Corina finally found her voice. “Nice to meet you, Tripp.”
Mitchell pushed Tripp out of the way. Imitating his brother, he took Corina’s hand and kissed the back of it. “Mitchell Parker. It’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”
“Lord have mercy,” Corina whispered.
Mitchell flashed that smile, and I was pretty sure Corina was melting on the spot. When he winked, she leaned into me.
“Oh, for the love of all that’s good.” I pushed Mitchell away. “We have work to do! Corina, stay away from Tripp. He’s in politics.”
“Hey!” Tripp cried out.
“Mitchell here, he’s a Texas Ranger.”
Corina perked up. “A baseball player!”
Mitchell laughed. “You’re not from Texas are you, sweetheart?”
Looking at me with huge eyes, Corina smiled and then turned back to Mitchell. “Chicago.”
He nodded. “Well, Corina from Chicago. Texas Rangers are a baseball team, but they are also an elite group of police officers.”
Tripp huffed behind Mitchell.
“You’re a police officer?” Corina asked with dreamy eyes.
Mitchell’s grin grew wider. “Yes, ma’am.”
When her teeth sunk into her lip, I pulled her away.
“Corina, this is Cord Parker. He owns Cord’s Place.”
Corina reached out her hand, and Cord followed suit. “Pleasure is all mine.”
“Nice to meet you, Cord.”
Stopping in front of Trevor, I took a deep breath. He was the one I was most worried about. “Corina, this is Trevor. He may be the youngest brother, but I think he is the most dangerous.”
Trevor tossed his head back to laugh before staring straight at Corina. “Hell yeah, I am.”
“Nice to meet you, Trevor,” Corina said as she held her hand out. Trevor looked down at it and then grinned like he had just made the catch of the day. “Hell girl, any friend of Paxton’s is a friend of mine. Come here.”
Before I knew it Corina was wrapped up in Trevor’s arms. He lifted her off the ground. She let out a small yelp and laughed. When he put her down, her cheeks were flushed.
“Nice, Trevor,” I said with a roll of my eyes.
I wanted to turn and walk away without even introducing her to Steed, but I couldn’t do that in front of my Daddy. He’d raised me better than that.
Steed was still staring at me, but turned to Corina and smiled politely. He reached his hand out and shook hers. “Steed Parker, it’s a pleasure meeting you.”
Corina snapped her head over and gave me an inquisitive stare. “Steed? This is him.”
I chewed on my lip. Please don’t make a scene, Corina.
With pleading eyes, I replied, “Yes, Corina, this is Steed. He just moved back from Oregon with his daughter, Chloe.”
Corina plastered on a fake smile. “Well, I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Steed’s grin faded as he cleared his throat. “I’m sure you have.”
Leaning in so only he could hear, Corina whispered, “I’d like to grab you by the balls and push them up into your throat for what you did to her.”
His eyes grew wide, and he took a step back.
I clapped my hands. “Great. Okay. Since we have man power here, we need to get all these tents up, and they have to be staked into the ground good with this front blowing in.”
Trevor was the first to get after it. “Let’s do this shit!”
Steed paused in front of me, but then followed Cord to another tent without saying a word. I tried not to let the hurt show. After all, I was the one pushing him away. Why should I expect him to stop and talk?
“He can’t keep his eyes off of you,” Corina whispered.
“So what,” I said as I peeked over at Steed. I wouldn’t admit to Corina and could barely admit it to myself, but my chest fluttered and my stomach dropped each time I caught Steed watching me.
She sighed and I stopped setting up the booth and turned to her. “What?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. He looks so…sad.”
“So? I really don’t care if he’s sad or not.”
“Paxton, you don’t really mean that. I know you still care for him.”
She was wrong. I still loved him.
My father walked up with a smile, as usual. “Darling, we’ve got all the tents up, but I think the boys need to be getting back to their place. I pulled them away and they’ve got work to do.”
I hugged him. “Thank you, Daddy, for bringing help.”
He pushed me back and gave me a wink. “Well, as soon as they heard y’all were in trouble, they were eager to help.”
A rush of guilt washed over me knowing I had avoided the Parker family for so long, and the moment I put out the call for help, they didn’t think twice. With a chuckle, I said, “Sounds like the Parker boys.”