Page 3 of Barron

“Honestly? I haven’t any idea. As much as I hate to mention this to you, because you know they’re going to find out sooner rather than later is to talk to the women. I don’t know why, but you know how they can get to the bottom of something quicker than anyone, and that’s what you need. Answers. Before it’s too late. And if you keep hanging out with her, she might well make it so that it’s too late for you and her to separate.” Barron asked him what he thought they’d do to him. “This is something that I’ve never heard of before. So I don’t know how to judge what they’re going to say. I will tell Jamie for you and see her reaction. That’ll give you a heads up on what the others might do to you.”

“I don’t need to be knocked around. I’m feeling damaged enough if you want to know the truth.” He told him he was sorry and would tell her that, too. “No. Christ, if you tell her that, she’s going to knock me around for being a pussy. That is not something that I want.”

They were both laughing by the time he closed the connection between them. He knew that of all his brothers, Mark would be the most helpful and compassion. However, he’d never known the wives of his other brothers to beat around the bush about anything. It was then that he heard from Jamie.

“What do you know about wholesale markets?” He told her that he’d only been to a few of them, but they were mostly animals. “Okay. Good. They’d have to be about the same, don’t you think? I mean, products to buy and then to resell them, correct? I mean, you’d have to know what sort of pricing you could do with them according to your location and sales. Right?”

“Yes. But remember, I’m not reselling my animals but using them for products. I wouldn’t know the first thing about reselling merchandise. I have always left the pricing of my things by what Grannie told me to put on them. I would have been nearly giving my things away had it not for her doubling the price that I had on the stuff in the first place. I’m assuming you’re meaning the shop.” She told him that she was going to purchase two buildings closer to the middle of town where she could put products. One of them being a shop that carried things made by the local Indian tribes. “We did that once before. It didn’t go over well, but I think it had more to do with the location than anything. If you have places closer to the heart of things, you might do a bit better than grannie did. In fact, I think there is a record book that she kept in her office at Grannie’s place for every shop that she had. Maddy might have even found it already.”

“I’ll ask her. Okay, I’ll have to get back to you. Mark is wanting to talk to me.” He told her that it was about him and to please be gentle. “What’s wrong? Never mind. I’ll talk to Mark. Honey, you know that I love you, don’t you?”

“And I love you too, Jamie. More than words could be put to a poem.” She told him that he was going to press her emotional buttons but closed the connection before he could speak to her.

It wasn’t long before Jamie and the other woman popped into his room. He was glad that he’d pulled on his pants when he had, or they might be getting more than they dreamed about their little brother. No one hit him, for which he was grateful, but Rusty had brought Joey with her and handed him to him first thing. He did love this little man.

They must have been having a conversation about him when they left the house because they were still talking about him, he realized, when they showed up at his hotel room. After a few minutes, they brought in food. Mostly Danishes, as well as a couple of gallons of tea. Something that he sorely missed while being here. When they sat down, he held his breath when they all turned to look at him.

“You wouldn’t hit a man with a baby, would you?” They just stared at him, and when he held Joey up in front of his face, he asked them if they were in a dangerous mood.

Chapter 2

Caitlynn wasn’t really disappointed that Barron’s family was around. She liked them, but they were just too pushy for her tastes. She thought, too, that they took advantage of Barron a great deal too. Mostly, it was the women, who she thought could use some lessons in manners but she never said anything to anyone because she wasn’t part of the family as yet. Even when she did become a bride of Barron’s, she wasn’t planning on hanging out with any of them. She was sure that her love for him would hold him back from seeing them so often, too. Christ, they were all grown-ups. It’s about time that they left the fucking nests, right?

She had hoped that once Barron had made it to the city to see all the things that he missed living on the mountain that he’d want to move in with her. But he was steadfast in living in the hotel that he’d been in to the point that it irritating her a great deal. Caitlynn supposed that once they fell in love with one another, she’d have a tighter hold over him, but for now, she would go with the flow.

“What do you think of the mountain, Caitlynn? I mean, living there.” She most assuredly didn’t care for their constant questions about her likes and dislikes. Especially she didn’t care for, not hate, but didn’t care for Jamie. She asked the other woman what she meant. “You know that someone, one of the Cross men, has to live on the mountain forever in order for them to keep it, correct? It’s doubtful to me that any of them would give up living there, but I was curious about your opinion about living there in such a rustic setting.”

“It’s a nice place to hang out, I suppose. There are plenty of places to go shopping. I do love a good shopping area. I bet it’s beautiful this time of year. And what with Thanksgiving coming up next week, you guys probably have a lot of plans made. I’m not used to large crowds of people, so I’m thinking that we’ll perhaps skip it this year and be just the two of us, Barron and I, in my apartment. It was just myself and my dad for a long time, then he passed away.” Jamie told her that wasn’t what she’d asked her. “I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t understand. Are you asking me if I would live there all the time? Not if I can help it, no. I don’t know that Barron and I have gotten that far in our relationship to make that kind of decision together. It would depend a great deal, I guess, on how often I needed to go back to the city for my business or not. And that wouldn’t be for just a day. I’d have to be there for months at a time. I’m sure that none of you have spent a winter here. I hear that it’s dangerous. It gets so cold.”

“No, none of us women have spent a winter here, but there are furnaces in each of the houses. Also, wood burning stoves in the event the power goes out.” Jamie laughed a little. “I do wonder at times what I’ll do with myself in the winter months. But I’m not terribly worried. So long as I’m warm and have Mark with me, I think I’ll be just fine.”

“Do you depend on a man to keep you warm? I don’t mean with body heat or anything, but chopping wood and such? I mean, up until this fall, didn’t they all work outside the home?” She said that they were all federal agents for the park at one time. “I think I might have known that. Are you trying to pick a fight with me, Jamie?”

“No. Why would you think that? I’m just trying to get to know you, that’s all.” It was Amelia who asked her why she thought that, too. “I would have thought that you’d had a few questions for us as well. I mean, I had plenty when I found Mark.”

“If you’re going to be a part of this family, it would be nice to know a bit more about you. I mean, your likes and dislikes. In the event that we go into town, at home, I mean, we’d like to have you enjoy it as well.” She flat out told them that she didn’t think she and Barron would be spending much time on the mountain; thus, she’d not be spending all that much time with all of them. “Why not? I mean, it’s his home? Did he tell you that he didn’t want to live there anymore?”

“No. I mean, not in so many words. But he did say that he’d like to have what a big city offered him at times.” Amelia told her what else he’d said about his heart belonging to the mountain. “Did he tell you that we’d talked about that? Is that why you know what he said? You shouldn’t be listening at key holes, Amelia. It’s considered very rude. But in answer to your question about living there. I have a large business to run, and I can’t do it online like the rest of you do, if you work at all. I have to be there when a new company comes up for sale so that I can run the numbers and get an answer back to them right away.”

“And you don’t think that you can do that from the mountain?” She wished that Barron would return. He’d gone out to get them all some food and drinks and left her here. Of course, he had invited her to go along, and she had declined. Now, she wished that she’d gone as well. “Well? Can’t you?”

“I don’t know that I’d want to do that. I don’t want to live on the mountain all the time. To me, it’s not so much rustic as it is dirty, and there are a lot of bugs and snakes. I don’t mean to say that I have never seen anything like that, but you have to admit that there is a lot of dirt around.”

“It’s a mountain, not an apartment complex.” That statement made her temper flare, but she held onto it. What were they driving at here? She finally, when she was sure that she could talk to them without grating her teeth, asked why they were so concerned as to where she and Barron lived. “He’s a part of the family. You too, if you’re his mate.”

“Are you thinking that I’m not?” No one answered her. “Or is it that you’re hoping that I’m not. I have news for you guys. I’m not going anywhere. I love the city life. The cabs to get around when I don’t want to drive. The grocery stores that aren’t fifty miles away. I like having a thermostat that I can turn up or down when I want more heat or cooling. I don’t want to have to hunt for my food or dig it up out of the ground to have a nice meal. And if you ask him, I’m betting that Barron will say the same thing. I’ve been showing him the things that he’s missing, and we both have been enjoying ourselves a great deal. We’ve had dinner every night at a new restaurant. And we could go on having a different cuisine for the next six months if we wanted. And I want to make it clear, it’s what we want. So, if you have something to say to me or complain about, stop beating around the bush and say it. But know this, Barron is mine, and I don’t intend to share him once he puts a ring on my finger.”

“Excuse me.” She turned to find Barron behind her with his arms loaded with bags. She could smell the Chinese food and nearly told him that she didn’t care for it. But, before she could, he spoke to her, his teeth clinched tightly. “I got you a pizza to have as your own meal. I also got some beers to go with dinner. My brothers…my family is coming here too. They’re bringing food, too.”

He never said a word about what he’d obviously over heard. As the women all grabbed one of the many bags he had on him, they didn’t either. Joey was handed off to Barron, and he took him to the other room to change his diaper. There wasn’t enough money in the world for her to have done that for anyone’s child, not even if he was her nephew or cousin—especially not a child of her own. As they began letting their husbands/mates, whatever they called them, in with more food, she had to go to the kitchen to get a glass of wine. Her temper was out of control by the way they were acting, as if not a single thing had happened while Barron was gone. Well, she’d show them. Even if she had to eat—her body shivered at the thought—an egg roll or something equally nasty to prove to them that she could be a part of the family if she wanted to be. Not that it was going to matter in the long run. They, she and Barron, would live in a big city, and that would be the end of that discussion.

Throughout dinner, no one mentioned the conversation they’d been having. Nothing about her telling them that Barron wasn’t going to be going back to the mountain for a long stay. Nor about anything else.

They were laughing and having a good time, leaving her to her own devices as she dug into her pizza. Then she remembered her vow to fit in. They’d made her feel inadequate so far, and she hated that feeling. She turned to the makeshift table to find Barron holding the damned baby again.

“Barron, honey, would you mind letting me have a bit of your egg roll? I want to try some Chinese, too.” He told her that they were all gone. But there was some fried rice left. “I’ll have some of that. Can you bring it to me?”

“I’ll have Mark do it. I’m feeding Joey.” She was about as pissed off as she’d been in a while. When Mark handed her a plate full, overmounted amount of fried rice, she wanted to smack him upside the head with it. Instead, she thanked him and put it by her pizza. She picked up the fork that she’d been eating her pizza with and tried to figure out how not to spill it all over her. Rice was tricky like that. “You might like using a spoon better. You can get more rice on it than a fork. I just noticed something. Are you actually eating your pizza with a knife and a fork?”

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