“Sure, Gramps,” I said, walking toward the barn.
“Maddison’s got your wheeler. You’ll have to take the turd.” And with that, he was off, leaving me staring after him. Instantly, the dark-haired girl filled my mind, and her satisfied smirk, knowing she’d left me to suffer, was all I could see. Maddison loved to torture us guys, especially me and Rhett, more so than the others. She’d lightened up on Rhett, though, now that AJ and a baby she could aww over were in the picture.
“You know Mad.” Gemma surprised me when she stepped up to my side, holding a bucket of what appeared to be flower bulbs. “She hates Ol’ Penny.” She patted me on the shoulder, walking off toward her flower bed on the left side of the house, laughing at the discomfort on my face at the thought of my impending doom.
Penny was a beat-up, putt-putt four-wheeler. Slow as shit, smoked like a chimney, and did I mention the damn thing was purple? All of us boys designated her as the one the girls got, while we claimed all the bad-ass ATVs. Maddison always fought us on it. Always.
Reluctantly, I entered the barn to find Penny where she always sat, tucked back in the far corner. I kicked at the dirt along the ground, dread swarming through me. Had it not been a few miles out to where the creek was, I would have just walked.
Turning the key in the ignition, I swore the damn turd fucking laughed at me as she sputtered before grabbing hold. Gramps needed to retire this pathetic excuse for a wheeler; it was sad, really. More for me because I was stuck riding it, but still, sad.
She coughed and grunted the entire distance, leaving a trail of smoke behind her. There was no way I was riding this thing back. I’d dip her in the creek and give her a proper sign-off before I climbed back up on her to drive back.
As I came up over the hill, I saw the group look up at me, and instantly, Rhett started laughing—the bent over at the waist, holding his gut, shaking from the intensity of his humor kind of laughter. Mad stopped what she was doing, turned around to face me, and placed a hand on her hip in that way she’d always done, and just that reaction alone felt like a kick in the stomach. Her beauty did that to me every damn time, no matter how hard I tried to ignore it. A look of satisfaction covered her face, and the thought of tossing her ass in the creek seemed like more fun than Ol’ Penny at the moment.
Mad had always been a sassy shit. There was so much fire in her. In that moment, seeing a side of her that over the last six months or more I’d missed so much it hurt, I told myself I was done fucking hiding. If I wanted to hassle her, damned sure I was gonna. If I wanted to flirt, I was gonna flirt, and there wasn’t a damn thing she was gonna do about it. I was tired of hiding.
When I cut the engine, it gave me a fit in the process, throwing out what sounded like a desperate gag before it died. I closed my eyes tightly, fighting the urge to kick the piece of garbage, which would only give all these assholes around me even more to laugh about.
“You look good on Penny.” I noticed the way Maddison tried to hide her smile. “Right at home, really.”
“You’re driving that damn thing back to the house.” I stepped past her, and she pushed against my arm.
“Hell, no.” She finally let out a laugh. “You brought her out here. You’re taking her back.”
“We’ll see about that.” Looking back over my shoulder, I was pleased with the glare she was tossing in my direction. There had always been a great thrill I got simply by pissing off Mad. She made it fun. How she’d stutter, even though she was doing her very best to remain in control. She’d also do this open-closed-open-mouth thing that reminded me of a fish under water.
I heard Rhett whistle low. “She’s gonna whip your ass if you make her ride that thing back.”
“She can try.” I was still meeting Maddison’s death glare, doing my best not to laugh at the way her eyes were now in angry slits. “I may even let her have her way and pin me, for a few seconds, anyway. Gotta let the woman think she’s winning every once in a while, to keep the peace.”
“I could beat your ass with one hand tied behind my back and a blindfold on,” she challenged, making the older men chuckle. “You may be bigger than me, but I’m faster.”
“Is that right?” I turned completely around and held my hands out to my sides, taunting her. “Give it your all, pretty girl. Let’s see whatcha got.”
I noticed the way Mad tilted her head to the side, and I rolled the words I’d spoken around in my mind, realizing how I’d called her “pretty girl” without a second thought, even in the presence of everyone around us. Don’t get me wrong. Maddison was a goddess. There wasn’t a boy in our family who hadn’t had a Maddison-driven fantasy at least once, maybe twice, but
