Page 13 of Mad About Her Cowboys

Clearly, he was on the same page as Connor, but the assertion didn’t make her nervous, and she remained calm—well, as calm as someone could be with butterflies catapulting around their belly. These four definitely aroused her. Whatever happened, though, it had to be up to her.

“Tell me about you guys,” she said, changing the direction of the conversation. “Who’s oldest? What parent do you take after? You all have a similar look, but if I didn’t know you were brothers, I wouldn’t guess it. Close friends, maybe, but not brothers.”

“That’s because we’re not related,” Connor said, setting a plate of burgers in buns on the table then taking a seat. Once the rest of the food was before them, Franklin sat, too.

“I don’t understand,” Madison said. “Were you all adopted into the same family or something?”

“Or something,” Franklin said. “We were placed in the same foster family right around the same time. When we were old enough, we all took their last name. Connor and I are about the same age, and Neal and Eds are also the same age.”

“Actually, I’m the baby of the group. Cutest. Smartest. Lovable-est,” Edison quipped.

“Whatever!” Neal threw a potato chip at him.

“Youngest and most annoying, maybe,” Franklin grumbled good-naturedly.

“So much love,” Edison sighed, all the drama.

“You’re all kind of cute,” Madison placated him while she focused on doctoring her burger. She didn’t make eye contact with them, not wanting any of the guys to take her compliment as an invitation.

“So you were placed in the same home?” she prompted.

“Yep,” Edison said a little too nonchalantly as he scooped apple salad onto his plate. “Neal was orphaned, Connor was more-or-less orphaned, Franklin was abandoned and my parents were pretty much assholes.” He took a bite of food and blew out a hard breath through his nose. “Though…” he continued once he’d swallowed, “Franklin’s parents are assholes, too. Maybe, more than mine.”

“It’s a toss-up,” Franklin said. He pointed around the table, indicating Connor first. “Absentee mother; grandma who died.”

“No idea about my father or if my mother is alive now,” Connor put in.

“Neal had great parents but no other family to take him after the car accident,” Franklin continued. “Edison was removed from his home because of criminal neglect. My parents apparently didn’t give a shit about me because it wasn’t in their wheelhouse to deal with my diabetes. They’re wealthy; they could have hired someone to help rather than abandon their eight-year-old son.” He shrugged with the same nonchalance as Edison, but Madison saw right through it. “So…yeah. Gonna have to agree with Edison’s assessment. They’re assholes.”

There was a lot of pain in this room, yet from what she’d witnessed, they didn’t let it rule their lives. “You all seem… I mean, I don’t know you super well, but you all seem well-adjusted.”

“That’s ‘cause of Bethany, Desmond and Manny—the Quists. That’s who we ended up with, and without them, we’d all be screwed up.”

“They placed you in a ménage family?” That seemed…odd.

Connor nodded. “I’m sure it wasn’t on the books like that. And I’m pretty sure there was some looking the other way. Mom is a nurse, and Dad-Des in the chief surgeon at the local hospital. Dad-Man is one of the top corporate lawyers in the country. They have a lot of pull in the community, so the county chose to look the other way.”

“I think our social worker knew we’d be in the best hands with our mom and dads,” Franklin added.

“They didn’t let us get away with shit,” Edison agreed. “That’s for sure.”

“And Edison tried plenty of stunts,” Connor laughed.

Madison glanced at Neal, noting he was rather quiet, though he didn’t appear to disagree with what was said. A pale-pink tinge colored his cheeks when he noticed her looking at him. She gave him a small smile. He was a shy one, and it endeared him to her even more.

“So how did the four of you end up here?” she asked. “You’re not from Daly, right?”

“No, we’re from Michigan like you,” Franklin answered.

“Actually, I’m from Colorado,” she corrected. “I just worked in Detroit for a while. Went to school in Ann Arbor, too, so I’ve been there for eight years.”

“Landing here is sort of a long story,” Connor started.

She grinned, looking around the table. “We have time. Right? That’s what we’re doing? Getting to know each other?”

“Right. Well,” he sighed. “Apparently, I had family I didn’t know about. They didn’t claim me, yet left me an inheritance. This land and a hefty chunk of cash to develop it.”

“But why here? You could have sold the land and started something close to home.”

---