Say No To Joe? Read Online Free

orphaned? Yet, none of the guardians have ever made a move to adopt them. They just keep drifting away, abandoning the kids for one reason after another.”
    It sickened Joe, but he knew that small towns could be really funny about that sort of thing. In so many ways, they were worse than big cities. At least in a big city you could be anonymous and no one gave a damn who you were or what you did. “Who’s the guardian now?”
    â€œAn aunt. She’s sticking around just until I arrive, but she made it clear that she’s impatient. There was another cousin before her. I’m told his wife got a job transfer and they didn’t want to lug the kids along. Before that was a semiretired great uncle, who claimed the kids were too troublesome. The aunt is the third one. Now she wants to get married, and her fiancé doesn’t want to be saddled with two children.”
    Imagining how young kids must feel without any stability, Joe scowled. But to have Luna take over...
    As a bona fide free spirit, Luna was too exotic, too bold and far too sexy to be a mother. Not only that, but she worked as a psychic, or rather a psychic’s assistant. There were plenty of times when Joe thought she had legitimate woo-woo ability. On several occasions, she’d seemed to know more than she should, especially about him.
    As if she’d read his mind, Luna flipped her hair and forged on. “I’ve already passed the background check, but I’ll have to do the home study once I’m settled there. I’m not overly concerned because while I might not be the ideal mother—”
    â€œYou said it, not me.”
    With no interruption to her explanations, Luna pinched him on the arm, making him lurch. “—CPS is way overworked, and anytime kids can be placed with a relative, they tend to bend over backward to see it happen, or so the social worker told me. Even though I’m a distant, unknown relative, I’m still preferable.”
    â€œYeah? Preferable to what?”
    A golden fire lit her eyes, alerting Joe to the possibility of another pinch. He caught her hand to deter her. “Does the social worker know about your propensity for causing pain?”
    â€œDon’t be a baby, Joe. I didn’t hurt you.”
    True enough. Added to his other various aches and pains, a mere pinch was negligible, but God knew he didn’t need any more.
    â€œI’m going to move there.”
    Thrown off guard once more, Joe asked, “There where?”
    â€œNorth Carolina.”
    Joe gave a start of surprise. Well, hell. Luna already lived over an hour south of him, in Thomasville, Kentucky. Any more than that was just too damn far for his convenience. He’d have to find a way to talk her out of relocating.
    He wanted her in his bed. For how long he hadn’t decided yet. But until he did decide, he wanted her within reaching distance. Kids he could handle. Bullies he could handle.
    Never knowing how it felt to have Luna under him . . . Now, that was too much to consider.

Chapter Two
    â€œM aybe we should talk about this.”
    â€œMy mind’s made up. They’re alone, Joe. Two whole years they’ve lived with uncertainty, going from one adult’s set of rules to another. At first, I thought to bring them here, but the house was given to them free and clear in the will, with the proviso that the guardian live there.”
    Joe frowned over that. Why would their mother insist the kids stay in the same area? Surely, she knew how difficult it would be for most adults to relocate. Added to the automatic responsibilities of raising someone else’s children, it was a lot to ask.
    Picking up on his thoughts yet again, Luna said, “I bet Chloe meant the house as an incentive. You know, like free rent, since the mortgage is paid off. She probably didn’t want it sold because it’d be too easy for a guardian to sell it, spend the money, then leave the