My eyes drift down to see Scarlett beaming up at me. “Come on,” she says, tugging on my hand.
Following her lead, I say hello to all the women as Scarlett introduces me once again. “This is Ryker. He’s my…” she trails off and looks up me. “He’s mine.” With those two words, she’s captured my heart forever.
“I am yours,” I tell her before tipping my hat to the ladies and presenting them with a box of chocolate from the candy store downtown. “Scarlett told me that you all had a sweet tooth and a particular love of all things chocolate.”
Sawyer’s wife, Hannah accepts the box with one hand while holding her little boy in her other arm. “Thank you,” she says, passing the box over to Brooks’ wife, Lacey. “That’s real nice of you to think of us.”
“Yes, very nice,” Lacey says, balancing her own baby on her hip as she rips the ribbon off the top of the box and opens it, grabbing a chocolate truffle and popping it in her mouth. Violet and Georgie follow her lead and nod their heads in agreement. “You got yourself a keeper here, Scarlett.”
Scarlett shrugs a shoulder. “I know,” she states, leaning up on her toes to kiss my cheek. “He’s pretty special.”
The smile that overtakes my face could light up the darkest night, but when I see her brothers approaching out of the cornerof my eye, my happiness dims slightly. These fellas are the ones I’m going to have to work hard to win over.
Disentangling my hand from Scarlett’s, I offer it up to the first brother to approach me. Mav is easy to remember. With scars that come up across his cheek and the slight limp in his gate, it’s not hard to pick him out from the rest of the brothers who are all basically carbon copies of one another.
The man stares at my hand for a moment, but one fierce look from the lady by my side has him grabbing on and giving it a firm shake. “Nice to see you again, Ryker,” he tells me despite him trying to squeeze the life out of my hand.
“Likewise,” I return, not letting up one inch as I squeeze back.
“Oh my god, enough,” Scarlett says before she slaps our hands away from one another. “And I’m the young one.”
Her brother and I chuckle and the rest of the handshakes go by without incident. Next thing I know we’re all seated at the table, passing around platters of steaks, potatoes, cornbread and a bunch of other barbeque fixings that smell so good my stomach can’t help but growl.
“Someone’s hungry,” Scarlett says as she passes me a plate of green beans. That’s the kind of remark that would earn her a witty reply and a long kiss if it weren’t for the crowd in front of us. As it is, all I can do is slip my hand under the table and give her upper thigh a squeeze, letting her know exactly what it is I’m really hungry for.
“So, Ryker,” Sawyer starts. “Exactly how much older than my sister are you?” The man asks, staring me down from across the table.
Scarlett huffs and starts to stir next to me, but I just give her leg another squeeze and shoot her a reassuring smile. “Well, I turned thirty-eight last July and I know our Scarlett hereturned twenty-two not long ago, so that would be about sixteen years I believe,” I tell him with a smile.
Our age difference doesn’t bother me and I know it doesn’t bother her. Over lunch one day while I was telling Scarlett about some of my adventures in the Marine Corps, she told me she liked that I had so much life experience. She hasn’t traveled much herself, something I would love to do with her, but she’s wiser than her years, probably due to losing her parents at such a young age and having to fight her brothers tooth and nail since.
Sawyer stares me down before looking over at Scarlett. “You know, seems like someone who is as good with numbers as you are would realize that is a fairly large gap, Lettie. That’s a lot of years between two people,” he says before cutting into his steak. By the look on his face, I can only imagine it’s my face he’s picturing as he does.
“You always told me age was just a number,” his wife Hannah says next to him, her expression hurt. “Was that a lie? Do you really care that I’m eleven years younger than you?”
Sawyer’s eyes widen in panic and he wraps an arm around his wife. “Of course I didn’t lie. You’re perfect for me, sweetheart,” he vows.
Hannah smiles up at him sweetly. “Then I guess Scarlett and Ryker’s age difference doesn’t matter either, does it?” She asks, winking slyly over to our side of the table.
“I-I guess not,” Sawyer sputters before kissing the top of his wife’s head. He looks over at me and seems a little put out by his wife derailing his argument, but when she leans in and snuggles closer to him, his expression clears and he smiles at her.
“Well, age aside, there is the whole matter of lying about having a boyfriend and sneaking out to go see him,” her brother Brooks chimes in as he bounces his little boy in his arms.
His wife, Lacey, drops her fork and stares at her husband in shock. “Remind me again what you told me when I had amnesia after my car accident?” Brooks opens and closes his mouth like a fish, and when he says nothing his wife continues. “Oh, that’s right. You lied and said we were engaged so I would come home with you.”
“That’s different,” Brooks grumbles before looking over at Scarlett and smiling sadly. “Not that different, I guess.”
“Exactly,” Lacey says before smiling at Scarlett and me. It’s nice to see that even as her brothers try to find reasons for us not to be together, her sisters-in-law have her back. The wide grin on Scarlett’s face tells me she’s just as grateful for it as I am.
Mav clears his throat. “How serious is this? It’s not like you’ve known each other long.”
Mav’s wife clutches at her pregnant belly and laughs out loud. “We literally met and married not one month after a mail-order bride site matched us together, so stow that argument right now mister,” she commands.
Mav shrugs a shoulder. “Worth a shot,” he says before leaning over and kissing his wife on the lips. When he’s done, his along with every other head at the table swivels over to the youngest brother, Wyatt.
For his part, Wyatt just chuckles and shakes his head, wrapping an arm around his wife and pulling her closer to him. “Oh no. I already stepped in it plenty of times with my wife, no need to remind her all about it by trying to make a stupid point right now.”
Georgie leans up and kisses his cheek. “Smart man,” she says, patting his chest before feeding him a bite of cornbread.
