“More farm equipment?”
The farm and ranch where Gideon had grown up hadn’t been in business for years. His dad, Hank, hadleased out pastures before he’d sold. My brothers had bought the place, much to Gideon’s consternation, but then if my family hadn’t gone through with the sale, Gideon and Autumn might not be together.
“Uh, bulls.”
“Your casino CEO isn’t just a farmer, he’s going to ranch too?”
Her lips curved. “Not all the land is good for farming.”
“And he crunched the numbers and figured out how to profit and with just how many head of cattle?”
She tipped her head toward the kitchen table. “You want to see his notes? He’s quizzed Hank for hours about the years he was gone, market prices, issues with the land, the weather, and costs. I wish I was joking, but I think Hank had to go to an extra AA meeting for a few weeks after.”
“Your husband can be intense.” I hadn’t met him very much, but he reminded me of Myles. Both guys were corporate gods, commanding a staff while keeping to themselves. Their air of authority was catnip to my sisters.
Come to think of it... Rhys had the same authoritative persona.
Gah, was I just as bad?
“I think it dredged up all the things Hank couldn’t handle,” Autumn said as she led me to the spare room. “I told Gideon to reiterate he was gathering data, not making a case for the prosecution. He finally approached his dad a different way that didn’t sound like an interrogation.”
“Only you like it when Gideon interrogates you.”
She sat on an office chair and kicked her feet up onan already full box. Her expression was unrepentant. “I like it a lot.” She folded her arms across her chest. “The girls were talking at school about how they get to spend the next couple of weeks with their grandma. Does that mean Rhys is home alone?”
“Nosy much?”
“Who called me in the middle of the workday to ask about Gideon?”
Fair. My days and nights were mixed up when I was on tour. I leaned against the doorframe. Rhys had left the cabin an hour ago after fucking me in the kitchen. I’d already come twice and it wasn’t even noon. I wasn’t counting the orgasms after midnight either.
I ran the ends of my hair through my fingers. A black hair tie was around my wrist, but I’d waited to put it up. It’d been kind of nice not to have stage-ready hair at all times. So what if the ends frayed a little? I could trim it before I returned to Nashville.
Autumn was fishing for information on Rhys. I hadn’t been around my sisters during my relationships, not since I’d left Bourbon Canyon.
What Rhys and I were doing wasn’t a relationship, but I wanted to sort out my thoughts. If Autumn, Summer, or Wynter thought I was making an epic mistake, maybe I should hear it. “We’re messing around.”
She slammed her feet to the floor and sat up straight. “Shut. Up.” Her wide eyes filled with disbelief.
I held my hands up. “It’s just messing around. I had like writer’s block, then he kissed me a couple of times and the songs started coming. I’m supposed to finish this album by the end of the month, produce it andrelease it in a month, then start touring. When I came here, I had almost nothing.”
“Then he kissed you,” she said dryly.
“It got me out of my head. He’s agreed to be my muse.”
“Uh-huh.”
I scowled at her and picked a spot to sit by a half-empty bookshelf. I leaned an elbow on a box labeledbooks. “We’re also doing everything we couldn’t do then, you know?”
She gave her head a slight shake, confusion filling her green eyes.
“Having sex without worrying about getting busted.”
A laugh barked out of her. “You think Mama and Daddy actually bought that you two were abstaining?”
“No, but they didn’t make it easy.”
“True. I think they liked cockblocking you two as much as possible.”
