I handed him the phone. He quickly read through the messages and grunted.
“Garrett,” I said, tone dangerous, “you need to stay out of my relationship.”
He looked at me coldly. “I’m trying to keep you from making a terrible mistake.”
* * *
My fake relationshipwith Avery wasn’t a terrible mistake, though the bachelor party sure was. Many of the brothers who had been planning to come had instead opted to sleep in and had ignored Hunter when he had banged on their doors.
A handful of my adult brothers and a whole assortment of my youngest brothers were assembled outside the house.
“Lamest bachelor party ever,” Weston declared, lightly tapping all our little brothers on the head. Several of them jumped on him.
“I hope you brought food in case we don’t catch anything,” my brother Parker complained.
“Ugh,” Archer said. “What kind of bachelor party starts at five in the morning? This sucks!”
“You didn’t even go to sleep,” Greg snapped at him. “You’ve been up all night.”
“Look lively, gentlemen!” Remy said. “There are orange vests in the box.”
I handed them out as Remy fetched the bus and drove it into the roundabout. It had been repainted a bright orange, and new lettering along the side said, BACHELOR BUS.
“I am not driving around in that,” I balked.
“Do not make this any more difficult than it needs to be,” Hunter growled at me. “Besides, this is your own doing.”
As the bus trundled down the road and out into the countryside, I started to perk up. I was agnostic on hunting—we’d had to hunt to survive when we lived in Wyoming, as my mother had spent all of the welfare checks she received on magazines and cigarettes, but I did like being out in nature.
The fog was rolling over the hills when Remy parked at a large expanse of land that we owned farther out in the next county.
“Make sure you have your hunting licenses,” Greg said. “I’m not bailing anyone out of jail.”
“The kids are not allowed to shoot,” Hunter said. “You all are here watching and enjoying nature. We don’t need any more bad publicity.”
My littlest brothers nodded. They were all bright eyed, used to waking up before the crack of dawn to go to school.
I was starting to feel more relaxed as we hiked through the woods. My little brothers were making so much noise there was no way we were going to shoot anything, which was fine with me. I was too busy thinking about my future married life with Avery.
The dilemma? I didn’t want to divorce her once I married her. It was clear to me that we were perfect for each other. Avery was all I wanted after a long day at work, and Harrogate would be not only tolerable but enjoyable if she was there too.
“Is it time for lunch yet?” Otis whined next to me.
“It’s not even time for breakfast,” I said. “We’ve only been out here a couple hours.”
“I’m tired,” Davy complained to Parker. “Carry me.”
“No,” Parker barked.
“Go ask Blade,” Weston told Davy. “He’s about to be married, and he’s probably going to be a dad soon, so he needs the practice.”
“There something you want to tell us?” Mace asked, turning to me.
Yes, that I’m desperately in love with Avery and want children with her, but in the context of our very fake relationship, that is probably not going to happen.
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” I drawled.
Just then, there were yells from my younger brothers, who had raced ahead. They came tearing back toward us with Archer herding them along.
