Chapter Twenty-Five
Brandon
Three Years Later
“WHY ARE YOU GOING TO the station again?” Tabitha asks irritably as she tries to wrestle socks and shoes onto our giggling three-year-old son. She looks exhausted, but she’s still absolutely gorgeous in her white cutoff shorts and red halter top shirt. It’s taking every ounce of control not to gate the kids in their playroom just so I can bend her over the side of the couch and have my way with her. I shove those thoughts aside, for now, though, because now is not the time. We are all running late as it is.
“I have to check in to see if a couple of faxes came through, and I need to make sure the weekend crew are keeping the fort down when Dad and I aren’t there.”
Dad is looking to retire in a couple of months, and I’m planning to step in as the new sheriff, until a new one is elected. I plan to run, and I’m pretty confident that the job’s mine, but formalities must take place.
Tabby manages to get Logan’s shoes on and lifts him down off the counter so he can run back to his toy cars that are currently scattered across the entire living room rug.
“Okay...but please don’t take too long. Beth has been really looking forward to everyone coming to this barbeque.” She steps forward and wraps her arms around my neck, pressing her tits against my chest. I fight the urge to make us even more late. “I think she has an announcement to make and wants us all there for it.” She smirks, giving away that she might possibly already know this big surprise.
“What in the world could Beth possibly have to announce?” I ask, but the look on Tabby’s amused face tells me everything I need to know. “Another one?” I roll my eyes.
“Possibly, but you’ll never know unless you show up.”
I groan, as she pulls down to bring her lips up to mine. Suddenly I forget how annoying my sister’s need to be the dramatic center of attention is. After my little sister ended up with two sets of twins, I was positive she would force Steve to get snipped.
Shaking my head and having a little chuckle at Beth’s expense, Tabby brushes her lips across my jaw, and a groan escapes my mouth. I growl and lift her up onto the counter and dig my erection between her thighs against her denim-clad center.
She squeaks, then pushes me away. “Our son is right over there, and our daughter could walk in the room at any moment,” she scolds with a cute little smirk. My girl can be borderline evil sometimes.
She hops off the counter, and I step back up to her, so I can wrap her in my arms. I kiss the top of her head and inhale the floral scent of her hair.
“I am just stopping in for a quick second, and then I will meet you at the barbeque. I promise.”
She looks up and I take the opportunity to bend down and capture her lips with mine. The kiss promises exactly what I want to do to her later, but it’s short. Too soon, I pull away and grab my keys. I walk into the living room and kiss my son and holler goodbye to Mattie before kissing Tabby one last time and heading out to my truck.
As I drive to the station, I consider myself the luckiest son of a bitch alive. Growing up I always loved just one girl. The girl who lived down the street from us. She was my little sister’s best friend, so I got to see her almost every day. She was only three years younger than me, so by the time she was about to join me in high school, I’d finally built up the courage to ask her out, but I was too late. Matt had fallen for my girl too. He asked her out before I got the chance, and she agreed to go out with him.
I waited for that relationship to run its course. Hoping it was only a fling. I planned to swoop right in when they called it quits, but they never did, so I tried to move on.
When we thought Matt got killed, I was dating someone else, and she wasn’t in any state to start dating any time soon. I still wanted to be there for Tabby. I felt this strong urge to protect and take care of her. She instantly became a single mother when she lost Matt. She needed me. I was more than happy to be there for her. It quickly evolved into more than friendship not long after that. I ended things with the girl I was with and focused all my attention on the girl I’ve always loved. We never dated. We never needed to. We’ve known each other our entire lives, so we already knew everything about each other. I know Tabby still loves Matt, but I know she loves me just as much. I have no issues with sharing her heart with another man, especially when he promises to stay gone.
He’s an idiot. If it were me, I would like to think I’d fight for her, but he’s basically doing what I did in high school. I respect his decision to guard her happiness, but I hate him for bringing me into his secret. I hate lying to Tabby, especially when she gets that sad far off look in her eyes when she thinks of him. I want to kick his ass, but the selfish part of me is glad. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have my beautiful daughter. Matilda had my heart from the moment she was born. She may not have my blood, but she’s more mine than she is his.
Everything is exactly the way it was meant to be. I’m excited to see what the future brings us, even if that means being the uncle to the Guinness World Book of Records for the most sets of twins in a single family. I chuckle again at my little sister’s expense, proud of my little joke that I fully intend on using later, as I pull in front of the station.
It only takes about fifteen minutes to do everything I need to do at the station. I get everything I need and head toward my sister’s house. Beth and Steve live on the outskirts of town, on several acres of country living. It’s about a twenty-minute drive from the station. It’s not a long drive, but it’s definitely a scenic one.
I get about halfway out, when I spot a black early model Ford Taurus stopped on the side of a curved, narrow part of the highway that offers very little visibility to oncoming traffic with a lady leaning over into the inside of her open trunk.