“Well, all I know is, in the middle of the night, I can’t sleep, and I’m sitting up, looking out my window, and I see Charly running over the grass, under the trees, to the house. And I mean she’s running. I don’t think she’s ever run that fast.

“So I go downstairs, and she is sneaking in the front door, trying not to make any noise, but then she turns around and sees me and lets out a scream.”

“You snuck up on me!”

“So I put my hand over her mouth and she fucking bites me.”

“Again, you snuck up on me.”

“And when she finally calms down and stops being so freaking dramatic, she tells me that Eddie’s yard is haunted and it scared her so she ran home.”

“Yep, that’s what I told you.”

“But I don’t believe that was true.”

Now all of the eyes swing toward me and I’m left squirming in my seat.

“Not really, no.”

“What really happened?” Simon asks.

“It’s dumb.”

“You have to tell us now,” Van says with a grin.

“Well, we had already looked at the stars and the planets and stuff, and I could tell that Eddie didn’t just ask me out there to look through his telescope.”

“Shocker,” Gabby says with a snort.

“But I wasn’t going to let him into my pants. I was only sixteen. So, I challenged him to a throwing competition. It was lame, even to me, but I bet him that he couldn’t throw as far as me. His yard had tons of rocks in it.

“It actually got kind of fun. We would find different targets to challenge the other to hit, like a tree or a bush and stuff like that. I had a good arm. But then, it was my turn to throw, and I tripped and the rock went flying in the wrong direction, right through his grandmother’s bedroom window.

“I panicked and ran away.”

“You left him to take the blame?” Sarah asks incredulously while the rest of my family is wiping tears from laughing so hard.

“I didn’t want to get into trouble. His grandmother was a mean old thing.” I glance up at Simon to find him also laughing. “It’s dumb, but I thought for sure I was going to get my ass whooped for that. I lied to Mama, I broke someone else’s property, and I was out with a boy. Alone.”

“Yeah, you would have gotten into trouble for sure,” Van says when she could breathe again. “I’m just happy to hear that you made some mistakes.”

“Oh, I’ve made my share, sugar. Trust me.”

“Okay, now let’s talk about all the trouble Declan used to get into.”

“Good idea,” I reply and prepare to pay my baby brother back.

Chapter Twelve

~Charly~

“It’s beautiful here,” Simon says quietly from the passenger seat next to me as we drive out to my sister’s inn. “It’s hard to believe we’re only a few minutes from the city.”

“We go from city to boonies very quickly,” I agree and smile when he takes my free hand in his and gives it a squeeze. I’ve quickly become comfortable with Simon’s affection. “Thank you for last night.”

“I didn’t do anything,” he replies, surprised.

“You hung out with most of my family for the evening, listened to old stories, and you were a good sport about it.”

“I genuinely had a good time. Your siblings are fun.” He kisses my fingers, then places my hand back on the wheel. “I found out last night that you’re quite the rebel, but let’s keep both hands on the wheel.”

“I was not a rebel,” I say with a giggle.

“Apparently, sixteen was a rebellious year for you.”

“I’m going to kill Declan,” I mutter and turn off the freeway. “Let’s face it, if that’s all my parents had to deal with out of me, they were doing well.”

“Were there other little mischievous acts that no one knows about?”

“No.” I shake my head. “I was always convinced that I’d get caught, so I didn’t try to get away with much. I’m boring, I guess.”

“You’re anything but boring, love,” he replies and tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear, sending shivers down my spine. This man doesn’t just make my knees weak. He makes me forget that I even have knees. Or anything else for that matter, aside from the perpetually wet and throbbing spot between my legs. All he has to do is look at me with those hot, sky-blue eyes and I’m a pile of mushy goo.

Damn him.

“Our property line used to begin here,” I say, trying to get my mind out of the damn gutter. “It was a few thousand acres in the beginning.”

“When was the beginning?” he asks.

“A couple of hundred years ago,” I reply with a shrug. “My family has owned this since the mid-nineteenth century.”

“That’s a long time,” he says with a raised brow.

“Not by European standards.” I look over at him and smile. “We’re a baby compared to stuff over there.”

“True, but for the same family to own a piece of land for several hundred years is impressive. Where does the property line begin now?”

“Not far from the house. My great-grandfather began to sell pieces of the land, and my grandfather continued. We were building ships, not farming anymore, so the farmland was sold to families who wanted it to support themselves. We just didn’t need it.”

“That makes sense.”

“By the time my father inherited, the house was used for summers and holidays. We spent the majority of our time in the city. But I loved coming out here for the summer. We ran all over the place.”