In a word, he looked fucking delicious. The rugged cowboy look definitely did it for him.
The guy nodded to the empty seat beside Atticus. “You mind?”
“No.”
He took a seat on Atticus’s left, leaning back with a casualness so many of these cowboys exuded. As though he didn’t have a care in the world. That or he needed to recline to take some pressure off his balls since those damn jeans looked molded to his mile-long legs.
“What was the wise choice I made?” Atticus prompted, not wanting to think about the guy’s balls or his legs and risk getting a hard-on.
The guy nodded his chin toward the door. “Not gettin’ in between those two. Slade and Spencer’ve been fightin’ since they were kids. Got worse when Spencer screwed Slade’s girl.”
“Yeah, well.” Atticus huffed. “In between wasn’t where I was hopin’ I’d end up tonight. You related to them or what?”
“Not directly, no.”
“What does that mean?”
“Means my cousins are their cousins.”
Atticus didn’t have the brain power to make sense of that, so he said, “Then whoareyou related to?”
“Well…” The guy looked around the room and started pointing. “That one. And him. And that one over there. Her. Her. And yeah, that one, too.”
Atticus noticed he’d pointed at Brantley first, then to Ethan, and then some others Atticus didn’t know.
“Cousins,” the guy said, twisting so he could offer a hand. “Name’s Carson. And you are?”
“Let me guess, your last name’s Walker.”
“Nope. Briggs.” Carson flashed a grin. “My mama’s maiden name is Walker, though. And you are?”
“Atticus.” He shook the man’s hand, and as soon as their palms touched, Atticus knew his night was looking a little brighter.
“Nice to meet ya.”
“I’d say the same,” Atticus told him, “but I’ll refrain until I see if one of your kin is gonna come over here and warn me off you.”
Carson laughed. “Ask anyone. I’ve got no skeletons in my closet.”
“With or without, are you still locked up tight in that closet?”
A sexy curve pulled at the corner of Carson’s lips until he was doing that whole half-smirk thing. Carson raised his pink drink. “What do you think?”
Oh yeah. His night was definitely looking up.
Chapter Seven
“I have to say, this has beeneasier than I expected,” Becs said when Evan joined her in the kitchen.
It had been a long day. Freakishly long since somehow they’d managed to get the girls to go to bed early last night. That backfired when they woke up at the ass-crack of dawn this morning ready to party.
On the flip side, they’d been so busy keeping up with the kids they hadn’t had a chance to finish the conversation they’d started last night.
“Which part?” he replied. “Dinner or getting them to agree to go to sleep?”
She smiled. “Both.”
Damn, she had a beautiful smile.
