It was well after midnight when the girls finally passed out in the upstairs bedrooms, and Marit was given a moment's peace from the interrogations. Sometime after she had turned twenty eight, her cousins jumped on the bandwagon with her mother in trying to find her a potential significant other. Granted, her cousins had better taste than her mother, but they always seemed to forget that they weren’t looking for themselves, they were looking for her.

  None of the guys had been interested in her and would often, if picked out by Andrea, would just ask about said woman who picked him out. Men that Trinity tried to set her up with were out of county and heavily involved in politics which wasn’t an interest Marit had at all. That and she didn’t fit the trophy wife look.

  Trinity worked in the mayor’s office as an assistant, and by all accounts, she was going places. Marit already knew that Trinity was being catapulted upward to be put on the ballot for the next voting year to run as vice mayor. Still, for all of her brilliance, the woman couldn’t pick a man to save her life.

  Phoebe of course wasn’t much help, but then she was still in heavy denial that she wasn’t a lesbian even though her best friend from high school was still her go to after a break up. She said it was just a phase, but even her parents were aware of their daughter’s interests and were waiting for her to accept it. Marit and all of the girls loved Maggie, and if by Christmas this year Phoebe didn’t get her shit together, the cousins were all going to beat it into her until she finally got it

  Either way, Marit’s cousins were all smart, beautiful and successful in their own ways, but they could not find someone who suited her. They were all aiming too high.

  As if on cue, one of the bruises on her arm began to protest which came from a good hard punch from Trinity when she degraded herself in front of them all. Her entire family, except her mother, all loved her and told her she was beautiful, but that’s what family did.

  Marit had learned to tune out her mother’s constant comments about freshening up and dropping a few pounds over the years because you know… kettle. Black. Mabel Pearce wasn’t a teeny tiny thing either. Still, she did have a particular way about her that drew the eye, while simultaneously keeping the attention of those around her whether or not the participants were willing.

  It was incredible, especially considering that Marit was much more introverted. Sure she liked to go out and have fun, but people didn’t notice her in the same ways they noticed her cousins.

  Marit turned out her light and curled down into her blankets more than ready for a good night's sleep. She had the distinct feeling that her life was about to get very complicated and embarrassing.

  ***

  Julian hadn’t watched a sunrise without being exhausted for a good long while. When he lived in Vegas and ran his club he was sleeping through the day and up with the moon. That had been a ‘normal’ life.

  But here, in the quiet farm town where he decided to make a new start, he was finding out what normal really was. A person went to bed with the moon and woke up with the sun. He hadn’t slept so well in a long, long time.

  Sitting out on his grandfather’s front porch in the old rocker the man would sit in and read his paper, Julian was blissfully disconnected from the world. He spent a good part of his morning simply rocking and enjoying the slight changes in temperature as the day began to heat up. That’s why when two trucks came tearing into his yard, one with two men who were clearly professional, while the other contained two rowdy jackasses, it was a bit of a shock to his system.

  Standing, he made his way down the porch steps, dressed in well worn jeans and a plain black shirt. “Hi there.”

  “Well hi there son.” A tall, bulky man climbed out of the first truck, nearly the same height as him but twice as wide. “I’m Beau. This here is my eldest son Jenson, my youngest Phillip and my nephew Tristan.” Each man was pointed out in succession, the boys resembling each other well enough to readily identify them as family.

  Tall, with various shades of brown hair and three sets of brown eyes, they could almost be triplets. The resemblance really was unreal. “Nice to meet you all.” Julian nodded, wondering why they were on his property.

  “Yeah. You too.” Tristan and Phillip were the only ones to greet him, while Jenson continued to size him up.

  “You better be nice to my cousin or so help me…” Jenson started before his father smacked him upside his head.

  “Boy don’t start with that. He’s only been in town a few days. Literally. Takes longer than that to start things up with a woman.” Situating his suspenders, Beau sauntered up toward the house, leaving Julian alone with the three men younger than him.

  That’s when reality hit him. “Oh. You’re Marit’s cousins. She told me she would bring you down…”

  “She had to pick up a shift at the shop this morning. So we said we’d stop by.” Phillip and Tristan trailed behind Julian while Jenson took up the front. “And we aren’t as old fashioned as Daddy. We know it don’t take a lot of time to try to get a girl in the sack so you had best be respectful.” Jenson emphasized with a poke to Julian’s muscled chest.

  While ordinarily it would piss him off to be talked to in such a fashion, part of Julian felt relieved that Marit has someone looking out for her. There was something about her that was just too vulnerable and he was glad to see her family had her back. Though he was a little confused as to why they were reading him the riot act when he had barely been in town long enough to even talk to the woman.

  “Look, I have no intentions of doing anything disrespectful.” Julian said, trying to calm everyone down while Beau moved in and out of his house, all the while retrieving things from his truck.

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  “Well, we’re sure you aren’t interested, I mean guys like you don’t date girls like Marit.” Tristan chuckled, before both of his cousins launched at him and began to pummel him to the ground.

  Jenson gave his gut a swift kick, which sent the boy into a mixture of laughing and choking. “Boy knock that off. You say some shit like that again and I’ll tell your sister.” Jenson sneered down at his cousin who was suddenly as white as a ghost.

  Phillip wasn’t hiding his grin as the younger of the three laid on the ground after getting jumped. Julian couldn’t say he was too upset to see the younger man on the ground in pain. He hadn’t appreciated the comment about Marit. At. All.

  Narrowing his gaze when the other man finally climbed up to his feet, his gaze was lethal. “You shouldn’t talk about your cousin that way. She’s a nice girl.” Without another word he brushed past Tristan, nearly sending him sprawling to the ground with the force he put into the move.

  “I like him.” Phillip muttered to his brother before following after the man they had come here to intimidate. Jenson was the talker, Tristan was the loud mouth hustler, and he was the muscle. Truth be told he loved his cousin and hated that she seemed to have such a hard time with men, but this guy seemed all right, even for a pretty boy.

  Within no time the four men made their way through the house, cataloguing the pieces and cost for the future garage sale. By lunch they were done.

  Beau laughed. “Hell boy. You’re damn good at taking down an inventory.”

  Julian smirked and took the beer Phillips had hopped up in the back of his truck to get. Nodding his thanks, he pops the top and takes a swig. “Yeah well, I ran my own club back in Vegas so, I’m used to inventory.”

  Beau seemed to perk up hearing that information and all three of the boys were on alert. “Daddy…”

  Beau ignored his eldest son and turned his attention fully to Julian. “So, then you know how to manage and hire…”

  “Well yeah. I always sat in on that. I was very involved even though I had managers to run it.” Julian informed the man, looking at the three men watching him with various looks of annoyance and exasperation on their faces.

  “Daddy don’t. Marit has a few interviews lined up…” Jenson tried again, but was silenced with a gesture.

  “Oh, we aint got nobody who actually knows what they’re doing. Just a bunch of kids and retired people who don’t wanna work full time.” Beau groaned as though he had given this talk a million times. Refocusing his attention on Julian, the newcomer had the distinct feeling he was getting into something that might upset the friend he had been hoping to make with Marit.

  Before he could ask, Beau beat him to the punch with the question. “How would you like a job?”

  “Damnit!” Jenson threw his beer down and stomped off, while his father completely ignored the outburst.

  Julian’s brows shot up at the reaction, but he was too intrigued to think much on it. He’d barely been here a day and already he found an attractive woman that plagued his mind nonstop, and now her Uncle was offering him a job. Not that he needed it, but the idea of having something to occupy his time sounded damn good.

  “So, I have a spot open. Four days a week, ten hour days in my shop. I need an assistant manager. It’s Thursday through Saturday from 6-4.” Beau informed the other man before adding, “It’s the same shift Marit has, but she’s in store. You two would be working together.”

  Meaning they would have nights off together too. And days. Chill dude! Seriously you just moved and you’re not twenty. You’re thirty five for Christ’s sake.

  While Julian wanted to snatch up the opportunity, a part of him recalled Jenson’s outburst and it was that part of him that didn’t want to offend Marit. If he was going to work with her, then he felt it was best to go in and meet with her since she was clearly heading up interviews. “How about I come down and meet you two this week and we see if I’m a fit for her.”

  Beau scratched at his whiskered cheek a moment before he stuck his hand out to shake Julian’s. “That’s a damn fine idea. And won’t get me in any trouble with my niece. Pretty sure she’s gonna take over that store when I die.” Julian could hear the pride in the man’s voice and felt it was a just emotion.

  Marit really did seem to have a good head on her shoulders, after all she held him after only a few minutes of knowing him and didn’t once try to grope or hit on him. The entire interaction had been genuine concern for another human being. If he could pay her the same respect, he would do it.

  “What! What about us Daddy?” The two boys asked in unison, but Beau merely shrugged them off and lifted his heavy body off of the outdoor picnic table to head to his truck.

  “What about you? None of you took an interest, ya’ll wanted to go farm with your Uncle. So you’ll get the land that will get willed to Marit and she’ll get the shop. Fair’s fair.” As if to finalize his thought, Beau slammed his door shut and waved goodbye to Julian, not even waiting for his eldest son. “See you on Thursday at 2.”

  Julian nodded in acceptance and watched the other man pull out of the yard without any of his sons. Sipping his beer, he turned to the three men watching him and waited. The questions were coming…

  “So, what was it like in Vegas.” Jenson asked while Tristan’s face lit up like pure sin.

  Shaking his head, Julian chuckled. “Hot and full of women.” Neither were things he had any interest in. The heat he could get away from, but women seemed to make his life hard no matter where he went.

  When Tristan went to continue asking questions, Phillip gave him a smack and spoke up. “Hey, you play darts?”

  “Well I can.” He had learned how to hustle all sorts of things when he was growing up. Kept his mom out of trouble with her drug dealers and let them live without her having to sell what the good Lord gave her.

  Phillip and Jenson shared a look with that information and turned back to the man who distinctly felt like he was prey. “Awesome. Look, we play against the girls. Once a month and we would love to win.” Jenson said, getting an agreeing nod from Phillip and Tristan.

  “Since you’re staying around, maybe you can join the team. Uncle Beau isn’t as good as he used to be.” Tristan said gently though the sons who belonged to said Uncle eventually nodded reluctantly in agreement.

  “What’s the goal? You guys play for money? Or…”

  “We play for bragging rights, and the winner has to buy a pitcher of beer each time they’re out together.” Which was frequently seeing as how there were only two bars in town and one was for the drunks while the other was for the crowd looking to have fun.

  Julian thought on the wager but couldn’t find himself wanting to allow any woman to buy him drinks. Just wasn’t in him. “Can I put my own wager?”

  All three men became a bit uneasy until Julian clarified. “Nothing weird. Just maybe having a home cooked meal… or food in general.” He was not a cook and he knew it.

  The men all relaxed and nodded. “Yeah sure man. Making you supper would be way cheaper than buying us pitchers of beer all month. The girls will jump on it.”

  Holding his drink up, Julian smiled. “Then you have yourselves a fourth.”

  They all clinked glasses to officiate the pact and after a few hours of talking and getting to know Marit’s cousins eventually they all left to get back to their chores on the farm. They weren’t gone too long when a familiar maroon Chevy was pulling up in his yard.

  “Uh oh.” Julian was no stranger to irate women but he was vastly shocked a few minutes later when Marit didn’t turn her obvious irritation out on him.

  “Hey.” She called out, shutting the door to her truck before strolling up to him. Today she was in light wash jeans with a black tank and a turquoise and purple plaid button up on. Hair back as always, he found it sharpened her features, made her appear more mature. When it was down she seemed soft and carefree.

  “Hey.”

  “I heard my Uncle offered you the job.” One hand propped on her hip as she sighed in resignation.

  Julian nodded. “Yeah but I told him I’d come in and do a proper interview.”

  Marit seemed shocked to hear that but hid her surprise well. In all actuality she was too tired to care anymore, but had at least kept up appearances by scolding her Uncle on the show room floor in front of everyone. “Look, as long as you promise me you’re here for more than a few months.”

  “I promise.” If Julian had it his way, he’d be settling down in Terrace Creek for a good long while. As long as people would leave him alone. He had that distinct, gut gnawing feeling that his imposed solitude away from the big city wasn’t going to last much longer.

  For now, he was determined to live in denial and maintain the peace he had begun to cultivate. Marit flashed him that smile of hers and departed with well wishes for the evening.

  Again, that phone of his was buzzing, and once more Julian ignored the call, fired off a text and shut off the device. Sooner or later he was going to get a house phone and just end his phone contract to not deal with the hassle.

  Finishing off his beer, Julian turned back to his house to enjoy yet another evening in silence. Who knew how long it would last?