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“Tell me why I’m jealous of a fifteen-year-old boy right now,” he whispers in my ear, causing a rush of shivers to race up my spine. Damn him.
“Because you both only think about the same thing every second of every day.”
“Come over to my house, and I’ll show you exactly what I’m thinking.”
“I’m done babysitting five-year-olds,” I say, opening the screen door so it hits him square in the nose. “Whoops, sorry about that.”
He groans and grabs his nose. “You Adams women are dangerous.”
“You’re best to remember that.” I walk into Gillian’s house, hoping like hell Emmett takes the hint and goes home.
If only my mind would shut off the image of him taking me to his house and fucking me while I watch in the mirror. I have way too much going on in my life to entertain any kind of attraction to Emmett Noughton.
Chapter Three
Emmett
The last thing I want to do on my day off is attend another Sunday night family dinner. After my mom died, the tradition died with her, but now that my brothers have found love, my new sister-in-law and new practically-sister-in-law plan them every week for all of us to catch up.
What do we need to catch up about?
I work with Jude and my dad every damn day on our cattle ranch. When Ben’s soon-to-be wife fuels her reality television addiction, he makes my home his.
Recently, Gillian and Sadie, two of the three new additions to the Noughton family, decided our regular Sunday dinners haven’t been painful enough, so they added on game night.
I shut my front door, walk down the porch steps, and decide to take my time walking over to Ben’s place. If I’m lucky, they’ll already be halfway through dinner. Maybe I can say I have a stomachache and sneak out before the game starts.
I love my family. My brothers are my best friends, and you can’t ask for better sisters-in-law than Gillian and Sadie. Add on Gillian’s son, Clayton, who’s always game for throwing around a football, playing a video game, or whatever else we can do to avoid sitting around the table discussing the adult shit, and I’ve truly won the lottery in terms of family. And not just the scratch-off kind. The big lotto. The one where the jackpot is so big, people travel over state lines to buy tickets. But it doesn’t mean I want to spend the last night of every weekend doing family game night.
My family’s voices carry through the trees before I round the corner. They’re milling around the porch of Ben’s brand-new house that was finished right before winter hit. Gillian just put her house on the market.
Almost everyone on the porch turns their attention to me.
My dad hovers at the top of the porch stairs with a beer in hand. “It started at five,” he says in his usual tone of “don’t give me excuses, next time get your ass here on time.”
“I got held up.”
My dad grunts but doesn’t give me any more shit. Whoever his random was last night, she must’ve been good in bed.
I walk right into the house, bypassing everyone, and grab a beer from the fridge. I take a long pull as my eyes scan my brother’s place. Pictures of him, Gillian, and Clayton hang on every inch of the walls that aren’t covered with sweet sayings regarding family and love and cherishing one another. It’s weird—my brother’s sweatshirt isn’t thrown over the back of the couch, the trash bin is empty, and there are no dishes in the sink. So, this is what it’s like when Ben lives with a woman.
“Why are you late?” Ben takes a reprieve from fawning over his woman to bug me.
Moments later, Jude joins us in the kitchen clearly ready to gang up on me with Ben. Not much has changed over the years; they’ve always been a pain in my ass.
“I had things to do.” I tip my beer to my lips again, not really wanting to hash out my problems.
Us Noughton boys are good at hiding our issues. Well, we’re good at not sharing them. Neither of them told me when they were about to fuck up their futures with the women they love, but Dad and I knew.
“Things or people?” Jude asks, sliding onto the stool to my right. Why is he getting comfortable? The party is on the porch.
“Already had enough of one flavor?” I quirk an eyebrow, and he throws me that fuck off expression he mastered at the age of six. I hold up my hand. “Thought maybe you needed to use your imagination now that you’re chained to Sadie.”
“You’re an asshole,” Jude says, sliding off the stool and heading back to the porch.
“Hold up,” Ben says to Jude, and he stops and turns around. Ben looks back at me. “You’ve been distant. We’re trying to make sure things are good with you.”
“Winter just ended. My vitamin D level is low.”
