AllFreeNovel
Share Us
If I had any luck, I’d get the bags on the trailer and get them unpacked at the guest house before Cami bandaged Rae’s hand.
“Hey, Atley… so all that was something?” Jethro jutted his chin back at the house and the drama that had unfolded within. His arm wrapped around Tracie’s waist as they walked down the front steps.
I grunted and gave them a nod as I passed. My tolerance for people was at an all-time low. I hoped my lack of conversation would drive them off. I started removing the suitcases from the rental car and lining them up on the pavement, astonished by the sheer quantity. It couldn’t be normal for an airline to take this much baggage.
“Tracie and I were about to head over to the BBQ. She needs to do some more shots for Vacation Dream Homes before the tent gets too crowded. But if you need help, I can stay.” Jethro looked like he’d rather rip off a fingernail or two than leave Tracie’s side.
I gritted my teeth to stop myself from pointing toward the huge party tent and yelling go. The end of my patience was so far gone I couldn’t see it in my rear-view mirror.
He waited for my answer as I unloaded more of the suitcases. I’d stacked up ten and there were more to come. It was the clown car of luggage.
“I don’t need help.” At least not with the bags. Other things, like the small flutter of something I labeled lust that had wormed its way into the deep dark animal part of my pea brain when I thought about seeing Rae every day. That, I needed help to eradicate. But there was zero chance Jethro could do anything about it.
“You’re sure?” the deputy asked.
I nodded and popped open the back hatch of the minivan. A new pile of luggage was waiting. Sweat rolled down my back.
“Okay then. We’ll see you later at the BBQ?” Tracie smiled kindly at me. Her eyes held a tinge of sympathy, and that made me squirm.
She was a pleasant enough woman, so I tipped my hat as my mother had taught me and tempered my voice when I replied. “No.”
I couldn’t imagine a worse place in all of Elmer than that BBQ. People. TV cameras. Noise. I was going to bed as soon as I offloaded Rae’s luggage.
“Okay, well then, have a nice evening.” She gave me another sad smile and pulled Jethro down the path toward the tent, the two of them whispering to each other as they went. And thus, rumors about me and Rae had begun.
Chapter 2
Rae
I knew that Cameron,Wilson’s girlfriend, was a mom and had a daughter ready to leave for college. But sitting on the toilet lid in the primary bathroom of Wilson’s incredible farmhouse while she doctored my hand hammered that home. Hard to believe that my younger brother was all but living with a woman responsible enough to have raised a baby human to an adult.
I was older than both of them, but nothing like that. I had none of the maturity to be responsible for another life… other than my dog’s.
Example number one, let’s look at the decisions that landed me in my billionaire brother’s bathroom, sitting on the lid of the fanciest toilet I’d ever seen (it had a remote control), getting a dark brown sliver of glass removed from my palm.
Matthew, my boyfriend of a decade, dumped me—not my fault, but an important catalyst. I quit my job, totally my fault, but justified. Then I ran away from home and slept with a cowboy. In a little over two weeks, I’d landed face-first in a midlife crisis. Go me.
And now my straight-from-the-pages-of-a-romance-novel cowboy one-night stand was here at my brother’s ranch. Atley had looked better than I remembered, all five-o’clock shadow and grumbly voice calling me darling. My reaction: I’d gone dumb and dropped a beer. See? A full-on midlife disaster. His reappearance had ambushed all my senses. From his smell to the touch of his hand on the back of my neck, everything surprised the hell out of me.
“So our Atley? He’s the cowboy from Dallas.” Cami waved a hand at the hickey on my neck. She sat on the edge of a massive soaking tub facing me. The scarf covering the mark itched when she pointed, and I tugged it off. Everyone knew it was there, so why cover it up? I’d managed to own it rather well until Atley showed up.
I ignored the question, my shattered beer bottle having already confirmed his identity better than anything I could say.
What were the odds? A million to one. Ten million.
“He works here?” Suddenly, I wanted to know not only that but everything that Wilson and Cameron could tell me about my sexy, dirty-talking cowboy. I’d not asked many questions about him last night, overwhelmed by desire and the unwritten rules of a one-night stand. Now I wanted details. I craved them like I had his touch.
“He’s my ranch manager.” My brother passed a first aid kit to Cameron as he delivered the information. The look he shot at me implied I was a ticking time bomb of chaos about to explode all over his well-ordered world.
“Fuck my life. I’m so embarrassed. I didn’t know. We didn’t talk about that kind of stuff.” I didn’t even know Atley’s last name. My cheeks heated in an uncharacteristic blush.
Wilson rubbed his face, and I cringed. Uncomfortable only scratched the surface of this awkward conversation.
“Don’t let your brother give you any grief. Seriously. One day, after a few too many glasses of wine, I’ll tell you about the first time Wilson and I met.” Cameron pointed at Wilson with a pair of tweezers, a mock scowl on her face.
Wilson met her gaze and smirked. Their eyes locked, and the heat between them was enough to raise the temperature in the bathroom ten degrees. I dropped my gaze to the marble floor, not wanting to get caught in the inferno.
I’d never thought I’d see Atley again. He’d been a fling. A way to reconnect with my inner sex goddess. And wow, had I connected. More times than I could count. Best sex I’d had in forever. But now he was going to be part of my semi-permanent life in Texas, and I didn’t know how to process that.
