Page 8 of The Fear
Hala.
He couldn’t get that devil woman out of his head at all. He’d been thinking about her all night. Since his sisters had made it clear she was datingLuisnow, and he was to behave himself. Otherwise, Greer would tie his tail in a knot or something. Whatever that meant.
Luis.
Hell, Hala didn’t need to be datingLuis.
Hala was old enough to be married with kids now. To sleep with a husband every single night. He could imagine it—Hala wrapped up in some guy, having that guy’s kids, being in his house, his bed.
He bet she’d laugh a lot. Hala was always laughing about something. She had always been that way. Bubbly and silly when she was little. Happy.
He remembered her as a little kid, mostly. All big eyed and curly haired, laughing at him when he fell on his ass in the yard when he’d been a teenager. Hala and Greer sneaking out to the barn to spy on him when he was trying to kiss a girl when he was sixteen. They’d laughed at him that day, too.
She’d been so small then, more than a full head shorter than Greer. He’d picked them both up and tossed them in the cattle’s water trough. He’d gotten grounded for it, but he’d fished the girls out eventually.
They’d just been in there swimming and splashing around like little girl fish. Not like he’d hurt them or anything. And he’d watched over them to make sure they’d stayed safe in the water while they played. He’d told his dad that, too.
His dad had laughed a little—but grounded him anyway because it had been a bit too cold that day for swimming. His father had told him he had a responsibility to keep his sister safe. And her little friend.
Well, two years later he’d failed in that, in a big way. They’d almost lost Greer because of him. He’d never forgotten that.
Now all he could think about was Hala in that dress ofGia’sthat she’d had no business wearing anywhere. If Luis had looked down the front of that dress, Grady was going to shove his nose down his throat.
But why wouldn’t the guy? She’d been seriously hot in that damned thing.
He bet she’d be even hotter out of it.
Some guy would convince her soon enough to give him a real shot. She’d fall for the guy’s lines and promises. Get married to the guy—Gunn would probably even do the ceremony, too. Grady would have to watch her promise to love that man forever.
Then she’d be the one walking around pregnant, like Ronnie. Hala would get married, have a bunch of kids. Probably a lot of kids, actually. Little curly-haired kids that looked just like her and caused all sorts of mayhem.
Just like Hala always had.
She’d always gotten into misadventures as a kid. Someone would have to rescue her every time. Grady had rescued her and Greer more times than he could count. He'd had to climb a damned mesquite tree once to get her down after she’d gone up to get Greer’s kitten when they’d been six. He still had a scar on his hand from that day.
She’d had a ton of other misadventures since.
She’d keep a guy jumping constantly.
She’d be happy with some guy out there.
He wondered if it would be that asshole Luis Sandoval. Why not? They worked together every day. Both obviously loved kids, and stuff. They’d have the summers off and could cuddle up together all day long then.
Grady would do that. If Hala was his, he’d want to cuddle her all the time. Hala was the kind of woman a guy loved to touch. To hold close.
Twenty-four.
Hala was a few years older than Ronnie had been when George had gotten Ronnie pregnant back then and convinced her to marry him fast. George was around nine years older than Ronnie, too. They’d had their second when Ronnie was around twenty-four.
Hala was old enough to date a man, to sleep with a man, do whatever she wanted with a man. Nothing Grady said or thought was going to change that now. So were Giavonna, Genesis, and Greer.
They’d all grown up. There would be men coming around Hala and Greer, too. Hala would be out at the ranch all the time again now that she’d moved back to Barratt County—her boyfriends probably would, too.
Damn it. Why did he feel like everything had changed now?
6
Deputy Brenton Rycetried not to snarl as he hurried down the hallway to the school cafeteria Thursday night. This was getting to be too much. He’d been mid-patrol when the call had come in.
