Sweet and Wild - Carmen Jenner Page 0,3
do is stand there with tears in my eyes and my mouth hanging open. If I thought Colton was rock-my-world kind of handsome when we were teens, he’s so much better now. Broad shoulders, thick arms, a toned muscled body, and tighter jeans than he has a right to be wearing, but it isn’t any of those things that drives the knife through my chest. It’s the way those steely eyes assessed me as if I were the enemy that really broke my heart, especially after he’d spent so long looking at me like I hung the moon and stars.
“There’s no place like home,” I mutter under my breath as the screen door opens and I turn to see who else has come to give me a piece of their mind. Mama, Wyatt, Wade, and West all stand on the front porch. Mama had a thing for W’s. Except when it came to me—I was special. That’s what she always told me. I silently curse her for filling my head with lies. If I’m so damn special, why did my fiancé cheat and my ex-boyfriend run outta here like the devil was chasing him the second I returned home?
My family’s faces are a mixture of relief, somber delight, and total and utter boredom from West and Wade.
“Hi.” I wave.
“Lemonade,” Mama says on a sob as she rushes toward me and engulfs me in her arms. She’s always been fit from working the land alongside my daddy, but right now, she’s skin and bone. I’m afraid to hold her too tightly for fear she might snap.
“Hi, Mama,” I say, as the floodgates open. She squeezes me tightly.
“I’ve missed my baby so much. It’s been too long since you been home, girl.”
“I know.” I sniff and pull away.
“You doing okay?”
I shake my head and swipe my tears with the heels of my hands. At least Colt wasn’t here to see me fall apart. I bet he’d just love another opportunity to rub it in.
“Alright, Mama,” Wyatt says. “Quit hoggin’ my little sister’s hugs.”
“Little sister? I’m older than you.”
Wyatt wraps his arms around me in a hug and squeezes so tight he lifts me off the ground, managing to crack every one of my vertebrae. “Yeah, but no one really remembers that.”
“Oh my God. You actually grew into your gangly limbs.” I glance at West and Wade, still standing by the doors with arms folded across their chests—the mirror image of one another save for a little gray in West’s hair. “What have you been feedin’ them, Mama? Y’all grew like weeds.”
“That’s what happens when you leave and don’t come back for twelve years. People tend to change,” West says.
“Hiya to you too, West.”
“Come on now,” Mama says. “We don’t need no fightin’. Daddy wouldn’t want this reunion spoiled by harsh words.”
“Daddy wouldn’t have wanted his only daughter to disown her family either,” Wade says, sounding just like he took the spit out of West’s mouth.
“You bite your tongue, Wade Winchester,” Mama warns.
Wade bows his head and has the good grace to look ashamed.
“You must be starvin’ and exhausted from your trip. Dinner’s about ready. You go on and get cleaned up. West, Wade, you bring your sister’s bags.”
“Mama,” Wade whines. “Why us? Why isn’t Wyatt helpin’?”
“Because Wyatt wasn’t an asshole to his sister just now.”
“It’s okay. I can take my own bags inside.”
“You afraid we’re gonna go through your shit and you’ll wake up tomorrow with your lacey underthings decorating the cow pats in the field?” Wade smirks, and I roll my eyes.
Wyatt grins. “You’d have to be unafraid to touch her lacey underthings first.”
“Wait.” Wade punches our little brother in the arm. “That’s your worst fear, isn’t it?”
“Only when it comes to the parts that are in them lacey underthings,” Wyatt says coolly.
“Maybe you’d prefer to be the one wearin’ them,” Wade crows.
“Oh, that’s real original, asshole. Did you think of that line all by yourself?” Wyatt folds his arms over his chest and leans against the front porch railing. “I tell you what, when you’re ready to start dressing like a man, you come see me and maybe we can actually find you a real live girl to date. I know your hand must be gettin’ kinda tired.”
“What’s wrong with the way I dress?”
“Alright, y’all, that is quite enough.” Mama ushers me up the walk to the stairs. “I, for one, am glad to have another female in this house. It’s been overrun with overgrown men for far too long.”
Mama