Page 9 of One Reckless Moment

“Thanks.” I took a sip of my drink and winced as my head pounded.

Michael and Georgia Brooks had five kids: Walker, Charlotte, Axle, Paige, and Reid. Charlotte was the only one who no longer lived here, but she came back every summer for a month so we still got to see her. The Brooks’ were the closest thing I had to a family.

“Are you excited for the circuit?” Reid asked as his mother started handing him plates of food to take to the dining table.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m pumped. It’ll be weird for sure, but hopefully it pays off.”

Tomorrow I’d be heading on the road for my first stretch on the local rodeo circuit. Michael Brooks had approached me about the opportunity last summer when their sponsored rider decided to retire. Bronc riding was something I trained for fun, without any actual goals to compete. I was happy keeping my head down, but when Michael Brooks offered you a sponsored spot, you took it. Brooks Valley Ranch sponsored a rider every summer. It was a way to get the name out there and show off the stock for potential sales. There was potential for the ranch to make a lot of money if they chose the right rider.

I wasn’t on the pro circuit yet, but these smaller events would help me work up to it.

This was my chance to bring pride to the Brooks name. It was an opportunity I was taking seriously.

I wouldn’t be gone the entire summer, but a large part of it. I’d be home a few weeks in between some events, but others were back to back. While I was really looking forward to the experience—and money—I was not looking forward to staying in rentals all summer long. I knew I’d miss the ranch. Miss my family.

I’d miss my home.

“Come on, boys! Breakfast is ready!” Georgia Brooks called out from the dining room.

We joined her to see a spread of egg casserole, bacon, cheesy potatoes, and biscuits on the perfectly set oak table.

“Thank you for doing this, Gigi.” I kissed Georgia’s cheek.

“Anything for my fourth baby boy.” She smiled at me as we took our seats at the table.

After a few years living on the ranch, Georgia Brooks insisted I started calling her Mom, but it never felt right. I wasn’t her son—not really—and I didn’t want to live in that fantasy, so I started calling her Gigi. It was a nickname only I called her, and she stopped pressing the whole “Mom” thing.

Suddenly, the front door of the house swung open, and Paige came bustling inside out of breath.

“Sorry, sorry, I was at Taylor’s and didn’t see the text until this morning.” She dropped her bag and sank into the open chair next to mine.

Paige Brooks was breathtaking no matter what state she was in. Right now she was wearing black leggings and an oversized Hawke County Regional High School crewneck that had holes and tears all up the collar and sleeves. Her white-blonde hair was in a messy bun on the top of her head and she had black smudges of makeup under her eyes—mascara she never bothered to clean off completely after a night of drinking.

She was in total disarray—and yet, she was still one of the most beautiful sights I’d ever seen.

Paige and I had…a complicated history. When I first moved here, I had no idea what I was doing. I was eighteen and a hothead with nowhere to go. No family. No income. No options. I saw an ad for a needed ranch hand as I was passing through town and took a chance. Mr. Brooks assessed me with one look at my non-calloused hands and told me to go home. When I said I didn’t have a home to go to, he took me to the bunkhouse. He taught me everything I knew, and without him I’d probably have ended up dead in a ditch somewhere in the middle of the country.

That’s what happened to people like me—people who got lost in the system.

On my first day, Mr. Brooks showed up at my door with two rules: don’t show up to work drunk, and his daughters were off-limits. I’d heard him when he said that, but at the time I didn’t realize how far this particular Brooks girl would burrow under my skin.

We started off as acquaintances. Paige would help me with chores and talk nonstop about the latest high school drama. She’d drone on about the hottest football players, and the bitchy mean girls—shit I shouldn’t have cared about.

Then one day I started seeking her out just to see what she was up to. I came to look forward to the hours we’d spend in the stables. She became one of my closest friends, and for a while we were inseparable. I always had what Mr. Brooks told me in the back of my head, but I thought if I just ignored my feelings then it would all be fine.

Obviously, that all went to shit when Paige kissed me in Shadow’s stall just after her eighteenth birthday. I ran away like a coward. She’d barely spoken to me since then, except for the not-so-subtle digs and constant bickering.

The day she moved back home after graduating college, it was like the start of my own personal purgatory. I could look but couldn’t touch, which meant I usually got out my frustration by heckling her.

She might hate me, but I was quite literally incapable of staying mad at her. One sparkle of her eye or smile and I was a fucking goner. I wasn’t sure she’d figured that out, though.

“Nice of you to join us for my departure, Pip.” I smirked at Paige as she rolled her eyes.

“I couldn’t miss it. I love celebrating you leaving me alone.”

“Actually,” Mr. Brooks interrupted, “I wanted to talk to you guys about that.”

My stomach sank like a rock as he glanced between Paige and me with a nervous expression. I wasn’t sure what he was about to say, but I knew I was probably going to be fucked by it.