Page 3 of The Fear
“None of your business. But let’s just say…he’sexactlythe kind of man I want in my life.” She shot him a look. That told him what she thought of him. She crossed her eyes at him just for the hell of it, where no one else could see. The glower—yep. The man was so predictable. “Much more my type and everything.”
Grady Hiller was never going to measure up.
The idea of her wanting to marry him…absolutely laughable.
Grady was not and would never be the marrying type.
2
Okay,maybe Grady had worded things wrong. But he just hadn’t wanted the kid getting ideas. His mom was good at planting ideas, and Hala was only like twenty or something. Maybe. She could be younger than that. She was young and naïve and had been hurt by a guy in the past.
He didn’t want her to be hurt again. Even by him. Was that so wrong?
He actually wasn’t sure how old she was, now that he thought about it. Just that she had always been trailing after Greer, who was twenty-two or so now, maybe. She’d always been a lot smaller than Greer, too. He was pretty certain she was a few years or so younger. Maybe. He didn’t exactly keep up on how old his sisters’ friends were. Grady was usually too busy to worry much about what the girls were getting into.
At least until recently, anyway. Since what had happened with Genesis and her friend Aubrey at the hospital last week, when someone had hurt them both. That had scared him. Made him resolve to keep a closer eye on them when he could.
It had shocked the hell out of him to learn after that that his sister Genesis had a real thing for Chad Fields, their neighbor’sson. Chad had been good friends with Gene and Guthrie their entire lives but was all about Genesis now.
He hadn’t thought Genesis was old enough to want to get serious about a guy yet. Chad was far too old for her, too. There was ten years or so between them. Grady had told Genesis that, too. She’d told him to butt out and mind his own business. She always had been feisty, that little sister of his.
She and Chad were all over each other. Like Grady’s older brother Gene was all over Chad’s younger sister Chantal now, too. That had seriously come out of nowhere. Those two had hated each other for years.
Chantal was over almost constantly—instead of hiding like she always had before. She had hidden fromGene,now she was curled up around him all the time. It didn’t make any sense to Grady. He’d never been good at understanding relationships. But Chantal was over every day, Genesis’s friend Aubrey was around all the time now, with her own little sister. That little sister was one of Greer’s friends, too, and he was sure she was just like nineteen.
There were women everywhere lately.
Grady was doing his best to deal with that. He’d never liked big crowds of people.
Hala’s older brother was staying at their house, too, after a car accident. Hudson and his little boy Ryan. That’s when Hala had suddenly popped back up everywhere. Like a little curly-haired brat, pestering him every chance she could. He hadn’t really seen her much at all in the last several years. Now he wondered why.
Everything was changing.
Grady didn’t like it.
Next thing he knew Greer or Gia would end up bringing some asshole home or something.
Hala was back from wherever she’d disappeared to for all those years. And she would be around more often. Getting into trouble again, with Greer right next to her. Strange guys would be coming around all the time again, looking for the girls, and he’d have to help get the girls out of trouble—again. Like they used to.
Greer and Hala had caused so much trouble when they’d been teenagers—Grady shuddered remembering. Things had gotten quieter since Hala had stopped coming around for a while. She’d been in college, he thought. With Greer in and out at the ranch constantly again, Hala would probably be in and out of the place again.
He was going to have to get used to that. Hala wasn’ttoomuch of an irritation. She was always laughing and happy about something, anyway. She did have a great laugh. Her entire face lit up when she smiled, too.
It had always made him want to smile. Every time he heard her laugh, he wanted to smile. He’d missed that. He hadn’t realized how quiet the place was without Greer and her friends in and out all the time. No surprise Greer had moved out, though—she’d moved out around the time Gene’s ex-wife had first moved in.
Greer had stayed gone all that time, too. She really hadn’t gotten along with Gene’s ex. He’d seen Hala snarling at that woman a time or two, too.
Grady leaned against the kitchen island and just…watched the girls as they fluttered around. Genesis was in scrubs, like she often was. Gia still wore a business suit, but she’d taken off the jacket, that mane of hair was down now, and she had Hala’s nephew Ryan riding on her hip like the kid had been there a thousand times before. Ryan had a cast on his leg; he had to be getting heavy for his sister, but she didn’t seem to mind.
Gia loved kids, and they always loved her in return.
Greer was right there, brooding about something, too. There were other women there, too. Aubrey and Ayla, Genesis and Greer’s friends, who lived in town. They were beautiful.Allof them were.
Including his sisters. But they didn’t look like teenagers any longer.
They looked like…women, he realized. He was pondering that when Hala strolled back in from the hallway right into the kitchen. Looking…different.
He almost choked. What had the girls done to her?
