Titus: Book Two of the Cantrell Brothers Series

Chapter Twenty-Six

Titus breathed in Anna's familiar scent, wanting to just bury his nose into her fragrant, frizzy hair that was currently tucked underneath his chin. With his arms wrapped around her frame, he felt all the tension leave his body, everything locked and loaded for this Thanksgiving vacation thing with his family.

He always enjoyed having his entire family over, but now with Anna here, it was different. It was a guarantee that all the attention would be placed on them, gauging just how well their new marriage and the child's health was coming along. Not only would he have to deal with his mother and father who couldn't stop talking about his and his brothers' childhoods even if their lives depended on it, but he would also have to cope with Thrane, Taivon, Trace, and Tobias goading him about literally everything.

They always teased him. Ever since Anna's graduation when he was left a slack jawed being just staring at Anna with his heart on his sleeve, the taunting was endless. “So, Anna. Titus have a girlfriend yet?” all of his brothers besides Taivon would ask. “Oh, no girlfriend? That's weird. He hasn't had one in what...nearly ten years? Don't anybody like him?” usually Trace was the one to say something along the lines of that.

It always happened, no matter how hard he and Taivon tried to tell them to shut their traps already. But that was just how they were. All running off their mouths about something because they didn't know what real responsibility was. He had known it ever since he had turned ten and accepted that the ranch was going to be his.

In the worst way possible, Taivon had been slapped by responsibility and the way to cope with life. Trace was getting there ever since Callie was born. Tobias, in a way, had a semblance of the idea ever since he had met Jane. Thrane, however, not so much.

None of them knew what it was like to watch the one you love spending time with a man who was worse than Satan himself day after day. None of them had any idea how hard it had been to just let Anna cry into his shoulder and not say anything whenever Hunter had stood her up or hadn't come back down from Denver.

His chest tightened, and he brought Anna closer to him, bending down to let his cheek rest against the top of her head. She accepted his embrace, hugging him back with an emotion equal to his. She was nervous, he could tell and didn't blame her. His family – at the absolute best – was overwhelming. With sibling superiority trying to be established at every turn, it was a blood bath at times – especially when he and Thrane got into it.

Titus shook his head at the memories of he and the second oldest Cantrell brother screaming at each other over the smallest things. Placing the lightest of kisses on Anna's wild hair, he somehow managed to make himself release her and step away.

She stood there, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. Hair currently being pulled back into a messy ponytail with rounded belly and fuller breasts confined within a flower-patterned camisole, he had never seen anything more flawless. When people said that pregnancy brought a certain glow to women, they hadn't been kidding. Anna illuminated everything for him.

“Anna,” he began, breaking the silence in a very serious tone. “Can I be your professional taste tester?”

She grinned. “I s'pose so. Just as long as you don't eat all of the chicken. I was thinking honey barbeque glaze on half and grilled in spice for the other half. Would that be alright?”

His stomach rumbled very audibly at the real thought, and by the way she was still grinning with a knowing look in her eyes, he could tell she had found her answer. Turning on her heels, she placed her quilt on the corner of the bed and then bounded downstairs to where he heard the fridge being opened and cooking wear being taken out.

He stayed in the room, still stuck within the presence of her. His hands tightened at his sides, and he tried not to look at the left side of the bed – the side where she would be sleeping with him tonight. It had been surprisingly easy to convince Anna into sharing a bed with him, but that look that had come across her face had been something else.