Divine Phoenix(Divine Creek Ranch 10)(98)

“Uh! Excuse me,” Rosemary Garner piped up, standing beside him with her little hand resting on her cocked hip. “That’s not the issue, and you know it. We want—I want to model for her.” Grasping his hand and his brother Wes’s, she looked over at all the others, who were congregated around the packed-up SUVs. “Pardon us for just a minute, y’all.”

She tugged them a short distance away. Evan had his back to the amused crowd as Rosemary spoke to him, but Clay chuckled as Rosemary tilted her head and spoke sweetly, almost beseechingly to Evan in a quiet tone, and it was obvious when the man capitulated because Evan put one hand on her upper arm and the other tilted her chin up as he spoke quietly. Her smile was big and happy, and she threw her arms around him and then spoke excitedly to Wes as she hugged him, too.

“Well, shit,” Ash Peterson, the foreman of the Divine Creek Ranch, muttered. “If anyone was going to resist this little venture, it was Evan. What do you want to do, Juliana?”

Ash’s wife, Juliana, broke out in amused laughter while holding their baby boy and pointed at her chest. “Are you kidding me? After the havoc your son wreaked on my body?” She dissolved into hilarious giggles.

Her husband, the stereotypical cowboy replied, “Hey, now, woman, you’ve still got it goin’ on. You can pose if you want to.” Baby Will laughed along with his mom and clapped his hands as Juliana reached for Ash and hugged him.

“You’re good for a girl’s ego, Ash Peterson.”

Will reached for his dad, and Ash took him more than willingly and blew a raspberry on his chubby little neck. The Petersons were the picture of a happy family.

“I promise no faces will be showing, if that helps,” Lily offered with hopeful eyes.

Lydia Carlisle, newly wed to Chance and Clayton Carlisle, danced a little jig when her men offered up the same concessions as the others.

Eli and Rachel Wolf were staying home from this hog hunt because Rachel was feeling under the weather. With a six-week-old infant in the house, Clay imagined they were exhausted as well. But they were planning on coming to the pig roast the following Saturday night.

Speaking to Lily, Angel Ramirez, horse breeding specialist and former foreman of the Divine Creek Ranch said, “If Teresa would like to it’s all right with us, just nothing too…suggestive.”

Lily nodded happily. “I understand completely, sir.”

“Please, call me Angel, Lily.”

“Okay—Angel.” She nodded at him and his brother Joaquin, who was part of their threesome. Teresa whispered something to Lily, and Lily giggled and nodded.

Duke Rivers and Gage Randall were having a discussion with their fiancée, Emma Guthrie. She shook her head and gestured to her sternum. “I think the scar would be too distracting. I’m okay with modeling an ankle bracelet or something.”

Duke nodded. “Okay, just so you know, the choice is yours, if you want to try.” Emma looked at them both and smiled, love glowing in her eyes.

Ace Webster and Kemp Whittier gazed down at their fiancée, Summer Heston, who was the owner of a one-of-a-kind ladies’ adults only boutique in Morehead. Ace and Kemp had consulted with the lovely shop owner concerning her security issues earlier in the summer and had wound up falling in love with her and proposing.

When they nodded, Summer squealed happily and squeezed their hands to her bosom in excitement. Both men chuckled, and when she realized what she was doing, she dropped their hands and giggled as she hugged them both, one at a time.

The only woman left in the group, besides Grace, who had already given her consent, was Summer’s sister, Margot. Her boyfriend, Jake Redman, stood beside her whispering in a serious tone as he glowered at her. Gil James, who had become good friends with Jake and was foreman at the Rockin’ C Ranch, spoke softly as though he was trying to mediate between them.

An irate frown crossed Margot’s face, and she growled several succinct words at Jake and then capped them off by sticking her hand up and giving him the bird. Clay was pretty good at reading lips and was fairly certain when her mouth moved that she’d said, “Go fuck yourself.”

Clay coughed to hide his laughter when a feral gleam entered Jake’s eyes and he whispered a hasty retort. Margot gasped and stomped away from him, her jaw stuck out at a stubborn angle. It surprised Clay when Jake grinned with enjoyment as he and Gil watched her flounce away to stand with Summer. Gil crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head as he murmured something to Jake, who shrugged and kept his eyes on Margot.

When it appeared as though Lily had all the men’s approval in one fashion or another, she thanked them and then turned happily to Clay and Del, who had stood mutely beside him. Clay sympathized with Del. The three of them had been cockblocked by a commitment to hunt overly reproductive swine.