By the time she neared the battlefield, she was soaked, her hair plastered to her head like a cap. She shook her head at the sight that met her eyes. The dogs had joined the party, racing around, occasionally leaping onto rolling bodies, then dancing away with delighted barks.
“Stop it.” It halted the dogs, but not the men. Fred and Ethel sat politely, tongues hanging out, while the men continued to pummel each other. “I said stop this, right now.”
Jared made the mistake of glancing over at the order and caught an elbow sharply on the chin. He retaliated by ramming a fist into the nearest belly.
Filled with righteous indignation, Rebecca slapped her hands on her hips. She didn’t just hear grunts and curses now. They were laughing. Four baboons, she decided, laughing while they beat on each other.
She had a good carrying voice when she needed one. It had filled many a lecture hall. She used it now. “Stop this nonsense immediately. There are children in the house.”
Devin paused, his filthy hand over Rafe’s filthy face. “What?”
“Get up from there, all of you. You should be ashamed.” Eyes hot, she scalded every one of them in turn. “I said get up. You.” Choosing at random, she pointed a righteous finger at Devin. “You’re a sheriff, for God’s sake. You’re supposed to uphold order, and here you are rolling in the mud like a hooligan.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Gamely he swallowed a chuckle and disengaged himself from the tangle of limbs. “Don’t know what got into me.”
“And you.” That valiant finger aimed at Jared. “A lawyer. What are you thinking of?”
“Nothing.” He rubbed a hand over his sore jaw before he rose. “Absolutely nothing.”
“Rafe MacKade.” She had the pleasure of seeing him wince. “A businessman, a pillar of the community. Husband and father. What kind of example are you setting for your children?”
“A poor one.” He cleared his throat and got to his feet. He had the feeling that if he let the laugh loose she’d put him on his butt again.
“And you,” she said, with such contempt in her voice that Shane decided to stay put in the mud. “I thought better of you.”
“She sounds just like Mom,” Shane murmured, and had his brothers nodding in respectful agreement. “Hey, I didn’t start it.”
“Typical response. Just typical. Is this how you solve your problems, your disagreements?”
He rubbed some of the dirt from his aching face. “Yeah.”
“That’s pathetic. You’re all pathetic.” Her authoritative look had three men shifting their feet and Shane grinning. “Violence is never the answer. There’s no problem that can’t be solved with reason and communication.”
“We were communicating,” Shane said, and earned a withering stare.
“I expect you to settle this like rational human beings. If you can’t control yourselves, you’ll just have to keep your distance from each other.”
“Isn’t she something?” Shane said, in a tone that had all three of his brothers studying him. “Have you ever seen anybody like her? Come on and kiss me, sweetie.”
“If you think you can—” She let out a shriek as he swiped out a hand and had her sprawling on top of him. “You idiot. You brainless—”
Then she was flat on her back, covered by wet, hard male. His mouth, trembling with laughter, swooped onto hers. “She’s the prettiest little thing.”
He kissed her again, while mud oozed through her shirt.
“Get off me, you ape!” She bucked, wiggled and gave him a whack.
“Violence.” He was shaking with laughter now, his battered, dirt-streaked face grinning down at her. “You see that?” he called out to his brothers. “She hit me. She isn’t solving the problem with reason and communication.”
“I’ll communicate, all right.” Her fist grazed his ear before his mouth fused to hers again.
And then he was kissing her senseless. The rain beat down, mud slicked her hands, and there was an audience of fascinated onlookers.
She just didn’t care.
As he watched, Rafe found himself grinning. “I’ll be damned,” he murmured. “She’s hooked him.”
“I think you’re right.” Devin rubbed his bloody cheek on his muddy shoulder. “I’ve never seen him look at any woman that way. Think he knows it?”