From the porch steps, Ethan watched with Melly held in his arms. He didn’t see a need to rush. The woman was clearly losing the battle, but by the look on her face, she’d come out swinging and he sure didn’t want to miss that.
The snake, thankfully small and now thoroughly traumatized, slithered off.
“Young lady,” Honey scolded Brooke, who lay in the grass looking far too pleased for her damsel in distress act. “That’s the second time you have assaulted me with animals. What on earth were you thinking?”
Assault.
That word landed hard in Ethan’s chest. His gazeflicked to Brooke, whose smirk didn't falter under the weight of the word that made Ethan’s spine straighten.
The bureau didn’t need a reason to look too closely at a kid like Brooke. He’d go to jail himself before he let anyone twist her wild streak into something ugly. He’d be having words with her later—firm ones—but right now? His first instinct was to get between her and the woman in the puddle slinging accusations.
Brooke darted a glance at her dad. “It was just a bull snake.”
“There’s nojustwhen it comes to snakes,” Honey snapped.
Honey got to one knee. She reached for her suitcase for support, planted a foot, and he could see she instantly regretted it. She tugged, but her foot remained firmly suctioned in place.
“Oh, come on,” she muttered, shifting her weight.
With a horrible squelch, her shoe came loose. Her arms pinwheeled, and she teetered in what seemed to be slow motion until she flopped onto her stomach.
A small giggle burst from Brooke.
Honey whipped her head around. “This is not funny.”
“It’s kind of funny,” Ethan said, stopping just short of the edge of the mud puddle. “Pretty sure I told you to leave.”
“I was leaving,” she bit out, “before your children assaulted me.”
Her face was bright red, blotchy with embarrassment, but she still tried to sit up straight and keep lecturing him like she wasn’t dripping farm water and pride.
“Mr. Hale,” she said, her voice clipped. “Were you aware of these repossession proceedings for missed payments?”
He gritted his teeth. “Were you aware that it’s illegal for you to remain on my property after I told you to leave?”
“Yes,” she snapped. “But your daughter just confessed to violating at least two minor bureau codes and possibly one major one because she was desperate and unsupervised. And thanks to my technical trespassing, you’ve narrowly avoided losing the equipment you need for your livelihood.”
“Don’t tell me what I need.”
The nerve of this woman—face-first in his driveway one second, lecturing him about parenting and finances the next. Like she had any idea what it took to keep this place running.
“Be reasonable, Mr. Hale. I don’t expect a thank you or your effusive gratitude. I would just like the permission to do my job.”
She grabbed hold of the handle of her suitcase only for it to pop open, spilling her carefully folded clothes into the mud.
“I’m fine, thank you for asking,” Honey said tightly, pushing herself up with a squish and a groan. “Totally fine.”
Ethan didn’t move at first. He stood there watching this disaster of a woman still trying to hold herself like a bureau official and not a soggy raccoon. There was something almost admirable about it.
Stupid, but admirable.
“Seems so,” he muttered. He set Melly on her feet and held out his hand.
To his surprise, she took it without protest, small fingers cold and trembling in his. He hauled her up like she weighed nothing.
He looked at Brooke, who was now smiling like a cherub. “And you couldn’t tell a bull snake from a rattler?”
Brooke shrugged. He’d known that shrug since she was two. It didn’t fool him then, and it sure as hell didn’t now.
