Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
The table erupts with laughter. “Let me call Rush and tell him you said he’s not too shabby,” Ramsey teases.
“He’s already knocked her up.” Jade grins.
“It’s just me too,” Crosby tells me. “I grew up in foster care. I applied for a teaching position here in Willow River, and well, here I am.” She gives me a kind smile.
“It wasn’t quite that easy.” Alyssa jokes.
“No,” Crosby agrees. “But the end result is still the same. I fell in love with the town and the people in it.”
“I was in foster care, too, but I was too little to remember it. I was one of the lucky ones who were adopted.” I take a sip of my drink. “I lost both of my adopted parents, and I was an only child, so were they. What extended family they did have, they weren’t close to.” I shrug as if the thought of being utterly alone in the world doesn't bother me, and most of the time, it doesn’t. However, I’m going to be here for a little over nine more months. It’s best to get the story out with these ladies so we can move forward.
“Are you single?” Ramsey asks, changing the subject, and I offer her a grateful smile.
“Yeah.” I chuckle. “It’s hard to get attached when you travel so often, never putting down roots.”
“You know, we have some single brothers-in-law.” Kennedy grins. “We could hook you up.”
“Not really looking for anything serious,” I tell them.
“A woman has needs.” Piper grins, wagging her eyebrows.
“She has to pick.” This comes from Ramsey.
“What?”
“You have to pick. It’s kind of our thing.”
“Pick what?”
“One of the single Kincaid brothers,” Alyssa chimes in.
“English, please.” I shake my head. I think I know what they’re saying, but I’m going to need that to be spelled out for me.
“We’ve all done it,” Jade explains. “Although the pickings are slim, and before you say Ryder, you need to know that he’s involved… kind of. It’s complicated.”
“So that leaves Archer, Maverick, and Merrick. We’re just going to leave Ryder off the list,” Piper says.
“What about you? You didn’t marry a Kincaid brother.”
Piper shakes her head. “No, but I did have to pick, and Heath was my pick.” She grins.
“So, who’s it going to be?” Palmer asks me. She’s wearing a wide smile.
With a quick glance around the table, I see they’re all smiling and waiting with anticipation. I’m pretty sure they would lose their minds if they knew I’d already chosen and that Archer and I had already hooked up.
Twice.
Speaking of Archer, I should call him. In fact, I’ve wanted to, but I didn’t want to come off too needy, so I’ve been holding off. Once a month is sufficient. I’ve gone months before him. As in over a year, but it’s different when you know a sex god with arm porn for days is just a phone call or text message away from rocking your world or letting you rock his. I'm pretty damn sure it doesn’t matter to either of us who takes control as long as we both get off.
“We’re getting old here,” Kennedy teases.
“You’re really going to make me pick?” I ask them. I’m stalling. We all know it. I can’t quickly say Archer and have them get romantic notions in their head.
“I’m not picking,” I tell them.
“Oh, she wants them all.” Crosby nods her approval.
“Stop.” I insist. “That’s not why I’m not choosing. I’m not sticking around. Willow River is a stop for me, and there is no point in any of you getting your hopes up that I might one day be changing my last name to Kincaid.”
“I guess we can pick for you,” Alyssa muses.
“We could,” Palmer agrees. “But we’d have to make it interesting.”
“Tell me more,” Ramsey says, sipping her club soda.
“A contest, maybe?” Kennedy suggests.
“Yes!” Piper says way too loud, and I’m sure gaining the attention of the other patrons at the Tavern. She points her index finger at Kennedy. “I like how you think.”
“This is going to be good,” Jade adds.
“What’s going to be good?” a deep, masculine voice asks.
I turn to look to see Jade’s husband, Orrin, standing behind her at the table, with his hands on her shoulders.
“Babe, it’s girls' night,” she reminds him.
“And you all know damn good and well that we were going to crash. It’s what we do. We gave you time to yourselves.” He bends and places his lips on the top of her head. “We’re over there.” He points to a table. Collectively we all turn our heads, and sure enough, there is a table full of sexy men who raise their beers and smile at us.
“Did you draw the short straw?” Piper asks him. “They didn’t want us to yell that we didn’t get more time?”
“Nah, we were done with the new deck steps over at the twins’, so we decided to have a drink.”