Mr. McBeefcake (The Hotties of Saddle Creek #3)

Chapter 1

chapter

one

Kathryn

I haven’t been back home to Saddle Creek in several months. Up until about a week ago, I’d been finishing up my doctorate in materials engineering. But now I’m back and sitting in my big sister’s living room while she drops a bomb of news on my head.

I stare at Kelli, unsure if I’ve heard her correctly. “I’m sorry, did you just say that Mom is marrying Mr. Jewel? Our mom? And the retired high school football coach, used to be our next-door neighbor, Mr. Jewel?”

Kelli rolls her eyes and sighs dramatically. “Stop being difficult.”

“I didn’t even know they were dating. I don’t even think I knew she was dating at all.”

“You’ve been busy finishing up your doctorate and haven’t been home,” my sister says. “And I think she was worried what you’d think. I mean initially they just started hanging out and it was pretty innocent.”

“Eww. I do not want to know about our mother’s not so innocent time with the neighbor man.”

My sister rubs her very pregnant belly. “She wants you to be happy for her.”

Guilt gnaws at me. “I am. Of course I am. Mr. Jewel was always a very kind man.”

“And he was alone a long time.”

I remember that too. Remember finding Donovan, Mr. Jewel’s son, sitting on our front porch, crying. He’d actually spent the night that night. We’d slept on top of the covers on my bed, only holding hands. My mother hadn’t been too happy in the morning considering we’d been sixteen at the time. It had even been after Donovan and I were no longer speaking and hanging out on a regular basis. But no matter how hurt I was that he’d allowed his girlfriend to treat me the way she did, I couldn’t turn my back on him in that moment.

The following week at school, we’d gone back to ignoring each other.

“Happy enough for her to put aside your issues with Donovan?” Kelli asks.

“I have no issues. We’re just not friends anymore.”

“Oh, okay. Sure.” My sister thumps my hand.

“What the hell?”

“I am not an idiot. Maybe that’s some half-baked lie you tell yourself, but I know better. You were nuts about that boy, and y’all were practically joined at the hip. Then all of a sudden things changed.”

“It’s all in the past. I can be civil to Donovan.”

“He’s going to be our brother.”

Her words settle around me and the feeling is… icky. That’s the only way to describe it. “We’re adults. Our parents will be married. That doesn’t actually make us siblings,” I say.

“It makes us family.”

“Yeah, I get it, Kelli. It’ll be fine. I promise.”

Except, it will not be fine. I haven’t spoken to Donovan since before high school graduation. He went off to Tennessee to college and I went to A&M.

I’ve watched every game of his that I’ve been able to. Can’t help myself. I love football and he’s a monster on the field. It’s part of why I ended up working on the project I did for my dissertation. Selling the patent was a bonus. But it’s enabled me to have some freedom with my employment since I finished up my Ph.D.

I’ll just have to make sure he and I aren’t in the same room very often. And never alone. I don’t want to rehash all the old hurts. It feels petty now, and I’m not sure if I could explain it clearly without telling him how much I crushed on him back then.

So I’ll just treat him like a distant cousin. Or something.