Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
“Who’s with the kids?” Brooke asked and winced. “I’m so sorry, Rach. I promised I would watch them tonight and I completely forgot. I got this job offer.”
“Yeah, I heard about that,” Rye countered. “What’s Cleo paying you? I would bet it’s next to nothing. Does she know you design for a living? You’re not supposed to be working in some rundown theater.”
Oh, this was going to turn into a Harper family smackdown.
All of Brooke’s relaxed air was gone, and she was stiff again. “It’s not rundown.”
“Rye, I thought we were going to back off,” Max began, looking uncertain for once.
“I have backed off for two weeks, and she’s still with them. I don’t want anyone taking advantage of my sister,” Rye shot back. “She’s naïve and not used to saying no. Like she should to these two. And you did flake out on us tonight, Brooke. Henry and Nell came over so Poppy could play with the kids and we could go out to our very non-sexy anniversary dinner.”
“Whose fault is that?” Rachel asked, indignation clear in her tone. “Not Brooke’s. She’s not the reason we’re not having sex.”
“No, obviously that’s Max’s fault because he was afraid to get his balls snipped,” Rye argued. “But it was Brooke’s fault for throwing a hissy fit when she found out we were trying to take care of her.”
“By siccing a private investigator on her.” Shane couldn’t stay quiet, especially when he’d seen Brooke turn in on herself. “She’s not naïve. She’s sweet natured, but she’s worked in a cutthroat business for a whole lot of years.”
“And look where it got her,” Rye pronounced.
Rachel sighed. “I told you this is not the way to handle it. Brooke, I knew about the PI. They were so worried about you. When you came home at Christmas there was obviously something off, but you wouldn’t talk about it. It was wrong, but in their heads you’re still six and you need them to protect you from the world. You’re an innocent virgin and they have to make sure you someday marry well.”
“I told you it’s like Bridgerton,” Shane whispered to his brother who’d come over to stand beside him while they watched the throwdown.
“What’s like Bridgerton?” Elisa Leal joined them. It was obvious she’d walked down from the station. She had a tablet in her hand and was dressed for her job. Which was deputy of Bliss. She was Nate Wright’s second in command since Cameron Briggs had left to work with his partners. She took in the Harper family fight as though it was no big deal. She was used to Bliss drama.
“Max and Rye are pissed that Brooke is choosing to spend time with men they don’t approve of,” Bay supplied. “Us. I’m pretty sure he’s going to tell us if we want to marry her we have to come up with… What’s it called? Like a downy?”
His brother was the smart one? The genius? “Downy is a fabric softener. You’re talking about a dowry, and we wouldn’t pay it. They would.”
“Wait? What? We would get to marry her and they would have to pay us?” Bay asked. “And this was bad for us how?”
Shane bit back a groan. This was not going to end well.
* * * *
“Rye, you know I’m not a virgin, right?” Brooke was saying.
Bay was confused, but he was used to that. Sometimes he didn’t pick up on social cues the way he should. He was almost sure her brothers should know the answer to that since they’d caught him with his pants down that first morning. Not literally. He’d had pants on, but there was zero way he hadn’t spent the night in Brooke’s bed. Since there wasn’t any other place to sleep.
Was his brother pissed at him?
He shouldn’t have made that crack about what happened at Kingman Ranch, but he also didn’t want Shane’s anxiety to get Brooke all riled up. No one was after them. All the talk about the weird things that happened on the ranch was just that. Talk. Ranch hands liked to mythologize everything.
“I do not need to know anything like that.” Rye sounded awfully prim.
“Oh, but you did need to know everything a private investigator could find out,” Brooke accused.
“He was worried about you, sweetie.” Rachel seemed determined to keep the peace.
Max chose to turn on the deputy. “Why the hell would you put out that there was a slasher after my sister? I ran all the way here thinking I would have to fight Jason or that Halloween guy.”
Elisa’s lips curled up. “Because sometimes chaos is fun, and I know Hal is listening even when the sheriff asked him to stop. I didn’t exactly put it like that when I called Nate to let him know what’s going on, but I did know where Hal would take it. So here we are. Now I’d like to figure out what happened and why that light is out.”