Page 21 of Trig
I nodded, set my arms across my chest.
“That’s fucking great, brother. I’m all for getting to know her naturally, but she showed up here in a snowstorm. She deserves a background check.”
I arched a brow. “You think she’s out for my money?”
My house was nice, but it wasn’t a mansion. I liked nice things, but I drove an old pickup truck. My bank account was hefty, but I didn’t flaunt it. From what Ellie’d said, she was struggling to make ends meet. Working real hard to get ahead.
He shrugged.
“You didn’t see her, brother,” I replied grimly. “A few more minutes and she’d have died. Why risk that?”
“You told me about some pretty crazy buckle bunnies.”
“That was back in the day. Over ten years ago. She’s not like them.”
I glanced up at the ceiling as if I could see through to the master bedroom. I could understand her apprehension of meeting my entire family in one go. But we were harmless. What I knew of her upbringing, which wasn’t much, she was probably more afraid of something she didn’t understand. Lots of people, lots of noise. Joking. Poking fun. Laughing. Lots of love.
“Then why the hell are we talking in here? I want to meet her.”
We joined the others in the kitchen, who were all unloading the meal from containers. Shep was getting plates from the cabinet. Everyone was at home here.
I knew the second Ellie came down the stairs. Even though her feet had thick socks and she was silent, I could sense her.
When I turned and stared, so did everyone else. Silence reigned.
Then everyone started to talk at once and descended on her like fucking vultures.
12
ELLIE
“Givethe poor girl some room to breathe!”
A woman’s voice, while not loud, was certainly one that everyone obeyed.
A blond-haired brother–there were a lot of them–had me in his arms in a bear hug.
Trig’s sister–I assumed it was her based on her age and the fact that she looked like a couple of the men–was practically patting my dark hair.
The rest stood around in a tight circle as if I were an alien that had just arrived on my UFO. I’d put on my leggings and top–and underwear–and kept Trig’s thick socks on my feet. I’d wanted to stay upstairs until everyone left, but that would have been rude. I wasn’t that. They had to be nice, right?
So I’d sucked it up and went downstairs. Then I was ambushed.
“Get your own,” Trig growled, pushing his brothers out of the way. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in close.
His little boy-like possessiveness had me smiling.
“I’m Ann Wilder,” the woman said. She had a kind smile. “This is my husband Charlie. You can call us Ma and Pops. These hoodlums, all nine of them, are our children. You’d think they’ve never seen a woman before.”
“Hi,” I murmured, nodding toward the couple. They weren’t old. Perhaps late fifties. Where Charlie’s hair was salt and pepper, Ann’s was a deep brown, the same color as Trig’s. There was no way I could call them Ma and Pops. They weren’tmyparents.
Trig made the introductions. “That’s Lainey.” He started on his right and went around the circle. “Bray, Colt, Cam, Buck, Hayes, Shep. Zeb’s the only one not here. He goes to college in Missoula.”
Wow, there were a lot of them and they were all ridiculously handsome, although nothing like Trig.
Besides Lainey, who favored her mother in size, the men were a big bunch. Like they could have their own football defensive line if they wanted. Their coloring varied from dark like Trig’s to fair. All but one of them had beards and I wondered if it was a winter thing.
Ann reached out and took my hand, pulled me from Trig’s hold. “We brought a ton of food. You can help me get it all out on the counters while you tell me all about yourself.”
