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“That’s the only good thing about that.”

“Give yourself time. What about Truitt?”

My brother’s words hit me like a cast iron pot to the head. I looked at him with what I was sure was a stunned expression.

Then I forced a laugh. “Truitt? The man has a reputation for being a player. Not to mention, he seems to get hurt an awful lot. Bad luck seems to follow him around.”

Ryan laughed. “True, he has been known to visit the ER often. We actually have a running bet among our group of friends on how many times Truitt will have to go to the ER before he turns thirty.”

I laughed. “And the rumor about his player ways?” I asked the question more for myself than anything. A part of me needed to know if Truitt really was the womanizer he was portrayed to be.

“Truitt, a player? Nah, that’s his brother Roger. Don’t get me wrong, the women line up for his attention, but Truitt really is a good guy. Hasn’t seemed to find anyone he’s interested in settling down with, though.”

That piqued my attention. “Really? He hasn’t been in any kind of serious relationship?”

Ryan looked at me, a smirk on his face. “No. None.”

My stomach did a little flip. Why did that make me feel so happy? So…relieved?

I returned his grin with a smile of my own. I could tell myself I wasn’t interested in dating until I was blue in the face. Truth be told, the entire drive from Dallas to Boerne, one thing had weighed on my mind.

Was Truitt Carter still single.

Truitt

I ROLLED THE window down and spit out my gum, only to have it blow right back and land somewhere in my hair.

“Motherfucker!” I shouted. Jack, one of the guys who’d been working for me since I started Imaginations Unlimited, started laughing. We’d gone to high school together, so he was familiar with my…incidents.

“Dude, stop trying to figure out where the gum is, it’s going to get stuck in your hair and you’ll have to buzz cut it…again. It’s just now grown back out.”

I rolled my eyes. What in the hell did I do in my life to be so damn accident prone?

“When we get there, just get it out of my hair,” I bit out.

As much as he tried not to, he laughed.

Before he could remind me of the last time this happened, I started off in a new direction. “We’ve got a new build. Ryan’s folks, Mr. and Mrs. Night?”

“Ryan Night’s folks, huh. They want a playhouse?” he asked with a chuckle. “Is it for Ryan since he’s so pussy whipped with that girlfriend of his?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know anything about that, but no, it’s for their granddaughter.”

Jack snapped his head to me. “Ryan’s sister is back home?”

“Yes.” I decided not to mention that I’d stopped and changed her flat tire. The moment I got out of the truck, all those old familiar feelings for her rushed back, nearly knocking me to the ground.

Over the years I’d gotten the scoop from Ryan about how unhappy Saryn had been in her marriage to that dickhead of a husband. Why she’d ever dated him was beyond me. I tried not to think of that day on her front porch. The day that changed everything, or at least felt like it had.

Whatever had happened between us, I could never figure out how Ryan Night had let his little sister get mixed up with a douche like Tim.

“I heard she finally left that jerk,” Jack said. “What she saw in him was beyond me.”

I let out a scoff. “I’m pretty sure it was beyond all of us.”

Once I pulled into the driveway of one of the houses that we were delivering a playhouse to, all talk of Saryn came to a stop. And thank God. I didn’t like the way my body still reacted to her. I thought it had just been seeing her, but talking about her nearly had my cock coming to attention.

My mind couldn’t help but go back to the way she’d been slowly checking out my body.

“Truitt! Thank goodness you’re here. They’re doing it all wrong!” Pattie Lovesong stated as she rushed up to me.

“Ma’am?” I asked, tipping my cowboy hat to her.

“The swings were supposed to be on the right side of the playhouse and they’re putting them on the left. I want them on the right.”

Mr. Lovesong walked up, then, a look of utter defeat on his face. Their six kids, ages two to ten, were nowhere to be seen.

“The kids?” I asked as he walked up and wearily reached his hand out for mine.

“My sister has them so we can get it all set up and surprise them.”

I nodded. Then I focused back on Mrs. Lovesong, who was still bitching, though she had turned her focus onto Jack now. He looked at me with utter panic. Jack was my master carpenter. His hands were magical. The things he could do to wood even made me envious. Dealing with customers, though? That was something he never did. His eyes pleaded with me to help him. A part of me wanted to leave him to deal with this, but I stepped between them and held up my hand to Mrs. Lovesong.


Tags: Kelly Elliott Southern Bride Romance