“Ok, so…why don’tIget hit on as much as my older sisters?Or Claudia, Cloe, and Clancy?Not that I’m really looking for a guy, or anything.I’m a bit too busy helping my sister right now, but I would at least like to knowwhyguys don’t even seem to notice I’m alive.Do I have no sex appealat all,or something?I really need an objective opinion here.”
Cadell choked next to him.Calloway didn’t know what to say in response.“Your sisters get hit on a lot?My sisters do?Since when?”
“Since we got here an hour ago,three menhave hit on Auggie.Three.I’m not just talking about flirting.I’m talking about almost propositioning.Like the whole ‘let me take you outside to stroll around in the moonlight” thing.And two on Junie.One on Clancy, and I got…nothing.They were just standing there, and men were asking them things I’m not going to repeat.Who even does that?I’m still trying to figure it out here.And what they meant by some of those things, actually.”
“I’m pretty sure most of them were drunk, Em,” Clancy said.“Considering what they said.And they aren’t the kind of guys wewanthitting on us, either.”
“Very, very true, but still…I would like to know.”
“Which guys and what did they say?”He was going to find them and kick their asses.Simple as that.No guy needed to be hitting on these two.They just didn’t.Cal’s blood pressure just couldn’t take it.
“Does that really matter?Guys don’t even seem to see me.Especially when I’m with Auggie and Junie.”
Poor kid.He could see the hurt in her eyes.The insecurity.She came off as bold and confident, but how much of that was an act to hide her fears?Probably a lot, now that he thought about it.The kid had probably bull-shitted her way through life fromday one,with a father like Bruce Tyler.
Clancy had her own opinion.“You look like jailbait, Emmie.But you’ll probably look fifty when you’re eighty, so there is that.And…you have, thirty guard dogs who arealwaysgetting in the way?How can any guy get near you withMasonand the rest of them all around?And your cousins do tend to hover over you more than they do Aug and Junie.They ran off Quade Davis.I mean…Quade Davisalready danced with you.”
“Yeah, and he treated me like I was his kid sister or something.Until Mason and Holton ran him off.”
“They are buttheads.”
Well, Clancy had a point with that.There were male Tylers everywhere in the community center tonight.And they were probably watching everything their female cousins did.They had reputations.Overprotective brawlers was aniceway to put it.Cal had had his own brawls with a handful of them.
“My cousins aren’t around all the time,” Em said, glaring at two that waved in her direction at that very moment.And smirked at her, then sent Cal awarninglook.How funny.
“Maybe it’s because until recently you were the youngest of your family, and all the guys around here just think you’re still a kid?”Clancy added.“They’ve always been overprotective.”
“I’m twenty-two.I’m not a child.Pan was getting married at my age.”
No.A child, she wasn’t.Calloway tried to look at her objectively.Shewasbeautiful, attractive, absolutely hilarious when a person talked to her, loyal, and brilliant.Very brilliant, and a great deal on the intense side—especially for a woman in her early twenties.Itwouldtake a man just as intense as she was to be confident enough with her.One who could handle her without crushing her spirit.“It’s not that, Em.”
“Then what is it?”
“The intensity.You are just as attractive as your older sisters, just as beautiful.There is no missing that, trust me.You are just as much an evil she-devil creature as Auggie and Junie.You are just too intense for mere mortal men sometimes.At least, the younger guys.They aren’t ready enough yet for a woman like you.”She’d wanted honesty.But how was he supposed to put it?Without hurting her—when that was the last thing he intended.“Mature men who are confident in their own rights will be fine with who you are, though.So…don’t change.You are fine the way you are.The right guy will come along eventually.He just probably won’t be twenty-two years old.Give the guys time to mature and see what happens.”
She just blinked at him.From those killer eyes of hers that could destroy a man.
“That’s the truth,” Cadell had to add.“Tone down the know-it-all attitude, too, boss, and you might get a date for a Saturday night.But if you seriously want a boy to notice you?—"
“Man.I am talking aboutmen,you dork.I thought we’d established that.”Em just glared at Cadell, looking like she wanted to slug him.And Cadell…had his hand on her bare arm there, almost…caressing her elbow.Pulling her closer and everything.
Shit.What was Cadell doing?Trying to pick a fight?
“You want amanto notice you?Get rid of the thirty guard dogs glaring down every guy who gets near a Tyler woman’s side.Toss them off a cliff if you have to.Otherwise, you’re going to be an old maid forever.”
His brother could be a bit of a jackass sometimes.At least where Em was concerned.
Cal waited until Clancy and Em took off before looking at his brother.“You really hurt her.”
“I didn’t mean to.But it was honest.And what is she doing looking for a man right now, anyway?Em’s far too young for the decent guys around here to even look at.And the ones near her own age are losers, anyway.She’s better off waiting until she’s older.The right guy will be there, then.He’ll treat her the way she deserves to be treated.”
Cal got the feeling his brother was going to make sure that happened or something.Cal just watched his sister and her best friend as they headed through the crowd again, talking furiously.Probably about Cadell being a jerk to Emagain.
“You think guys don’t look at her already?I’m not so sure.Check it out for yourself.”
Two men he knew well stopped Em and his baby sister as they headed toward their own table where Junie waited.Next thing he knew, those idiots were leading the two women to the dance floor instead.Cal watched for a moment, making certain Dane Masterson kept his hands in the proper places on Clancy, then looked at Cadell.
His brother had storms in his eyes.“Cadell?What?”
