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Prologue

Present day Massachusetts

“You’re not doing it right”

He was going to strangle the son of a bitch with his bare hands, Jason decided as he ignored the bastard hovering over hi Haley’s present Fourin the ht and it still wasn’t done

Thank God his father had started bugging the shit out of hied it off, deciding that it could wait until the last minute, but then his father, uncles and a few of his cousins started to share their horror stories with hiet it over with

Four stitches, one citation for trespassing, two second degree burns, ten raines, one wrecked pair of jeans, two-thousand hts later and he was cursing his great-great-great-great-great grandfather to hell and back for starting this bullshit tradition in the first place Would it really have killed the inconsiderate bastard to go out and buy his wife a necklace for their fifth anniversary instead ofall his descendants to this bullshit tradition? He really didn’t think so, especially since the man had supposedly been the brother of a very wealthy earl

“What the hell is that supposed to be?” Trevor asked, taking a big bite out of-

“Those arethe half-eaten brownie out of his cousin’s hand

With a roll of his eyes and a sh, Trevor reached over and plucked the brownie out of Jason hand and shoved it into his led necklace otten, he stood up and shoved his cousin out of the way so that he could make sure that the rest of his precious babies were okay He felt his heart break as he neared the kitchen counter and saas left of the platter of brownies Haley hadsnack

“How could you?” Jason asked hollowly, picking up the e that his cousin had missed a delicious morsel or two, but there was no hope

The bastard had most likely licked the plate clean

“I was bored,” Trevor said with a shrug as he sat down at the kitchen table and leaned over to get a better look at theto finish in time for the party

“If you’re bored, then help lace up at the clock and trying not to wince at the a over the loss of his precious treats

“Can’t,” Trevor said with a shrug

“Why the hell not?” Jason de up the small white stone bead that he’d ed to steal from the pool area of Haley’s old house

He really wished that they hadn’t sold the house to that crabby old bastard He’d taken great joy out of refusing to give Jason a few rocks from the pool area so that he could make Haley a necklace for their fifth anniversary Actually, he really wished that he’d brought a steak with hiht when he’d been forced to juain, the steak probably wouldn’t have saved hi with the pink bow that had taken his job as guard dog a little too seriously

“Because you have to make the necklace by yourself from start to finish,” Trevor pointed out, unnecessarily since all the Bradford boys knew the rules for this tradition by the time they were ten years old