“Yes. This again. You joined the rest of them. You’re a fucking Smurf.”
“Welcome to the mushroom, dude,” Steed said as everyone else laughed. “We only have two more to go.”
“Fuck that,” Trevor said. “No, thanks. Women are nothing but a goddamn pain in the ass.”
All eyes turned to Trevor.
“Oh hell,” Cord whispered as he closed his eyes. “Son-of-a-bitch.”
With a frown, Trevor stared at Cord. “What’s wrong with you?”
“You fucked her, didn’t you?” Cord asked.
We all leaned in to watch Trevor’s reaction.
“What?”
Mitchell jumped back and pointed to Trevor. “Oh hell! Dude! You did!”
“What are you talking about? Let’s move on,” Trevor said, and I could have sworn I saw beads of sweat appear on his brow as he tried to derail the conversation.
“Don’t even try to hide it, Trev. They can smell it,” Wade said before taking a bite of the loaf of bread the waitress must have brought out.
Trevor looked confused. “Smell what? There’s nothing to fucking smell. All I said was women are a pain in the ass.”
“It’s the way you said it,” Mitchell replied. “Clearly, you slept with Scarlett. She got under your skin and now you don’t know what to do about it.”
Our baby brother’s mouth dropped open. “The fuck?” he whispered.
Cord reached for the bread and broke a piece off and used it to point to Trevor.
“You see, normal girls we sleep with? They don’t get under our skin. We fuck ’em and move on.”
I shook my head. “Real nice, Cord.”
The bread pointed my way. “No judging. That was you a year ago, so no comments from the peanut gallery.”
My hands came up in defense. “You’re speaking the truth, but can you keep it down, and maybe not be so damn blunt?”
Cord lifted his eyes in thought before agreeing. “Yes. I can do both.”
He focused back on Trevor. “Alright. The way I see it is, you promised yourself you wouldn’t sleep with her. One, because you actually felt something for her. Two, she’s Mom’s best friend’s daughter and you wouldn’t do anything to hurt Mom.”
“But…you did sleep with her,” Mitchell added. “And if I were a betting man, I’d say you’ve slept with her more than once.”
All our heads turned to Trevor.
“I hate you. Both of you fuckers.” He tried to hide the smirk, but failed.
We all laughed.
“Ah hell. Another Parker brother has been bitten,” Wade said with a laugh. “Hell, I knew you liked her, Trev, but I didn’t think you liked her that much. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Trevor shot Wade a dirty look. “I don’t tell you every time I fuck a girl.”
Wade chuckled. “You pretty much do, dude. But this one you didn’t utter a word about.”
Trevor huffed. “So what? We fucked. It wasn’t a big deal, but she is making it something it’s clearly not.”
Cord jumped and pointed to Trevor. “I knew it! I freaking knew it!”
Rolling his eyes, Trevor let out a frustrated sigh.
I leaned in and looked at my younger brother. “Trev, listen to me. If you don’t see anything happening with Scarlett, clear it up with her. Sleeping with her more than one time is going to send her mixed signals. That’s not your normal thing. This isn’t like a one-night stand with a girl who’s in town on spring break or a local girl with a crush. Don’t lead her on. I already warned you about this shit.”
We all exchanged looks as Trevor stared at his coffee. He didn’t say a word, but we left it where it was. Let him marinate on that sage advice for a day or ten.
“So, back to your Smurf name,” Cord said.
With a heavy sigh, I leaned back in my chair. “Tell me this isn’t why you wanted to meet?”
Mitchell laughed. “Just humor him. Cord clearly has a secret obsession with the Smurfs.”
“Oh, like you weren’t pissed when I gave Jonathon the Handy Smurf title.”
“Fuck you, Cord,” Mitchell spit out
Cord pointed to Mitchell. “Hey, I’ll change yours to something else if you don’t watch it.”
Mitchell went to fire something back when I cleared my throat.
“You do realize there is a group of women sitting right there looking at you idiots like you’re crazy.”
Cord and Mitchell turned to see a group of women smiling at them.
“Can we get to the reason we’re meeting for lunch?” I added.
Wade chuckled. “I thought y’all met once a week to feed off of each other.”
“Feed off of each other?” Steed asked.
With a half shrug, Wade said, “You know, rub that Parker shit off on each other.”
We glanced at each other and then back to Wade. “Dude, what are you talking about?”
“Please. Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s like you all possess some weird magical power. When you’re together it gets stronger.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Steed asked.
Wade exhaled. “For example? I could walk up to that table right now and strike out with every single one of those ladies…not that I would, because you know…I’m happily married to Amelia. But any one of y’all could walk up and score at least one number.”
This seemed to intrigue my brothers.
“What you’re saying, Wade, is we have swagger,” Cord said with a grin. “Parker swagger.”
“Call it what you want, dude. Whatever it is, you have it and when you’re all together, it grows. You feed off each other.”
“I’m up for trying this game,” Trevor said with a mischievous grin. He stood.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
He looked around the table and then to Wade. “I think I can score two phone numbers.”
I glanced back to the table of six women.
“You’re on,” Wade said.
It didn’t take Trevor long. He walked over to the table, said something that made them all laugh. Then he leaned in and said something else that caused a few of them to blush.
“Boys, now that you’re all here, what can I do you for lunch?” Lilly asked.
We each ordered today’s special. Hamburger and fries.
“And Trevor?” Lilly asked.
“He’ll have the same,” I said.
Less than a minute later, Trevor walked up and tossed two pieces of paper in the middle. “That is how it is done, gentlemen.”
Cord huffed and made his way over to the table. When he pulled up a chair and sat down with the women, we all laughed.
“What did you say to them?” Mitchell asked Trevor.
“Dude, I’m not telling you my secrets.”
“Seriously? You do know I’m married and my wife is having a baby. It’s not like I’m going to use your moves.”
Reappearing at our table, Cord laid three numbers down and sat.
“You were saying, Trev?”
Trevor shot Cord daggers. “Go to hell, Cord.”
“Steed? Going to give it a try?”
He held up his hand. “Hell, no. With my luck Paxton would walk in and see me talking to a group of women trying to score numbers. She’d kick my ass all the way back to the house.”
Mitchell turned it down, and so did I.
Wade stood. “Just so we know. I love your sister. This is simply proving a point.”
We all nodded and motioned for Wade to give it a try. He walked over. Said something that made them all laugh. When he looked back at our table, he winked.
“Bastard,” Trevor said.
The next thing we knew, all six of them were giving Wade their phone numbers.
“What in the hell?” Trevor said with a shocked look. I couldn’t help but laugh. When Wade sat back down, he sprinkled the numbers over Cord’s and Trevor’s.
“How in the hell did you manage to get a
ll of their numbers?” I asked.
“It was simple,” Wade replied with a huge grin. “I told them it was a bet, and I didn’t want to look like a loser.”
Steed, Mitchell, and I all busted out laughing as Cord and Trevor gave Wade the finger.
There really wasn’t a reason why we all met for lunch. I simply wanted to spend time with my brothers. To laugh, talk some smack and throw in serious talk every now and then.
When we were finished, we said our goodbyes while Trevor scooped up all the numbers and pushed them into his jeans pocket. On the way out, he stopped at the table and whispered something to one of the girls, causing her to blush and chew on her lower lip. She got up from the table, put money down and waved goodbye to her friends as she followed Trevor out. After giving her what I would have guessed was his phone number, they parted ways. She went to her car, and Trevor bid a final goodbye.
“I’m heading out. Talk to y’all later.”
I gave him a knowing look. “Trevor. Really?”
He slapped me on the arm. “Hey, just because you’ve got Harley back doesn’t mean the rest of us have to stop playing.”
“What about Scarlett?” I asked.
His eyes turned dark. “What about her?”
I shook my head. “Okay, if all you want is to hook up with random girls. Go for it.”
“A random, hot-as-fuck girl. Later, big bro.”
He quickly headed over to the girl’s car and climbed in.
I shook my head. Stupid bastard.
“He’s going to regret it,” Steed stated, standing next to me.
“Yeah, he is.”
With a frustrated sigh, I turned to Steed. “Do you need to head back to the ranch? I really need some advice and could use the ear.”
“Sure, want to meet at your office?”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
“I’ll see you over there,” Steed said, slapping my back and walking toward his truck.
After saying goodbye to Cord, Mitchell, and Wade, I made my way over to the office. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out to see Harley’s name.
Harley: I can’t stop thinking about you too. Sorry, we had an emergency surgery come in. I’ll call in a bit!
I typed out my response.
Me: No rush. About to talk to Steed at the office. Love you, Harley.
Harley: Love you back!
The front door was locked, so Karen must have been out to lunch. Unlocking the door, I stepped into the lobby and was hit by a horrible smell.
“What the hell is that?” Steed asked from behind me. “Is that…dog shit?”
My fists balled up and I made my way back to my office.
“Why is she shitting in her crate? I thought they didn’t do that.” I threw the door to my office open. The sight before me had me rocking on my legs, fighting to stay standing.
Steed let out a hearty laugh. “I’m no dog expert here, Tripp. But I think in order for them to be crate trained…they actually have to be in the crate.”
My office was completely torn apart. Papers were everywhere. Clumps of white were all over the place. What was that from? The smell of dog shit was overpowering and had me pinching my nose.
Sitting on my desk, with one of my Berluti dress shoes in her mouth, was Hemi. Her little tail wagged with a purpose. With each swish she pushed papers aside. She dropped the shoe and let out that little howling bark of hers.
I closed my eyes and counted to ten before speaking. “Steed, call Harley and tell her if she wants to ever see this dog alive again…she better come get her. Now.”
“What a crazy morning.” Dropping in my desk chair, I let out a breath.
Julie, my vet tech, sat in one of the chairs opposite me. “I don’t think we’ve ever been that busy, Harley.”
I gave her a tight smile. Even though my vet clinic was thriving, I was about to lose it. Tripp had been going back and forth with Gerald for a week with offers to buy the land that the clinic sat on, only to have him decline time and time again.
“Any luck with Doc’s brother?”
“No,” I said. “Doc keeps calling me, saying how sorry he is. He swears he paid his brother back for the land, but he can’t find any paperwork stating it, and the deed was never transferred to his name.”
“It was so long ago, maybe he thought he paid it.”
Shrugging, I nodded. “Yeah. Probably.”
“Tripp’s been trying to figure out how the sale of the clinic went through with the land not even being in Doc’s name. We think it was just pushed through and not checked.”
“What are you going to do? Ask Doc for the money back for the clinic and let him and his brother duke it out?”
“No. I couldn’t do that to him. Tripp and I will think of something.” I tried to keep my voice positive, but I knew she could hear the doubt in there.
“Speaking of Tripp, y’all have been the talk of the town.”
My eyes widened. “We have?”
“Yeah, of course. The whole second chance romance thing. The hot attorney who is running for mayor and the equally hot new vet. It’s like a love story waiting to be written.”
I chewed on my lip, trying not to giggle. “Well, I can honestly say I haven’t been this happy in years.”
Julie scrunched up her nose. “See! It is a love story. Did you hear about Mallory, though?”
My heart dropped and I moved around in my chair. Tripp had told me she seemed all right with the break up, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how she’d acted at the spring fling. I had a feeling she was still hung up on Tripp.
“No. Is she okay?”
Julie looked at me like I had just asked the stupidest question ever. “Oh my gawd… You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?” I asked, leaning forward, my curiosity getting the best of me.
“Mallory sold the store. I guess she had been sort of seeing another guy while she was with Tripp. Well, not really seeing him. They knew each other. Had a past. It’s rumored she was sleeping with him, but you know how small towns are. Karen claims her sister walked into the store once after closing. The sign was still turned to open and the door was unlocked. She heard a noise in the back and tried clearing her throat. Mallory called out a man’s name and it wasn’t Tripp. A few minutes later, Mallory came walking out and claimed she was in the back with a sales rep.”
It felt like a rock had settled in my stomach. “What?”
“Some guy she knew from her hometown. He had come to Oak Springs a few times to do ‘consulting’ for her.” Julie used air quotes around consulting. “Guess he had stayed a few times at her house, but Tripp never knew about it.”
“Wow.” That was all I could say. I wasn’t one to get into the gossip mill, and I certainly wasn’t going to gossip about Tripp’s ex.
My phone rang, saving me from the present conversation.
“Hello?”
“Harley? It’s Steed.”
“Steed? Hi! What’s going on?”
He let out a chuckle. “Are you busy? Do you have time to come to Tripp’s office?”
I pulled up the schedule. “I’ve got a clear schedule for the rest of the day. Is everything okay?”
When he laughed again, I did too. I couldn’t help it. I had no idea why I was laughing, but I did.
“Yep. Everything is great. Tripp just needs your help with something. And I’m pretty sure Karen is fixin’ to get fired.”
I stood up quickly. “Oh my gosh. I’m on my way!”
Hitting End, I pulled my desk drawer open and grabbed my purse. “Julie, I hate to do this to you, but I have to leave.”
She stood. “Don’t worry about it.”
“If anyone calls needing an appointment, tell them it will have to wait until tomorrow. If there’s an emergency I’ll have my phone. Just call me.”
“I will. Don’t worry, I can hold things down here.”
Rushing out the door, I walked to my car. I pulled up Tripp’s n
ame and hit it.
“Hello?”
“Hey, is everything okay? Steed called me.”
“Did he tell you I’m about two seconds from letting Hemi out the door and wishing her good luck in life?”
I gasped. “Oh no, what happened?”
“Karen happened.”
I frowned. “Okay, now I’m sort of confused.”
“She didn’t put Hemi in her crate when she left for lunch. Do you know what happens when Hemi wakes up from a nap and wants to play? And is left out?”
I pressed my lips together. I didn’t dare tell Tripp I had found out this past weekend when I ran to the store and left a sleeping Hemi in the game room. When I came back she had chewed both of Tripp’s remotes. The one to his giant screen TV and the one for DirectTV. Luckily, it only took me one phone call to Trevor to order two new ones quickly.
“Um, I can only guess.” I braced myself to hear what damage she had caused.
“Then I’ll let you be surprised. Like I was.”
By the time I pulled up and parked in the driveway of Tripp’s office, I had already come up with three different ideas to get him to forget about Hemi. They were all sex-based, and involved a new outfit from the lingerie store that had opened on the square.
I walked into the office, and Karen sat behind her desk. The look of fear on her face spoke volumes.
“What happened?” I whispered.
She went to talk when Tripp’s voice boomed from down the hall, causing us both to jump.
I started for his office when Karen grabbed my arm. “If I get fired, I just want you to know it was worth it. That dog was the only one who was able to get rid of those God-awful dress shoes Tripp insisted on wearing all the time.”
I covered my mouth to hide my laughter.
“Good luck,” Karen said as I headed toward Tripp’s office.
The door was partially open, and the smell hit me first.
“Oh no,” I whispered.
Pushing the door in, I took one look around the office and bit down on my cheek to keep from laughing. Tripp was near the windows and I had to do a double-take.
“You’re seeing this all correctly,” Steed whispered from beside me. “He’s wearing a ski mask while cleaning up dog shit.”
I tried holding it in, and failed. A burst of laughter broke out, and Tripp turned to face me.