Joshua Healy (The Mitchell/Healy Family #10)(13)

I wake up to the sound of a rooster crowing. I’m wrapped in a blanket, completely naked, but most importantly alone in a barn. It takes me a few seconds to realize how I got here, and what I’ve done. Before I can begin to evaluate my next move, or how I’m going to have to make the walk of shame to ask for a ride, I hear voices from behind me.



“No way she’s with Josh.” One announces.

“He’s a f*cking liar,” the other agrees.



They’re identical and I’m pretty certain they’re the twins, Jake and Jax, though it’s been a few years since I’ve seen them on television playing college football. I cover my body more with the blanket and face them. “Where’s Josh?” It will settle their assumption at the least.



“Holy shit. He was telling truth.” The first one says.

“What the hell? Get out of here and let the woman be.” Josh climbs the stairs with a thermos in his hands. He’s still shirtless, his belt missing, but wearing the same jeans as the night before. The top of his hair is messy, and I kind of like it better than the way he’d slicked it back when he came to the dealership. “Don’t mind my cousins. They don’t get out much.”

He opens the thermos and pours hot coffee into the plastic cup. “Mom wouldn’t let me bring another cup from the kitchen. We always forget to return them. Hope you like cream and sugar. It’s how I drink it, and I didn’t want to have to explain that it wasn’t just for me.”

“You went to your house? Did you sleep there?”

He scratches his head as I take a sip of the hot beverage. “You don’t remember?”

“I remember enough,” I admit.

“Then you should know I woke up right here next to you. You’re cute when you’re drunk. You whimper when you sleep.”

I’m embarrassed. He must think I’m gross. “I do not.” I defend.

“I didn’t think you could get any sexier, but you’re proving me wrong.”

“Stop.” It hurts to hear him still hitting on me. “I know what this was. It was a pity f*ck. You got what you wanted, and I was able to make it through the first night without committing suicide.”

“You weren’t a pity f*ck. I wanted to f*ck you way before I pitied you,” he corrects.

“Thanks. That makes it ten times better.”

He grabs the cup from my hands and sits it on the table in front of us. Then he starts tugging on the blanket. I immediately check the room for his cousins. “I sent them away. They’ve got work to do.”

“Don’t you?”

“I have company. They’ll survive without me for a couple hours.”

“I don’t expect you to be nice to me.”

He strokes my hair away from my face, and I’m freaking out about having morning breath, especially when I get a whiff of toothpaste as he speaks. “I don’t know what you’re used to, but I was hoping we could at least have a meal together before you tell me it’s been fun.”

I cover my mouth as I speak. “What makes you think I had fun?”

He snickers and smiles, displaying those damn dimples I’m finding it difficult to resist. “Really? That’s how it’s going to be? You’re going to make me work for every second we spend together?”

“I never said I was interested in seeing you again, did I?”

“You don’t have to.”

“You’re relentless.”

“That I am.”

“Fine.” My stomach growls when I think about food. “I don’t have any clothes to wear, and I’m not going anywhere until I brush my teeth.”

He stands and reaches for my hand. “If I were you I’d put on the clothes you were wearing last night. I mean, it’s up to you. I wouldn’t want to meet my mother naked. She’s liable to sick the dogs on you for molesting her only son.”

I’m shocked. “What? Hell no. I’m not meeting your mother with hangover breath and wrinkled clothes.”

“I’m kidding. The house is empty. Mom is at the salon and my dad is in the field tilling. You can change into something of mine, after you shower and brush those pretty white teeth. My mom keeps extras for unexpected guests.”

“Wow. How many women do you bring home?”

He’s laughing again. “There you go again, assuming the worst. If you haven’t heard, I’ve got a large family. They show up without planning all the time. We buy toothbrushes and linens in bulk.”

I flash him an unsure grimace. “Your cousins must think I’m a whore.”

“One of them married a stripper. How do you think she felt?”

“Is that supposed to make it easier for me?”

He shrugs. “I think you’re afraid to be naked in front of me, which is funny since I’ve seen everything you’ve got last night.”

I bring the blanket back up to my chin. “Go away and let me change. Turn around.”

It doesn’t bother me that he’s laughing. I’m not the same person who threw caution to the wind and let him have his way with me the night before. I’m back to being the innocent girl who swore he’d never have a chance.