Page 17 of Carson

Cole drops to a knee between the seats, peering out the front window. “Fuck, I’m glad to be home,” he says. “Drop me off at our place. I’ve got to shit.”

It makes me laugh.

He shoves me in the arm playfully. “Just be thankful I didn’t blow that miniature toilet you have back there.”

“Hey, it serves its purpose.”

Carson pulls into a long driveway. “That’s our parents’ house,” he tells me. “Our little sister, Khloe, also lives there. She’s three.”

We continue on, passing an open field. “Our other sister, Kelsie, lives over there. She has a son who is also three. His name is Ray, after our grandfather,” Carson tells me.

“Wild that we have a nephew and sister the same age, huh?” Cole laughs and leans across to point out my window. “They live in a little church. You can see the steeple over the trees.”

I take a deep breath at his nearness. He and his brother are so much bigger than me, it’s a little overwhelming.

“Oh, I see it. I don’t know if I could live in a church. That’s a bit creepy, isn’t it?”

He backs away. “Naw, the only thing scary about it is her asshole husband.”

Carson laughs. “He’s joking.”

“Am I?”

I smile at him because clearly, he is. “I get it. No one is good enough for your sister.”

“See, she gets me.”

Carson shakes his head, but I can tell he’s happy his brother is finally relaxing around me.

We continue on, going deeper into the forest. “If this is too far out for you, you can stay up at our parents’ house. It’s super nice, and my mom is a great host,” Carson says. “Otherwise, there’s a concrete pad with hookups out behind our cabin you can use if you want to stay in your van.”

“Better warn her about mom’s cooking before she makes a decision on that, brother,” Cole adds.

“Yeah, about that …”

I interrupt them both. “I’ll stay in my van. It’s my home, so no need to trouble them.”

“Are you sure? It gets pretty dark out here at night,” Cole says. “I didn’t mean to scare you off.”

“But we’ll only be a short distance away,” Carson chimes in.

“I’m good in the van. Like I said, it’s my home.”

“Our dad had the concrete poured for my grandpa’s camper. He used to come out here to fish. There’s a stream that runs along the property.”

Cole begins where Carson leaves off. “He moved it over to his new place shortly after we got the cabin built, so it’s just been sitting empty.”

When we round the bend, a two-story log cabin comes into view. “Oh, wow,” I say, sitting forward in my seat. “You guys built this?”

“We did, alongside our dad,” they say in unison, and it makes me smile.

It’s obvious how proud they are of their father.

Cole hops out as soon as his brother stops the van. “I’ll be out to help in a minute,” he says before shutting the door.

Carson yells out the window. “Bullshit. I know it’ll take you longer than that.”

Cole turns around after unlocking the door and flips him off.