Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
B oon
“Cheers, little bro,” Colson said as he handed me a long-necked bottle of local beer. We both took a healthy gulp, staring out at the front of the family farm from the front porch.
The whole family was over for dinner tonight, a requirement Mom had badgered us about all week.
None of us would have missed the event, even without her constant harassment.
Contrary to how we spoke to each other in curses and mean names, my brothers and I loved each other.
It wasn’t exactly a hardship to spend a Friday night together under the same roof again.
It had been one hell of a week. I just needed a minute outside in the cool breeze of a fall evening before I faced everyone inside.
The smile hadn’t left Kinsley’s face the whole time my brothers, their wives, and their children surrounded her.
I’d never thought about it before, but she was an only child, and as far as I knew, her mom didn’t have any family around.
The loud voices of a house full of family must have been overwhelming for her.
I was about to step in and tell them to give her some space, but then I studied her face.
Her eyes were lit up and sparkling. Her cheeks were flushed, and the grin was genuine.
I headed outside instead, letting her get to know her uncles and aunts and cousins, a terrible ache in my ribs for keeping her from them for so long.
“Kinsley’s amazing,” Colson said finally, breaking into the comfortable silence between us.
I pushed against the wood porch floor, sending my rocker swinging. “Yeah, she is.”
“Warrick said he’s going to buy her a pair of Rottweilers to wear to school. Got any idea what the fuck those are?”
I barked out a humorless laugh. “Probably some godawful expensive jeans only douchebags wear.” Warrick was fairly wealthy after selling off his businesses before returning to Blueball, but the kind of wealthy with no taste.
“There a reason you’re avoiding Kinsley?”
My head swung immediately in his direction. Leave it to Colson to shoot the shit and then whack me across the face with a two-by-four of a question.
“I’m not avoiding her.”
Colson shrugged. “Sure seems like it to me.”
I shook my head, pissed all of a sudden. “I’m not avoiding her. I try to talk to her every day. She mostly gives me eye rolls and the cold shoulder. Sometimes she smiles and laughs, and that’s when I leave her alone. I like seeing her happy. She’s just never happy around me.”
Colson stood up and headed for the front door. “Well, not to sound like Mom or anything, but you need to figure that shit out. You’ve got a half a year to make things right with your own daughter.”
With that parting shot, he went inside. I guzzled down the rest of the beer in a fit of self-pity.
It wasn’t my fault I spent most of Kinsley’s childhood on the road for my job.
The infrequent visits had always been fine when she was little.
Things had started to change around middle school.
By freshman year of high school, she hated my guts.
I wasn’t sure what changed, and I sure as hell didn’t know how to fix it.
I rolled my shoulders back and went inside, forcing my real feelings behind the easy-go-lucky, life-of-the-party guy I’d always been. When we sat down at the dining table to eat, I got to brag about Kinsley playing in the volleyball game last night.
“She hit the shi—boozy out of the ball,” I said excitedly, barely remembering at the last minute to filter my swear words in front of Georgia, Warrick and Emmerleigh’s six-year-old daughter.
Georgia giggled. “What’s a shiboozy?”
“It’s when you hit the ball and you score a point because of it,” Kinsley answered her smoothly.
I shot her a wink in thanks for saving me. She rolled her eyes. Hey, at least she hadn’t flounced out of the room when I complimented her. I’d take that as progress.
“Well, your dad used to hit a lot of shiboozies too, so I guess that makes sense,” Mom drawled. “Ms. Fletcher came by earlier today and told me you’re doing great in class too.”
My head popped up from where I was practically inhaling the mashed potatoes no one could make like Mom. “Shae said that?”
Mom nodded. “Yep. I didn’t have any doubts about my girl.” She patted Kinsley’s hand on the table, and I watched my daughter glow from her praise.
“I love Ms. Fletcher,” Kinsley gushed. “She’s really nice and somehow also knows how to talk to teens.” She lifted her head and glared at me, like I was clearly the opposite.
“Ms. Roberts said the Wolfe boys are delicious,” Georgia announced, forcing the table into a shocked silence. Ms. Roberts was the young female principal at the elementary school.
“Oh, really? I’ll have to have a chat with Rosemary,” Tully said ominously.
I lifted a brow over the unspoken threat. Tully was short, but scary. She once thought Rosemary was going after Colson and it took my brother some convincing to get Tully to back down. Personally, I’d have let the two women go at it. Nothing like a catfight to make a night interesting.
The chatter around the table moved on. I stood up at one point to grab more mashed potatoes, asking if anyone else wanted some.
In the kitchen, I spotted the lights on at Shae’s house.
As luck would have it, she moved across the window, looking cute as shit in sweatpants, an oversized T-shirt, and her hair up in that high bun she liked to do when she was home alone.
She had her thick glasses on, reading a book as she moved about the house.
I shook my head, grinning. The woman couldn’t even put the book down long enough to do what she had to do around the house. Laughter from the dining room filtered into the kitchen. I watched Shae flop onto a couch, her knees tucked up under her chin as she kept reading.
She looked nerdy and gorgeous and someone I’d like to sit in silence with.
She also looked lonely.
Instincts were something I’d elevated to an expert level over the years in athletics.
In baseball you didn’t have time to know where the ball was going.
The crack of the bat had a particular type of sound when it was coming to me at third base.
If I waited to logically parcel out where the ball was going based on what my eyes saw, I’d never catch those line drives.
Finely honed instincts were what made me an excellent player.
And those instincts were telling me to go over there and get Shae.
So I did.
I slipped out the back door quietly, checked both ways for evil farm animals, and ran over to her property.
I jumped the fence and bounded up her porch.
The knock seemed loud in the quiet of the night.
She answered a few moments later, glasses pushed to the top of her head, but the book still in her hand like she couldn’t bear to part with it.
“Boon?”
I hitched my thumb over my shoulder. “We’re having family dinner and you came up. Figured I’d invite you over for dessert.” I looked down her body, taking in the bright pink toenails. “If you’re not doing anything.”
She cleared her throat and my gaze flew back up to her face. “Thanks for the invite, but I’ll have to pass.”
She went to close the door, but I stopped her with my shoulder. “Why?”
She tilted her head, button nose scrunched up adorably. “What do you mean why?”
“Why won’t you join us?”
She scoffed, the hand holding her place in her paperback going to her hip. “Because I’m not dressed. Because you’re having a family dinner and I’m not family. Because I’m enjoying my quiet evening. Is that enough of a reason for you?”
I made a regretful noise. “Sorry, no.”
And then I stooped, picking her up like her house was on fire and I was the man intent on saving her. She shrieked, but didn’t kick me in the balls. Her book fell to the porch, pages bending. I had her over my shoulder and settled in a split second, the delicious fruity scent of her surrounding me.
“What the fudge sticks are you doing?” she hollered, making me laugh.
“I really want to know what it would take to make you say fuck out loud.” I moved down the steps, and she started beating on my back. It felt good. Like a massage when they slap your skin and loosen your muscles. What didn’t feel good was my shoulder screaming at me.
“Keep this up and you just might!”
That made me guffaw with laughter. I’d actually pay money to hear her utter the f-word.
I bet she’d whisper it, making it sound sexy as hell.
She was currently fighting me, turning from massaging my back to kicking her feet.
I clamped my arm down on her thighs so she didn’t kick anything I’d regret later.
“Calm down, woman.”
“Don’t. You. Dare…” Shae sounded so angry, she couldn’t even finish her sentence.
She squirmed even more, and holy fuck, I almost dropped her on her damn head.
I regained control and then smacked her right on her luscious ass.
I felt her flesh on my palm and instantly went hard inside my tight jeans.
She froze.
I walked the rest of the way to Mom’s house, then set her on her feet, hands ready in case she tried to slap my face.
When it didn’t come, I peeked out from behind my fingers.
Shae’s face was nearly purple with rage.
Or maybe it was just from being upside down on the way over.
I dropped my hands to give her a winning smile, reaching out to smooth down the hair that had come out of the tie.
Her body remained frozen but her eyes were committing murder. My murder.
Figuring I couldn’t piss her off any further, I cupped her face in my hands. Her eyes went wide, a much better look than psycho killer.