“If you have time to meet them with us,” Dad says as he casts his line, “that would be great.”
“I’ll make time.”
This ranch and the family on it are everything to me. They saved me from the pits of hell and showed me what it is to belong somewhere. To be loved.
To feel safe.
And I’ll be here for the rest of my life, taking care of our home and proving to them all that I’m worthy of it.
“How is Melinda?” Uncle Josh asks with a grin.
“Ah, well.” I shrug and pull in my line, frowning when I see that the worm is gone, but there’s no fish in its place. Reaching for fresh bait, I answer. “She started talking about babies.”
Dad’s head whips around to mine. “You’ve dated for what? Three months?”
“Two.” I cast the line. “So, I had to end that one. She said I needed to figure out what I want in a relationship.”
“Jesus, after two months?” Josh demands and then shakes his head.
“Well, to be fair, you knew within two months that you loved Aunt Cara.”
“I knew the minute I laid eyes on her.” Josh winks at me. “But it doesn’t always happen like that.”
“Yeah, Melinda was a little clingy. And it didn’t exactly break my heart when I broke it off, so it clearly wasn’t meant to be.”
“You’re young,” Dad says with a shrug.
“What do you say we drink beer and watch football tonight?” Josh asks.
“Can’t. I’m going out with Gage to shoot some pool.”
“How’s Gage?”
“I think he’s doing well. He’s been busy. Haven’t talked to him much lately, but I’ll catch up with him later. Cara’s making spaghetti for dinner, and I’m sticking around for it.”
Josh’s phone rings.
“Speak of the devil,” he mutters and answers the phone. “Hey, Carolina. What?”
He frowns and then hides a laugh behind his hand.
“I understand. Well, I’d like to keep my balls, so we’ll be right there. We’re coming. Yes, we’ll hurry.”
He hangs up and then lets the laugh go.
“What’s up?” Dad asks.
“She found a mouse.” We all reel in our lines and make our way up the small hill, walking through the woods toward the house. “It’s the second one this week.”
“Wonder where they’re coming in from,” I mumble.
“I was supposed to look around, but I forgot,” Josh says. “You can bet your ass that I won’t forget now. She’s losing her damn mind.”
“Jillian would burn the place to the ground,” Dad says, referring to the woman who raised me.
“Cara threatened it.”
We climb the back steps and walk into the newly renovated house, stopping short at the scene before us.
My aunt Cara, a woman who is always calm and collected, is sitting on the dining room table, holding a shotgun.
Her blue eyes look a little crazy.
“Uh, babe?” Josh steps forward and gingerly takes the firearm from her. “You can’t shoot a mouse with a shotgun.”
“Says who?” she demands. “You didn’t see the size of the son of a bitch. It was bigger than a tomcat.”
Given that we have several toms out in the barn, she would know.
Of course, there are no mice in the barn—because we have the cats.
“Where did it go?” I ask.
“Under the couch,” she says and shudders. “It laughed at me.”
I smirk but school my features immediately when she narrows her eyes at me.
Pissing off the other woman who raised me is not something I ever want to do.
“We’ll find it,” I promise her. “Get a bowl from the kitchen.”
“You’re not putting that monster in one of my bowls,” she says, shaking her head. “That’s disgusting. We eat out of those bowls.”
“Don’t you have an old one that we can throw away after we relocate the mouse?”
“Relocate?” She tilts her head and stares at me like I’m crazy. “That sucker doesn’t get to relocate. I want it dead. I want its whole family dead.”
“She’s really homicidal,” I mutter to my uncle.
“Babe, why don’t you go over to the big house and hang out with Jillian while we take care of this?”
“I’m not getting off this table.”
Josh just smiles gently at his wife and lifts her into his arms, grabbing her purse as he carries her out the front door.
“They’re still really mushy, even after all this time.”
“Are you saying I’m not mushy with your mom?” Dad asks.
“No, you are. It’s gross.”
Dad laughs, and then we see the offending rodent run across the living room.
“Shit, that is a big sucker,” I say in surprise. “I need something to pick it up with.”
Josh hurries back inside and turns to my dad. “Okay, she’s headed over to your place. Holy shit, is that it?”
“Yeah. It’s a monster. She’s right. I need something to hold it in. What about Tupperware?”
“We have something,” Josh says and rummages through the kitchen, returning with an old to-go container that clearly held spaghetti sauce at some point given the red stain.
“Perfect. Okay, we have to corner it.”
The three of us work as a team, laughing as the mouse darts around the room. Finally, I jump onto my belly and stretch to cover it with the container.
“Success!” I grin as I slide the lid under it and secure it in place. “I need to go let it go before it suffocates.”
“Don’t tell Cara that we let it live,” Dad suggests.
“Oh, I won’t. Trust me. Now, let’s figure out how they’re making their way inside.”
I walk out to the field behind the house, close to the woods that lead to the river, and let it go.
“Now, don’t come back. Be smart. Stay out here.”
When I return to the house, Josh is pulling a piece of duct tape off the roll.
“Find it?” I ask.
“Yep. Looks like there’s a hole under the sink that didn’t get repaired correctly during the remodel. We’ll keep them out with this for now, and I’ll call the contractor to come back and do this correctly.”
“I’m sure Aunt Cara will be relieved that you solved the case.” I check the time. “I’m going to go get some work done before dinner.”
My little house is new and sits on two acres, less than half a mile from the house I grew up in. Josh and Dad gave me the land as a gift for my twenty-fifth birthday a couple of years ago, and I got to work building my place.
It’s a farmhouse-style ranch house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. It has plenty of room, especially given I don’t plan on it being more than just me living here.
I’m not going to have kids. After the early childhood I had, I shudder to think what kind of parent I’d make.
Hell, I don’t even plan to get married.
This house is perfect for a life-long bachelor.
I kick off my fishing boots, strip out of my sweaty T-shirt, and make a beeline for the shower.