“Cord and Jackson and their brothers and sisters—one sister here and one in another town, Divine—their parents have finally divorced. It was really ugly between Aunt Norah and Uncle George for a time. Our Aunt Norah is….” Lewis blew out his breath as if he didn’t want to say anything really bad about Cord and Jackson’s mother.
“A bitch?” Michaela had no allegiance to Norah Benedict, but she liked those of her children she’d met. Some folks, she guessed, were just born mean. She’d often thought, over the years, that had been the problem with her father. He hadn’t pulled anything like the kind of shit she’d heard Norah had, but he’d not been a symbol of hearth and home, either.
“That’ll do.” Lewis’s lips stretched into a smile, and Michaela realized then he was a man who didn’t smile much. “You probably also know that their dad, our Uncle George, is here visiting for a bit. He’s a rancher—that seems to be something that runs in the family, be it Montanan or Texan. He actually had to hire a few of the local boys to keep an eye on his place for the time he’s away.
“Then, at our place?” Lewis nodded toward his two brothers, Parker and Dale, so she knew he included them as well. “Dad turned the ranch over to our brother Marcus, aka Marcus the Terrible, and that’s what he’s been, first toward Parker and Dale and then…well Marcus decided he only needed one brother to help him out, and that wasn’t me.”
“With Uncle George and Aunt Norah fighting over the divorce,” Randy said, “and Marcus deciding he wanted to be the ruler of all he surveyed, my folks have kind of withdrawn from dealing with anyone else in the family—meaning my dad’s brothers. Carl and George, my oldest brothers, have been flexing their muscles a lot lately as well, mimicking Marcus and looking at me as if they consider me their personal serf.”
“So you can imagine how good it is for us to come here and see this,” Lewis said. “Not just our brothers and the cousins we know getting along—but seeing everyone so damn happy. And we couldn’t have you unhappy, either. So here we are.”
“I’m not.” She’d had only the one glass of wine. She didn’t know if it was that small amount of alcohol that had her feeling mellow or if it was the company of these men.
“There seems to be a lot of happiness hereabouts,” Randy said. “Or maybe it’s just our take, coming here from there.”
“No, it’s mine, too. I’ve thought about it a lot also. It’s the people of Lusty. They just open their arms and take you in. My dad didn’t ever go out of his way to make many friends. And yet, that day I laid him to rest—I think it was week or so before we met—the people who came! Some of the aunts brought me casseroles and banana bread and, oh God, the best pecan cookies I’ve ever tasted! But they came, and I understood they were there for me. A woman who works at the roadhouse, someone a lot of them had never met. So, definitely, it’s this place.”
“We’re glad,” Lewis said, “that our kin supported you when you needed the support.”
“Me, too.”
Michaela looked around the room. Tammy was still over in a group talking with Jenny and Jillian Jessop, married to the Doctors Jessop. There were a fair number of people here, and with the music playing in the background, it really was a congenial atmosphere.
“Let’s go grab that sofa.”
She hadn’t even seen Jesse, Barry, and Shar get up from the comfy-looking leather. She’d been on her feet since before dawn. She’d managed to get the broken boards on the porch removed and then mostly replaced. Her new nail gun helped with that. She’d also spent time on the stepladder, using a stiff wire brush on the outside of the house. There was no help for the windows. Those she would have to have professionally done, because she wanted eventually to have central air, so those windows needed to be airtight. But there was one board on the inside, part of the front door frame, that she thought she could replace herself.
But with having worked late Thursday and then spending most of the morning working on her place, a good soft sofa sounded very appealing.
“That sounded like a real ‘thank God I’m finally sitting’ sigh.” Lewis, on her left, said.
She hadn’t noticed that they’d managed to put her in the middle between them. A flash of panic ran through her, and then she relaxed. I think it’s time I stop acting like a shriveling virgin where these two men are concerned.
She’d been avoiding spending any significant time with them because, well, because they were only going to be here temporarily. But so what? She was a woman fully grown, and if she wanted to spend time with them or even have a flaming hot affair with them, well, why the hell not?
Heat flushed her cheeks, and she hoped like hell they didn’t notice or, if they did, that they had no idea the cause.
It took every bit of her will to recall what Lewis had just said and to act like it had only been a couple seconds since he had and to answer him as if nothing else was going on in her head.
As if I didn’t just have one gigantic flash of horny run through and tickle all my girl parts.
“I guess it was,” she said. “I worked late last night but wanted to get things done today before coming so I was up before the sun.”
“Working on your house?” Randy asked. “I heard Jenny telling Parker that the real estate agent came again today. Are you selling it?”
She waved her hand in a dismissive way. “No.
