“Doubt you’ll be able to do it quietly. You’re rather vocal. Old Al likes that.”
“Glad I was providing you with some entertainment.”
“Best thing that’s happened to Old Al in a long time. Makes me feel young and frisky again. I’ve even got a hard-on. Seems a shame to waste it. You sure you don’t want to come on over here?”
“No! I don’t want to go over there. I don’t want to see your hard-on. I want to forget any of this happened.”
“All right, girlie. No need to yell. Old Al ain’t deaf, you know.”
With a groan of frustration and horror, she put her pillow over her face. Surely, things could only get better from here, right?
Butch stared down at his phone with a frown. That call had ended rather abruptly.
“Yo, Butch, you coming for breakfast?” Tanner called out.
He glanced up from where he was sitting in the main living area of the bunkhouse. They were all going over for brunch at the main house. He was starving. And they were late, which was going to make Alec mad.
It hadn’t felt right putting Lara in a taxi last night. He’d felt like he should be the one to take her home, to see her safely inside and tuck her into bed.
With him.
Easy, man.
“I think Butch is in love,” Raid sang.
“Ooh, you could be right, Raid. He has that look about him.”
“What are you idiots talking about? What look?” He stood and put his phone in his back pocket before following dummy one and two out the door.
He hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep last night; he’d been unable to stop thinking about Lara, worrying that she’d gotten back to her motel safe, about what he’d agreed to last night. It was only a few hours. And it would help Lara out.
Why he cared so much, he didn’t know. But he’d been furious at the way her sister and friend had talked about her. So what if Lara had more curves than they did? To his thinking, she was far more beautiful.
Inside and out.
And that is despite wearing the ugliest dress he’d ever seen.
“That look like you’re confused as fuck and have no idea why. Like you’re upset yet smiling at the same time,” Tanner told him. “You’re in love.”
“And who would I be in love with?”
“I don’t know. Maybe with the girl wearing that hideous dress last night?” Raid suggested. “The one Ronny said you flirted with half the night.”
“I wasn’t flirting with her half the night.”
“Ronny said she disappeared out the back, then you followed and were gone a long time. Did you disappear into a storeroom or something?” Tanner wiggled his eyebrows.
“No, I didn’t,” he snarled, annoyed at the implication. “I wouldn’t disrespect Lara like that.”
Both men stared at him in shock.
“Bro, we were just joking around,” Raid said. “Didn’t realize you were serious about this girl.”
“Uh, didn’t you just meet her?” Tanner asked.
“Yes, I just met her last night. I’m not serious about her. She . . . she needed help and I’m going to give that to her.”
“What sort of help?” Tanner asked.
Raid groaned. “You didn’t get sucked into some sob story, did you?”
“No, of course not.”
“Really?” Tanner asked. “Because it wouldn’t be the first time that you were conned into helping a woman who’d claimed to be in distress.”
Butch sighed. “Lara isn’t like that. She’s . . . she’s very open and sweet. I said no to begin with, but then I changed my mind. I overheard her sister being a complete bitch about her.”
“Yes to what?” Tanner asked.
He really didn’t want to tell them this part.
“Going to a wedding.”
“A wedding?” Raid came over and stuck his hand across Butch’s forehead. By now they were at the back door of the main house.
Butch slapped his hand away. “What are you doing?”
“Checking to make sure you’re not running a temperature.”
“Is he? He has to be,” Tanner said. “Why would you voluntarily go to a wedding?”
Raid shuddered. “Those things are contagious.”
“What is?” he asked.
“Weddings,” Tanner said. “Just wait . . . you go to one and then boom! You’re married.”
“The two of you are ridiculous. I’m doing a favor for a friend. That’s it.”
“A friend you only just met,” Tanner said slowly.
“Yes. So? Is there a time limit on friendship? Do I have to know someone a certain amount of time before I do them a favor?”
“Well, no,” Raid said. “But I imagine it usually takes longer than an hour to make a friend.”
“Maybe for the two of you. But I’m likable.”
“More like a sucker,” Tanner said.
“That’s it!” Butch threw himself at his youngest brother, who ran off with a laugh.
It was long past time he whipped their asses.
5
Lara stared at herself in the mirror.
There was no way.
Not. Happening.
“This can’t possibly be the dress,” she whispered in horror.
“Oh, dear, it seems we’ll have to make some alterations.” The older woman standing in front of her sighed. “You must have lost weight since your sister gave us your measurements.”