“Kacey!” Campbell barks out like she’s at a football game.
Kacey launches herself off the stool and sprints for her aunt. “Auntie Campbell!”
Campbell swings her around.
“Careful, or you’ll be wearing her Shirley Temple,” I caution.
Campbell’s smile dips. “I’m not going to get her dizzy.”
She thinks I’m chastising her again. “I’ve been doling out cherries like parade candy. Just giving you a warning.”
“Lots,” Kacey happily replies.
“Just know how you don’t like vomit on your clothing and hair.” I can’t help myself.
Campbell’s sharp inhale resonates between us. Her eyes flash daggers, and I don’t bother to hold back my grin. She narrows her gaze. “I’m going to swing her around a few times and hand her off to her uncle.”
“Haven’s not here yet.”
Finally, she cracks a smile. “He’d probably finish off the jar with her.”
“Can we?” Kacey asks.
“Definitely not,” I say. “Want a Shirley Temple, Campbell? Or the real thing?”
“Just what would that be?” She’s led to the bar by Kacey.
“Dirty Shirley.” I grab another glass. She won’t go for any alcohol. I might’ve assumed that before, but I’m getting to know her better. I want to know more.
“A regular Shirley is fine.” She slides onto a stool and helps Kacey onto hers.
“Can I have a Dirty Shirley?” Kacey asks.
“Not for many more years.” I add a splash of Sprite to her cup and fill up Campbell’s.
“I’ll have what she’s having.” Campbell inspects her niece’s little plate of cut-up beef and cheese sticks. “Is that Hennessy beef? Or Foster? Do you all ranch together too?”
“My brothers and I are separate from the Fosters.” I slide her drink in front of her. She got three cherries too. “The three of us built on Hennessy land, so we just fenced it off and split the duties between the three of us.” We surround the mine on three sides. Lane and Cruz bought land on the other side of the highway that passes our land.
“I bet that helps at times like this when babies are due.” She plucks a cherry and puts the whole thing in her mouth, stem and all. Is she going to eat it?
“Yep.” I continue collecting bottles from the shelves behind the bar for the cocktail sampling.
I squat to grab the cranberry juice out of the fridge. When I rise, Campbell’s setting a perfectly tied cherry stem on the napkin by her glass.
Lust steals all the air from my lungs. I’m supposed to be above base sexual gimmicks, but the dream’s flashingthrough my head like a strobe light. Campbell bent over me, her hair brushing along my abdomen. Her full lips hovering over my aching erection. Arousal pumps hard through my veins, because I am certain that she can tie my dick up just like that stem.
I clear my throat. The shower is one thing. Having those images in my head when I’m at work and she’s right in front of me is not allowed.
“You know what name I want?” Kacey asks me.
My niece spins my mind around the way she changes subjects. Today, I welcome it. “Name for what?”
She looks at me like I have two heads. “My new brother or sister.”
“Try to keep up, Uncle Durban,” Campbell says sweetly.
She’s teasing, and it goes straight to my dick. Everything she says does. “Cole if it’s a boy?”
