Claiming the Enemy: Dustin (Porter Brothers Trilogy 3)

“No.”

Despite her protest, her brother gave her an encouraging smile in the mirror. “Yes, you are.” He then turned her toward the door and frog-marched her into the living room.

The shock of seeing Logan and BoDean standing at the front door with Dustin had her frown disappearing into one of confusion.

“Logan asked if BoDean could come with us to our picnic.”

“That was nice of you.” That Logan had extended the invitation lightened her heart.

Their cousin Kyle had been the only Hayes who had been allowed to go to school. He had begged to go until their uncle caved. He was younger than Bubba and Bud, and older than BoDean.

Unlike the rest of the Hayes, Kyle had been friendly, kind, and trusting. It was the trusting that had gotten him killed. His three brothers had taken it hard—the whole family had—but Holt and Asher had taken it especially hard. That was when Asher took even more interest in Diane and had begun drinking until he became a man Jessie almost didn’t recognize.

She had almost lost all hope of him getting back on steady feet until one weekend. She had come to their house and saw all the still full liquor bottles in the trashcan. She assumed Holt had put his foot down about Asher’s drinking. In hindsight, she realized why. It was the guilt at what he and Diane had done.

“You look pretty, Jessie.” Logan came to her side, giving her a warm smile.

“Thank you. You look very handsome in your Sunday clothes.” She extended her smile to her little cousin. “You look very nice, too, BoDean.”

“Pa made me. There’s no sense in getting all dressed just to go for a picnic.”

Jessie smoothed down the collar of his shirt, recognizing it as one of Kyle’s hand-me-downs. “I appreciate the effort. You even slicked down your hair. I’m a lucky woman to have three handsome men all to myself for lunch.”

“I like that shade of green on you.” Dustin hadn’t taken his appreciative gaze off her since she walked into the room.

Jessie raised a nervous hand to her hair, tucking a loose tendril behind her ear. His compliment had varying expressions crossing the features of the men in the room. Logan was the only one pleased at the husky timber of appreciation in Dustin’s voice.

“I like that color shirt on you, Asher. What color do you think it is?” Holt said, mimicking Dustin.

“This old thing? I think it’s canary blue.” Asher gave a heartfelt sigh after speaking in a high-pitched voice.

Jessie gave each of her brothers killing glares that had them both retreating behind the kitchen counter.

To his credit, Dustin ignored them, lifting her jacket from the coatrack on the wall. “It’s a little cool today. You might need it.”

He held the jacket out for her as she slipped her arms through the holes. His hands remained possessively on her shoulders when she had it on.

“So, where are we going to have the picnic? If it’s going to be a long walk, I might need to change my shoes. I haven’t …” Jessie tilted her head as she heard a car pull into the driveway. Not wanting to see anyone, she started to take off for her room, but Dustin stopped her.

“You don’t have to change your shoes. We aren’t going far.” Dustin took her hand before she could make her escape.

“Dustin, I really don’t want to see anyone.”

“Jess, come see. If you want to come back inside, I won’t stop you.”

Opening the door, he drew her outside as another car pulled into the driveway, then a truck, each vehicle vying for a space to park.

Dustin tightened his hand on hers as Logan and her family came outside to stand.

Lily, Beth, Winter, and Killyama piled out of SUV. Diamond got out of her car to open the back door and take Brink out of his car seat. Bliss opened her car door, and Darcy hopped down from the back seat.

When she tugged her hand away from Dustin’s, he let her go as he had said he would. Instead of going inside, though, she wound her arm through his and leaned against him for support. She couldn’t help staring at the women who were parking and getting out of their cars, making their way to where she was standing on the porch. Each one carried their Bible.

Jessie bit down on her bottom lip, trying not to cry even more. Using her free hand, she wiped at the tears that she couldn’t stop at the outpouring of love from her church. There were so many cars and trucks that there wasn’t enough room for them all, so they began parking along the dirt road down the hill.

Jessie couldn’t see how many women there were, because she couldn’t look over their heads and because of the tears. When she finally managed to wipe enough of them away, she saw that the sea of women had parted, allowing Lucky and Willa to walk toward her.