How West Was Won (Haven, Texas 7)

“How much of that breakfast Mia made for you did you actually eat?”

“I wasn’t feeling that great this morning.” It was the truth. Her stomach had been tied in knots all day, waiting to hear about Spencer. “Have you heard about my brother yet?”

“Nope.”

“No? You haven’t heard? What time is it?” She searched around for her phone with a frown. She hadn’t seen it all day. “Have you seen my phone?”

“Sunshine, longer I hold this, more chance it’s got of landing in your lap,” he growled.

Oh, right.

She reached for the spoon and he drew it back, a frown on his face. “Your phone is downstairs; I’ll get it for you if you eat your soup like a good girl.”

She scowled then narrowed her gaze as he moved the spoon towards her mouth. “You can be a real jerk.”

The spoonful of soup slipped into her mouth. Yum. Pumpkin.

“This is something you didn’t know?”

Well, she couldn’t argue with that. She heaved out a sigh.

“Sunshine, you haven’t eaten all day. Your recovery is going to be much longer if you don’t look after yourself. Or let me look after you.”

Sigh. Fine. She opened her mouth as he fed her another spoonful. The soup was delicious. It warmed her belly from the inside out.

“Did you used to feed your brothers soup when they were ill?”

“Fuck, no. I’m not Florence Nightingale.”

“You just told me you took care of them when they were sick,” she reminded him.

“I lied. Jaret was the one who took care of any of us when we were sick.”

“What about your mom?” she asked.

“Sometimes one of dad’s wives was around, but they weren’t the real caring sort. Mostly we were raised by nannies who didn’t give much of a fuck what we did. Especially as they were usually trying to get in our dad’s pants. Except the very first nanny we had. She was all right.”

“Seems we have something in common, both having absent parents.”

“Yeah.”

“So you don’t have anything to do with your mom?”

He gave her a look. “She left us with that asshole, took off when someone better came along.”

“So that would be a no,” she muttered.

“Yeah, it’s a no. Don’t even know where she is. No doubt Alec does. He’s probably kept tabs on her and the other moms. Especially since we parted ways with dad. Tanner was only eleven. Raid was thirteen. Butch must have been sixteen and the twins eighteen.”

“You, Alec and Jaret looked after all of them?” she asked skeptically. Sounded like a recipe for disaster.

He grinned. “There’s a reason they’re all half-wild, sunshine.”

“Half-wild? I would say they’re pretty much completely there.”

“Nah, if they were totally wild then they’d ride into Haven, claim themselves some women then bring them back for a big ol’ orgy.”

Her mouth dropped open, and he took the opportunity to feed her some more soup.