Chapter 2
Two
If I say “first of all,” run. I’ve prepared charts, data, research, and will destroy you.
—Bernice to Hux
Hux
“Huxley Nelson Hosea,” my mother said through the phone. “Where are you?”
I rolled my eyes so hard my head ached. “I already told you I’m not coming.”
There was only so much family time I could deal with, and I’d done enough family events this week, thanks to the holiday, that my cup runneth over.
Or whatever that saying was.
“You sound like you’re at home doing nothing.”
I looked at the radio in the corner of my shop that betrayed me and said, “I am at home. But I’m not doing nothing.”
I was working on a car, drinking a beer.
Two of my favorite things in the world to do.
“It’s just dinner,” my mother groaned.
“Mom,” I said stiffly. “It’s dinner every single Sunday. I’m sorry, but I’m not part of the Reagan family. I’m a Hosea. We have lives of our own, and sometimes we don’t go to family dinner because we don’t want to.”
My mother had started planning weekly family dinners when the show Blue Bloods came out. She thought the whole “Sunday family dinner” thing was a great idea and started to implement it.
The only problem was that our family had never had a family sit-down dinner together. We’d always been everywhere. My sister in cheer, my brothers in lacrosse. Me in soccer. We’d never, ever had time to eat dinner together as a family, so we hadn’t.
Then Mom had started crying, and we’d had to start.
To this day sixteen years later, it was only a rare occasion that we had all the family together.
My sister, Heidi, worked at a dog food factory working two in the afternoon to eleven, five days a week, on a rotating schedule.
My brother, Hampton, was a firefighter who worked forty-eight hours on, seventy-two hours off, also on a rotating shift.
Harvey worked at a steel mill as a supervisor and was the only one of us who worked regular nine-to-five hours during the week.
Then there was me, who owned my own meat processing business that was attached to our parents’ store in town.
All four children had their own separate jobs, where on their off days they also had to come in to work at The Mercantile, my mom’s entire life.
Everyone loved The Mercantile.
Everyone but the Hosea siblings, who wanted nothing to do with it because it had consumed our entire childhoods.
Being forced to work there from the age of about twelve and up, all four of us had all but jumped at the chance to move out and find a career that could support us.
Which my mom freaking hated.
She wanted her family around her to give her free labor, any chance that she could get.
My mom was a tightwad.
Always had been.
She was also a taskmaster and wasn’t a very great boss.
I felt horrible for my mom’s employees.
They were definitely worth more than she paid them.
Listening to her tell you what to do, day in and day out, would be hard for someone who didn’t have to do it out of familial obligation.
Hell, sometimes it was hard to even like my mother, let alone love her.
“Are you even listening to me?” my mother grumbled.
I saw a car pull up and knew it was my new neighbor who was a club brother’s sister.
Creed had come to me when she was about to move in to explain her situation to me. He let me know that Bernice was delicate and I needed to watch out for her.
I had agreed, because who wouldn’t?
But that was until I saw her the first time.
She was a knockout.
Auburn hair that went down to her waist when it was free of a braid—which she had it in ninety-nine percent of the time. Small and skinny, but you’d never know due to the amount of clothes she had on at any given time.
There’d been one time when I’d seen her through the front window that my mouth had nearly dropped to the damn floor. Why? Because I’d seen her with only a single layer of clothing on, and I felt like I’d taken a hammer straight into the solar plexus.
She had a gorgeous body.
Though very slim, she had tits and ass for days. Her legs were long. Her hips would be perfect to accommodate my babies…
“Huxley!”
I sighed. “Mom, I’m at home, yes. But that’s because I’m freakin’ tired. I want a day off. You made me work for twelve hours yesterday hauling in boxes of shit. My back hurts. My shoulders hurt. My legs hurt. And I have to work all day tomorrow. I need a day off.”
As I explained, Bernice parked and got out of the car.
She walked up to the front door, but I could tell that she was freaking out. She was looking over her shoulder every few seconds.
I didn’t have to come out of my garage to know that one of the Hubers was outside, likely taunting her.
Bernice had her keys out and she was trying to shove the key in the door when she froze.
“Gotta go, Mom.”
“Huxley, wait…”
I hung up and walked out of my garage as I was shoving my phone back into my jeans pocket.
I crossed through my front yard and headed for Patrick Huber, who was now at the edge of Bernice’s driveway.
“Patrick, get away from my woman.”
Patrick’s brow rose. “Your woman?”
“You heard me,” I growled. “Go.”
“Thought she was that mute’s woman? What’s his name? Otis?”
I rolled my eyes. “Odin. And no. She’s mine.”
When I chanced a glance at the door, it was to find Bernice no longer outside.
Thank fuck.
Maybe she hadn’t heard me declare her as mine.
It hadn’t exactly been on my to-do list for today—declaring her mine.
But I knew if I did, he’d respect the unspoken boundary that I’d just laid out for him.
Patrick didn’t respect much, but he did respect me.
I’d beaten the shit out of him too many times to count since we were both in high school for him not to.
He’d been a huge bully, and I hated bullies.
“I’m just being friendly,” Patrick drawled.
“Don’t,” I said. “Don’t talk to her. Don’t look at her. Don’t smile in her direction. You don’t even breathe in her direction.”
Patrick smirked. “She your kryptonite?”
I rolled my eyes. “Go home, Patrick.”
Patrick retreated, but I could tell that he wasn’t going to give up.
Great.
I might’ve made Bernice’s life worse.
Maybe Patrick would keep his mouth shut?
The universe had a good laugh as Patrick spread it far and wide that Bernice was mine by the next morning.
The only person who didn’t know was Bernice.