Page 33 of Pretty Little Scars

“Don’t get me wrong, I have it too. Holden and Millie, my sisters, their men, we have fun and laugh and love each other the way you do with your family. We’re close. But there’s always that leftover hurt that lives just under the surface. We’re all aware of it. We all feel it, and sometimes we even acknowledge it. Shit, I had lunch with Charlie today, and it was brought up in conversation, as if it’s just a normal part of life. Because for us, it is. Maybe that’s why I was a little raw tonight, I don’t know. I do know that some asshole pulled my baby sister’s hair, after she said no, and now I have to go to prison for murder because he doesn’t get to live after that.”

I feel my eyebrow climb, and she glances my way, lifts her shoulder.

“Dad tortured her by hurting her hair. Always. Until just before he died.”

“Christ.” I rub my free hand over my face, feeling so fucking helpless, wondering what the asshole did to Darby. I want to burn her childhood to the motherfucking ground. “I’ll help with the jerkoff that can’t take no for an answer.”

Her lips twitch. “I think you would.”

“I don’t say things I don’t mean.”

She sobers and takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry that I upset you. It really wasn’t anything that your family did. It’s all me.”

“Do you want to tell me any more, or do you want to table this for now?”

She bites her lip, a line forms between her eyebrows, and then she shakes her head. “No. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay.”

I let go of her hand long enough to reach down and grab the frame of the chair and pull her closer to me. She gasps a little but doesn’t pull away, and when she’s close enough that our shoulders touch, I take her hand once more, kiss the back of it, and rest it on my thigh as I turn back to the fire.

“That’s it?” she asks softly. “Justokay?”

“Did you want me to argue? That seems to be your thing, so if you need that from me right now, I’ll see what I can do.”

She snorts and leans her head on my shoulder, snuggling against me.

“I donotargue.”

“Sure you don’t.”

“I don’t.”

I kiss the top of her head and breathe in her lavender shampoo. “You’re proving my point right now, Duchess.”

“You’re annoying.”

She doesn’t pull her hand away, and she rubs her cheek over my upper biceps, and everything in me calms. I want to fucking destroy anything that hurt her in the past, but for right now, I’ll sit and stare into this fire with the woman I can’t stay away from.

“Yeah, I’m annoying.”

She’s quiet for a moment and then lets out a soft sigh. “I kind of like it.”

The air smellslike burned flesh and dirt.

“Let’s get the next group,” Easton says as he takes his hat off, rubs the sweat from his brow, and then replaces the hat. He andI are manning the branding pen. Scott and our men are rounding up cows, bringing them to us, then taking the ones we’re finished with back out to pasture. Darby and Dad are taking care of vaccinations next door, and I’ve hardly been able to take my eyes off her.

She’s so fucking natural with the animals. Gentle but competent. She approaches them with a confidence that not everyone has. I love that she’s not afraid of them, and after she gives the calves a shot, she soothes them with a rub on the head.

Duchess is in a green T-shirt, jeans, and boots, just like the rest of us, with her hair in a ponytail, threaded through the back of a ballcap. She’s dirty, but fuck if she isn’t the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.

“If you don’t pay attention, you’ll brand yourself, you idiot,” Easton says, shaking his head. “For fuck’s sake get her in bed already so you can get your head back in the game.”

“Don’t make me hurt you.”

Easton snorts. My brother is former military and a cop for Silver Springs. He works outhard, keeps his body in peak shape, and in a fight, he’d possibly beat me.

Maybe.