“Again, ogling is not the term I would use.”
The wheels were fucking amazing. Any man would have been down on his knees, inspecting every aspect of them. To a man who liked rubber, they were the cream of the crop.
I turned down the road to the ranch, preparing myself for the massive amount of teasing I was about to face. Not a single person would ever let me live this down. Sure, my mother would appear interested. Krista would mock me relentlessly, but Lizzy…well, she was always on my side. She’d probably be the one to tell everyone else to shut up.
“This is going to be so awesome!” Blake grinned. “And we already have all our things, so it’s perfect!”
“I would say it’s a long way from perfect.”
“Hey, a little positivity here! This is our baby!”
I glanced over at her, shaking my head. “No, our baby is currently in your stomach.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes, I do, and if you want me to be okay with this, you’re going to have to stop referencing that thing as our baby.”
The family was already outside as we parked in front of the house. They must have heard us coming up the drive, wondering what we were doing home so soon after leaving.
Ma’s face was slack. Pop was staring at it like it was an alien, but Liam andJeff…
“Fucking hell,” I muttered, shoving the door open.
I was never going to live this down. And now that I was home, there was no way in hell I’d be able to stop the spread of gossip from reaching town. Even if I swore everyone to silence, I gave it five minutes before the whole town knew.
Stepping out, I rolled my eyes at Blake’s enthusiasm. She was way too thrilled about something so small.
“You’re back,” Ma said, her eyes scanning the truck warily.
“Yeah, it didn’t exactly work out.”
She nodded, her eyes still on the eyesore we dragged home.
Jeff cocked his head to the side, still trying to figure out what the hell it was. “Um…what exactly is that thing?”
“It’s a house!” Blake said excitedly.
“It has wheels,” Liam said, his brows furrowed in confusion.
“Nah, that thing’s too tiny to be a house,” Pop said. “That’s like…a shed or a fishing house.”
Blake, ever excited about our new digs, rushed over to the door. “Come see! It’s a tiny home on wheels! We saw it, and I just knew it was the perfect solution to our problem!”
Ma walked over, wary about the size of the house. Meanwhile, Pop headed my way, that condescending look on his face that he’d been giving me since I had hit puberty.
“The solution to your problem, huh?”
“She wanted our own space.”
“And staying in that thing is better than staying with us?”
I never said it was better. But, hell, yes, it was ten times better. There was nothing worse than waking up every morning, forced to listen to my father berate me for how disappointed he was with something I had done.
But that wouldn’t do any good to say.
“Do you ever get your way with Ma?”
He nodded. “Fair point. So, how much did you drop on that?”
