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Thank you for reading Bleeding Heart!I hope you loved Jake and Paisley as much as I loved writing them. Click here for a peek inside their future!
Turn the page for an excerpt from Kingsbrier Legacy’sLove Thy Neighbor, featuring Mateo (all grown up!) in his own Small Town Fake Boyfriend Romance…
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Love Thy Neighbor
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©2021 Jody Kaye, All Rights Reserved
I set my teeth square, locking my jaw with a diabolical upturn of my cheeks. Opening the glass door to my mother’s veterinary clinic as slowly as possible, the faint brush of the black bristles catching the outside step are only audible to my ears. Making sure the sound of the door closing is as muted, I pinch my fat hand in the process.
Not good since I make a living with my hands. I stifle the guttural instinct to grunt and shake off the pain.
There’s a woman waiting in the reception area with her back to me. Her dark hair curls down her back, ending above the waist of her blue jeans. To the untrained eye, she’s one of two people. And given where we are, if anyone ventured to guess they’d probably mistake my cousin for the poised and sophisticated Daveigh Sanchez, DVM.
But I know better.
Gracyn is shorter, and she packs a whole lotta attitude into those fewer inches than my mother has.
I haven’t seen my cousin in weeks and happened to spy her as I reached for the handle. Along with Corey, our other cousin, we are the eldest among the generation of grandkids here at Kingsbrier. I came along first. Gracyn’s a year younger than Corey, but that didn’t stop her from becoming our ringleader.
Our parents are siblings. Quintuplets, if you can imagine that. I suppose my grandparents were so used to having five kids terrorizing the ranch the trouble the three of us got into wasn’t intimidating in the least.
Now, we’re all fucking grown up. But hell, if it’s any fun to act it.
I stalk low, keeping my shadow from sight. The squeak of my worn work boot gives me away at the last second.
Gracyn turns her head.
I lunge, grabbing her at the middle, and pinning her hands at her sides. I’ve wrestled with this girl enough times to know not to leave myself vulnerable. She kicks her feet forward and I stumble back with adequate time to stop the soles of her feet from hitting the reception desk. She’d use the leverage to land me on my ass.
My cousin fights dirty. Mainly, because I taught her to. Guys were all over Gracyn in high school, and Corey and I weren’t going to be around to defend her forever. I’m sure in a match of wits, Gracyn would prevail. But guys are assholes and high school boys after a pretty girl are even bigger shitheads.
Gracyn may not have inherited the refined elegance my grandmother passed onto my mother, but they are dead ringers. I don’t think I could have lived with my conscience if anyone hurt Gracyn. I look at her and I see my mom. I’d probably see my little sister, too. If I had one. However, my mom got saddled with three boys. So, lucky Gracyn got the focus of my brotherly love.
“You suck, Mateo!” she shrieks.
She proceeds to call me every name under the sun, a few of which she translates into Spanish; a skill I taught her. It was important to my dad that I was bilingual. Not sure he saw it as something that would come back to bite him. The volume of her scolding lowers a notch as she runs out of cuss words. Both of us know we’re not too grown up that my mom won’t chew us up and spit us out for misbehaving in a place of business.
“Put me down,” Gracyn seethes.
The waiting room is empty other than a stack of cat crates. Each has one or two feisty felines inside, meowing their displeasure at being cooped up and that my cousin and I get to have all the fun.
“Nope.” I drag her toward the door. “I told you I’d get you in my chair somehow—”
“No needles!” She panics, squirming against my tight grip.
I’ve got a decent impression of a serial killer’s maniacal laugh going on until my shoulder hits the door. Then I drop my cousin like a sack of potatoes.
She lands in a lump on the commercial carpeting. “Ow! My butt.” She rubs her tailbone.
I kick my leg over her head and offer Gracyn a hand up.
“Are you this rough with your clients, or have you gotten so used to spending your time with masochists and forget there are normal people who don’t find pleasure in your brand of pain?” Gracyn gives me the stink eye.
