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"Let's go then."
I do my level best to make it clear that I disapprove.
"Got us a ride!" Alice practically cackles with glee as she hails Marcia.
Marcia slugs the last shot of whiskey left on the table as she gets up. I see her shaking her head and tsking at whatever Terra says to her as she watches her grandmother head toward me and Alice.
A tinge of guilt stiffens my shoulders, after all, I'm the law here. It's my sworn duty to prevent the kind of goings-on that I'm about to be a party to.
I keep telling myself it's all fun and games, really. These four women have a lifetime of history together, their hi-jinks go back over sixty years now. I'm making sure no one gets hurt, that their feuding doesn't get out of hand.
The guilt passes quickly enough as I load the two women into the SUV and listen carefully to the plan that they begin to spell out as soon as we're on the road.
Truth of the matter is, this is fun as hell.
2
TERRA
Something's weird tonight.Everybody's here.
It's not weird that my entire family is at the homestead; my grandparents' property is the heart of our family. Or, I guess Abu and Papa are the heart of our family.
My parents or one of my brothers always seems to be around, but it's weird to see everyone's truck in the driveway in the middle of the week like this.
I pull up the back drive, the long stretch of two-track that leads directly to the back of the barn and the guest house next to it.
When I started my daycare, I moved in with my grandparents so I could be closer to the business. I didn't mind living in the house but Abu insisted that a young woman should have more privacy so I moved into to the little cottage.
My grandmother never got to live alone. She went straight from her parents’ house to her husband's house and even when Papa was drafted to the war in Vietnam, Abu already had Vale. She thinks it's an important experience to have before I get married and start a family of my own.
Not sure when that's likely to be.
I get that twenty is still young, it's not like I thought I'd be married with two kids by now like Hyacinth McAllister-- but I guess I did sort of think I'd be serious with someone by now. Someone I'd be planning a future with.
As the youngest of five kids, I've always wanted a big family too, but the pickins on the Ridge are slim and none when it comes to men my age and men my age have never been very interesting anyway.
Abu's been dropping a lot of not-so-subtle hints about Hawk. Like maybe he likes me and like maybe she'd be happy if I liked him back but...ugh.
The deputy is nice and all but, for a man with a bad-ass name like "Hawk," he's just-- boring. Too clean cut, too buttoned up. The epitome of a good-guy. The kind of guy that says "yes ma'am/no ma'am,” calls my dad "sir…” drives drunk little old ladies home kind of good guy. Not the kind of guy I'm intoat all,good guy.
Dropping the pile of stuff I carried inside on a chair as I close the door behind me, I hear voices outside. A lot of voices. All male.
I recognize the deep rumbles of the men of the family and I'm sure they're headed out to the barn for some guy time.
Before I have the lights on inside, I look back out the door to watch them. I'm about to call out a greeting to my brothers when my eyes catch on the new guy walking between Vale and my father.
"Daddy."It comes out of me in a throaty whisper, exactly the way I'd like to be saying it to him.
Seriously, the man is hot with a capital"yes please."
As the group of men make their way to the outside staircase leading up to the barn loft-- which is decked out in true man cave style-- I get a decent enough look at the stranger among them from the row of solar lights along the barn.
His hair is cropped short at the back but longer on top. I can't make out the exact color from here but it's lighter than my family's black tresses so I'm going to bet on brown.
A full beard shadows his face, shorter than any of my brothers' but definitely a mountain man-- someone who grew up in a place like Moonshine Ridge. A man with hands that are callused from swinging an ax into seasoned firewood all summer and shoveling snow off the walk during the winter.
A shiver works its way down my spine, all the way to my pussy where I'm feeling suddenly very hot and wet at the thought of what hands like that would feel like on my skin.
