THE SOUNDof a diesel engine near the main house draws my attention, and I see the familiar red of my sister, Breanna’s, huge truck that can pull any size trailer. I guess Dad called her about Frost, who hasn’t been feeling well for the past couple of weeks.
Taking my gloves off and tossing them on top of a stack of feed bags in the barn, I walk out to see her. Breanna had just turned twelve when I joined the Air Force, so I haven’t got to see her nearly enough over the past fifteen years. I saw her a couple times a year when she was in high school when I would come for leave, but once she went to college, I was lucky to see her once a year.
When she was a little girl, she found out Mom died after giving birth to her and somehow got it in her head that she killed Mom. It was really hard on her, and Dad made her see a therapist for years, she was still seeing her when I enlisted.
Now, she’s this tiny woman who barely stands five foot two and the only one in the family to have naturally curly hair. Her facial features are like Marley and Kinley, and she has Dad’s eyes, but somehow, she got a short gene from one of our ancestors somewhere.
Walking through the back door of the house, I hear excited chatter and babies laughing. Marley and Breanna are in thekitchen, each holding a twin, and Breanna is spinning and dancing with Niki as she squeals. Sofi is on Marley’s hip laughing, but content to be with her mama. It always takes her a minute to warm up to people she doesn’t see daily.
I walk around the island at the same time Dad, Gray, and Mason come in the way I just came. Breanna looks at me, and her face lights up. “Tuck!”
She walks to me, and I give her a bear hug, lifting her off the floor, while scratching my beard on Niki’s cheek as I do, making her squeal again. “How you doin’, shorty?” I mumble and kiss her forehead.
“I’m good.” It looks like she’s about to say more, but when I put her down, Dad steps in behind me and gives her another hug, so I take a step back and let Mason and Gray through.
Marley is also standing back out of the way, and I end up next to her. She holds Sofi out to me. “Will you take her for a second? I need to check my roast in the oven.”
Sofi comes to me easily. They are almost three, but they both have long blond hair the same color as Jax and the same icy blue eyes. After some of the stories I’ve heard about him, I feel sorry for the boys in their future who come sniffing around, because they have their mama’s features, and are both definitely going to be beautiful.
Appearing next to me again, Marley tilts her head and talks loud enough for me to hear. “Noticed you left late last night.”
Turning to look down into her ocean blue eyes, I lift my eyebrow. “Yeah?”
She bumps her shoulder into my arm and smirks. “Did you go see a certain redhead?”
That redhead has been on my mind every second since I left her last night. The way her soft body melted into me when I pulled her in for a hug was the closest thing to heaven I think I’vegot to. But hearing the sigh as she relaxed against me, everything in me wanted to claim her as mine.
Of course, my sister just happened to be up when I left. She knows where I went, and I’m not gonna play games with her. “What if I did?”
She shrugs with a smile. “I just think she’s sweet, and since she’s been around, you smile more, it’s the first time you’ve relaxed some in almost a year.”
She’s right. Some of the maddening thoughts that have controlled my thinking have been replaced with thoughts of her. Thoughts of having her next to me permanently. Inwardly kicking myself, I remember I don’t even know her.
My sister is only doing what sisters do, but I don’t really want to talk to her about this, so I hand Sofi back to her and turn to the back door to go back to the barn.
As I’m walking back down to the barn, birds are chirping in the trees that are swaying and swishing in the north wind that kicked up this morning. But the sound on replay in my head is that soft fucking moan when I was kissing Nora last night.
My dick was already hard when I kissed her, but when I heard that, the frenzy of wanting her so fucking bad wanted to take over. I had to leave before I pushed her against the wall and nipped that hard little nipple that was poking my chest with my teeth.
My phone buzzing in my back pocket pulls me out of my thoughts. Private number. I get unknown numbers all the time because of my past in the military, but not private numbers. Then I remember Mason telling me that his boss, Callum, would be calling me.
“Harlow.”
A deep voice on the other end asks, “Tucker Harlow?”
“Yeah. Who is this?”
“Names Callum. We’ve met a few times in the past, but it’s been a few years.”
Walking past the doors to the barn, I walk around the back of the building for privacy. “I remember. What can I do for you?”
He chuckles. “Right to the point. Mason said you’re a man of few words these days.”
“I’m also a man of little patience.” No need to act like someone I’m not; it’s true, patience is something I’ve run short of lately.
“I’m calling you because one of the guys on my team, our pilot, is leaving the team for personal reasons, leaving me short. I know you can fly, and I wondered if we could meet and have a conversation.”
The question comes out of left field. I thought my military days were over. I know Callum’s team is off the books, and not technically part of the U.S. Government, but they have subcontracted for jobs in the past.
