Mitch grabbed a beer from behind the bar then pulled out the empty chair
and sat down, taking his irritation out on them. “I was helping a neighbor out, that okay with you?”
“Hey, I thought I was the only one who was allowed to be irritable on a regular basis,” Donovan said, wondering what bug had crawled up his ass. “Need to go a round with my punching bag, bro?”
Shit, Mitch felt like an ass, and hearing Donovan call him ‘bro’ so naturally, just like he did his half-brothers, made him feel two inches tall. “No, I’d rather punch your ugly mug, but since that’ll make Anna upset with me, I’ll settle for taking your money. Sorry, guys,” he added without further explanation.
“No problem. Your mood swings lately aren’t nearly as bad as Kayla’s. I swear, that girl is either crying or jumping my bones. No one told me a pregnant woman could be so unpredictable,” Brett complained, but there was a decided twinkle in his green eyes.
“Your wife’s always been unpredictable,” Colin stated as he dealt a new hand. “And I swear, if she talks Livie into any more mischief, I’ll wallop her ass myself.”
“Now what’d my sisters-in-law do?” Ethan, the youngest of the brothers asked with a grin.
“Kayla,” Colin stated with a mock glare at Brett, “talked my sweet Livie into tying the braids of my flogger into a big bow, twining brightly colored ribbons through the strands, which turned into a tangled mess when I made her undo everything.”
“Hey, at least you have a backup flogger to mete out a little punishment. Kayla suggested Anna paint happy faces on all of her dildos. When the paint wouldn’t come off, I had to buy new ones.”
“And?” Mitch asked, knowing Donovan got even somehow.
“Let’s just say she didn’t find the new ones as comfortable as the ones she ruined,” Donovan said with a smirk.
“What brought this on?” Ethan asked, his hazel eyes gleaming with laughter, curiosity and a touch of envy. His brothers welcomed him with open arms and homes when he finally came clean with them and gave them proof he was the one son their father, Casey, hadn’t known about. Unfortunately, they still wouldn’t let him, or his friends who worked with him on their horse farm, have access to their exclusive club upstairs.
“Yeah, big brother, tell Ethan and Mitch the horrible thing you did that pissed Kayla off.”
Brett glared at Colin. “She thought it would be funny to go down on me with a mouthful of ice while I was driving. When she wouldn’t let up, I pulled over right there on the highway and let anyone passing by see her getting spanked. It was a good thing it was Bowman with highway patrol who got the complaint from a worried motorist. He suggested taking such a risk deserved another five swats. She got even by pulling Olivia and Anna in on sabotaging their toys. She did a number on her own stash.”
“If you guys would let me come upstairs…”
“No!” they all responded together, including Mitch.
“It’s just mean to tease me about what goes on and then not let me at least see for myself,” Ethan grumbled before asking for two cards.
“Between school and working on the farm as well as those other jobs you keep taking, you don’t have time to play, let alone for girls. Keep your nose clean, kid.” Brett had pulled strings with the local cops who answered the calls when Ethan was vandalizing their property in retaliation for the wrong he felt was done to him by not being raised a McGilley along with his brothers. Since they didn’t press charges and Ethan was busting his ass to pay off the damages while taking a full load in school, he was given a pass as long as he didn’t get so much as a speeding ticket.
“Speaking of extra work, is the neighbor you were helping the same one I’ll be cutting the grass for this summer?”
Mitch had forgotten Mary asked him if he knew of someone who could take care of her lawn while they were in Europe and he had recommended Ethan. “Yes, but it’s her niece who’ll be there for the next three months.”
Ethan’s eyes lit up. “Really? Is she pretty?”
“Forget it, kid,” Mitch said with a smile, remembering when he had been Ethan’s age and all he thought about was girls and sex. Come to think of it, those two subjects still took up the majority of his thoughts only today it was one woman in specific who plagued him. “Yes, she’s pretty, but she’s a widow, ten years older than you and Amish.”
“A challenge.” His gaze swept the table as he said, “I thought guys liked a challenge.”
“A challenge is one thing,” Donovan snorted, “but scaling Mount Etna just to get burned isn’t worth the trouble.”
Mitch thought Hannah just might be worth getting singed for, but for the right man, which wouldn’t be a man whose kinky sex preferences would send her running back to Ohio.
Chapter Three
Hannah stepped outside carrying a tall glass of iced tea just in time to wave to Mitch as he was backing out of his drive. She tried not to wonder where he was going, but had as much success with that as she had trying not to think about him this past week or her unaccustomed reaction to him. She didn’t try telling herself again that her response to her neighbor couldn’t have been as strong as she remembered, she wasn’t about to start lying to herself now. The question was what to do about it? She didn’t think there was a ‘Dummies’ book for an inexperienced Amish widow who wanted to face all of the challenges of modern day society head on that told her how to get a man interested in having sex with her. Of course, she hadn’t planned on getting involved with the first man she met who caught her attention, but her sleepless nights this past week had been plagued with visions of them in bed together, leaving her aching for something she had no name for.
The loud motor of the lawnmower was abruptly silenced, diverting her thoughts from Mitch to the reason she had come outside. Walking over to Ethan, the young college kid Mary hired to tend her half acre yard this summer, she handed him the glass of tea with a smile. “You looked thirsty. It’s unsweetened. Is that okay?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Downing the entire glass in one long drink, Ethan handed it back to her with a grin. “Thanks. That was much better than grabbing a drink from the hose.” Ethan had introduced himself to Mary’s niece when he arrived and thought Mitch had been right, Hannah was pretty. And nice. He wouldn’t have thought it possible dressed as she was, but she was also sexy, in an innocent sort of way. From the way she watched Mitch drive off to Casey’s, he didn’t think she was going to stay innocent for long.
“Please, come in and help yourself whenever you want more,” Hannah told him as she took the empty glass. “I’m making fried chicken, if you’d care to join me when you’re done.”