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  I tilted her chin up and pressed my lips against hers.

  “Don’t worry about him,” I said. “How about you worry about me, and what I’m going to do to you when I get home.”

  My teasing had the desired effect, and when she looked up at me next, it was to see her face lit with happiness.

  “Hopefully it only involves cuddling and watching Netflix,” she whispered. “And I mean really watching Netflix. Not ‘Netflix and Chill’ like you hear about. Because I’m exhausted, and the last thing I feel is sexy.”

  “Deal.”

  Chapter 16

  A peacock is just a chicken in drag.

  -Farm life

  Waylynn

  “I’ll trade you,” I said softly. “My trailer for the land. Officially.”

  They were about the same price when you got down to it.

  “Get Darby to throw in his truck and we have a deal.”

  I shook my head.

  “No,” I said. “I can sell that RV for a whole lot more than you can get for the land and you know it. You bought that land for a steal from that old man. And the house is trash.”

  My dad scrunched up his nose.

  “What about a horse and the RV?” he asked, eyeing the horses that Callum and Ace were breaking in.

  I shook my head again. “No.”

  He sighed. “You drive a hard bargain.”

  I shrugged.

  “Can I take the RV tonight?” he asked.

  I shook my head.

  “No…”

  “Yes,” Ace said. “We’re moving into our new place anyway.”

  Dad made the sound of a man that’d just won the lottery.

  “Sweet!”

  “If you deed the land over right now,” he said. “We’ll go down to the courthouse and you’ll put it into Waylynn’s name right now.”

  Dad was already nodding his head. “Sure, sure.”

  I looked up at Ace when my dad walked to his car.

  “What was that?” I asked in surprise.

  “That was me getting my brother to move back home,” he said.

  “But I’m with him…”

  He grinned. “And I guess that makes it your home now, too. Welcome to the family.”

  “Your brother’s still mad at you.”

  Ace’s eyes went distant for a moment.

  “I know.”

  “Fix it?” I suggested.

  He nodded once. “I’ll fix it. Now let’s go.”

  “You’re coming with me?” I asked in surprise.

  He nodded once. “I am.”

  I blew out a breath of air. “Good. I didn’t want to do that alone. I have no clue what I’m doing.”

  ***

  Darby

  “This one?” the saleslady asked curiously.

  I shook my head.

  “No,” I admitted. “I want something different. Something one of a kind.”

  “Something that’s going to be really pretty, and sparkly,” Georgia ordered.

  I snorted. “She asked me to paint my truck sparkly purple for her.”

  Georgia’s eyes glittered with laughter. “You should do it for her. For Christmas.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t have enough money to get both a paint job and a ring. So I’m going to settle for the ring now.”

  “What about a purple amethyst stone set with a black diamond? In a black gold ring?” The lady’s eyes lit. “We have one… but I’m warning you. It’s expensive.”

  She wasn’t kidding.

  When she brought it out and I saw the price tag, I had a mini myocardial infarction.

  I.e., a goddamn heart attack.

  “Fuck,” I murmured, seeing the price.

  “This is the one,” Georgia said. “Sorry, brother.”

  I knew what she meant.

  It was the one.

  It was also nine goddamn thousand dollars.

  And perfect.

  “I’ll take it.”

  Thirty minutes later, I was heading home.

  When I pulled into the yard, I went to park in front of the trailer and came to a sudden halt when I saw it was no longer there.

  I got out next to the house and looked around.

  “What the hell?” I said.

  Nobody was there to answer me, and it was only when Waylynn banged out of the old house with her box of shit that I found someone to question.

  “Where the hell is the trailer?” I asked curiously.

  She walked across the yard and to the new house, straight inside, and didn’t say one single word.

  I followed behind her to find her walking toward the part of the house that was meant to be mine.

  When I followed her, it was to find all of my shit out of my room in the old house now in the new house.

  “Move, bitch,” Candy ordered as she poked me in the back with a box.

  I moved, watching as Candy came in with a box of what looked to be my bathroom stuff.

  “Go get some of your shit,” she ordered. “Then the rest of us can get our own stuff.”

  Candy left with Waylynn fresh on her heels.

  She left just as quickly as she came, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

  That was until Ace came in the room carrying my mattress.

  I blinked.

  “What in the hell is going on?” I barked.

  Ace tossed the bed down onto the box springs then turned to go.

  Only he didn’t go. He stopped at the door and slammed it closed with him on the wrong side.

  I frowned hard when he turned around, giving me his gaze.

  His gaze that was surprisingly no longer hostile in any way.

  “I was wrong.”

  I blinked.

  “I’ve been treating you like a kid, and I apologize,” he continued.

  Still, I didn’t talk.

  “You’re the baby… and I guess it just hurt when you said you were leaving. I felt like you didn’t want to be here anymore, and I reacted like an asshole,” he continued.

  I didn’t know what to say to that.

  “So you’re moving back in,” he said. “And your girl sold the RV, so you have no other choice, whether you’re mad at me or not.”

  With that, he walked up to me and threw his arms around me in a bear hug.

  I had no other choice but to take it.

  “Your girl decided to sell the trailer so you could have your land,” he said. “You don’t deserve her.”

  He stepped back after a long few moments, then narrowed his eyes.

  “You’re going to marry her, right?”

  I numbly pulled the ring out of my pocket that I’d gotten at lunch.

  He grinned when I opened the box.

  “That’s…”

  The door opened and Waylynn walked in, her eyes coming to me and the ring I was holding out for Ace to see.

  “Wow,” she said. “Did I interrupt something?”

  I rolled my eyes, then got down onto one knee.

  “No,” I said. “But now that we’re on this subject… Waylynn Jennings, will you marry me?”

  Spoiler alert: she said hell yes.

  Epilogue

  Mommas, don’t let your babies grow up to be douchebags.

  -Waylynn to Darby

  Waylynn

  Three years later

  “Throw it!”

  I turned to see Georgia, Candy, Desi, and Codie all standing there.

  Codie had her baby in her arms, and she was reaching up high with one arm, urging me to throw the bouquet.

  I grinned, turned around, and tossed it over my head.

  None of them caught it.

  In fact, the reason that none of them caught it was mostly due in part to the fact that I’d tossed it over the pen’s fence that I’d been standing in front of and landed in the bull’s pen where Scooby was.

  Scooby who most definitely ha
dn’t liked the fact that we were standing so close to his territory.

  The bull stomped on it and ground the flowers into the dirt.

  “I think that’s a wonderful idea,” Ace said. “We should breed him.”

  I rolled my eyes and tossed my crown instead.

  Codie caught it and placed it on her daughter’s head.

  “Oh, hell no.” Ace shook his head, snatching the crown and placing it on Banks’ head who didn’t bother taking it off.

  Mostly because he was busy trying to tie a cherry stem with his tongue.

  And not accomplishing the feat.

  Darby, however, was grinning like a loon with his tied cherry stem between his teeth.

  Catching my eye, he walked toward me with a swagger in his step.

  “Well?” he said through his teeth. “What do you think?”

  I wrapped my arms around him and placed my lips on his.

  He pulled back and pulled the cherry stem from between his teeth then said, “So how long do we have to stay until it’s acceptable for us to leave?”

  I looked at all the brothers and sisters and family and friends, then said, “Fuck it.”

  We left our own wedding reception.

  When we came back, nobody had even noticed we were gone.

  ***

  Ten years later

  Waylynn

  “Ten bucks says he stays on,” I said.

  “Ten bucks says he stays on and gets all of their approval.” Candy laughed.

  I took a sip of my wine where I was sitting on the porch next to Codie, Candy, and Desi.

  They followed suit.

  “I’m not actually sure that this is safe,” Codie admitted. “Shouldn’t he be, I dunno, not around a bucking animal?”

  I grinned.

  Mine and Darby’s child, our three-year-old little terror named Peyson, had decided that he wanted to learn to ride bulls. Luckily, Darby was able to convince him to ride the sheep instead and give the bulls a few more years before he decided to bite off more than he could chew.

  Peyson was so much like Darby that it physically pained me to watch sometimes. Riding fence, mucking stalls, hell, even walking around the house. Peyson really loved to be with his dad.

  “Do you like his baby chaps?” I asked, a grin widening on my face. “I found those at Cavendar’s today.”

  “Love them,” Desi said. “My kids don’t look nearly as cute in them anymore.”

  I looked at Desi’s babies who were right in the middle of everything, trying to help Peyson stay situated on the back of the sheep’s back.

  Codie’s daughters, who were on the fence watching from the top wrung. Candy’s son and daughter were just a wrung below them.

  My two, Peyson, and our youngest, Kendall, who was only eleven months, were the youngest of the group.

  “Peyson has it in the bag,” Georgia said as she came up.

  I looked to find her by herself, the others in her crew making their way to the corral fence with the rest of the family.

  “Got any more wine?” Georgia asked.

  I grabbed a Dixie cup from my stack and passed it to Desi. Desi filled it up with wine and passed it to Georgia. Georgia took it with a thankful nod.

  “Oh dear,” I said as I watched Peyson lean precariously to the left.

  Still, he held on.

  Darby was running toward the sheep before Peyson could fall completely off. And when he finally did, Darby had him in his arms and was jumping up and down with him excitedly.

  Peyson, who barely ever cried, was holding onto his dad’s head with both of his hands as he yelled with excitement.

  I got up, drank the rest of the wine in my cup, then made my way down to stand beside Callum.

  Callum looked over when I arrived and reached for the sleeping little girl in my arms.

  Kendall rolled her head over and buried her sweaty face into her uncle’s neck, holding onto him just like she’d been doing to me moments before.

  “Want a picture?” he asked.

  I nodded and pulled my phone out, first taking a picture of him and Kendall. Which got me an eye roll.

  I snickered and moved my phone to point at my son and Darby.

  Darby was talking to Ace, who was listening and nodding his head.

  “Yes,” he said. “Right.”

  I snapped a picture of them, then moved backward until I could get the entire Valentine clan, all four boys, some of their wives and all of their children, shouting encouragement to the next one to ride.

  After taking that photo, I made my way back to the porch and a newly refilled glass of wine.

  “Thank you,” I said to the keeper of the wine, also known as Desi.

  “You’re welcome,” she said. “Send me that picture of Callum and Kendall. Man, that makes me want another baby.”

  I grinned.

  “You should have more,” I teased.

  She pursed her lips.

  “I want more,” she admitted. “But I also want to not have a minivan like Georgia.”

  Georgia snorted. “I don’t have a minivan. I have a Suburban. Big difference.”

  Desi shrugged. “Two is a well-rounded number. And if I have another baby, we’re going to have to add onto the house again.”

  We’d already added onto the house twice since it was finished the year before Darby and I got married.

  After Darby had made up with his brothers, life had become something out of a fairytale for me.

  Over time, as more children were born, we’d added on again and again.

  “I can plan out an addition,” I said.

  I’d started working with Candy’s father designing and working up his house plans.

  It hadn’t been what I’d expected to accomplish with my architecture degree, but it allowed me to do my work from home, work whatever hours I wanted, and stay home with my kids.

  I also continued to manage the Apache. At first I’d thought about leaving after Peyson was born, but Gibson had begged me to stay.

  So I had.

  “Hey,” Codie said. “If she gets an extra room, I want an extra room.”

  “Me, too,” Candy said. “Or two. Maybe just give us all two.”

  Georgia snorted. “You’re gonna have as many kids as me if you’re not careful.”

  I looked at Georgia.

  “I can build y’all into this place,” I said. “Do you want me to?”

  “No,” Nico said, having come up silently. “No, I can’t handle it.”

  I grinned at Nico’s no-nonsense attitude.

  The man loved his family, but he loved solitude, too.

  “Are y’all really adding on to the house again?” Nico asked.

  I looked at Callum who was talking to a now awake Kendall. He gave her a huge kiss, then climbed the fence and hopped down on the other side.

  “Callum is making my ovaries sing right now,” Desi said. “I was thinking that we could have more babies, but then Way pointed out that we didn’t have enough room. So now we’re gonna add two more rooms onto the place.”

  “I already texted my dad,” Candy said. “He said he’ll be here Monday with a crew to get started.”

  Nico’s lips twitched. “Are y’all going to discuss this with your men?”

  “Why would we?” I asked curiously.

  “Because they’re gonna want to have a say in their house being ripped apart again,” Nico pointed out.

  As it turned out, Nico was right.

  The damn man.

  “I don’t mind adding on more rooms,” Darby said. “We have plenty of money… it’s just that… are you sure you want more kids?”

  I was considering giving up working at the Apache since Kendall was born.

  There just wasn’t enough time in my day to love my kids, do my dream job, and work at a drive-in porn theater.

  And, as it turns out, I was much happier working from home wh
ile my kids played at my feet.

  Not to mention Desi always had baked goods of some kind or another for us to snack on.

  And my babies got to play with their cousins and find out what it’s like to grow up in a place that they were loved.

  Unlike me and my childhood.

  “I like the idea,” he continued. “But what are we going to do with two extra rooms?”

  His question was followed up with a hand smoothing down the length of my ass.

  When he pulled me closer, into his hard erection, I knew exactly where his thoughts were headed.

  “I just had a baby,” I said breathlessly.

  “That was months ago,” he said. “Your baby weight is already off.”

  That was true but…

  “I just got her sleeping through the night,” I tried again.

  His mouth moved down to my neck, lips skimming over my pulse.

  My rapidly beating, only did that for Darby Valentine, pulse.

  “I’ll help you, just like I always do,” he growled.

  Then I forgot why I was thinking this was a bad idea.

  And instead decided to embrace Darby’s idea.

  And boy, embrace it I did.

  Also, apparently, we weren’t the only ones that had that same thought that night.

  Nine months later, four more Valentine babies were born.

  Ace and Codie’s little Lara. Callum and Desi’s big Branham. Banks and Candy’s rambunctious Race. And Darby and my sweet Sarahlee.

  The Motherfuckin’ End.

  Author’s Note:

  Some of y’all have already expressed wanting more of this particular series.

  However…I don’t plan on revisiting them, or the friends, any time in the near future. I have a hundred different stories that want to be written, and unfortunately the Valentines (with their friends) aren’t one of them.

  Never say never, though!

  What’s Next?

  May Contain Wine

  5-12-2020

  Prologue

  Chubby, single, and ready for a Pringle.

  -T-shirt

  Calloway

  “I think we should break up.”

  I blinked, unsure whether or not I’d heard those words correctly.

  Honestly, I knew they were coming, though.

  He’d been very withdrawn over the last couple of weeks, and now that he was set to go to bootcamp tomorrow, and then get stationed somewhere after that—most likely out of the country—I knew that he was trying to think of me.