Page 2 of Saving Jared

“Because I’m tired of the three of you treating me like a child.”

And to be honest, one man in particular needed to have that truth driven home just as badly. If showing a little skin would get her brothers and one Jared McComb to finally realize she was all grown up—with the added bonus of helping out a local charity—then she saw it as all good.

Though no way in hell she was going divulge that little fact to these three men. It wasn't information they needed to know. At all. Mainly because it probably wouldn’t go over well.

Hmm… Probably might not be the right word.

Definitely would be more like it.

Not only were Jared and his brother, Jude, Darin’s best friends, Jared was older than her by ten years. Add those two facts in with Jared having had a very active, ahem, social life since his breakup with his former fiancé, Macy, even Ben might kick up a fuss.

Willa didn’t see any of those as obstacles to getting the man she’d known and admired all her life—and one she’d had a girlish crush on for as long as she could remember. But that was then.

Now?

Now, she saw him through the eyes of a woman. And her woman’s heart told her Jared was the only one she truly wanted. She just hoped she wasn’t alone in her desire. And maybe she wasn’t. Things had changed between them after the Big M Ranch’s annual Fourth of July celebration.

Before that night, he’d treated much like you’d expect a man would his little sister’s best friend—indulgent, joking around, being irritated at times. But since then, he’d been different—reserved almost. Like he was purposely holding himself back.

Except for when she’d catch him staring at her. At those times, what she saw in those heated, intense, silvery-gray eyes of his had her…

A shiver raced over her skin.

It didn’t take more than one guess to know why he didn’t act on what she saw as his obvious attraction.

Her brothers.

Her lovable, sweet, overprotective, pain in the ass brothers who treated her like a piece of spun glass—something they’d done for as long as she could remember.

Would her biological family have been this attentive? She’d never know, since she’d been given up for adoption at less than a day old. But whoever that fifteen-year-old young woman had been—the only fact anyone had ever known about her—she’d given her a great gift.

Willa loved her family.

At least on most days.

"You know what," she said, giving Darin a hard stare that he met with one of his own. "I hadn’t planned on doing the calendar at all. But after you pulled that little stunt with Matthew, I had to do something drastic."

"What stunt?" Darin's widened gaze darted away as he took another swig of beer.

A low whistle sounded from Eric to her left. Willa cut her eyes over in time to see him running a hand through his carrot-top hair. "Should’a seen that one coming," he said under his breath.

"I told you she’d find out," Ben added, casting disapproving looks at his brothers while he took a seat at the table.

"Really? You were in on this too?" She could usually count on Ben to run interference. "I thought you were on my side."

"I am. Always." Ben shrugged his massive shoulders and snarled his nose. "But he was an asshole, and I didn’t like him."

Ben wasn’t actually far off in his assessment, which was why she had already decided to break things off with Matthew. The operative word being she. Her brothers didn’t need to have the satisfaction of knowing that bit of information though. They thought they were right too much of the time as it was.

"Come on," she said, eyeballing each of them. "Do you seriously want me to stay a virgin until I’m thirty?"

She held in a laugh as Darin sputtered into his beer bottle and Eric turned five shades of red that nearly eclipsed his freckles. They did not need to know she found any of this funny.

Ever the serious one, Ben scrunched up his face like he was truly contemplating the question. Then he finally set his eyes on her, saying with all sincerity, "Yes?"

She threw her hands up in the air and paced away. "You three are impossible." She whirled back toward them. "Do you want to know what Matthew said to me?" Darin and Eric shook their heads, while Ben nodded. "He said, 'Your brothers need a different hobby other than protecting our sister.' I was mortified."

"So, now you’re saying you really just posed like that to what? Get back at us?" Darin came back around the bar and glared at the calendar then her.

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