Page 29 of The Plan

The sound was loud, that was what had her automatically looking. She froze. A not-very-nice word came out before she could stop it. This was going to be trouble. She had known they would find her, but she’d hoped it would be one brother. Not… all three.

Cam and Murdoch usually sent Anthony to talk to her when they were serious—apparently Anthony was the best one at communicating with rabid little sisters and everything. The sweetheart. They knew better than to gang up on Ronnie—she’d trained them on that fact years ago.

But… that wasn’t just Murdoch's truck roaring up Second Street. Ronnie's fingers dug into the porch railing of George's house. Cam and Anthony pulled in behind him. Three "big-man" trucks she’d accused them of using to compensate for other things before were right there now. Red, black, and blue.

And taking up space.

They blocked the driveway. George’s truck, the two his brothers had arrived in—the Hiller boys weren’t going anywhere. Not until her brothers had their say.

Her stomach rolled, and not from morning sickness. This was going to be a fiasco.

She knew with one look that they were Lakes-on-a-mission.

Ronnie was their mission.

Oh, she loved those idiot baboons. But she really wished they’d go on an extended vacation right now. “Great. They’ve found me.”

A door slammed across the street. Mrs. Sandoval dropped her pruning shears. Her four incredibly hot, very well-built sons were right there, repairing their parents’ porch roof after last night’s storm. Lamar stepped closer to the fence, just watching. His brother Luis, an elementary school teacher with the broadest shoulders of any man she had ever seen, stepped up next to him. The other two brothers—she didn’t remember their names—were on the porch, arms crossed over rather impressive-man chests. Everyone was waiting.

Watching. Her brothers had taken up the entire street when they’d come roaring down—both sides—for a reason.

That whole Rescue Ronnie Mission and everything.

“Honey, go back inside. I can deal with them, if you want.” George's hand touched her back.

She jumped. She hadn’t expected him to be so close. Her Georgie-radar must be broken today. “No. If I leave you out here alone, they will probably gnaw through the front door to get to me. They can be a bit determined, my pet baboons.”

“Who are they?” his brother Gene asked, all rumbly next to Ronnie’s left side. Like he was trying to protect her from the triple blond threat coming their way.

“That would be Snarly, Scooby, and Shaggy,” George said, all quiet and determined. Intense. She had heard him like that before. “They are here to take her away from me. I think it may be a matter of their brother-pride.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Gene said. “It’s a matter ofourbrother-pride.”

Oh, he was so cute in his caveman ways, this one. And… if Ronnie wanted to go with her brothers, Ronnie would go withher brothers. George was going to have to learn that she made her own decisions just fine. She’d also probably have to train the Hiller brothers on that little fact, too. But her blond baboons seemed to have forgotten their training lately.

She knew it with the way they were crossing the driveway now. Her work was never really done, was it?

"Step away from her, Hiller." Murdoch crossed the grass.

"Not happening, Lake,” George said in the exact same tone.

Oh, hell.No they weren’t. They just weren’t.

"Like hell it's not. Ronnie, get in my truck. I’m taking you back to Mom’s.” Murdoch looked at her like he meant to just scoop her up and carry her back to the castle.

Oh, she pitied the woman this one married someday. Murdoch seriously seemed to think he was in charge here.

When, whether the boys all liked it or not, Ronnie seemed to be the star player.

And... whether she liked it or not, either.

Everyone was staring at her. Waiting for what she was going to say to that. Back to her mother’s, when her parents didn’t even know they were going to be grandparents yet. Um… no. That was not a scene she wanted to play in. She just… couldn’t handle it if they didn’t care about the alien-baby, either. She wanted them to love the baby as much as she did—and there were no guarantees they’d even… notice.

"No. Murdoch Michael, I am staying right where I am at. For now. Georgie and I have things to work out. You guys will not be fighting with Georgie.” She crossed her arms over her chest and blocked them. What were they going to do—move her out of the way? They were far too scared of her to do something that stupid.

“I have no intention of fighting with your precious Georgie,” Murdoch said in his most annoying tone. He was really good atbeing annoying, this one. “We just want to discuss how he thinks he can just grab our little sister off the street."

“He didn’t just grab me off the street.” Well, in a way he had. She’d started walking home from the grocery store—like she had before, many times—and he’d just scooped her up and kissed her, put her in his truck, and driven away with her.

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