“I guess Holden’s not the only one with good reflexes.” Her left eyebrow crooked up. “Or hands.”
My little brother Holden was a professional bull rider who’d won countless titles and a few world championship buckles. He was based out of Wishing Well, but traveled forty weeks a year, which meant we never saw him. Just hearing Harmony say that he had good hands sent an unfamiliar and unwelcome twist through my gut. I wasn’t a jealous person and I knew that Harmony and Holden had never been more than friends. My brother had been in love with the same girl since he was in pre-K. Things hadn’t worked out with them, but he still only ever had eyes for her.
I stood and closed the top of the cooler, trying to ignore the jealousy that stirred just beneath the surface. Taking the not-so-subtle hint, Harmony followed my lead and was up and on her feet calling Romeo, who’d been napping under the old oak tree that sat at the edge of the property. She ran down the steps to meet him as he rambled sleepily over.
When she bent over and scratched his head, declaring him the most handsome boy, it put her assets on display like a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I gritted my teeth trying not to stare at the tantalizing view her new position provided me. The last thing I needed was to spend the rest of the day with a painful hard-on, which I’d only just gotten control over from the last time. For the life of me, I couldn’t tear my gaze away from her heart-shaped, full, mouthwatering backside. Thankfully, just as I began rising to attention she straightened and shifted on her heels so she was once again facing me.
“Oh and just in case you were confused, since you seem to have trouble in this department, that was a compliment. Those hands of yours have been the star of more fantasies than I can count.” A self-satisfied smile spread across Harmony’s face as she practically skipped back to the barn with Romeo running beside her, his tail wagging happily.
My mind immediately filled with visions of what her fantasies might possibly consist of, how often she’d fantasized, and if any of them were similar to the hundreds, if not thousands, that I’d had starring her.
Shit.
It looked like my fate was sealed. I would be spending the rest of the day hoping my zipper held up against the steel rod trying its best to make a jail break. No way in hell was I going to be able to stop the X-rated slideshow that was playing in my mind now, the soundtrack of which was Harmony’s sweet voice saying, “Those hands of yours have been the star of more fantasies than I can count.”
The good news was, I only had four hours left before I could call it a day and take matters into my own hands. The bad news was, I had one hundred and ninety-two more hours of torture ahead of me after today.
What the hell had I been thinking?
Chapter 9
Harmony
“Mind your own biscuits and life will be gravy.”
~ Loretta Reed
“Ow, ow, ow!” I cringed as I pushed off the armrest of the couch so I could put my feet up on Destiny and JJ’s coffee table. I lifted my legs, but I was moving slower than an arthritic ninety-year-old.
“So what exactly are you guys doing up there?” Cara asked.
“Cleaning, painting, landscaping.” I moaned.
“But why? What’s it for?”
Destiny’s question was one that I’d been asking myself for the past week. “I have no idea.”
“Well, what does Hud say?” Cara inquired.
“Not much. He’s barely said five words to me,” I managed to explain between groans.
Every muscle ached in protest. My entire body hurt. Even my skin. Especially my skin, which was on fire. Having a naturally olive complexion, I wasn’t used to the sun getting the best of me. From the time I was little, my mom had made sure I always used sunscreen. That habit had followed me through adulthood. With one slathering application of SPF thirty or more, I could spend the entire day out at the lake and the next day I’d wake up with a golden glow. This morning, instead of head-to-toe tan, I’d woken up burnt to a crisp and unable to move my head or my arms.