Page 10 of Bolo's Curveball
“Yeah,” I told him, hiding my grin as my mother glared at him.
“You knew he met a girl and didn’t tell me?”
“There wasn’t anything to tell at that point,” Dad said, trying to defend himself. “She wouldn’t give him the time of day.”
Isaac and Relay hooted with laughter at that.
Flipping them off, I explained, “It took some time to convince her to go out with me. She’s a little skittish.”
“She’s not a horse, Bolo,” Mom told me.
At the same time Relay spoke up. “Well, no shit.”
Scowling at him, I asked, “What’s that mean?”
Isaac speared some mashed potatoes with his fork and waved them in my direction. “She probably thinks you’re going to eat her, you big bastard.”
“Or drag her off to your cave at the very least,” Relay added.
Mom gave Dad a look. He cleared his throat. “Leave your brother alone. At least long enough that he can answerourdamn questions.”
Mom rolled her eyes. “What’s her name?”
“Devyn,” I said, still scowling at my brothers.
“Is she doing okay?”
I blinked at her. “What’d you mean?”
She heaved out a sigh. “With the pregnancy, Bolo. Is she doing okay?”
“Oh, uh, yeah, I guess. Said she’s about nine weeks along. Maybe. She’d not exactly sure yet.”
“That’s good,” Mom said, her voice calm. It was like she was soothing a wild beast, which made me wonder if I looked like one.
I was feeling a little protective. Not because my brothers were giving me shit. That was par for the course, but I was tense. I realized it was because I was waiting for them to potentially say something about Devyn. Something that would force me to beat my brothers’ asses. But they didn’t. Which reminded me that even though my brothers were assholes we all actually loved each other. Not that any of us would say that to each other. It went against brotherly code to mention that out loud.
I answered my mom’s questions as she rapid-fire shot them my way. Though I could tell from her expression she wasdispleased at my lack of knowledge. I didn’t know what the hell was happening because Devyn hadn’t told me everything yet. Or she didn’t know. This was a first for us both. Worse, Mom was asking things I didn’t know that Ishouldknow. I stored the information away for later to ask Devyn, or a doctor, once she got to her appointment.
“When do we get to meet her?” Mom asked.
“When are you marrying the girl?” Dad asked at the same time.
Relay choked on the beer he’d just taken a drink of and Isaac slammed his palm into our brother’s back until Relay had to punch him to get him to stop.
Just another day with the Dunn family. I sighed and stared down at my food mournfully. They weren’t going to let me eat a bite until I answered their questions to their satisfaction. I knew my parents far too well. This was going to be a long night.
CHAPTER 4
Bolo
Ilooked up as Dad sat down in the rocking chair next to me. We were out on the back porch. I’d needed a little breather after fielding all of Mom’s questions. Isaac was inside doing dishes and Relay was hassling him about being the oldest. Something about always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
Whatever the fuck that meant. I wasn’t getting married. Not that I wouldn’t. I just knew if I mentioned anything about marriage, Devyn would run so fast in the opposite direction, I’d have to do the drag-her-off-to-my-cave thing that Relay had mentioned earlier, just to get her to stick around. Ruck wouldn’t be thrilled about me dragging home a woman, so I needed to play this carefully.
None of that stopped Relay from engaging in his favorite pastime, giving our brother massive amounts of shit. It was his job as the youngest to torment us. He played his part well andalways had. As the oldest, Isaac was probably supposed to be the wise mediator. That had never happened. Somehow that’d become my role between us brothers. I didn’t do it very well because I had my own damn temper that Relay knew how to activate. But I was better at it than Isaac.
“What?” I finally asked, when Dad just sat there and stared at the Arizona sunset next to me. There was an air of expectancy rolling off him in waves. I could feel it.
