EIGHTEEN

Stone

I walked into the bar and stopped dead in the doorway, calculating if I could back out without being seen.

“Well, well, well. Look who’s here. Big bro back from his date.” Seated at the bar, Cash elbowed our little brother in the side.

Boone twisted on the barstool next to Cash and grinned. “Hey, bro. You get lucky?”

Jesus Christ. I scanned all the dark corners of the Muddy River Inn to see who was still around at midnight to hear. Not all that many people. Thank God.

Lainey’s nephew Carter was behind the bar, looking like he was waiting for closing time. There was a couple at a back corner table who looked more interested in their argument with each other than in me. And, of course, there were my annoying brothers.

But even one person hearing what they’d said about Harper and me was too many.

What the fuck had I been thinking coming here after leaving Harper’s?

Well, I knew what I’d been thinking. That I was wide awake and too keyed up to go home and to sleep after the time I’d spent in Harper’s bed.

I’d figured I’d have a beer first. Wind down. Wrap my head around this latest development between us.

Things had developed, all right. Twice. The second time quite creatively as my lack of another condom had us doing just about everything else but that.

Christ. I needed to stop thinking about it or I’d be hard again, right here in the bar where I shouldn’t have come.

I should have considered that in a place with one bar and not much else to do on a Saturday night, my brothers might be there.

They must have parked around the side of the building. That’s why I didn’t see either of their trucks.

Fuck. I could go—not even address their dumb comments. Turn around and walk right back out. But that would just leave them here to gossip without me.

Best to stay and try to do damage control.

Resigned, I moved to the bar and took the empty stool next to Boone. “Boys.”

Cash cocked up a brow, I guessed in reaction to me calling him a boy. Too bad. I was the older brother. Time they remembered that and showed me some respect . . . Wishful thinking on my part.

“So tell me, what did you have for dinner?” Cash asked, putting unnecessary emphasis on the last word suggestively.

“Steak,” I answered, not wanting to play this game.

“And what did you have for dessert?” Boone grinned wide.

“Lemon meringue pie.” Ha! Boone probably assumed there was no dessert and thought he was being clever with his sexual innuendo. That’d teach him.

Feeling duly satisfied with my victory, I tossed a handful of bills on the bar and lifted one finger. “Hey, Carter. Draft, please.”

I grabbed the beer Carter set down in front of me just as Cash leaned close to Boone.

“All I know, bro, is that something at Harper’s was so good Stone went back for seconds,” Cash said in a fake whisper loud enough for me to hear.

I coughed on the swallow I’d just taken from the pint glass.

Cash had heard me come home and then leave again not too long after.

I decided to play it cool. “Who says I went back to Harper’s?” I asked.

“Your truck parked in her driveway when I drove by on the way here,” Cash countered.

Fuck. That’s what I got for being a smart ass.

How the hell did he see me parked back behind the house? He would have had to really slow down and strain to try to see my truck back there. The bastard must have been specifically looking.

“She lost Agnes’s chickens and was freaking out. I had to go over and help her find them.”

The truth was probably what I should have led with instead of playing games. It was a valid excuse why I was there so late.

“You find ’em?” Boone asked.

He always had been the one with the softest heart when it came to animals. All kinds. Even chickens.

“Yup.” I nodded.

“Where were they?” Cash asked, looking like he was trying to poke holes in my story.

Too bad he couldn’t. It was the truth.

“Roosting in a tree next to the coop,” I answered.

“Humph,” Cash huffed out.

“She should be closing them in at night,” Boone said, still worried about the damn chickens.

“She knows. She won’t forget again. She was real upset when she thought they were some animal’s dinner.”

Adorably upset even if the tears did unnerve me at first.

What came after wasn’t so bad though. Holding her. Comforting her. Getting naked with her . . .

The image of her mouth wrapped around my cock flashed through my mind.

As much as I would have loved to dwell on that titillating memory for a good long while, I had to consciously push it aside. All thanks to the unwelcome company of my brothers.

As if he’d been reading my mind, Cash asked, “So, what else did you do over there besides eat steak and chase chickens?”

The smart-ass managed to make chasing the chickens sound dirty. The comment had even made the guy who’d just walked in and taken a seat at the end of the bar raise a brow as he glanced over. Great. 

“Yeah, anything interesting?” Boone chimed in, grinning as he followed up on Cash’s question.

“Actually, yeah.” More truth to the rescue. “You guys remember Rose from when we were growing up?”

Cash frowned. “The weird old lady who lived over on Second Street?” he asked.

Boone’s frown matched Cash’s. “I don’t remember any weird old lady named Rose.”

“Yeah, you do. She used to give out crazy shit for Halloween. Like used pencil erasers or like a single crayon,” Cash said.

“Be nice,” I warned. “I’m guessing she did that because she didn’t have much money.”

Boone narrowed his eyes. “Oh yeah. Now I remember. She had like a dozen cats living there.”

“Yup.” Cash nodded. “Jack Parson’s sister Pansy worked at the animal shelter after school. He told me Pansy used to kidnap those cats one at a time and the vet would spay or neuter them, then she’d sneak them back to Rose’s before she noticed. Otherwise that batty old lady would have had hundreds of cats.”

Cash and Boone might be too young to realize it, but I was pretty sure that woman lived from one social security check to the next. 

I’d been stuck behind her in line once at the store. She’d pulled out about a dozen coupons to pay the clerk with, and she only had barely a dozen items to buy. Then she paid in change. Come to think of it, I think the bulk of what she was buying was cat food.

Young me had been fascinated and a little annoyed at the wait behind her at the register when all I wanted to do was pay for my soda with the money I’d earned cutting Agnes’s lawn.

Adult me realized I probably should have been dropping off the day’s extra vegetables from the farm stand to make sure she was feeding herself and not spending all her limited money on cat food.

But Rose clipping all those news articles in Agnes’s attic made more sense now that I thought about it. She probably spent all day going through the local paper looking for those coupons.

“So what about her?” Cash asked.

I’d almost forgotten what I’d been meaning to tell them. “Oh, yeah. So there was all this talk after she died because of the rumors that she used to keep diaries full of dirt on everyone in town, but no one knew where they went to after she passed. Turns out, they’re up in Agnes’s attic.”

“So let me get this straight.” Cash leaned forward to see past Boone and actually turned his whole body on the bar stool just to face me better. “You’re alone with a woman who looks like Harper and you spent the night up in the attic reading some dead old lady’s dusty journals?”

“Yup.” I nodded, wearing my truth as a mantle.

Cash shook his head. “Good thing there’s me and Boone here to carry on the Morgan family name because obviously, big brother, you are not up to the task.”

Boone snickered.

They could laugh all they wanted but I was one happy guy. 

I could still conjure the taste of Harper on my tongue. Could still feel how tight she was as I slid inside her. Still remember all her mind-blowing and creative suggestions to get around the lack of a second condom.

Christ, the whole night felt like a dream. An amazing, erotic, unbelievable wet dream . . . And Boone and Cash would never know any of it, which made it all the more gratifying for me.

Grinning, I downed another cold swallow of beer. Sweet satisfaction had this one tasting much better.