“The bookstore,” Auntie Gray answers, twisting around to flash a teasing smile at her brother. “He’d live in that store if we let him.”
“It’s true.” Chuckling softly, Uncle Bram raises one shoulder in a nonchalant shrug. “Would you like to come with me and pick out a few new books for your bookshelf?”
While that’s certainly not the thing I’m looking forward to themost, Uncle Bram looks so earnest I don’t have the heart to turn him down. So I bob my head in agreement and even manage to bounce excitedly in my seat. “Can I have any book I want?”
“Ah…” Uncle Bram’s gaze slides toward the rearview mirror, and Daddy raises a brow. “Any book your Daddy deems appropriate for Little girls.”
“Aw, that’s not fair! Daddy doesn’t thinkanythingis appropriate for Little girls.”
In the mirror, Daddy’s brow raises even higher. “That’s not true. I think bare-bottom spankings are very appropriate for Little girls who sulk and whine about not getting their way.”
Heat rushes to my cheeks. “Sorry, Daddy.”
“Mmhmm.”
I manage to make it the rest of the drive without earning any more raised brows or threats, and soon the first glimpses of the town come into view.
“Oh! It’s so cute!”
And it really is. Like something out of an old Western film, with brick buildings of varying heights and sizes stretched along the main road. Only these buildings are all covered in snow and instead of people strolling along in pretty dresses and dapper suits, the sidewalks are full of people in bulky coats and clunky boots dashing from one building to the next.
Daddy parks the truck in front of a building that just says “Bookstore” in the window—how very original—and kills theengine before turning to face me. “If you can be a good girl for us all day, Daddy will take you to pick out a new toy and some candy before we go home. How does that sound?”
“Okay, Daddy!”
“Good girl. Stay right there and Daddy will come let you out.”
But the excitement bubbling under my skin is too much to contain, so I pop open the buckle of my seatbelt and push open the truck door.
“Shit,” Uncle Bram mutters, fumbling with his own seatbelt. He’s too slow, though, and I manage to hop down from the truck before he can dive for me.
The second my feet hit the ground, however, I realize I miscalculated. My boots immediately slide on a patch of ice I didn’t notice was there and my arms pinwheel wildly as I desperately try to balance myself.
But it’s no use. I can feel myself falling, the ground rushing up to meet me—and then I stop. An iron band wraps around my upper arm and I look up to find myself staring into the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen.
“Whoa there, little girl.” The woman’s voice is gentle, but deep and smoky in a way that makes her sound older than she looks. Eyes sparkling, she helps steady me. “You all right?”
“Lanie!” Seemingly oblivious to the stranger, Daddy rushes around the side of the truck and wraps me in his arms. “What did I tell you about waiting in the truck, little girl?”
“I’m sorry! I didn’t know it was so slippery!”
“I have half a mind to take you somewhere and…” Daddy trails off, his gaze finally focusing on the pretty woman who rescued me. And when he speaks again, his voice is cold as the ice that nearly took me out just a few seconds ago.
“Hello, Sheriff.”
CHAPTER 21
AXEL
Fucking hell. Of all the people we could run into on our first trip into town, it just has to be Sheriff Fucking Donnelly. She’s been suspicious of our family since we first showed up nearly two decades ago, and she takes every chance she can get to poke her nose into our business. And it’s only gotten worse in the last ten years since she took over her uncle’s role as sheriff.
For the most part, she’s harmless, but she can be like a dog with a bone when she gets a whiff of something even remotely rotten.
Gray is already out of the truck, her brown eyes cold and flat the way they always are whenever she and the sheriff square off. “Reese. Don’t you have some roadkill to be scooping up or something?”
Reese cocks a dark brow and meets my sister’s glare head-on. “Do you know something I don’t know, Grayson?”
Lips curving up in a smile colder than the snow surrounding us, Gray lifts a shoulder in a careless shrug. “Can’t imagine there’s much else for you to do around here, considering how much time you devote to hassling me and my brothers.” Gray looks over, her smile fading. “Is she all right?”
