A Perfect Dilemma
Page 34
“C’mon, slackers! I’ve got blueberries.”
“Yeah, you lazy huckleberries,” Aubree said. “Let’s go.”
We looked at each other and smiled. “It’s the trips thing. You up for it? My brothers are going to constantly invade our lives, as nosy and overbearing and lame as they can be.”
“Yeah,” I smoothed my hand over his face, “I have a couple of nosy huckleberries of my own. I’m game if you are.”
“Okay, sugar. Let’s go make pancakes.”
“It’s too bad,” I said.
“What?” He looked over at me while he yanked on his shorts.
“I always had this fantasy of you making pancakes for me, naked except for that pink apron tied around your waist.” I dragged on a T-shirt and black, stretchy shorts.
“You trying to give me a hard-on in front of my brothers?” he teased, coming around the bed as we both headed for the door.
“No, but keep it in mind for later.”
He laughed and grabbed me around the neck. “Hey, I was thinking, maybe I would read over all those letters and the other stuff, including the Colonel’s journals. It’s time I found out all about Duel.”
I smiled. “I think it’s a good idea. Booker has already mentioned that he wanted to write something about him, like a memoir. I think that’s such a good idea. A new family legacy.”
“Yeah, thanks to you, River. You saved us all.”
“And you saved me. It was so worth all that we went thought, Brax, my sugar love.”
We headed to the living room, but not before I adjusted the small painting of a lion that I had placed on the wall, knowing there would be more in the future, not only here, but at my new gallery. We went into the living room, and Brax greeted his brothers, and I smiled at my wonderfully close friends.
It wasn’t long before we each had a nice pile of hot, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth blueberry pancakes steaming in front of us.
“You’re crazy,” Boone said. “I look the studliest in a jock. You ain’t got nothing on my hip things.”
“Bullshit,” Booker said. “I can out-jock you on my worst damn day. Six pack abs for days.”
“Both you huckleberries might as well leave it to the master—the jock master,” Brax said with finality. “And, you can stop your six-pack smack talk right now. This is what I’m talking about,” Brax said, lifting up his shirt. “Right, sugar?”
They argued some more, until it became a contest and they insisted on modeling for us. We laughed so hard and gasped in unison when those sexy, knee-melting, half-naked hunks strutted down the hallway, using it as a runway. Us girls hooting and hollering for our own Outlaw. Those were some fine, fine asses. And abs. And jocks.
To think I had a lifetime of this was almost more joy then I could bear. Soon Aubree would be going back to New Orleans and taking Booker with her, but they would only be two hours away. Verity and Boone would be flying back and forth to New York City to handle her design partnership with Minnie Tattersall.
But for me, I’d be staying in Suttontowne and working in Lafayette, living in Braxton’s shabby chic house down by the bayou, and he would play his fiddle, write me songs, and make sweet love to me the way only he knew how. He was the man who wrote and sang from his heart, the man who always knew how to push my buttons, and the man who saved my life and my brother’s one day in the bayou. He would always bear the gunshot scar on his side, and I’d never let a day go by without making sure he knew how much he meant to me.
As he approached and I looked into those impossibly blue eyes and he looked back at me, I felt him down to my very soul. He was mine the moment I laid eyes on him. And, even though he’d fought it, he knew I had been his from that moment on.
Braxton.
Rebel.
Chef.
Outcast.
Musician
Heartbreaker.
Mine.
I was almost twenty years old. But I had a sense I wouldn’t regret this ride with Braxton one bit. I still probably had some growing to do. Some understandings to reach, and some more life challenges to overcome. But I would do it alongside my heartbreaker of an Outlaw, just as Aubree would do it with her unpredictable one, and Verity with her still-reckless one.
I pulled my eyes from my man and slipped my arms around my best friends who were more like sisters. We grinned at each other. Now daddies could sleep better at night because their daughters were safe. We had what every girl who’d ever laid their eyes on those three gorgeous, hilarious, family-loving trips wanted.
We had ourselves the Outlaw brothers.
But even better? They…finally…had us.
***********
Jezebel Sauce
Makes 3 cups
Prep 15 minutes. Ready in 8 hours 15 minutes
Ingredients
1 (10 ounce) jar apple jelly
1 (10 ounce) jar pineapple fruit preserves
1 (8 ounce) jar prepared horseradish
1 tablespoon ground dry mustard
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
Feel free to add your own secret ingredient.
Directions
In a small bowl, mix together apple jelly, pineapple fruit preserves, prepared horseradish, ground dry mustard and cracked black pepper. Cover and refrigerate 8 hours, or overnight, before serving.
A Perfect Secret Series might have ended, but not the stories that abound in Hope Parish. Don’t miss Decon West and Minnie Tattersall in the Hope Parish novella, Beauty Shot. Deke arrives in New York City, a fish out of water. Who knew the girls would be so aggressive, throwing themselves at him. But Deke has his sights set on Minnie. Too bad she considers him much too young for her.
Coming in 2015!
Zoe Dawson’s Book List
Romantic Comedy
Going to the Dogs Series
Leashed #1 Free
Groomed for Murder #2
Hounded #3
Collared #4
Fetched (companion novella to Hounded)
Handled (companion novella to Groomed for Murder)
Tangled (companion novella to Leashed)
Captured (companion novella to Collared)
New Adult
Brave (Christmas novella)
Hope Parish Novels
A Perfect Secret Series
A Perfect Mess #1
A Perfect Mistake #2
Urban Fantasy
The Starbuck Chronicles
AfterLife #1
About the Author
Zoe Dawson is the alter ego of multi-published, bestselling author Karen Anders. Karen started her career because her grandmother gave her a book to read. That book made her fall in love with romance and started her on the trek to get published. She achieved that goal in 1996 with the publication of Jennifer's Outlaw for Silhouette. Even with many books under her belt, she can't wait for that next idea, that next exquisite sentence and, of course, the next hero and heroine who fall in love.
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Dear Reader,
Thank you for embarking on this journey with me. It's been fabulous to write this book for your enjoyment.
If you haven’t done so already, please consider leaving me a review. It helps me out tremendously. Thank you. Please feel free to message me online through Twitter, Facebook, or my website. I would love to hear from you. To find out about my releases, check my website, follow my blog, Like me on Facebook or sign up for my newsletter.
Best, Zoe
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