Her Cowboy (Book One Of The Brave Series)

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

A.

I couldn't believe the mess I just walked into. Nor the scene of my sister patting Madeline's very well-padded bum.

"The hell is with this mess? We just cleaned up the kitchen Anna." I scolded Anna. Yeah, our parents were out for the week at an annual farmers market, but we promised to keep the house clean. Especially since we had company coming over.

"We'll clean it up." she squeaked out as she stood. I scoffed, yeah right.

"Sure, you will, I had to dang near pull your teeth out to get your help earlier!" Anna looked down in defeat.

That was when Madeline stood up and in front of Anna protectively. "Hey, we were just having fun, calm down we'll clean it up." I turned to her then, kind of angry since I had just finished cleaning it up to make it look nice mainly for her and now it was an utter, disgusting mess, and she was defending it. It could have also been Axel muttering how he wanted to be where Anna was, but I wasn't about to give that another thought.

"You'd better." I snapped at her and that's when I saw her switch flip from protective to angry as she cocked an eyebrow at me.

"I'm sorry, but could you please repeat what you just said to me oh so rudely." she said taking a step towards me. I copied her step and we were face to face as she looked up at me.

"Did. I. Stutter?" I said cockily as my anger faded and I started enjoying the fact that we were so close. She smirked at me then and my anger was completely gone.

"You know Asher, I don't much like this angry face look. Doesn't suit you at all. Just not pretty."

"Oh yeah? And what is exactly?" I narrowed my eyes at her slightly.

"Cookie dough?" she said. Wait what? My eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

"Cookie d-" and that's when it hit me. Literally. The sticky dough smacked my face before I could say another word. There were gasps all around the room. Then complete silence. I was frozen until I fully realized what had happened and I became angry once more. I slowly turned my head to her. Her eyes widened for a quick second before I said "Run."

"Gladly." she said as she turned around a sped through the house like the little devil she was.

"Don't kill her Asher, I just softened her up a bit." Anna called as I turned and followed the path she took. As I turned the corner I watched her little butt as she ran around another. She was fast, I'll give her that, however she didn't know this place like I do, and I knew exactly where she was headed.

I heard the thumps of her footsteps as she ran up the staircase. There were four doors up there. Two were Anna's bedroom and the bathroom. The other two were my bedroom and hall pantry.

The distant sound of a door shutting quietly made me chuckle. Gotchya, I thought. Because I knew exactly where she went. I came to the top of the stairs and walked down the hall to the last door. I turned the door silently and pushed the door open. It was silent, but the air smelt of sweet cookie dough and I could see little spot of flour on the mocha colored rug. I smiled as I followed the path of flour to my queen-sized bed. Bending down I quickly reached out and grabbed her foot.

"Aaahh!" she squealed as she squirmed away from me and crawled out from under the bed.

I went to stand but hit my head on the end of the wood frame to the bed.

"Mother of Jesus!" I muttered as I watched her run away laughing. I stood and ran right after her once more.

I followed her back down the staircase, back through the kitchen where I saw everybody cleaning up only to pause as Madeline flew by and I came after her.

"Run Forest, run!" Axel called out, but I ignored him, following her through the back doors. The second her feet hit the cold snow I had her. She slowed down and I came up behind her, wrapping my arms around her from behind and yanking her down into a cold pile of snow. We landed with a soft thud as snow piled around us.

"Gotchya!" I said. She wriggled underneath me as she cried out.

"Never!" she said as she laughed and slammed a handful of snow in my face. I looked down at her as she held in the laugh. Her face was starting to turn red from holding it in.

"Don't do it." I said as I shook my head. But she did it. She started laughing so hard tears came out of her eyes.

"Oh my God, you look..." she took in a breath "ridiculous...cookie dough and...snow!"

"That's it." I said as I ducked my head down and rubbed my cookie dough face all over hers.

"Eeeewwww! Stop, stop I surrender." she laughed as I leaned back up. I paused then, realizing just how close our faces were. I heard her take a sharp breath and looked her in the eyes. The smoky gray captured me, and I felt almost as if I were breathing in that smoke, my chest tightening painfully as I looked back down to her lips. I started leaning down when there was a loud bark and a heavy, furry body attacked me and flung me from her.

"Oops, did Mozart get out again?" Anna's 'pretend to be innocent' voice rang out.

I was going to kill her.

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EDITED VERSION

Just grammatical corrections.

J. Vas