Page 67 of Brooke's Bliss
Rachel was arguing with her husbands, completely ignoringthe deputy and Mel.Brooke was standing beside her sister-in-law.
He wondered where Stef was.That was his Navigator.Had itgotten hit, too?
“Ash and his boy do some work for the government.They’resuper soldiers, created and bred for war, but when their galaxy was finallypeaceful, the public decided they were too dangerous to live,” Mel explainedlike all of this was perfectly normal.“He managed to get out with his wholecreche, and they’ve been here on Earth for the last several years.Good man.Blends in real well and is always helpful when I need him.Now why are Max andRye acting like assholes?Beyond Max’s normal level.I heard they kicked Brookeout because they didn’t like her new boyfriends.”
“Not her boyfriends,” Rye said quickly, turning from hiswife’s lecture.“They are nothing more than an act of desperation.”
“Desperation?”Brooke asked, her eyes narrowing.
Mel gave him a pat on the shoulder as the Harpers started inagain.“Don’t take that unkindly.They’ve been more like Brooke’s daddy thanher brothers.You two seem real nice.”
“You had no right,” Brooke declared.
There was a lot going on around him.
“I didn’t notice the lights,” Shane was saying to Elisa.“Wegot here when it was still light, so they wouldn’t have been on.There were abunch of cars here then.”
Elisa made a note on her tablet.“It was on earlier when Idid a drive-by on my way in.It’s actually two lights, if you notice.They wereboth fine earlier.We don’t have a big civic workforce taking care of thingslike streetlights, so whoever’s on duty checks every couple of days.I find ithighly suspicious that they stopped working at the same time and right beforean act of vandalism.”
“Tell me something, Rye.”The Harper clan ignored the wholepolice report thing, preferring to do their form of family therapy here andnow.Brooke had her hands on her hips and a frown on her face.She was alwayspretty, even when she was cutting a man down to size.“Why didn’t you get me achastity belt when I was a kid if you’re so determined I’m going to marry theright person and need to be ready to hand my virginity to him.”
Rye’s jaw straightened, and a stubborn look hit his face.“You didn’t need a chastity belt.Not when we made sure everyone in this townwas watching you.Don’t you remember how Teeny and Marie happened to be at themovie theater in Alamosa whenever you were on a date?Or at the Chili’s youthought was too far out for me or Max to follow you?”
That was not going to go the way Rye thought it would.Although Bay would admit he had no idea what Rye thought he was going to getout of this beyond pissing his sister off.He needed to get this thing done sohe could figure out how to get them back home.Because the way this was goingBrooke might marry them tonight just to piss her brothers off.
“Was anything stolen out of the truck?”Elisa asked as herdad went over to check on his own truck.
Bay had looked through the cab before he’d gone back forBrooke and his brother.“Not that I can find.We didn’t have much in there.Wekeep our tools in the bunkhouse since we tend to use horses or four wheelers atwork.”
“I’m going to go take some pictures and make sure theydidn’t hit the other cars,” Elisa said, taking out her phone.
“You had people follow me?”Brooke kind of screeched thequestion.
“We had people looking out for you, sweetie.”When had Maxbecome the nice one?
“Do you think I made it up?”Shane kept his voice low, hiseyes still on Brooke.“Do you honestly believe that I would make shit up to getout of a place I didn’t want to be in?”
Bay knew he’d fucked up the minute the words left his mouth.“I think you thought you saw something and it made an excellent excuse to getout of a place you weren’t comfortable with.”
“Brooke, you were a teenager, and you were driving off tomeet boys an hour away from home.”Rachel seemed to be the voice of reason.“They didn’t have experience as parents then.They took things a little toofar, but can you blame them?”
“I know what I saw,” Shane said stubbornly.
“I thought you saw a glint of metal,” Bay reminded him.“Youdidn’t come back and say you saw a bunch of guns.You said the crate lid cameslightly off and you saw something metallic.”
“Well, they wouldn’t have been talking about offing us if Isaw fencing materials,” Shane insisted.
“Oh, I can blame them.”Brooke ignored everything but herfamily.“I can blame them because the last time it happened I was twenty-four.I had come home for vacation and met a nice tourist, and guess who was at theChili’s?Mel and Cass.I got to have skillet queso while discussing the matinghabits of aliens, and guess who didn’t get to mate that day?”
Elisa was still filling out her report even as she walkedback to them.“Are you sure nothing was stolen?Because they did a number onthe cab.It looks like they went through everything.”
“I actually think they did steal something.”Bay nodded witha frown.Damn.He’d kind of hidden it from his brother so he didn’t have toshare or be told he was getting pudgy.“I had a whole Snickers bar in the glovebox and now it’s gone.”
He’d been looking forward to that Snickers.
Shane rolled his eyes.“I fed it to Maurice.No one stoleit.Could we pay attention to the real problem we have?”
“You gave Maurice candy?”Maurice was the legendary moosewho walked the woods around Bliss and made frequent appearances in town.Therewere a bunch of myths and legends about the big guy, including the one abouthow if someone offered Maurice food and he accepted it, that meant the personwould become part of the town.
