Page 3 of Pierre
Considered one of the finest in the entire history, he wore the badge of Robicheaux Ranger proudly.
He was handsome, intelligent, kind, loyal, and loved by hundreds, including his own men. But what he struggled with the most were his feelings for a particular young woman who was untouchable.
Until now.
“Just go and ask her to dance,” laughed Joey.
“She’s too young,” said Pierre quietly.
“She’s not too young. She’s twenty-three. She finished nursing school two years ago. She’s been working a job on a hospital ship.”
Pierre stared at one of his closest friends and frowned. Hospital ships were often attacked for their drugs on the high seas. It wasn’t exactly the safest job in the world.
“Fine. I’ll ask her to dance if you ask Bailey.”
Joey stared at Pierre and frowned. Asking the daughters of Ham and Sadie McDonald to dance was risking your life in a whole new way. With Pierre as a Ranger and Joey as a SEAL, you would think they wouldn’t be afraid of anything. And they weren’t.
Except Ham. And even more so, Sadie. She was a terror.
“Okay,” nodded Joey. “Let’s go.”
The closer Pierre got to Ambry, the butterflies became nearly out of control. She looked up at him, smiling with her huge blue eyes and waist-length blonde waves of hair. She wore a dress the color of amethysts, her heels making her nearly six-feet. Perfect for his six-foot-six.
“Hi, Ambry,” he smiled.
“Pierre,” she grinned. “I hope you’re here to ask me to dance.”
“I am,” he chuckled.
“Good. I’ve been waiting.”
CHAPTER TWO
Ambry McDonald was part of a trio. A trio born together, raised together, living together. Her siblings, Bailey and Cole, looked nearly identical to her. They were tall, lean, blue-eyed, and blonde hair.
Cole was extremely protective of his sisters, always sitting between them on the bus, following them home from school, ensuring that no one touched them. He also had the help of all of his cousins and friends from Belle Fleur. It was a constant merry-go-round of oversized male bodies willing to protect.
“Cole, can’t you just let me talk to him?” she asked, hoping to have a few moments alone with Jessie Vanguard.
“No. He’s not the right boy for you,” said her brother.
“How would you know? You’re only a kid too,” she said with her hands on her hips.
“Because I know what he thinks about girls and how he treats them. I won’t let any boy, any man, ever treat you that way. They will treat you with dignity and respect, and if they want to ask you on a date, they’ll do it the right way and ask my permission first, or Mom and Dad’s.”
“God! You’re so annoying. Bailey and I are going to die alone, and it will be all your fault!” she said dramatically. Cole only shrugged.
“I can live with that.”
Over time, Cole shot up like a flagpole. He was extremely thin but had grown to nearly six-feet-five by the time he was a junior in high school. Ambry and her sister were both five-feet-ten in flat shoes. They rarely wore heels because they made them so much taller than boys in their class, or later, men.
But the glaring marquee of ‘the McDonald triplets’ was always above their head, much like their cousins had the marquee of ‘the Jordan triplets.’
Their mother, Sadie, was also a triplet. Sadie and her brothers, Marc and Luke, were born to Wes Jordan and Virginia Divide. Wes, his father Angel, Marc, Luke, and Cole were all SEALs.
Ambry didn’t have a chance. Constantly hounded by either her brother or her cousins, no boy stood a chance at getting close to her. Imagine being surrounded by SEALs or former SEALs and trying to get a date. There was no way it would work. No way a poor guy could get past them. It had honestly become too much work to even try. There was no boy worth all the trouble. At least not yet.
Instead, she buried herself in school and friends. That part was easy.
