
“Here,” the t-shirt I’d been wearing had my jersey number on it, as well as the Lumberjacks’ double L logo on the front breast area.
She immediately threw it back at me.
“No,” she refused, shaking her head. “I’m not wearing that.”
I frowned hard at her. “We just talked about this.”
She smiled.
“It has nothing to do with my weight, and it not fitting,” she told me. “And everything to do with the fact that I only wear the team shirts on game days.”
My mouth dropped open.
“Are you saying that you have superstitions?”
She blinked.
“No.”
I picked up the t-shirt.
“Then wear it.”
She immediately shook her head.
“No!”
My mouth kicked into a small grin.
“Why won’t you wear it?” I asked then.
“Because.”
“Because why?”
“Because if I do, you might lose!”
I was laughing by this point.
“Half-Pint,” I started. “That’s called a superstition.”
She glared and started rummaging through my drawers, coming up with one of my favorite shirts that I used to wear in high school. One that hadn’t fit me in a very long time.
In fact, it was so small that I wasn’t quite sure why the hell I even had it anymore.
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