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Since we got here I’ve barely seen Mike. His father kept asking him to come over and talk to people and I was left to my own devices. When I last saw Mike he was going into another room with his father.
It wouldn’t take too much for me to just leave at this point. I’d probably be home and sleeping before Mike ever realized I was gone.
“You look as thrilled to be here as I do when my Jan comes home from slopping the hogs and tracks pig shit on my clean floors.”
My eyes go wide, and I jerk with surprise as I turn to see a woman staring at me. She’s definitely pretty. She has lush brown hair, with strands of silver shining through. It’s pulled back in a clasp at her nape. She has on a pair of black, silk-looking pants and a bright, colorful shirt that is blocked with every color under the rainbow.
I giggle because everyone at this party has their nose so far up in the air there’s no way I expected someone to approach me talking about pig shit, of all things.
“It’s not really my scene,” I explain, unnecessarily. This woman has nice clothes on—if not a bit colorful, but they’re nowhere near what those around us are wearing. And if she looks out of place, then I sure do in my faded-no-name-jeans, flannel shirt and hair pulled back in a ponytail. I offered to go back to my place and change, but Mike didn’t want me to. I was kind of impressed by that, but the longer I’m here, the more I think that he didn’t want me to change because he only brought me here to irritate his father.
From the glares his dad keeps giving me, I’m pretty sure if that was the plan, it’s definitely working.
“Mine either. Jan tried to talk me out of coming, but I’m stubborn and Parker is like one of my sons, even if he doesn’t have a good name. You can tell a lot by the name a man has, dear. Don’t forget that. You’re young. Some day when you have a child, make sure you give them a good name. It’s important,” she explains.
“Never really thought about it. I doubt it matters, though. I don’t ever plan on having kids.”
“Now that would be a dang shame. A girl that looks like you? You should pass on them fine genes.”
I smile. “Thanks, but I wouldn’t know what to do with a kid. My mom wasn’t exactly the best teacher,” I explain.
“But surely your aunt is. Michael tells me you moved here from California to live with your aunt after your mother passed away.”
My body goes solid, almost freezing in place when Mr. Huntington comes over and stand beside me. This was exactly what I didn’t want to have happen. I try not to show it, but I am more than a little panicked.
“My aunt has a busy life, Mr. Huntington, but we’re both adapting,” I tell him, proud of myself for not completely lying.
“That’s what most do in this life,” he says, his voice sounding bored but his face somewhat calculating. “Adapt, I mean,” he adds, before turning his attention to the woman standing beside me. “Ida Sue, Parker didn’t tell me you would be here tonight.”
“I thought Parker might need me,” she says with a smile, but it doesn’t feel like she means the smile. I’m just a casual observer, but there’s some animosity going on between these two.
“You’re the last thing my son needs. Shouldn’t you be out mucking stalls for your cow or something?” Michael’s dad says. He’s being snide and there’s a definite bite to his words. The woman, however, she doesn’t even blink.
“Parker seems to disagree with you. He invited me. Don’t you worry about Hamburger, he lives in a home that has less bullshit in it than yours,” she says so sweetly that you barely realize what she’s just said.
“Dad, I think Mayor Glass is looking for you.”
I look over my shoulder to see this tall, crazy-hot guy standing between me and the woman Mike’s dad called Ida Sue. His hands are on the small of my back. There’s nothing overt about it, it’s casual. He’s doing the same thing to Ida Sue, but his touch is warm and looking at the guy makes my breath kind of catches in my chest.
He’s got dark black hair, the color of midnight. I swear it’s so dark that you can almost see streaks of blue in it. He’s ridiculously ripped in a way that you can tell—even with the suit he’s wearing now—just how built he is. He doesn’t have the top buttons done. They’ve been loosened until you can see a nice expanse of golden, sun-kissed skin.
He called Mr. Huntington, dad, so he’s obviously Mike’s brother Parker. I’d heard some of the girls talk about Parker and Mike together. They all agreed that Parker was hot as fuck and would love to give him a go along with Mike. I can admit to thinking that was kind of gross, but I just kind of laughed to myself and shook my head. I think I wrote it off to just mean girl-bitches talking. There aren’t a lot of girls at BMA that I like.
