Breathe (Colorado Mountain #4)(97)

“You so chased me around with scissors. Jude chased you with the fire poker.”

He felt Faye turn to look up at him, he gave her his gaze and she confirmed, “This actually happened.”

“And she actually chased me with scissors,” Liza took their attention by repeating.

“Liza, I did not,” Faye retorted.

“You totally did,” Liza fired back.

Faye gave up and tried something new. “You were a hair puller.”

“So were you,” Liza returned.

“Of course I was, because you were. It called for retaliatory measures and that was my only choice,” Faye replied.

Liza gave up on Faye and looked to Chace. “She also mixed all my makeup together.”

Faye didn’t give up on Liza and leaned toward her. “That was because you told Danny I had a crush on him.”

Liza’s eyebrows shot up. “So?”

“I didn’t have a crush on Danny!” Faye shot back. “I had a crush on his brother Dillon! Danny thought I liked him so he kissed me in front of Dillon.” She flounced back in the couch, throwing out a hand, “And there went my shot at Dillon.”

“Like you’d take that shot,” Liza muttered the God’s honest truth.

“No, but if Dillon had, I would have taken that,” Faye returned on an out and out lie.

“Now I’m glad I got boys,” Boyd said to no one.

“Who’s Dillon?” Chace asked Faye and, for some reason, Liza found this hilarious and he knew this because she burst out laughing.

“Nobody,” Faye muttered, glaring across the room at her sister.

“Cutest boy in school,” Liza answered and Chace looked back to her. “Or was. Now he’s got a beer belly the size of Texas, is thirty-one years of age and is working on wife three, kid five and still thinks his stuff doesn’t stink because he was captain of the football team fourteen years ago.”

Jesus, Chace knew the guy.

“Dillon Baumgarner?” he asked.

“You know him?” Liza asked back.

He did, unfortunately. The guy was a dick who, Liza was right, had a huge gut and thought his shit didn’t stink. Regrettably, he was able, with a bewildering frequency, to convince women of this fact. He went through them like water, whether he was committed to one legally or not. This wasn’t the only reason he was a dick. He was just a dick.

Chace didn’t share this.

He just looked at Faye, fighting a grin and saying quietly, “Good you held out, honey.”

Liza burst out laughing again. Boyd chuckled. Silas smiled at the both of them.

At this point, Sondra walked two feet into the room and announced, “Soup’s on. Come and get it.”

Then she walked right back out.

Apparently, Sondra spoke, everyone listened because instantly they all made a move.

But as they started out of the room, Silas caught up with Chace, Chace’s arm around Faye, Faye returning the gesture and Silas shared, “The scissors, Faye’s right. Liza chased Jude with ‘em.”

“See?” Faye directed this at her sister’s back.

“Though,” Silas went on, “she got the idea from Faye.”

“Did not!” Faye snapped, her head twisting so she could aim her glare at her father.

“Sweetheart, you did it,” he returned then looked at Chace. “Got in trouble for it, sat in the corner for half an hour because of it and then wrote a report for her second grade teacher about it which caused the woman to call her Mom and me into school.”

They walked through the kitchen into the dining room at the other side of the house and Silas kept sharing.

“She didn’t know what to do with herself. Said the report was work well beyond any seven year old she knew. Also said she was alarmed that it was about parental cruelty. We convinced her our Faye had a vivid imagination. Since she’d noted this already, luckily she wasn’t hard to convince.”

“The scissor story,” Sondra muttered, obviously overhearing.

“Chace is getting the lowdown,” Boyd shared then looked at Chace. “Settle in, man. Happened to me ten years ago. Took ‘em around two dozen visits to burn the stories out. I didn’t know whether to think I got hold of a hot one or move to a different state.”

“Faye’s stories will be better because she’s got that shy and retiring gig going on,” Liza put in as she fussed over Robbie’s napkin in his lap while he shoved at her hands and glared at the side of her head. “No one would ever expect her temper matches her hair.”

“Learned that myself thirty-four years ago but my teacher was her mother,” Silas added, seating himself at the head. “Knew, my baby girl came out with that red fuzz on her head, I was in for trouble. And I was not wrong. Though, half the time she’s rantin’, it’s about fathers with chunks cut outta their brains or Darth Vader and I don’t know what the heck she’s on about.”

“Uh… does anyone mind if we stop acting like I’m fifteen and Chace is my high school boyfriend you’re all trying to scare to death and maybe remember to act our ages?” Faye suggested, glaring at her father at the same time motioning to a chair which Chace took as her telling him to plant his ass in it.

“No,” Liza denied immediately.