Hott and Handled (The Hott Brothers #3) - Leah Sharelle Page 0,9
to a weird place, but I couldn’t stop my curiosity from taking the lead over my discomfort and the scrutiny she had me under.
“Oh?”
“Mmmm Hmmm, Fenixx is different. As different from his brothers as he is the same as them. Just because they all look identical doesn’t mean they all work the same up here,” she said, pointing to her temple.
“Where Lenoxx is hot-headed, Nixx is chilled, and where Hendrixx is intense and sometimes easily irritated, Nixx doesn’t let anything get to him. He goes with the flow, lets things come to him. He has patience where the other two not so much, he also has a very annoying way of observing what is going on around him without calling attention to himself.”
“It stems from when he was a child, certain circumstances he had to live with for years. Things that his brothers didn’t suffer from, but through which he learned patience, tolerance and how to pay attention.”
“Okay,” I drawled out, “What circumstances?”
“That is for Fenixx to tell you, and he will when he thinks it’s the right time,” Mrs Hott answered firmly, giving me the impression that the conversation about Fenixx was over.
“Now, tell me all about your boy.” Yep, definitely over.
Instead, I spent the next twenty minutes telling Fenixx’s mum all about the birth of my son, my struggles with breastfeeding and everything from his potty training to his last dentist appointment. Normally, I wouldn’t have gone into so much detail with a stranger about my son. Still, Mrs Hott asked so many questions and seemed genuinely interested in all the gory details and even laughed when I told her something funny or embarrassing. For the first time since moving to Cattle Ridge, I truly felt accepted, maybe not quite as a local, more like a welcome permanent visitor.
“I can not wait to meet Dillion. We have a shed full of motorbikes, four-wheelers and even golf carts. Not to mention the tennis courts and dams to swim in, which now the summer is not too far off will be getting a work out by everyone on the property.”
The matter of fact way she offered for Dillion to hang out over at the farm warmed me. Dillion in the country was totally different from when we lived in the city. There he had a hard time making friends, just getting him out of his room and away from his electronics was a daily struggle. Here, it was like he was a changed kid. On his first day at school, he made a bunch of new mates, and within a day, he was off to a mate’s house to ride dirt bikes until dark. Fast forward four years, and he was interested in getting his junior gun licence and wanting to join the local gun club. He worked weekends at the restaurant and was saving for his own dirt bike. Watching Dillion come out of his shell and become such a lovely human being made all the shit his dad put us through worth it.
“He would love that Mrs Hott, thank you so much,” I whispered, feeling tears burn behind my eyelids.
“Sweetie, call me Lillian please,” Mrs—Lillian insisted, getting up from the bale and smacking her butt and legs with her hands to dislodge stray pieces of hay that were clinging to her jeans.
“Or Mum, totally up to you,” Lillian quipped with a cheeky wink.
“What? No!” I shouted, not meaning to sound like I was attacking her, but seriously. Mum? What the hell! Calling her that implied something was happening between her son and me, nothing was or could happen. No matter how attractive I found him, or how his intense smouldering blue eyes watched and followed me.
Lillian started to walk away, her hand waving over her shoulder. “You just keep telling yourself that, sweetie,” she singsonged, following it up with a burst of laughter that didn’t quite sound conceited but pretty bloody close.
Whatever Lillian thought was happening here, she was well off the mark. The only reason I was here was to pick up my ovens, and maybe a little gawking, but that was it.
No romance, no sweet words of love, and definitely no touching his whisker-covered jaw just to see if it was as soft as I imagined.
Nope, none of that.
FENIXX
Farron looked like she was getting ready to make a bolt as she watched my mother depart back to her ute. I don’t know what Mum said, but hearing her cackling in that way she did when she