Page 17 of Wild and Wanted

That kiss had him wishing he was, and that was far too dangerous. So, yeah… staying away from the leggy blonde with the cutesy freckles was imperative.

Hence being at The Corral tonight, avoiding another cookout. The ranch held them a few nights a week so all guests had the chance to attend at least one bone fide cookout under a dazzling Wyoming sky. Clay usually avoided them like the plague and he sure as shit wouldn’t be attending any while Stevie was around.

But if he’d thought out of sight would mean out of mind, he’d been mistaken.

‘Clay!’

The exasperated voice broke into Clay’s wandering thoughts and he tuned back into his surroundings – to find Ivan, Dev and Beau all looking at him expectantly. ‘What?’

‘Another Bud?’ Ivan repeated slowly like Clay was hard of hearing. Or maybe dumb as a rock.

He sucked down the remnants of his first beer in two swallows, burping as he placed it back on the bar. ‘Sure.’

Beau, Ivan and Dev exchanged a look. ‘What?’ Clay demanded.

‘He’s been like that the last three days,’ Dev mused. ‘Staring into space.’

‘Have not.’

‘Distracted,’ Dev continued as if Clay hadn’t spoken.

‘Bullshit.’

‘Almost rode straight into a low-hanging branch at one point.’

Ivan threw back his head and laughed. He was six four, bearded and build like the Vikings in his ancestry, so it was a big, booming laugh that caught the attention of the handful of customers drinking on a Friday night.

Clay shot the ex-marine-come-farrier a quelling look, wishing he was able to refute Dev’s recounting, but he couldn’t. He’d been thinking about Stevie’s little needy, frustrated whimper as they’d trotted their horses through an area of wood looking for some cows who had been spooked by the drone they’d been using and sought the safety of the trees. If Dev hadn’t said something he’d have been knocked on his ass.

‘Only thing I know that can distract a man like that,’ Beau said as he cracked the lid of another Bud and put it in front of Clay, ‘is a woman.’

Dev nodded solemnly. ‘True that.’

‘Who is she?’ Beau asked with a grin. ‘Spill, man.’

Clay would rather nail his nuts to the floor of his pickup. He may have known Devlin for over twelve years, and gone to school with Ivan and Beau, but he wasn’t telling these assortment of scoundrels a damn thing.

Not that there was anything to tell.

‘Been a while since Casanova Clay Calhoun came out to play,’ Ivan mused. He was generally a man of few words but always up for some shit talk.

Clay clenched his jaw at the nickname he’d earned on the circuit. He’d revelled in it at the time and it had been well justified but as usual, anything to do with his old life put him in a bad mood. ‘Jealousy’s a curse, dude.’

Dev and Beau sniggered into their beers but Ivan, not remotely insulted, just nodded sagely and said, ‘Avoidance. Interesting.’

Jesus. Clay was not drunk enough for Ivan’s Friday night psychology. The man had come home from his last tour in Afghanistan five years ago, ploughed all his fucked-up baggage into shoeing horses and taken to reading philosophy.

Clay flipped him the bird. ‘Bite me.’

Which caused more sniggers but the worst part was, the universe chose that moment to really call Clay on his bullshit as the juke box flipped to a new song and the husky vibrato of one Stephanie Everhart singing her number-one hit joined the general hubbub.

Clay hadn’t been particularly tuned into the songs being played but this one felt as if it had floated right out of the juke box and wrapped tentacles around his chest just as it had that first day he’d heard it on the radio.

Beau’s fingers tapped on the wooden bar top. ‘I fucking love this song. She totally deserved that Grammy.’

‘She’s at the ranch,’ Dev said.

Clay bit back on the urge to scowl at one of his best friends. Dev wasn’t bragging, it was just a fact being passed on in general conversation, and as far as he knew the dude ranch hadn’t signed any kind of NDA with the rising star, but still… it felt like an invasion of her privacy and it itched under his skin.