The ball slammed right between the eyes of one of the hillbilly brothers. “Shit!”

Startled and hurting, he went to grab his head, forgetting he was on the other side of the balcony. The outside of the balcony. He fell back, disappearing from sight.

“Uh-oh.” Maybe she should have waited before attacking. She wasn’t too sure how well the family would take to her killing one of their own. Grabbing another baseball—just in case—she quickly walked to the balcony, leaning over the railing.

Three of Nik’s siblings were down there and she guessed the two hysterically laughing were the ones that had not been on her balcony.

“What are we looking at?”

Angie gasped, his voice right in her ear. Big arms braced on either side of her.

The motherfucker is in my space!

Angie turned and swung with her free hand at the same time. Her hand contacted with a concrete slab…or a hillbilly chest. Either way, she felt like she’d broken her knuckles.

“Motherfuckinggoddamnsonofabitch!”

“Aw, Sugar. Did you hurt your hand?”

Angie didn’t know what annoyed her more. The fact that her punch didn’t even faze him or that he hadn’t moved back away from her. Yeah. She was sure of it.

Both annoyed the shit out of her.

“Lemme see.” He took her hand, but she snatched it back before he got a good enough grip on it.

“Keep your hillbilly paws off me!”

He held his hands up. “Okay. Okay. No need to get all hysterical.”

“I am not…” Angie took a deep breath and did the counting technique her anger-management counselor taught her. Ten. Nine. Eight…

“And what exactly are you gonna do with that,” his eyes glanced at the baseball in her hand and back at her.

She looked up into his smiling face… no. He didn’t smile at her. He smirked.

Condescending prick.

***

She looked at the baseball in her hand and, for a brief moment, Nik thought she might try and shove it up his ass. Man, this woman was quite the hellcat.

Instead of rectally damaging him, she muttered “three, two, one” under her breath, and calmly looked at him. “Pick something.”

Nik looked down into that pretty face, “I’m sorry?”

“I said pick something. Anything around here, and I’ll nail it. Dead on. I used to date a minor-league baseball player.”

“Really?”

“Yup. He loved teaching me stuff.” Nik just bet. “It was the only time I didn’t tell him to get his fuckin’ hands off me.”

Nik rubbed his nose to stop from laughing. He leaned against the balcony. “Anything, huh?”

Ban stared up at them, rubbing his forehead. When he realized Nik watched him, he beganmaking kissing faces and pointing at the pair of them. When Angie turned around, he stopped.

Sarcastically, “How about nailing my bonehead brother in the head again,” since he assumed that’s what already happened once based on the knot already growing there.

She shrugged, “Okay.”

“Wait, I was kid…” But it was too late. She sent the ball blazing down from the balcony and popping Ban right in the head…again.

Man, that baseball player taught her well.

Ban let out a stream of curses he probably hadn’t used since he left the Marines as he again gripped his forehead.

Nik ran his hands through his hair. No, he’d never hear the end of this one.

While Ban rubbed his head with one hand, he grabbed the ball from the ground at his feet. Nik knew exactly what he had in mind. “Don’t even think about it.”

“That crazy heifer hit me in the head! Twice!”

She put her feet between the bars and leaned far over, “Who the hell are you calling heifer, slow boy from down the lane?”

“She sure did hit ya,” Nik offered. He probably shouldn’t be so proud of that fact, but he couldn’t help himself. “Why the hell were you up here anyway?”

Ban dropped the ball and took several steps away, closer to Nik’s side of the balcony. “I wanted to see if she wanted to come with us to the dinner tomorrow.”

She suddenly perked up, pushing Nik aside to look down at Ban. “A dinner? Like a party?”

“Yes. But I changed my goddamn mind!”

“Well that’s plain mean.”

“Forget it! I ain’t takin’ you anywhere. The slow boy from down the lane has spoken.”

Nik placed his hands on the railing, “accidentally” rubbing against Angie’s bare arm. “Good. ‘Cause she’s comin’ with me.”

She turned on him. “I am not.”

He didn’t want to analyze why she seemed more than comfortable going with Ban who she popped in the head with a baseball and not him. He was definitely better looking than Ban.

“Sssh. Don’t interrupt, Sugar. Big boys talkin’. ”

“We are not bringing her now.”

“Sure we are. Daddy’ll love her.”

“Momma won’t. She hurt me. I’m gonna have a knot on my head.” Yeah. And once he made up some bullshit story, every tigress there would be falling all over their Christian Dior dresses to take care of the big idiot. They loved Ban. He was a proven breeder.

Nik brought his head right next to her so that he could whisper in her ear. “He’s got a point, Sugar. You done gone and hurt her baby boy. Ban’s her favorite.”