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Chase scowls at him in return. He scowls at everyone these days. “Hey.”
“Why don’t you go put on the water for the noodles?” I ask Chase. “I’ll be inside in just a minute.”
After giving Greer one last lingering look, Chase stomps inside to do what I ask.
I offer Greer a tight smile, knowing this is the moment when he walks away. “We’re a package deal.”
“I told you already. Complicated doesn’t scare me.” Without waiting for my reply, he steps around me and knocks on the front door.
Chase opens the door with Parker right beside him. They’re both staring up at him and he quickly kneels so he’s at eye level with the boys. “Here’s the deal, fellas. I like your sister.”
“Eww, gross,” Parker says.
“Why?” Chase demands.
Greer chuckles at their responses. “Hear me out. She says y’all are a package deal which sounds pretty good to me. Now she won't go out with me unless you guys are in on it. So, what do you say to pizza and the arcade? Would you do a guy a favor and come along on the date?”
The boys let out matching whoops of excitement, and I realize it’s been a long time since they’ve gotten to do anything fun. Anything that lets them enjoy their childhood.
Greer is grinning at them. “Get your shoes. Be ready in five.”
As soon as they’re out of earshot, racing down the hallway to find their stuff, I cross my arms over my chest. I do my best to scowl at him, even though it’s hard. Because that was about the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to my brothers. They’ve always been underfoot in other people’s eyes. “I can’t believe you just did that.”
Greer strides into the kitchen. He cuts off the stove where Chase had already put a pot of water on to boil. He turns to me then and smirks. “You said you were a package deal. Well, I’m a man who’s used to handling big packages.”
* * *
Greer
I’ve learned a lot about my girl today. I’ve learned she has asthma, a stubborn streak a mile wide, and two little brothers that she’s been raising on her own. That last fact just about guts me. She needs people around her. Community.
We have that here in Courage County, but I don’t think she’s let anyone besides Martha in. Even then, I doubt Martha knows a lot about what’s really happened. Evie likes to play her cards close to her chest, which is fine when it comes to everyone else. Not me though. I want to know everything about her and the life she’s led.
Parker’s eyes go wide as soon as I open the door to my truck so he can climb inside. He spots my Stetson on the back seat and picks it up. “Cool hat. Can I wear it? I could be a cowboy. I bet I’d be the best cowboy. Do you have horses? I’d be good at riding them too.”
“Don’t be a dummy. Anyone can wear a cowboy hat,” Chase chides his younger brother.
“Don’t call your brother dummy,” Evie says gently.
“You already made me stop calling him shithead,” Chase points out, clearly grumpy that another insult is being taken from his vocabulary.
“I am a real cowboy. I own a farm with my family,” I tell the boys to distract everyone.
“Told you.” Parker sticks out his tongue at his older brother before turning his attention back to me. “Can I ride a horse?”
I reach back to make sure Parker is secure in the seatbelt, and he flinches. The kid fuckin’ flinches, and my stomach swoops. Someone taught this kid to be afraid.
Chase bats my hand away and juts his chin at me, the picture of defiance just like his older sister. Fuck, just how hard were their lives that they’ve had to be so tough? “I got it.”
He quickly adjusts the seatbelt so it’s not resting on Parker’s neck and when he thinks I’m not looking, he ruffles his hair affectionately. Poor kid has learned that anger can be a hell of a shield. A lesson I learned at his age.
I want to track down whoever made these boys and their sister afraid. I want to feel their ribs cracking beneath my knuckles. But I force a smile on my face to put the kids at ease. “Alright, now who’s ready for the arcade?”
Chapter7
Evie
“You lose. Again.” Chase smirks. The four of us are playing air hockey here in the arcade in Sweetgrass River. We’ve been playing teams, Chase and Parker against me and Greer.
