chapterthree
Quinn
My brother, Harrison, and I are busy mending fences around the fence on the back pasture.
Harrison throws down the pliers in a huff. “Are you gonna tell me about the bug that crawled up your ass and died?”
I just stare at him. “What is that even supposed to mean?”
“For starters,”—he props his elbow on the nearest fence post and nudges back his hat with the back of his other hand—“You’ve been attacking this fence repair like it’s the one thing you were put on this planet to do.”
I scowl at him. “You and Birdie are leaving in the morning. If we’re going to get this done before you leave, then now’s the time.”
“Well, sure. But this has been on the to-do list for a six months.”
I ignore him, pull my own pliers out of my back pocket and get to work doing the job he stopped doing to chat.
“My point is, this job could have waited. But you’re blowing through work like you’re worried demons will cart you off if you stand still too long. And you’re in an even worse mood than usual. Didn’t you go out last night?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Get laid?”
“Not your business.”
“That means no.”
Of course it means no. I haven’t touched a woman in ages. Years. But I’m sure not going to tell one of my younger brothers that. Especially not one recently in love and having all the sex. Meanwhile, it’s a miracle my poor dick hasn’t rusted and fallen off.
I bracket my arms on the fence post. “Last night Eileen Perry ended up at my table and she was laying down some pretty thick hints.”
Eileen Perry was a few years before me in high school. Head cheerleader, hot as hell. Every teenage guy’s wet dream. Now, she’s divorced and everyone in town knows she’s looking for husband number two. Or, hell, maybe it’s number three. I haven’t been keeping track. Ever since the news broke in theSaddle Peekabout all of us Crawfords needing to get hitched, she’s been around every time I turn the corner.
“You just weren’t picking them up.” He visibly shudders. “Don’t blame you. I wouldn’t be surprised if her vagina had teeth.”
“Christ, Harrison, I do not need that image in my mind. She’s not that bad.”
“If you say so.”
“Well, I need a wife.” I ignore the way my heart whispers a certain name as if chanting it again and again will make me act on something I know is wrong.
It’s his turn to stare at me.
“What?”
“I know you see it. Everyone sees it. Just marry Amber,” he says.
He just tosses that out as if he didn’t just suggest I marry a goddamn teenager. “She’s nineteen. I’m thirty-one.” I shake my head. “Just because I’m attracted to her doesn’t mean I should be.”
“It’s not illegal.”
“Well, maybe it should be.”
Harrison pulls a glove off and scratches at the back of his neck. “So your solution is to possibly hook up with Eileen Perry? Do you like her? Are you even attracted to her?”
My stomach knots. “It doesn’t matter. The point is that according to our selfish grandfather’s trust, we all have to be married. And we need to do it before he dies, which could be any day. Eileen makes more sense. She’s closer to my age. She’s an adult.”
“She has a teenage son I’ve heard is a menace. Roe said that Callie’s brother is dealing with him and his buddies at least once a week in the Sheriff’s office.” Harrison explains, mentioning one of our other brother’s wife whose, whose brother is the local sheriff.