One Hot Momma Read Free Page B

tonight, baby-girl.” He forced a smile. It was like telling his own kids he wasn’t coming home.
    “Brice, don’t pull.” Savannah was obviously struggling to keep the phone.
    “Let me talk to him.” Rafe smiled.
    “Hello?” The little monster got on the phone.
    “How are you supposed to treat your sister, young man?” he asked.
    “Be nice to her. She is the only sister I got, and it’s my job to protect her,” he droned out the lesson.
    ‘That’s right.”
    “We miss you. We had hot dogs and macaroni; that’s lunch foods,” Brice complained.
    “Well, all food is good food any time of day.”
    “Are you coming over tomorrow?” Brice asked.
    “I’ll be there, cowboy. Now let me talk to your sister.”
    “I… okay.” Brice handed the phone to Savannah.
    “I will be there tomorrow all right? Be good for your mother, okay?”
    “Do we have to?” the little imp asked honestly.
    “Yes.” He held back the laugh. He knew they gave Layla hell when he wasn’t around, but really, the woman lacked common sense when it came to managing two kids.
    “Oh all right,” she said. “Good night.”
    “Good night.” He waited for Savannah to hang up, laughed because Layla was asking for the phone when she did it, and went back to the kitchen. If she really wanted to talk to him, she would call back.
    “We know, you gotta go,” Heath, his older overbearing brother, rolled his eyes as he said it.
    “Actually, I don’t.” Rafe sat back down and felt six sets of eyes on him. He looked around the table at them. Jack and Bethany sat close together. Jack had met Bethany in Las Vegas, and they married each other on a dare. They were now expecting a little one. Not to be outdone, Heath and his wife Chance had not only reconciled but also conceived upon that reconciliation. Chance absolutely glowed. Heath for all of his machismo could only find tenderness for one woman, the one at his side. The only woman willing to put up with him. Then he moved to the happiest faces in the room. Jan and Buck were the youngest couple there and the ones who missed him the most. When Jan and Buck got married, Jack and Heath thought that by shutting them out they would bring them to their senses. Heath had even shot Buck with a bee-bee gun when he came to ask for Jan’s hand in marriage. Rafe had snuck down to their house once a week for dinner and family game night. He always went back to let her out of the closet when they wanted to escape the little sister, and he always went down to see her and her husband once a week when she was married and banned from the family.
    His grandfather had told him when Jan came along that Heath was too old to be the big brother she needed, Jack was too wild and losing his spot as the baby wasn’t fun either, so it fell to the middle child to pick up the slack. Rafe understood this. He had been compensating one way or the other all his life as the middle brother.
    Six surprised faces still looked at him. “What?”
    “Nothing,” Jan said and quickly directed the attention back to the game. “You can be on our team.”
    “I’ll be on my own team, thank you.” He grabbed the horse piece he had custom created from a piece of wood and placed it at the start. Of course, he was the odd man out. He always was.
    * * *
    Squeals, shrieks, and laughter cracked through the air. Two kids were not behaving. They had stripped the sheets off their beds, dumped out all of their toys, and were currently running around the small apartment like wild dogs.
    “Both of you stop it!” Layla yelled. They stopped. “Go to bed!”
    Their faces looked shocked, hurt, and disappointed all at the same time.
    “Now.” She pointed to their room.
    They marched in silence until they got to the door. Brice looked back. “But the sheets.”
    “I don’t care.” Layla’s hands shook from her frazzled nerves.
    “I’ll fix it.” Savannah gave her the cold look she always gave her and put her arm around her