Page 8 of The Wounded Warrior

“Thanks. You know how much I adore some of the folks who come to these events.” Only not.

“You live for this shit and you know it.”

“Listen to you!” Sometimes she could still shock him.

“It’s true. No fighting.” She chuckled. “I have enough of that with your sister and your daddy.”

“Teenagers suck.”

“Yep. You should remember that well, you little hellion.”

“Hey!” He cracked up. “I was an angel.” Rory had been trying, and he knew it. Oh, not because he’d been a bad kid. No, he’d been a geek and something of a prodigy, and his folks were left scratching their heads most of the time.

“Yeah. You were mine, that’s for sure. Aislin is just like your daddy. Rowenna is… Christ, I don’t know. A changeling.”

Yeah, sixteen was just hard, especially when you were a dark little gothy thing and your big sister had been the homecoming queen and class president.

“Like I said, I’ll pick her up Sunday. After church, or is she still protesting that?”

“Pick her up at eleven. The stores won’t be open before then, anyway.”

“Will do. Love you.” That had gone well. Mom did like to hear he was doing shit for charity.

Hell, she liked to hear that she was going to get time away from Ro. Those two were like fire andmatches.

“Love you, too. Bye.”

He shook his head and headed back to his office, leaving himself a voice memo to get the paperwork ready for this deal and to pick his baby sister up on Sunday.

Chapter Five

“Seriously?” Luke wassonot going there. He would let Matt drag him out of the house for charity, but this was not ‘some cowboy assistance get-together’. This was some kind of formal do at a fancy-assed hotel. He put the brakes on his chair and dug in, glaring at his twin.

“You don’t have to wear your dress blues, for fuck’s sake. I got your good jeans creased.”

Jesus save him from fucking cowboys.

“Great. I can itch all night.”

“I’ll spray the insides with Caladryl.”

“Funny.” Luke gave in. “Fine. Cowboy duds it is.”

“I do love it when you’re easy.” Matt gave him a shit-eating grin. “The food should be good.”

“I sure hope so.” Luke deserved something fried. Or cocktail wieners.

“It’s gonna be brisket and sausage.” Right. This was Texas, after all. Barbecue was king and way cheaper than chicken-fried steak.

He could live with that.

Half an hour later, they arrived at the event thing, and damned if some dudedidn’t let them out of the vehicle and take Matt’s keys to valet park the truck.

Matt grabbed his wheelchair, then helped him out of the truck and into the chair. “There you are. Let’s go.”

“I can wheel myself, you know.” He didn’t need Matt to push; he wasn’t totally helpless.

“Do you want to? I’m easy.”

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