Page 10 of The Hardest Part

“I know. Seen it,” Josiah said, cutting Elijah off, then abruptly he turned to him. “Lost yours, too, didn’t ya?”

Drawing his sisters close, Levi nodded. “And our brother.”

“My condolences to you all. Goin’ on six years since their mother’s been gone.” His lip trembling, he pressed them together. “It’s damn hard tryin’ to raise my girls right out here without her. This ain’t no kind of life for ‘em, ya know?”

“I s’pose not.” Levi’s gaze went to Lucy and her sister.

Josiah oddly grinned. “I seen it comin’.”

“What’s that?”

“All good things.” The mountain man winked, nodding along as he spoke. “Every good thing in the world is born of something not.”

Jake read the words once more and transcribed them onto his laptop. They resonated with him, and not just because Levi underlined them three times.

His phone signaled an incoming text message. Not wanting to be distracted from his work, he’d set the damn thing to silent, but even the slightest vibration was jarring to him.

Two words.They’re hitched.

“Kel.” Jake chuckled with a shake of his head.

Before he could tap out ‘congratulations’ in reply, two photos appeared. Matthew Brooks with a pretty blonde in a short ivory dress and another of a girl holding a camera in her hand.The daughter. Seeming to be lost in her thoughts, she had a far-away look in her eyes.

The new Mrs. Brooks and the future Mrs. Brooks, the caption read.

For Kellan’s sake, and Tanner’s too, he sure hoped so.

Jake closed his laptop. He had a future of his own to get ready for. A house to build. A wedding to plan.

Emily and her mother would be here for dinner soon. Another evening of looking on, pretending to be unaffected, when he was dying to touch her the same way his brother did.

And taste her.

Yeah, he saw them together in the barn the other day. Jake hadn’t meant to spy on them, but when he noticed Emily’s convertible sitting in the school parking lot, long after the dismissal bell rang, he grew concerned.

Her lips parted, breasts exposed, holding Billy’s head to her cunt. She looked so beautiful. Jake couldn’t tear his eyes away. However, upon hearing her coming for his brother, he hurriedly retreated to avoid being discovered as the sick voyeur he knew he was.

He ran home and went straight to his room. With the image of the girl he loved half-naked on a bed of hay, Jake lubed up his dick. Slippery, hard flesh sliding between the circle of his fingers, it was him she held onto. Him she cried out to. Him she came for.

It’s not that he was jealous. There was no reason for it. They were a triad, after all. Meant to be before they were ever born. Emily was his as much as she was his brother’s.

Envy?

Perhaps. While the feeling is similar, it isn’t quite the same, is it? Yes, Jake loved her, and yes, he deeply desired what he couldn’t have yet, but there was no maliciousness behind his discontent.

This washistest.

Five more months and Emily would be eighteen.

And in eighteen months, she’d be his wife.

He just had to wait.

Until then, Jake resolved to give Emily what she needed to feel loved by him. Billy might be only sixteen, but he was keenly astute and so very wise for his years. Their circumstances dictated his brother knew her feelings better than he did.

Jake had the power to change that, though. He could talk to her more, be with her more. Meaningful conversation and showing affection weren’t against the rules—so long as he didn’t let it go too far. That right there was the problem. He didn’t trust himself not to. And he certainly didn’t trust her.

“They’re almost here, bro,” Billy said, poking his head inside his room. “Em just texted me.”

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