Nick Eastwood

Cousin comes first

CHAPTER ONE

For teenager Brenda Bates, coming to spend the summer at her uncle's house was like arriving on another planet. Brenda had had a very sheltered and overprotected life as the only child of wealthy parents. Now, staying with her Uncle Joe and his family, she felt like she was living in the real world for the first time.

Uncle Joe seemed worried about it. "I guess things at our place won't be as fancy as you're used to," he said as he drove Brenda home from the airport.

"Oh, please don't worry about it, Uncle Joe," Brenda said. "Everything will be just fine."

She was sure of that, and she was glad to get away from her parents and see how ordinary people lived. Brenda's folks were going to Europe for the summer.

Uncle Joe was in his forties, a trucker, and ruggedly handsome. Brenda hadn't seen him since she was tiny, and she'd forgotten how really sexy he was. She couldn't stop staring at him as he drove through the streets of the small town where he lived, Brenda remembered now that his wife, Carol, was a waitress, and that they had two sons, Mike and Bob, who were just about Brenda's age.

When they reached the house, Aunt Carol was on the front porch waiting for them. She gave Brenda a big hug and said, "Honey, you're all grown up."

Brenda beamed. She just wished her parents would say something like that to her. They wouldn't even let her stay home alone while they went to Europe – they'd insisted she go stay at Uncle Joe's. But Uncle Joe and Aunt Carol were treating her like a fellow adult, and that was just great.

"Remember your cousins?" Carol asked.

It had been a long time, all right. Mike and Bob were all grown up, too, both of them six feet tall. As Brenda said hello, they both flashed her sexy grins. No, she sure wasn't going to be lonely around this place.

"Mike's finishing his last year of high school," Carol said, "and Bob's learning to be a mechanic."