Page 67 of Hello Tease

Tears were streaming down her face she was so amused, and Larkin was bent over the fence like she couldn’t stand up straight with how hard she was laughing.

And then all hell broke loose when the door to the truck opened, and that damn pig he and Fletcher pranked me with the year before came running toward me.

I let go of the mower and said, “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

The sound of laughter blended with the squeals of the pig. Even Graham, Maya’s dog, was barking happily in the background.

“Better get the pig!” Rhett yelled. “Wouldn’t want him getting lost!”

“My flowers!” Liv shrieked as the pig darted straight toward her pretty landscaping. “Get him, Knox!”

“Oh, now it’s my job, not Rhett’s,” I muttered, tossing the cowboy hat on the ground. But I couldn’t let Liv’s flowers get destroyed either. This meant business.

I started slowly after the pig, trying not to scare it into the bed of petunias and trample it further while he rooted around with his flat pink nose.

The animal was so distracted by Liv’s flowers, it hardly noticed me creeping up. I lunged for it, wrapping my arms around its pot belly, but it squealed and slipped out of my arms, almost like it was covered in...

I turned back to Rhett. “YOUGREASEDIT?!”

His face was red from laughing so hard as he pointed to my brother. “It was Fletch’s idea.” Liv and Larkin were holding each other up, in stitches.

“I hate you, all of you,” I said, turning to see where the pig had gone. He was prancing and snorting in the new natural stone fountain Liv and Fletch had installed up front. Figuring I had a little time, I jogged up to the fence where they were all hooting and hollering.

Larkin was breathless as I drew near. I leaned in, whispering in her ear, “I’m punishing you for this later.”

Her spine stiffened, and she met my eyes. I gave her a teasing grin before pulling my T-shirt off the fence and sneaking back toward the pig. He was happier than a... pig in mud, splashing around in the water.

So happy that he didn’t notice me launch forward with my shirt and wrap it around him. I picked it up by the pot belly, holding the snorting, squealing thing in my arms like a trophy. “Gotcha!”

The traitors watching me burst out in applause. If I had a free hand, I’d give them all the finger. Instead, I marched the pig to Rhett’s truck, muttering, “We have got to stop meeting this way, Porky.”

He stilled like he sensed defeat.

Then I put the pig and the shirt in Rhett’s arms. “Go on, get.”

“Worth the fifty bucks,” he muttered.

I smirked. “Worth the revenge that’s coming your way?”

Rhett tossed his head back and laughed.

Pretty sure at this rate we were going to make the teens who owned this potbellied pig filthy stinking rich.

As Rhett drove away, I turned to face the people watching at the fence, and I couldn’t help but feel triumphant as I put my cowboy hat back on and finished mowing the rest of the yard.

Because later, I’d get to punish Larkin for being a bad, bad girl.

I couldn’t fucking wait.

37

LARKIN

“I haven’t laughedthat hard in months,” I said to Knox on the ride back to town. The headlights illuminated gravel roads and dark ditches as he drove us in my minivan. And while I liked him driving his truck, there was something just as sexy about him feeling so at home in my car too, especially with his hand resting on my thigh.

He rolled his eyes, but there was a smile on his lips.

Emily asked, “What was so funny, Mama?”

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