Page 39 of Found By You

Butch sits, his gaze flicking between his brother and myself. “Nice to see you again, Maci.” His tone way friendlier than last night. He shifts his attention beside me. “What you got goin’ on today, man?”

Duke glances at me with a slow grin. “Don’t know yet.”

I bite my lip to keep from smiling. “Well, do you have anything you need to do later today?”

Duke leans back in his seat. “Whatever you’re going to ask me will end up what I’m doing. What do you got?”

I scrunch my nose. “Laundry,” I say, and he groans. “I need to get some things from my car, too. But the laundromat is a little far, I didn’t want to walk—”

“No,” he cuts in sternly. “No more walking around today. Not in this cold. Matter of fact, do you own another coat? There are some wind reports coming in for mid-week with a dip in the temp. That worthless coat you got now isn’t going to cut it.”

This man and his vendetta against my coat. “I only have time for one task today after I finish a little research on Whitetail, Montana before my afternoon nausea kicks in. So it’s either laundry or coat shopping.”

“All right.” He scrubs a hand over his scruffy jaw. “We can take your laundry to my mom’s. She’ll do it while we find you a good winter coat.”

Butch chuckles and Cassidy bursts with laughter.

“You’re kidding, right?” I say in disbelief. He can’t actually think that’s a solution. “Duke, I am not taking my dirty underwear to your mother for her to wash for me. I don’t even know her. And please, please tell me you don’t still take your dirty clothes to your parents’ house.”

He scowls across the table at the laughing duo. “There’s no washer and dryer at the rental cabin,” he adds in an attempt to defend himself. “So, yeah, I take it to Ma’s so I don’t have to pay at the laundromat. She doesn’t mind. Folds it and everything.”

I raise a brow. “Seriously, Duke, how old are you?”

“He’s thirty-three.” Butch chuckles deeply. “He’ll be thirty-four in February.”

“Shut it, Butch,” Duke huffs. “You used to wait until you didn’t have a single clean piece of clothing left before you did yours, then Cassidy came around to do it for you. You’d go out and buy a whole pack of new boxers just so you didn’t have to wash any. And don’t even act like you didn’t, ‘cause you told me that yourself.”

Butch glares at his brother.

“Aw, babe,” Cassidy coos, leaning into him. “And you tried to give me a hard time that first day we lived together. Like you really wanted to do it yourself.”

Duke scoffs. “He fooled your ass, Cassidy. He was more excited about you doing his laundry than you cooking dinner.”

“All right, that’s enough,” Butch grumbles. Cassidy laughs, pecking him on the cheek. The second she does, his scowl diminishes, and he’s wrapping an arm around her like she’s the most important woman in the world. And to him, she probably is.

I sigh at the sight.

Duke tugs at my hip, and I look up from his side. His rough, manly cologne floods my senses and sends a dampening heat right between my thighs.

And at the crooked grin on his lips, I know what—or who—I’m doing later.

Twelve.

Duke

Me: Was the rest of that sub enough for you for dinner?

Maci: Yup. How’s Sunday dinner going at your parents’?

“Is that Maci?” Cassidy beams from across the extended dining table at my parents’ house.

I don’t know why her curiosity about Maci annoys me so much, but it does. You want her all to yourself, you fool.

After spending a few hours at the coffee shop with Maci while she looked into staying here in Whitetail, I took her shopping for a new coat. It wasn’t exactly how I planned on spending my Sunday afternoon, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a blast with her.

Our conversations flowed effortlessly—talking, joking, laughing about anything and everything. Every quirk she was revealing about herself had me taking note—she hates cashews and bottled water from Aquafina and something about the side guy from You gives her the creeps.

She has no idea I’m falling for her with every word.

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