If something like this had happened to Jasmine? She’d be pitching a hysterical fit, threatening to sue someone, and demanding her family, especially her poor brothers, drop everything to help her. And she’d be screaming orders at him and his brother, as if they were her servants. Imperious was the nicest word that came to mind.
Presley Ann seemed to be approaching the situation as an adventure. Everyone paused in their labors to return her hug as she went to each one of them and thanked them. A little part of him, the Neanderthal part, felt a little territorial when Troy laughed and lifted her off her feet and spun her around.
Dark clouds threatened as they kept working. Presley Ann’s furniture and belongings arrived with Chance, Clayton, Chris, and Julian, and they started sorting what furniture would stay and what pieces would go into storage.
After Justine went in the house to watch over Whit, Charity nudged Jared and said, “There wasn’t a stitch of Christmas decorating at Presley Ann’s place, unless they moved it before I got there.”
Jared nodded. “She said she didn’t have room.”
“I’ll bet we could shoehorn a Christmas tree in there if we wanted to.”
“What did you have in mind?” he asked. Two minutes later, Kendry and Charity were on the way to town.
An hour later, they arrived with a huge supper for everyone in hand, which they ate in the main house while everyone passed Whit around, marveling at how he’d grown. Presley Ann was so busy visiting, she didn’t seem to notice when Lydia and Charity disappeared. Jared couldn’t wait to see her reaction to what Charity and Lydia were up to.
As night fell, Leah arrived with her men, bearing beer and wine, and they toasted Presley Ann’s new home and success with her business, which was now set up in a corner of the living room of the one bedroom cottage. The tiny study had been set up as a little nursery for Whit.
Once again, Jared was a little surprised by how easily this group had accepted him and his brother as one of their own. It didn’t surprise him that they claimed Presley Ann, even though she’d said that if they knew her in the past they would know what a shocker that was. He still couldn’t buy it.
Chapter Twelve
Thunder rumbled outside and Presley Ann was surprised when Charity and Lydia hurried in with wet plastic bags over their heads.
“It’s really coming down out there,” she heard Lydia say before she glanced over at Presley Ann, grinned and jerked the plastic sack behind her back and nudged Charity, who did the same.
What have they been up to?
Lydia grinned at her and then went to her men and whispered something and then looked at her watch and said, “Oh, boy. Look at the time. We’d better get out of Presley Ann’s hair so she can get settled in next door.” She looked over at her and had the audacity to wink.
The party soon broke up as their friends prepared to head home and Presley Ann rushed around one last time with Whit in her arms, thanking each of them and hugging them. She was especially grateful to Justine for keeping an eye on Whit for her while they’d worked.
When the four of them were alone, she turned to Jared and Kendry. A fantasy involving removing their dark gray fire department issue sweats had been circling in her mind for hours, as she’d watched them work, their muscles flexing and bulging beneath the fleece.
“Time to get you settled at home, sexy neighbor,”
Kendry gave her a crooked grin, as if he could read her lascivious thoughts, but before he could speak, his phone began ringing. He glanced at the screen and his expression fell. He held the phone to his ear and said, “Hello. Yes, sir. I’ll be right there.” He ended the call with a sigh and turned to them. “A lightning strike started a fire in town. Since I’m technically still on duty, after the fire is put out, I should return to the station to finish my shift. But I wish I could be here for your first night in your new home.”
“Me, too, but duty calls. Please be careful.” Disappointment was quickly replaced by the certainty that if she were the one having the emergency she’d want someone as reliable as Kendry, or Jared if it was him on duty, to show up.
He pulled her to him and tilted her chin up to kiss her, setting every nerve ending to tingling with the warm brush of his lips, before he took it a little deeper and caressed her tongue with his. His nearness filled her head with his scent and the heat of him, before he withdrew with a playful twinkle in his eyes and then kissed Whit on the top of his head.
He stopped at the front door and shared a few quiet words with his brother, nodded at him and winked at her, and then ran out the front door. A few seconds later she heard the truck start.