“I was, Mark. I’m not some teenager, I’m a grown woman,” she added.
“Are you here on your own today or did someone bring you?” Drake asked her, interrupting the potential argument. She pulled her lip between her teeth. It was a nervous habit he found adorable. Hell, she wasn’t a teenager, anyone with fucking eyes could see she was all woman.
“I came alone, how about you guys? No special lady friends today?” she replied again with a bit of attitude that wasn’t Diane at all.
“Why would you think that?” Drake asked, sounding insulted.
Diane cleared her throat. “I didn’t mean anything. I just figured since Mark frequents the boutique and picked out some nice things the other day that you m
ight be here with someone special.”
Mark leaned closer, reached up, and moved a strand of her long brown hair away from her cheek. “We’re checking out the prospects.” He held her gaze.
“I see,” she said, and then Sage interrupted, passing her lemonade.
“Thank you.” She took a sip as she looked around the area.
They all continued to walk together and Virgo brought up the new dance floor that Sage, Lena, and Abigail were opening up in the back of the bed-and-breakfast.
“That is going to be awesome. So many people are going to love hanging out there on the weekends and enjoying the activities you have planned,” Diane said.
“Well, I can’t wait to see you out there. I know how good you are at dancing. You’ll have the cowboys lining up outside of the boutique,” Sage teased.
“No, not me. You know how shy I am.”
“Honey, you can dance. I’ve seen the videos,” Dale teased Diane and she blushed. Mark found the information interesting. Not that he was much of a dancer, but the kind of dancing he’d want his woman to do would be fun for all of them.
“That’s interesting information. Maybe you’d like to show us what sexy moves you’ve got, Diane. I know I’d love to see them,” Drake teased, and then he gave her shoulder a little nudge with his own.
She looked so sweet and shy. “I don’t think so.”
Virgo and Dale teased Diane some more and then Sage started in on her men as Melissa and her men came over to join them. Immediately Diane bent down to say hello to the baby giving Mark and his brother the perfect view of her breasts. They were full and round, overflowing from the sexy top she wore beneath the blouse. He wouldn’t be able to resist the attraction for much longer. Mark needed to set his brothers straight and get them on board.
“Hey, Diane, we’re going to meet the others by the bed-and-breakfast to see how the dance hall is coming along. Want to join us?” Colin asked.
“I’ll see you guys later. I really want to see what it looks like.” Diane headed toward the group of guys and Mark looked at Drake.
“When are you two and Lucas going to ask Diane out and let her know how you feel?” Willie asked them.
They looked at the crowd of friends around them.
“When the time is right,” Drake said.
“I’d hate to tell you guys this, but you’d better make it soon. She isn’t going to keep saying no to all those offers much longer,” Paul told them.
“No way. She’s too beautiful, and if they keep asking, eventually they’re going to break her down,” Paul added.
Drake looked at Mark. “We need to talk to Lucas. Today.”
Mark watched Diane disappear with a group of young men and he knew that time was running out. They wanted her. They thought about no other woman for the past year. It was time to stake a claim and let Diane know she was theirs. They just needed Lucas to finally agree to take the chance. It was time to overcome their fears and go after the woman they wanted.
Chapter 2
Lucas was staring at the clock he just finished staining. The details he added to this one were so complex, he had obsessed over the design and pattern so much that he dreamt of the clocks instead of having nightmares. Moving out to Pearl, developing his love of carving combined with his appreciation of cuckoo clocks were the best decisions he had made.
He thought about how he started liking the clocks after a stint in Germany during his military career. They intrigued him, and he was lucky enough to meet a craftsman who taught him all about creating the clocks from scratch. He wondered if his brothers were enjoying the event in town, yet he didn’t feel guilty for not attending, too. As much as he wanted to see Diane, especially after Mark finding her on the side of the road late at night and alone, he feared socializing.
He was a quiet man, and liked his privacy. He heard what people said about him and the rumors about him not being right. Well, if going through the experiences he did, and not acting like life was perfect made him strange, then so be it. When had he ever cared what anyone else thought except for his brothers? They were his life, his reasons for not taking up his friends’ offers of living off the land out in the middle of nowhere. There was a time, when he first returned from serving, that he thought about moving to those places. He questioned the way people looked at him, the way he reacted to sounds and normal events around him, and he questioned his own sanity.