Gone Country

Chapter 27 (Save The Girl)

Brant was trying his hardest to stay mad at me, but his plan failed before it even began, and not because he felt sorry for me. All it took was for hurricane Clayton to blow in for him to change his mind about distancing himself away from me.

Right now Brant was too busy fuming in the recliner to open the door when someone excitedly knocked on the other side. I sighed to myself and tossed the ice bags resting on my sore shins onto the coffee table. He jumped at the clattering noise of the ice, and slightly smiled when I ruffled his hair on the way to the door. "You suck at being angry at me," I sighed.

I reached the door, pulling it open with small smile. Behind it was two familiar faces, Brant's Aunt and Uncle from his mother's side. The two handsome devils standing behind them looked an awful lot like a mature set of Tylan and Justin. "Charlotte?" Regina breathed, her eyes flickering over me.

"Hi, aunt Regina, uncle Robert," I greeted, opening the door wider for them. Regina let out a shriek, tightly pulling me in for a hug. I'm guessing my new appearance was a shock, because uncle Robert and the boys were looking at me as if I had grown eight arms.

"Hey guys," Brant's voice said from behind me. I watched him wrap his Aunt in a hug and go in for a manly hug with his uncle. However, I was crushed in between two, extremely well built cousins of his.

"Charlotte, you look amazing!" Tylan grinned.

"I kind of miss her being round though," Justin complained. "She was more fun to hug that way." Leave it to Justin to miss my belly rolls, he was always the weird one. "But you do look beautiful," he added.

I thanked them both for their compliments and hugged them back. Tylan and Justin were pretty gorgeous. They both had shaggy, dark hair that has always been cute. Tylan's was darker than his younger brother's, actually it was pitch black. Justin had brown hair that was a little longer than his brother's, but his baby blue eyes were an identical match to Tylan's. They both had a muscle on muscle farm built that you could feel even through their thick Carhartt jackets. My conclusion was that these two boys had grown up to be lady killers, and not in psycho killer literal way.

And yet Brant didn't bat an eye when they hugged all over me and complimented me. I was almost a little disappointed. He thinks I'm the most beautiful girl in the world, but not beautiful enough for his cousins? It almost made me pout. Then again, they were only being friendly and not threatening in any way. They were being themselves.

"We heard you finally beat Clay in the bull riding contest!" Tylan said with a smirk, patting Brant's back proudly as they made their way into the house.

"Yep," he sighed, glancing at me when he remembered the night. I took notice that he hadn't even introduced me to his family as his girlfriend. Was he that mad at me for earlier or was I freaking out because he was trying to give me the silent treatment?

I was so caught up in worrying about my relationship with the guy tugging his cousins into the living room to chat, I hadn't even noticed that someone had pulled into the drive and was stepping onto the porch to come inside. "Charlotte?" I looked out the open door, smiling at Brant's aunt Frieda. In behind her was the one cousin who hated me. At the sound of my name, he lifted his head, surprise in his eyes. Everyone can't seem to believe that it's me.

"Hi," I greeted aunt Frieda. She hugged me tight and then hurried into the kitchen to say hello to everyone else. It left Clayton and I alone at the front door, not something I was comfortable with. Somehow I still smiled a friendly smile at him, even if he use to tease me about my weight. He returned the smile and stepped into the house.

"It's been a long time, Charlotte," he said when he closed the door in behind him. "I knew you were going to be a beautiful girl when you grew up, but I hadn't expected this."