“I guess we’re all adults now,” Sawyer said.
“Not me,” Hunter said. “You guys go quietly into this good night. I will not be.”
“It’s not like we chose it,” Sawyer said. “And you have higher odds of getting a woman pregnant on accident than either Wolf or I had.”
“Nope. You’re clearly a lot sloppier than I am.”
“I wasn’t sloppy,” Sawyer said. “Condoms have a failure rate.”
“Iwas sloppy,” Wolf said, gritting his teeth.
“Were you now?” Hunter asked. “But you’re not particularly affected by this woman.”
“She’s hot,” Wolf said. “I was out of town. I was blowing off steam. Blew off a little too much.”
“You play, you pay.” Hunter grinned. “So my father used to tell me.”
“Since when did you listen to him?”
“Never,” Hunter said. “But I do like to spite him.”
The three of them kicked their boots out, leaned back and finished their beers. And then Wolf got in his truck and started down the road back toward Garrett’s Watch, and his place.
It was impossible not to think about the grim connection he had to the land. Hell, the grim connection they all had to each other. Life had been harder than it was good for the McClouds and the Garretts. That much was true. And they hadn’t always been better people for it.
He pulled up to the house and saw that there were lights strung along the edge of his porch.
Be nice.
Sawyer’s words from the other day echoed inside him. Maybe it wouldn’t kill him to be a little bit...
He knew how to be charming. He didn’t know why it was difficult with her now. He had managed at first.
But she was in his house, and it was just different. He wasn’t trying to get her into bed. He’d already done that.
Well, that’s sad damn commentary.
He didn’t know how to charm somebody if he didn’t want something from them.
He got out of the truck and slammed the door shut, walking heavily up the front steps. And when he walked through the front door, Violet was standing there by the Christmas tree.
He froze.
Because there was something different about her.
Her hair was all tumbled around her shoulders, something tousled and suggestive about it. She had some smoky, glittering eye makeup on that enhanced how large her eyes were. Made it impossible to look away.
Her lips were red.
She was wearing a figure-hugging dress that matched the lipstick. A dress.
“Well. Hi,” he said.
She crossed the space, wrapped her arms around his neck and pushed his cowboy hat off his head as she stretched up on her toes and kissed him.
And he was...
Hell.