The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [116]
“Misty is going to help me out around the station.”
Sawyer sat back in his seat. “I thought you didn’t want to hire a woman because she might get ideas.”
“In this case, it’s a moot point. The ideas are mutual.” He looked at each brother in turn. “Any objections?”
Jordan lifted his glass of milk and said mildly, “With the two of you competing for the darkest frown, who would dare?”
Casey stood and took his empty plate and glass to the dishwasher. “I think it’s great. So can I be excused? I want to go into town today.”
Sawyer glanced at his son. “A date?”
“Sorta.”
Morgan snagged Casey and roughed up his hair. “You’re taking after your uncle, boy.”
With a twinkle in his eyes, Casey asked, “Oh, yeah? Which one?”
Gabe held out his arms. “If she’s gorgeous, then obviously me!”
Honey reached over and slapped Gabe’s arm. “Thanks a lot!”
The moment Misty had dreaded seemed to have come and gone without much notice. She was a tad bemused at that.
“No offense, Honey,” Gabe said after blowing her a kiss, “but you’re married into the family now so I can’t make lecherous jokes about you.”
Still holding Casey in a way that made Misty wistful over the easy familiarity, Morgan said, “We can give you a ride. Misty and I are going into town ourselves.”
Misty, a little surprised that he’d even suggest it, thought she’d have a slight reprieve from Morgan’s isolated attentions until Casey shook his head. “Thanks, but I’d rather ride Windstorm. Jordan said she needs the exercise and I was planning on cutting across the field.”
Morgan explained to Misty, “Windstorm is a new horse. Jordan brought her home not too long ago.”
“I’m meeting up with friends, then we’re all going to the lake for a little while.”
“Anybody I know?” Morgan asked.
Casey struggled to hide his grin. “Just some girls, mostly.”
Sawyer took one look at his son’s innocent expression and groaned. “Lord, he is like Gabe.”
At that, Casey laughed. “We’re just going to swim. We won’t get into any trouble.”
Gabe sent mock glares around the room. “I didn’t always get into trouble, you know.”
“Just often enough,” Jordan said with a raised brow, “to keep everyone on their toes.”
Sawyer raised a hand. But before he could interject anything into the conversation, Honey stood and took Casey’s arm.
“Never mind your overbearing, interfering uncles.” She slanted her gaze toward Gabe. “You’re nothing like them, except for the good looks, of course. Go and have a good time, but be careful, okay?”
Casey lifted her off her feet in a bear hug. “I’ll be home by three o’clock.”
“That’s fine.” And once he left the room, she glowered at Sawyer. “Quit comparing him to your disreputable brothers. You’ll put ideas in his head.”
“Would you all quit talking about me like I was the scourge of the area? Disreputable, indeed.”
Honey pointed at Gabe. “And proud of it, from what I can tell.”
To Misty’s surprise, Sawyer didn’t look at all put out by Honey’s audacity toward his son. Instead, he grinned. “You’re turning into a rather ferocious mother hen.”
“Oh, no,” Misty said, “she’s always been that way. Even when she was just a little girl.”
There was a round of laughing comments on that, all teasing Honey until she blushed.
Morgan pulled up a chair next to Misty and propped his head on his fist to stare at her. “You look a little numb, sweetheart. You okay?”
She shook her head, watching Sawyer nuzzle on Honey, then Jordan and Gabe roughhousing. She didn’t know what to think. “The way you all carry on, it amazes me, and now here I am right in the middle of it.”
Honey’s lips curled into a big smile. She said to the brothers, “It takes some getting used to, since we were from such a small family. And all our meals were very formal. No one gathered in the kitchen just to chat, and there was never this much joking around.”
“I wasn’t complaining,” Misty said, not wanting them to misunderstand. “It’s…nice.”
“Of course it is.” Honey cuddled against Sawyer’s side, and he kissed her ear. “You know, you can’t get around it, so now I just chime in, too. You’ll get used to it.”
Misty hadn