Herd That (The Valentine Boys 1)

I touched my nose to her ear and said, “My mom was the same way. She didn’t have much, but what she did have was the finest quality. Though, my dad didn’t give it to her. Her brother and father did.”

“You have an uncle and grandfather?” she asked.

I shook my head. “Not anymore. My grandfather died a couple of years before my parents did. Her brother died in a boating accident about six weeks before my mother.”

She frowned. “That’s awful.”

It was, but it was the way of life, too.

“I think everyone in my entire family is alive,” she paused. “Though my father’s parents never really liked my mother all that much. We don’t see them but once every couple of years when we go visit them in Japan. And that’s only when they’re being nice that year. Most of the time they’re not. My mom has four sisters, all of which live scattered around the United States. Unfortunately, they were never close so we don’t see them all that much, either.”

“Your dad have any siblings?” I asked, hiking her up higher and walking around the front of the truck.

She shrugged. “He has one, but he’s in Japan, too. The chosen child. He doesn’t like us because he likes Mommy and Daddy’s money more.”

I snorted. “When am I going to meet your parents?”

She made a face. “They won’t come back here. If you want to meet them, we’ll have to make a special trip down to them. Unfortunately, they have a whole lot of reasons not to come back.”

I imagined that was the truth.

“I don’t know why I came back either,” I admitted. “I mean, Georgia is here. The kids. But… this place has a whole lot of memories I can’t escape. Everybody looks at me with pity, too. It’s awfully exhausting some days.”

She pressed her lips to my nose, and I backed away, closing the door once she was situated in her seat.

It was when I was climbing in my side that she said, “At least they try to accept you back into the fold. Me, however, they still look at me like I’m a powder keg waiting to blow.”

I grinned at her. “You’re my little powder keg. Tell me who’s mean to you, and I’ll set them straight.”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t think it works like that.”

I shrugged. “I hear Marie had a nice day at work,” I teased.

She made a gagging sound in her throat.

“I don’t know who said something to Jace, but he came into the lab today pissing mad. Oh, man. Luke had to restrain him,” she said, her face bright with the memory.

“I heard. And that was why you were late,” I explained.

She nodded. “I’m fairly sure one of them is going to have to leave. There’s no way in hell that they’re going to be able to work together after everything was brought to light.”

“That she cheated?” I guessed.

She nodded. “It was with another cop… but you knew that, didn’t you?”

I shrugged. “Jensen said it best earlier. When you want to be invisible, you become very good at being in places where juicy gossip is shared. Unfortunately for Marie, she happened to share it while I was at the feed store. She was looking at dog food with her friend, and I was in the next row over looking for antibiotics for the cattle. She should’ve been more careful about where she shared her misdeeds. And she should’ve not been so bitchy to you.”

Codie’s lips twitched, and her cheeks heated. “I love you, you know that, right?”

I felt my belly tighten.

“Yes,” I croaked, my hands twitching. “Why would you say that now, in the police station’s parking lot, where I can’t pull you into my lap and tell you how much I love hearing those words on your lips?”

She blinked innocently, batting her eyelashes at me. “You can’t? Why not?”

I gestured to the four cops who were less than two car lengths away from us. Ones who hadn’t stopped staring at my truck.

One of those cops being Nico.

Her head turned, then she giggled.

“Then take me home.”

Home.

Not ‘take me home to my house.’ Home to mine… ours.

I started the truck, then put it into gear and accelerated out of the parking lot.

Not too fast.

But definitely not slow.

I also caught every cop’s attention in the parking lot, including my brother-in-law.

“I heard from Todd,” I said, hoping to change the subject long enough to get home.

“Yeah?” she asked, turning in her seat. “Did you tell him that you love me?”

I opened my mouth and then closed it.

Then burst out laughing.

“Actually,” I said as I thought about it. “I did. He asked what my intentions were toward you, and I told him that I love you, and I planned to make you my wife. He asked when, and I told him I had to ask you first.”