Chapter One
Ginger
I didn’t mean for anyone in my real life to discover that I run a sex podcast. Especially not my brother’s best friend.
The reason he found out was my fault. It was my idea to buy those stupid matching tablet cases. It started this morning after I made breakfast for my mom and the boys. The boys are my brothers, and like me, they were adopted by Mrs. Maple and her late husband.
The diagnosis of multiple sclerosis two years ago finally gave us a word for why Mom has been growing progressively weaker. Last month, we convinced her to start using a wheelchair. She finds it easier to get around now, but it breaks all of our hearts to see her struggle.
“Can you help Mom at the shop today, runt?” Greer asks. He’s my oldest brother.
The thing about Greer is that he was seventeen when I came to live here. He let me follow him around the farm while he did chores. He taught me how to milk a cow, how to muck a stall, and how to feed the chickens. He did it all with endless patience, never once growing tired of my constant questions.
He probably doesn’t know it, but he was the first person to make me feel safe. The first one that showed me sometimes people are kind and good.
“I thought it was Barrett’s turn,” I answer. Today is my day off from the shop, and I have plans to edit my latest episode. It’s about how to have more satisfying orgasms during self-pleasure. I’m not gonna lie. The research for this episode was pretty enjoyable.
“Can’t,” Barrett says, shoveling more food into his mouth and barely looking up from his plate. “We’re helping the Taylor brothers.”
I turn to Noah. Out of all of us, Noah is the quiet one. He’s the fearless second-in-command to my oldest brother. If he promises to do something, he can always be counted on to get the job done.
He shakes his head. “I’m going to the airport.”
He’s picking up our youngest brother from the airport. Zac is—well, Mom doesn’t like us to say. She doesn’t want anyone treating him differently just because he’s a celebrity now. Besides, he works hard to fly under the radar. But eventually, someone in his fancy life is going to spill the beans about where he comes from. I just hope it doesn’t ruin our quiet, small town.
“It’s not a problem. I can help her then,” I tell Greer brightly. He already takes care of so much. He took over the farm when Dad died.
When we didn’t have enough money to give Dad a proper burial, our friends and neighbors stepped in. On the day of his funeral, Mom started making candles.
She wanted to thank our community for everything they’d done for us, so she made some candles. Then she kept making them, channeling all of her grief into intricate wax figures that she eventually turned into a business. Her candle shop is a good source of income for the farm now, but more than that, it gives Mom a purpose.
As she’s getting sicker, we’ve been helping out more. She doesn’t want to retire, and we don’t want her to either. Not if she still loves doing this, so for now, we’ll just trade days showing up at the candle shop.
“I’ll send Grizz over to help,” Greer says, naming his best friend.
The flannel-wearing lumberjack mountain man with his corded muscles and permanent frown is irresistible to me. Too bad he only sees me as his friend’s little sister. If just once I could get him to see that I’m a grown woman. A woman who wants his big body covering hers.
But it’s been years, and Grizz has never noticed me. I’ve accepted that he won’t ever. That’s why I own so many damn vibrators. Because the one man I want to feel between my thighs is never going to look at me that way.
“You don’t have to do that. I’m perfectly capable of carrying the heavy boxes,” I tell him. I’ll never be able to think straight with Grizz at the shop. Thankfully, the scowling man isn’t around very often.
“He’ll be over by lunch,” Greer answers with a note of finality to his voice. He’s decreed it, and so it will be.
I want to argue with him, but Mom wheels into the kitchen, and I busy myself with helping her instead.
***
Three hours later, I pause to put a hand on my aching back. I could have waited for Grizz to arrive and help, but there were too many boxes. As it is, I’ve barely made a dent in all of the shipments that arrived today. The fifty-pound cases weren’t supposed to be here for another two weeks.
“You should have called me,” Grizz’s words are quiet in the alleyway behind Mom’s candle shop as if just my thoughts conjured him up. If I had that ability, he’d always be around.
For a mountain of a man, Grizz doesn’t make much noise when he walks. I risk a glance over my shoulder. Instantly, I wish I hadn’t. He looks too good today in his tightfitting blue jeans and old blue flannel that clings to his biceps. If there were a lumberjack calendar, Grizz would definitely be featured. Hell, they could make a whole calendar of this man, and women everywhere would line up to buy it.
Meanwhile, I scraped my wild hair back in a bun, and I know that my cheeks are probably bright pink from exertion. I’ve sweated off every bit of makeup I put on today, and I’m wearing an old farm T-shirt that’s three sizes too big. Baggy jeans and black boots complete my working farm girl look. Ugh, why does he have to look like a model right now?
“Doesn’t matter. The job had to be done,” I answer lightly. This is one of the things about living in a ranching community. You get used to working hard early in life.
I reach for the next box to load it onto the dolly, but Grizz puts a hand on my arm. “Let me. You take a break. Get some lunch.”
I should stay and keep helping. But I’m exhausted and in need of a rest, so, I give him a grateful smile. “I’ll be back soon.”
“Take your time,” he answers easily as he reaches for a stack of boxes. For a moment, I’m rooted to the spot, transfixed by the sight of this strong man, lifting three of these boxes while barely breaking a sweat. He’s so strong. I bet he could pin me against the alleyway wall and hold me there with his body while thrusting deep inside of my pussy.
The image creates a low pull in my belly. I want that. I want Grizz to show me how strong he is. I want to be held in his arms while he bounces me on his cock.
Shaking my head to clear the thoughts, I hurry back into the shop.
I take a working lunch, editing some of the audio for my podcast while mom plays a word game on her tablet. The matching hot pink cases were an impulse buy online. Mom and I might be farm girls, but we share a love of all things glittery.
When I’m done with my sandwich, I make two for Grizz and take them outside to him. My ovaries were not prepared for the sight that greets me. Grizz has stripped off his flannel, and he’s in a ribbed, white tank. It’s soaked from his sweat and clinging so tightly that it outlines his back as he works. There’s just something about watching his big broad shoulders that has me panting.
He turns as if he could sense my lust-fueled thoughts.
I make a squeak and thrust the paper plate at him.
He accepts it and takes a seat in the cargo area, his denim-clad legs dangling over the edge. He drains the first water bottle I pass him and wipes the droplets from his beard. His thick, red beard. I’ve always wondered what it would feel like beneath my fingertips. Is it soft and silky? It looks like it is. What would it feel like between my thighs?
No, bad Ginger. I can’t be thinking like this.
“Take a seat,” he growls at me.
I’m not taking a seat next to him. As it is, just being around him, tests the boundaries of my self-control. Because whenever I’m around Grizz, I want to touch him. I want to touch him all over. Why doesn’t he have a girlfriend? It’s been years, and I’ve never seen Grizz with anyone. Maybe he’s more of the one-night stand type. The thought makes something in my chest hurt.
I have to get out of here before I say or do something stupid. “Mom needs to go home.”
One of the hardest parts of multiple sclerosis is the exhaustion. She doesn’t have the energy she used to, and even though she tries to push through, everyone can see it’s hard on her now. “I’ll be back later to finish up. You don’t have to stay.”
Grizz finishes his second sandwich and stands. “I’ll help with her chair.”
He follows me into the shop and stops to talk with Mom. “You look pretty today, Mrs. M.”
She beams at him. When she learned that Grizz doesn’t have a family, she unofficially adopted him. He’s now a staple at all of our family gatherings including Thanksgiving and Christmas. Last year, I swear he got more gifts from her than the rest of us did. My brothers teased him, saying he was the favorite son. “Ginger did my makeup before we left the house.”
I duck my head, embarrassed. I grab my tablet and shove it into my oversized bag.
“No, you’re a natural beauty,” Grizz insists to my mom.
She chuckles and shakes her head. “If you think that, then you’ve been spending too much time alone up there in that cabin of yours. You need a girl, son.”
“Only one girl has my heart,” he answers with a wink at her.
She chuckles and shakes her head as she pushes the joystick on her electric wheelchair and starts toward the door. I follow behind the two of them, half listening as they banter. It’s going to be a late night between editing my podcast episode and getting the shop inventory put away. Normally, this is something that my brothers would be there to help with. But the Taylor family helped us so much after Dad died that whenever they need anything, my brothers show up to help them.
I get Mom settled in the truck while Grizz loads her wheelchair into the truck bed and secures it. We’ll get a medical transport van soon, but we just now managed to get Mom comfortable with the idea of using the chair.
Mom is quieter than usual on the drive home, and I don’t work to fill the silence. I’m too busy thinking about Grizz. The last time I talked to him—really talked to him—was two years ago. After that, I realized I was being ridiculous. I’d never get Grizz to see me as anything other than Greer’s younger sister.
It’s not until we’re home that Mom opens my bag. She frowns. “There’s only one tablet in here.”
“I put both of them in there,” I explain and reach for the bag myself. But when I look inside, I realize she’s right. There’s only one tablet here. I open the case and quickly realize I took Mom’s, which means my tablet is still at the shop.
With Grizz.
A pit forms in my stomach. He wouldn’t have opened it. He wouldn’t have looked at it. Please don’t let him have looked at it.