Page 64 of Tempt Me

“Yeah, she can’t think I’m good enough, right?”

“Did you forget how her other daughter is already married to a biker? This shit is old news for Suzanne.”

Sighing, I shake out my shoulders and look around. “I don’t know.”

Elvis starts walking toward the woods and gestures for me to follow. “Let me tell you a story while we check the traps.”

Tailing him, I think of the many times he’d take me walking when I was on edge. I’m not sure if I should be insulted by how this tactic still works.

“Back in the day, my brothers and I did work for Aunt Fred’s dad. That’s how I first met her. As you know, Rooster Dick was a stone-cold loon. He had all those kids and two wives who were more in love with each other than with him. That whole family is crazy as fuck. In the middle of all the chaos was Winifred, looking finer than any other woman in the world. The first time she flashed her shy smile in my direction, I was a man in love.”

As we check traps along the inner perimeter, I smile at his words. Elvis and Aunt Fred were the first happy couple I ever saw. I have zero doubt my parents loved each other, but their love came out as venom. Our neighbors argued all the time, too. Most of the foster families I stayed with were cold with the dad shitting on the mom who then shit on the kids.

That’s why I figured Elvis and Aunt Fred were pulling a con on us kids with their happy marriage performance. But he makes her laugh, and she is always building him up. I was mostly surprised by how gentle they were with each other. I never realized people could be soft if they weren’t trying to get laid.

“The first time I went to pick up Winifred at her family’s bar, I walked into a fucking madhouse,” Elvis says as we keep walking through the dense woods. “Her brothers immediately started fucking with me. Her sister was right up my ass. Dot kept asking why I wanted a boring fuck like Winifred instead of a hot bitch like her. They were literally poking at me, trying to start a fight. At one point, I thought Caveman was going to set me on fire. Even though I knew that’s how the Callaghan family did shit, it was still scary as fuck.”

Despite Aunt Fred being a soft-spoken woman, her family has crime and crazy flowing through their veins. That’s why the foster boys’ antics never fazed her. She’d seen, heard, smelled, and dodged it all before.

“But I never forgot why I was there,” Elvis says as we circle back toward the houses. “I wanted Winifred like I’d never wanted anything in my life. She owned this real special part of me. So, I let her family push me around and give me grief. I knew fighting back wouldn’t help. I just smiled and joked around like they were fun people instead of nutjobs. Dot stopped hassling me, and Caveman quit trying to set me on fire. Once the madness peeled away, there was my prize wearing her shy smile and wanting only me.”

“That’s the kind of magic I want with Hunter.”

“And you’ll get it. But right now, you’re in the madness part of the courtship. You might feel like you’re sinking in the chaos, but Hunter is your lifeline. Just hold onto her and know the madness will eventually peel away, leaving you with your prize.”

“What happens then?”

Elvis smiles at my question or maybe my tense tone. “You live your life, Tack. You get up, work, play, and fuck. Every night, thank your lucky stars that you have a body that works, a mind that’s sharp, and a woman who’s offered her heart. Life’s not complicated. When you don’t know the answer, you need to ask someone for help. Hunter knows how to do that. Can you put your ego aside long enough to look around and realize you have a big fucking family ready to throw you a lifeline?”

We stand back in the clearing between the two main farmhouses. I hear kids laughing, dogs barking, and music playing. Somewhere on the farm, Hunter is with her friends. She has embraced the chaos of my life. I’m less certain about how I’ll deal with the posh elements of hers.

HUNTER

As the days pass on the farm, I find myself missing Suzanne more and more. Siobhan is always hugging her girls or mom. Aunt Fred dotes on Carys who is absolutely miserable as her due date passes. During meals at the dining hall, I’m surrounded by club wives and their kids. Once I zero in on what I’m missing, the longing drags me down.

My mind is on Suzanne when Aunt Fred finds Tack and me near the basketball court. Though I can tell he wants to play a game with Golden and the new boys, he holds back and sticks at my side.

“Why don’t you play basketball?” Aunt Fred asks Tack as she brings sunscreen for the boys. “Hunter can help me in the kitchen until you’re done.”

Tack starts to complain. He’s gotten clingier every day we’re together. Before he can tell her no, the complaint dies on his lips. He nods and strokes my cheek.

“You need girl time,” he murmurs before adding with more arrogance, “and I need to beat Golden’s ass on the court.”

“He’s crazy,” Golden insists to the boys. “I’m way better. Who is going to be my partner?”

The boys are still trying to choose between the two large blond men while I walk away with Aunt Fred. I glance back a few times to find Golden flexing his muscles and trying to seem taller than Tack. The boys laugh at his antics, but they still won’t choose him.

In the main farmhouse’s kitchen, Aunt Fred turns on country music. Not the newer stuff Siobhan listens to but older stuff like Tammy Wynette and Patsy Cline. I listen to a few songs while washing potatoes at the sink.

Aunt Fred works nearby, chopping carrots. Hearing her soft voice humming along with the songs, I think of how Suzanne hums in the car when we’re stuck in traffic.

“I miss my mom,” I mumble and start crying. “And Austen. It’s crazy for me to go through all this with them so far away.”

Aunt Fred wraps her arms around me and offers the kind of hug only moms know how to do.

“You work so hard to be strong and independent,” Aunt Fred whispers against my ear. “But you inadvertently push away people because you’re afraid to seem weak.”

“I saw how fear nearly destroyed my sister. I didn’t want to give into it.”

---