Page 57 of Forever in the Country

“I know you are.”

“You still give the best hugs though.” We stay like that, talking and laughing and embracing every moment of being together. These women have never hesitated to drop everything to be together, and it’s so much more than I ever could have hoped for.

“So,” Hannah says as she pops a chip into her mouth, “are we finally going to talk about what you have going on with tall, dark, and murderous?”

My mouth hangs open as Marlee turns to look at me.

“My brother?!” she squeals.

“I love that you automatically know it’s him,” Cheyenne says before taking a sip of her wine.

“Are you guys finally together?” Marlee asks with no less enthusiasm than her earlier question I’d hoped to put off a while longer.

“I mean,” I start as Isla narrows her eyes at me, “we’re figuring things out and—”

“He’s got no problem figuring how to give you orgasms,” Isla says smugly over the rim of her drink.

Marlee’s mouth falls open as her hands land on my shoulders, shaking me before she’s jumping up and down and screaming. Her excitement has the other girls doubled over laughing and Fallon standing and hustling to the bathroom so she doesn’t pee her pants.

Literally.

“Oh my God, you’re finally together!” She squeezes me in a hug so tight and so hard it’s difficult to breathe. “I’m just so happy,” she says when she finally pulls away, her eyes filled with unshed tears as her gaze meets mine.

“It’s new,” I say even though it sounds stupid even to my own ears.

“I’ve always hoped you’d end up together.”

“You have?”

She rolls her eyes like it couldn’t be more obvious. “Of course, what could be better? Me marrying your brother and you marrying mine. You’re going to make him so happy.” She hugs me again, her words a choked whisper. “Thank you for taking care of him when I couldn’t.”

I squeeze her tighter, my mouth unable to form the words to respond to something like that. “I love you,” I say instead around the lump in my throat.

“I know. But more importantly,” she says around a shuddery breath, “love him. Love him fiercely because no one deserves it more, and know that he’ll do the same in return.”

“Dammit, you guys, I can’t stop cryin’,” Fallon says, turning my own tears into a watery laugh.

“Are we hugging or did they fill the quota for the night?” Hannah deadpans, and I throw a chip at her. She winks at me and I smile.

I might have been born with brothers, but I wouldn’t trade the girls in this room—my sisters—for anything.

24

RHEA

The short loop of the song “Boots On” by Randy Houser plays over and over as I watch the slow motion video of Sorren leaning back against the truck and propping his boot on the tire. It’s the profile of his face that gets me worked up, with the sharp lines of his cheek bones and the dark beard covering his jaw. He’s always been handsome, but having his hands on me flipped a switch I didn’t even know I had.

He’s dangerous, deliciously so, and it’s already an addiction I’ll never be able to escape.

And I don’t want to.

I had half a mind to send him a couple of dirty texts last night and a picture to match after the girls left but chickened out before I hit send. He was saying all the right things, but it was still so new and so much had happened in such a short time it was hard to process.

I want the easiness between us back but I wouldn’t sacrifice knowing how it felt to have his lips on mine and his hands on my body to get it. Sighing, I scroll through a couple more videos, trying and failing not to notice how sexy he is just being himself.

I’m just about to close out of the app but stop when the next video starts to play. Sorren—petting Louise—at Miss Thelma’s.

Oh shit.

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