To his surprise, Arabella started to giggle.
Eli turned back to her as she shook her head at them. “You two are both crazy.”
“He’s the crazy one,” they said at the same time.
Eli sighed. “You can see why people sometimes think we’re twins.”
“I wondered if you were for a start. Shaw doesn’t really look like you. Duncan does a bit.”
“Shaw takes after our mom,” Kellan said. “He’s one of the lucky ones. Him and Joe. The rest of us all look like our bastard father.”
“Kellan,” Eli said warningly. “We shouldn’t talk about him.”
“Maybe you should,” she blurted out as she pressed her fingers together. “Since I’m going to have to tell you about mine.”
Arabella wasaware that both men zeroed in on her intensely. Her heart started to race and she swallowed nervously.
“Your father?” Eli asked in a low voice. Any hint of amusement had been wiped off his face. It was clear that he knew what she had to say wasn’t good.
“What about him?” Kellan asked, staring down at her.
Horse nudged at her, reminding her that he was there. She scratched his head.
“I think I need to wait to tell you once Jake gets here.”
“Why would Jake need to be here?” Kellan demanded.
“Because he’s your guardian?” Eli asked. “Well, he won’t be for much longer since we’re taking over. You are ours now.”
“Jake is no longer your guardian,” Kellan said.
“So, tell us what you were going to tell him.”
Arabella gaped at them.
Dear Lord.
What was she going to do with them? Well, she knew what she wasn’t going to do. She wasn’t going to let them think they just got to boss her around all the time and expect her to do everything they said.
Not. Happening.
But you do want them, right? To be yours? To be your guardians? To belong to them?
Fuck.
Yeah, she couldn’t deny that she wanted all of that. They had mentioned it in the hospital, but just once and she had started to think she’d imagined it when they hadn’t said it again.
But she couldn’t just jump into this and hope everything would be okay. Because that wasn’t the way her life worked.
They needed to know the full truth first. And they had to decide if they could deal with her trust issues.
“One.” She held up one finger. “I was talking about waiting for Jake because he’s the sheriff. It had nothing to do with him being my guardian.”
“Why would you want to tell the sheriff about your father?” Eli asked.
“I have my reasons.” She grimaced. “Also, it might have something to do with the break-in.”
“Fine, we’ll wait for Jake. But just so you know, we are staying for that talk,” Eli told her. “It was nearly impossible for me to leave you to go and get Horse. The only reason I could do it was because I knew how much you needed him. But, baby, wenearly lost you and we need you close. So maybe this seems too fast and I get that. Some parts of our relationship we can take at a slower pace. However, what we won’t do is back off, leave you alone, or let some other man be your guardian. Okay?”
