“It ain’t my belly that’s aching.” Greer snorted.
“Me, either,” Cash confirmed that the last two months hadn’t been easy for him, either.
Greer took a big drink of his beer, watching Sutton move to the other window that faced the barn.
“Why did you decide to break the barn down?” She turned to stare at him over her shoulder.
Greer spat his beer out, going to the window to see what the fool woman was talking about.
“Holly and Rachel, stop that!” Greer took off running out of the house to stop the destruction he had seen from the window.
He skidded to a stop just as Holly swung the axe backward, nearly getting his fucking nose cut off.
“Wo-woman!” Greer stuttered. “What are you doing?”
“We’re chopping down the barn!” his wife yelled back.
As soon as she buried the head of the axe into the board, he gripped the handle, trying to get it out of the barn.
“Ow!” Greer jumped back, his hand going to his other arm. “You bit me!”
“Yes, I did. And you know what?” She pulled the axe up again. “It felt almost as good as me ripping this barn to shreds.”
He watched Holly and Rachel continue with their chopping. “You’ve both lost your fucking minds!”
Greer stared wildly at his family as they came out to see what was going on.
“Have you asked them why they are doing it?”
Greer didn’t know what Tate thought was so damn funny.
“I don’t know why the fu—” Greer broke off when Holly pointed her axe at him. “You see that?”
“I see.” Tate looked at Sutton, who just raised her hands helplessly in the air.
Greer took Ema from Cash. “Go make your wife stop.”
Cash gave Rachel a wary look as he went to her, making sure he kept a safe distance away.
“Pussy,” Greer grumbled.
“Watch!” Holly swung her axe. “Your mouth!”
“Rachel, why are you and Holly tearing down the barn?”
Rachel didn’t stop hacking away at the barn. “Because Pa almost killed Tate in there when he was little, and because he made Greer and Tate spend the night out there.” Rachel viciously twisted her axe out of a piece of wood.
Cash nodded at him, shrugging when he turned back. “That’s a pretty good reason.”
“No, it ain’t. That’s at least a fifty-thousand-dollar barn. Woman, you’re costing me money!” he shouted, pacing back and forth behind them when Ema started crying. “You want something to break apart? I’d rather you hit my truck.”
When the women turned to his truck, considering it, he paled.
“Not my new one. The old one.” He nodded toward the old truck that he had parked beside the barn and his pa’s old tractor. “At least that’s insured. The barn isn’t insured!” he shouted when the women started whacking at it again.
Trying to think of anything to calm them down, he said, “I know! Let’s go tear down his tombstone. That’ll really piss him off!” He lifted his eyes to the sky. “It’s not like I really mean it, God. I’ll talk them out of it before they get to the graveyard.”
“Your father isn’t the only reason we’re tearing the barn down!” Holly hid her axe behind her back, panting as she took a break.
“What’s the other reason?” he asked warily.
“Because you haven’t made love to me since before we were married!”
Dustin, Tate, and Cash stared at him in sympathy.
Blushing, Greer stuttered, “Uh … I was … trying to be sensitive.”
“Pft! You just don’t want me, because I’m lopsided now!”
Shocked speechless, Greer jiggled Ema on his hip.
“See? I told you!” Holly yelled, turning to whack the barn again.
“You may have been right,” Rachel sympathized.
“Rachel, we should take Ema and leave Greer and Holly to—”
“Why haven’t you made love to me?”
“Uh …”
Greer snickered as Cash turned red. He wasn’t handling being under the spotlight any better than he had.
“I was trying to give you time to grieve.”
“I would have grieved much easier with you in my bed.” Rachel swung her axe too hard and the handle broke. Dropping the handle, she didn’t let it stop her, using what was left to pry another board off.
“Okay! I should have asked if you wanted me to make love to you.”
“Yes, you should have! I’m a woman, and I have needs.”
“Damn right.” Holly snorted.
“I’ve stepped into the Twilight Zone. Put that axe down, and I’ll take you in the house and fu—” Greer squealed like a girl when Holly took a step toward him. “I’m holding Ema,” he reminded her.
She narrowed her eyes on him then looked at Rachel. “He’s a six right now.”
“What does that mean?” he asked suspiciously when Rachel gave him a pitying look.
“It means that I think Cash’s a ten when he wears his brass knuckles.” His sister didn’t see her husband preening, hitching his jeans up.
“I’m a six?”
“You’re a ten when you kiss me, but when you don’t put the toilet seat down, you’re a seven. When you’re being a p-u-s-s-i, you’re a six.”