Page 55 of Opposites (Never) Attract
Shit. If the McGraw boys had an inkling about the things running through my mind when it came to Sunshine, I’d hear about it.
I took my time making my way to the south gate to let them back in. Didn’t want to seem too eager.
The sound of their voices drifted over the wind and Ethan laughed, something he’d been doing a lot of since he and Harmony got married. In response to whatever was so funny, Sunshine smiled. Really smiled.
Unguarded. Warm. She fucking killed me when I could see the happiness shining from the inside out. This woman was miles away from the rigid woman I’d met in a New York City conference room. Tense and reserved. Guarded.
Ethan and Carter were saying something that had her laughing, and it hit me in the chest that she could be happy here. Just because she’d had a hard time growing up, didn’t mean that this place wasn’t her home and couldn’t be again.
But better.
“I’m not telling you where I keep my bras,” she told Carter.
“But we have to freeze them,” Ethan explained. “Basic sister pranks 101.”
“For a girl with her first bra. You’re not taking my La Perla and putting it in the freezer.”
“Are there any boys you like that we could embarrass you in front of?” Carter asked her.
“Yes, I’ll write up a list for you,” she said, dryly.
“We need to get the guys home,” Ethan said. “Eli is always super creative when it comes to this shit. Remember how bad he pranked Seth that Christmas?”
“What did he do?” Sunshine asked.
“It involved cow shit, toothpaste and a homemade catapult.”
“You’re making that up,” she said.
“Seth wishes it was made up, he flinched for years every time he saw Eli.”
“They treating you right, Sunshine?” I called out to her, wanting to be a part of what was making her smile. “Do I need to step in and put them in their place?”
“Apparently, now that they’re my brothers, they have to tease me,” she explained, and gently pulled up on the reins. Shirley, like a good girl, came to a halt and shook out her mane, looking for love. Sunshine patted her neck, scratched her behind the ears. “They’ve been threatening me with pranks the whole ride back.”
“Black snake under the bedsheets should do the trick,” I offered. A classic for a reason.
She glared at me and then at Carter and Ethan. “A snake makes its way into my bed and I’m taking the next jet back to New York.”
“Noted,” Carter said. “But they are harmless.”
“How do I get off Shirley?” she asked.
“See?” Carter said to me, as he dismounted. “You should have let her get up on her own. Now she doesn’t know how to getoff.”
“Come here, darlin,” I said, and reached my arms up to her. “Just fall into me and I’ll catch you.”
“Sounds a lot like one of their pranks,” she insisted, jerking her thumb back at her brothers.
“It’s not. I swear. Take your feet out of the stirrups and just pretend like you’re falling.”
I expected a bit more of a fight, but not a second after I gave her the instruction, she was falling into my arms. I caught her, snugly up against my chest, as I pulled her off Shirley.
She glanced up at me, the Swinging D ball cap perched on her head, some stray hair blowing around it, and those deep bourbon eyes cut right through me.
Damn, this girl had grown up.
She turned me on in her fancy business suits and she turned me on dressed up like a cowgirl. Her brain turned me on. Her smile turned me on.
