My heart lurched, skipped a beat and then started racing at the sight of him. Sam. God, he looked good. Better than I remembered. Bigger. Broader. More…chiseled. He didn’t even afford the other women even a glance, his dark eyes squarely and solely on me.
“Sam, um…hi.”
“Me, too,” Ashe said, moving into the doorway to stand next to Sam.
Oh, god, the full effect of the two of them could still ruin my panties, even after hating them for the past few days. My mind might be wanting to strangle them, but my body wanted to climb both of them like a tree.
“How did you find me?” I asked. I didn’t think Riley would have said anything. He’d be a terrible lawyer if he had.
“You two are jerks,” Penny said, stepping in their way. She was a foot shorter than both of them and the way she had to tilt her head back to yell, the effect was lost. Especially with a baby on her shoulder. “And how did you find her?”
They didn’t look at Penny, but at me. Her being so short, it was a clear view. But Cricket stepped behind her and so did Kady. “If you’re in trouble with our sister, you’re in trouble with us.”
“Flight records. It wasn’t a big leap to think you’d come see Riley, then end up here,” Ashe admitted.
Kady had her hands on her hips and Cricket’s chin was tipped up, listening. “That was smart,” Kady admitted. “But you’re still jerks for upsetting our sister.”
In that moment, everything came into sharp clarity as if things had been out of focus and I’d put on some glasses.
My sisters were standing in front of two big guys, protecting me. It was like I was on the elementary school playground and they were blocking me from a bully. Or two. I’d never had anyone do that for me in my life, and these women? I’d only known them for about an hour. Yet they were ready for a WWE smack down with Sam and Ashe.
I laughed, hiccupped, then began to cry. And I wasn’t a good crier. In fact, I was a hot mess when I cried, splotchy face, swollen eyes, lots of snot, but I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t stop it.
Hands patted my back and I was pulled into a chest, hugged. Grandma Sarah and her big bosom.
“See? You’ve upset her.”
I cried even harder at the way Sarah snarled at the men.
> “What the hell is going on in here?” I recognized the voice as Cord’s, which was as big as he was.
“Ashe and Sam made her cry,” Kady said, sounding just like a little kid tattling. It made me laugh, the sound a weird mix of a sob and a snort, which had to be extra unattractive to Sam and Ashe. But it wasn’t them that had made me lose it. Well, them partially. It was that I had four sisters who were like mama bears protecting their cub.
Before Ashe and Sam were dragged out back and beat up, I stood upright, wiped my face and moved away from Sarah.
“Better?” she asked, eyeing me with concern.
I nodded. “You all just met me and are ready to march those two out to the woodshed.”
“You’re our sister,” Cricket replied, as if that answered it all.
“But you’ve known them longer.” I cocked my head toward the duo. “You said you liked them, that…that they were your friends and still, you believe me, stood up for me.”
“Honey, look at them,” Sarah prompted.
I glanced at Ashe, who had his shoulders slumped, his head angled down and watching me cautiously through his thick lashes, and Sam, whose hand was running over the back of his neck as if ready to climb out of his skin.
“We know them, yes, but they’re men,” Sarah continued. “They’re stupid and often think with their dicks, like Cricket said. That night in Boston, were you thinking with your dick, Ashe?”
“Yes, but can you blame either of us? Look at her,” he replied.
“See?” Cricket said, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Our first glimpse of you, we were ruined,” Sam admitted. “It’s like the other guys in this house. Cord here, for example. When did you know Kady was the one?” he asked, glancing to the side at the big…BIG man.
Cord grinned, eyed Kady. “The second I laid eyes on her in the baggage claim. She hadn’t been in town five minutes.”
“We wanted you, sweetheart,” Ashe said to me. “Want you. We weren’t keeping our reason for being in town a secret, nor your inheritance. It’s just that we wanted you more.”