AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You have been grinning all day like a damn fool,” Noah says.
Mom fostered me first. When she realized I had three biological brothers in the system, she raised Cain until they let her foster all of us. A few years later, on the eve of my sixteenth birthday, she and Dad made it official. They adopted us, and we became Maples. Best day of my life up until I met Evie.
“Got a hot date tonight,” I answer. I’ve never dated. Never had a desire to sleep around or find a woman and build a family. Because I felt that way, I thought something was wrong. Maybe the abuse from our biological parents messed me up so badly that I couldn’t handle a relationship. Then I saw Evie, and it clicked into place. I wasn’t broken. I was waiting for her.
“Are you taking Evie to the fair?” He asks.
I nod. She took the boys back to the apartment after we had breakfast together. They’ve only been gone a few hours, and I already miss the three of them. “What’s your read on the boys?”
He and Barrett spent the morning entertaining the kids. Noah is quiet, the kind of guy that only speaks when he’s got something to say. He’s good at reading people. When we got put into the system, he crawled into books. He rarely talks about our lives before the Maple Farm. None of us do. “Seem like decent kids. Chase will be a handful until he learns to trust you.”
I’ve already accepted that he’s got trust issues. I know what that’s like. I came to the Maple Farm as a twelve-year-old kid angry at the world. Dad loved me through everything and taught me how to channel that anger into something productive. I plan to do the same thing for Chase.
Noah pauses to pull the barbed wire that got stuck in his glove free. “Rumor is you carried her clear across town. Heroic stuff they said.”
“It was down the street,” I chide. “What are you doing listening to the rumor mill?”
He shrugs and mutters something about the quilting ladies being at the bookstore. Everyone knows that Courage County has an extremely active rumor mill thanks to the quilting circle. The only thing those women are patching together are tales about what everyone else is doing.
Of course, he’s spending all of his spare time at the bookstore. He was always at the library as a kid. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s read half the books in there. Fiction, non-fiction. It doesn’t matter, whatever he can get his hands on.
The other two are still at it. Zac hums the same melody again and again, trying to get it just right. Barrett is singing along, insisting they’re collaborating. But the lyrics he’s coming up with are terrible, something about a cowboy with only one eye. Zac is pretending to be annoyed, but he keeps ducking his head to hide a smile.
“She’s pretty,” Noah remarks after silence has lapsed between us for a few minutes.
I growl at him. I’ve never felt possessive over someone the way I feel with Evie. Just the thought of another man—even my brother—showing interest in her has me wanting to rip all of these fence posts out of the ground. Don’t care if that makes me a caveman. “She’s mine.”
His mouth twitches but to his credit, he doesn’t smile. “Message received. Let’s call it a day.”
Normally, I’d push to keep going since we still have plenty of daylight. But I’m eager to get to my girl. I can’t wait to show her what I have planned for tonight.
Chapter10
Evie
“And then I lassoed a horse, like a real cowboy!” Parker exclaims. “Chase saw me. Tell her, Chase. Tell her I’m a real cowboy.”
Chase looks up from his phone. He’s been doing that a little more since he met Greer. Looking up from his phone, taking the world around him in. I didn’t realize how much he was hiding behind a device until today. “They were hay bales.”
“It still sounds pretty cool to me.” I add a coat of gloss to my lips, using the bathroom mirror. Lizzy stopped by the apartment earlier today to drop off a few dresses and some makeup for me.
I had just enough time when we got home to help the boys through their weekend homework before getting the three of us ready for the fair tonight.
Chase shrugs. “I guess.”
“I’m the best cowboy,” Parker says just as someone knocks on the front door. He races toward the entrance, shouting over his shoulder, “I got it!”
I glance at Chase now that we’re alone. My voice is pitched softly when I ask, “What do you think of Greer?”
Some emotion I can’t define flickers across his face. He’d never ask for my reassurance. Never tell me if he was scared or hurt. He’s too busy trying to be a rock for Parker to consider his own emotions.
“You know I’d never choose him over you, right? You and Parker are my guys.” When I was with Spencer, it wasn’t about him. It was about giving the boys stability. Something I thought I was doing well until he drove drunk.
Relief crosses Chase’s face even as he rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I know.”
I give him a big grin. “Let’s go have fun tonight.”
* * *
