Page 5 of Sweet and Wild

“Mornin’, sis,” Wyatt says.

“Hi.”

“Howdy, Lemon.” A man embraces me. I’m taken aback because he clearly knows me, and I’ve never met this guy in my whole life.

“Hi?”

My brothers chuckle and Wade says, “You have no idea who he is, do you?”

I pull away from the man and take in his square jaw and bright green eyes. His blond beard is rugged with hair to match, but the way his lips quirk into a cocky grin and the dimple in his chin give him away. “Oh my God. Cash Williams, is that you? Last time I laid eyes on you, you couldn’t have weighed more than one hundred pounds, soaking wet.”

“It’s all Mama’s good cookin’.” He winks, and pecks Mama on the cheek. Then his eyes roll over me from head to toe. “It’s mighty nice to see you again, Lemonade.”

“Still our sister, and you’re still never hittin’ that,” Wyatt warns, glancing at Cash.

“Wyatt Winchester, you bite your tongue at my table,” Mama admonishes.

My little brother hangs his head, thoroughly scolded. “Sorry, Mama.”

“It’s just Lemon now.” I sit in the seat I’ve always occupied at this table, my eyes darting to the empty head of the table where my father sat.

“Since when?” Mama asks.

“Since I was eighteen.” I glance at her as she sets a plate in front of me. It’s piled high with roast-beef sandwich and potato chips. I wouldn’t eat this much food in two meals back home in New York, but I know better than to tell her that.

“Since you moved to New York,” West corrects as he finishes washing up in the mud room and enters the kitchen.

“Oh my God, it’s alive.” Wade, the perpetual joker, grabs my bird’s nest of hair and makes it stand on its end. I elbow him in the ribs, and he moans. “Damn, woman. You’re so skinny, you practically speared me through with your bony elbow. We gotta put some Texas meat on them bones.”

“My bones are just fine the way they are, thank you.”

I glance around the kitchen, praying for coffee but knowing I won’t find any now. The pitcher of sweet tea on the table confirms my suspicions. Mama slips a plate in front of each of the boys and they all stare like dogs salivating over a bone. I pick up a potato chip from my plate but before I can draw it closer, Mama gives me a pointed glance and I drop it just as fast. You do not mess with Lucille Winchester at mealtime.

“We haven’t said grace, Lemonade. And you know we don’t do grace unless everyone’s at the table.”

I glance at the five other bodies occupying the table and frown. “Who are we waitin’ on?”

“Sorry I’m late, Mama. I had a gelding in the stable as stubborn as Lem—”

“Uh-oh,” Wade says, biting his bottom lip like a coy little schoolgirl.

I involuntarily smooth my hand over my hair and scowl. It’s one thing for Colt to be working here, but to be eating at the family table for every meal and still calling my mama … Mama?Oh, hell no.

“What was that you were sayin’, Colt?” Wyatt asks.

“Lemon,” Colton says through his teeth. “I wasn’t sure you’d still be here.”

“The feeling’s mutual, and I’ve suddenly lost my appetite so …” I stand and pick up my plate.

“Lemon Emersyn Winchester, you will sit your skinny ass down and eat lunch with your family.”

“But Colton isn’t family, Mama,” I hiss as I set my plate back on the table and sit heavily in my chair.

“He is too family. Just like Cash and anyone else who’s been helping to keep this ranch working. Especially with your daddy gone, God rest his soul.”

“Yep. We’re all just one big, dysfunctional family. Only, Lemon was never makin’ plans to marry Cash,” West says.

“Maybe she hasn’t made plans yet, but give her time.” Cash smirks. “All ladies love Cash.”

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