“You should have been a little quieter about your admiration,” Teal told her.
“What? Why? It was hilarious.” As the question left her mouth, Gemma groaned.
Smug as heck, Embry was waiting in the wings with her palm outstretched, as usual, her adoring clan beside her. All the girls wanted to be just like the money hungry dynamo.
Gemma waved her away. “Go tell your Uncle Bodie to pay my fees.”
Embry took off in the direction where he stood with all the other guys by the grill. She didn’t care who paid her, as long as she got paid. We watched her exchange with Bodie who paid up but then looked over at his wife and mouthed,“That’s one.”
“One?” Lake asked Gemma.
Gemma smiled, but her eyes were still on her husband when she said, “Spanking.”
“Damn, that’s hot!” Teal yelled.
“Now you did it,” Jurnee said as she watched her daughter come running toward us again.
Before Embry even made it to us, Teal gave her the same wave that Gemma had. “Go collect from your Uncle Kace.”
Embry giggled, did an about-turn, and headed back to the guys.
“Now I get one too,” Teal said cheerfully.
And so it began. All the ladies were calling out one thing or another so they could snag a spanking later that night. It was a good thing most of the kids were off playing, and thosethat had been with Embry had gotten bored of the little game.
Not Embry, though. She waited between the two groups like a vulture until she’d collected money from all the guys.
Except for Jett.
He raised his dark brows at me, and I couldn’t resist.
“Damned if I’m going to be left out!” I shouted.
Not only were the women laughing their butts off, but the men were chuckling loudly, too. Even Gramps was in on it. I shook my head at them. They thought it was the funniest thing when a curse came out of my mouth.
After Embry had taken each man’s money, she ran off toward the other kids.
“She’s going to go count it, isn’t she?” River asked.
“I have no doubt,” her mother responded.
As the ladies laughed at that, my eyes stayed locked on my husband, who was moving toward me with a silly smile on his face. I couldn’t look away. I wondered sometimes how I managed to make the dream who was now standing in front of me mine.
“You ready to make announcements?” he asked, leaning in close so only I could hear him.
“Yeah.” A giddy feeling trickled through me. “Let me get Dusty on FaceTime.”
Jett’s eyes twinkled with approval. Just as they kept in touch, so did Dusty and me. We couldn’t wait to share our news with everyone—including our close friend who couldn’t be with us. But we hoped we could convince her to make another visit.
“Whoa. You’re having a party and didn’t invite me?” Dusty said, throwing her hand over her heart dramatically. “I’m hurt.”
“You could always move here and then…” I trailed off, wondering if she was a mind reader. “How did you know we were having a party?”
Someone bumped me from behind, and I twisted my head to see all the ladies peeking over my shoulder. “Oh right. If all these nosy ladies don’t scream ‘party’, I don’t know what does.”
“Give me the phone; I’ll hold it while you two do your thing,” Ruby said, reaching around me and snagging the phone out of my hand.
“What thing?” Capri asked.
