Page 2 of Between a Rock and a Hard Cowboy

She could answer for herself. She didn’t need some man—and a younger man, to boot—doing it for her. She was about to tell him that when the AI device in the room chimed.

“What’s happening down there?” Olivia’s computer amplified voice filled the office and was echoed by the second device across the hallway in the kitchen.

“All right, who taught her how to use the Alexa like a whole house PA system?” Ethan asked.

Wyatt raised one finger to take the blame. “It was me. She was going so crazy at the thought of being on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy, I had to do something to make her feel more connected.”

“Hello? Is this thing on?” Olivia asked as two out of three Wilder men groaned. Apparently, Linc was too busy protecting the key he’d finally gotten possession of again to be annoyed by Olivia.

Eva couldn’t help but smile. Seeing two-thirds of the Wilder men annoyed was good enough to cheer her up after the key had again defeated her. “I’ll go upstairs and report in.”

“I’ll come too,” Poppy offered.

She hooked her hand under Eva’s elbow, which was such a typical Poppy thing to do, Eva, who generally didn’t like touching another person unless she was fucking or fighting, allowed it.

They walked arm-in-arm, surrounded by a cloud of Poppy’s no-doubt insanely expensive perfume, all the way up the wide staircase where finally at the top they had to disengage to fit through Olivia and Wyatt’s bedroom door.

“So that was fun,” Poppy said, pointedly looking at Eva.

“What was fun? What’s happening? I hate being stuck up here.” Olivia pouted.

“That’s what you get for not using protection,” Eva pointed out.

Olivia’s brows drew low as she scowled. “Mean. I take it the key didn’t fit the secret compartment you found, judging by your fouler than usual mood.”

“True, but I’m not so sure if the foul mood is key related,” Poppy tipped her head to one side, sending her nauseatingly perfect long blonde hair cascading over one shoulder.

“I love you, but that doesn’t mean I won’t throttle you.” Eva’s warning did not have the desired effect as her friend’s smile flashed straight white teeth.

Olivia sighed. “I’m right here and I still don’t know what’s going on. How soon can I schedule a C-section? Somebody Google that.”

“Eva and Linc treated us all to a display of what sexual tension looks like when both people are too stubborn to admit they’re attracted to each other.”

Poppy relaying that completely inaccurate information had Eva knifing her hands through her cropped red hair. “Ugh. Not true. Don’t listen to her delusions.”

“Not delusions.” Poppy shook her head while looking gleeful.

“He’s a child,” Eva countered.

Linc was the baby of the Wilder family. The youngest of the three brothers, while she was the oldest of her two friends.

Just hanging out with Poppy, who was firmly a Gen Z, made Eva feel like the girl’s mommy. The last thing she wanted was to feel like that with a guy while having sex.

“Age is just a number.” Poppy delivered that wisdom gleaned from all of her two decades of life.

“Says the twenty-two-year-old.” Eva cocked a brow, thinking how her favorite boots were older than this girl.

“Linc is twenty-seven,” Olivia supplied.

“But he’s more like a forty-year-old in a twenty-seven-year old’s body. With all he’s been through, and how serious he is most of the time, it’s like he’s the oldest Wilder brother, not Wyatt,” Poppy argued. “Livvie, don’t you think so?”

Olivia let out a huff. “What I think is that I’m going to tell Wyatt to install an elevator in this monstrous house so I can go downstairs and see all this romantic intrigue for myself.”

“There’s no intrigue, romantic or other.” Eva scowled. “The key didn’t fit the lock in the secret compartment.”

Thatwas what had made her cranky. There was nothing between her and the youngest, grumpiest and most stubborn Wilder brother.

Move along. Nothing to see here…

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