Page 18 of Broken Boundaries

She turns her head to see who I’m looking at. “Brooks and Harper? Nah, they’re more like brother and sister.”

I can’t look away as Brooks slings his arm over Harper’s shoulder and pulls her in close. “Doesn’t look like it…”

Jazz laughs. “No, really. You should hear them together. There’s no romance there.”

I’m not sure that I believe her, but it’s really none of my business anyway, so I force myself to look away and think about my first girls’ night in my new town.

CHAPTER 7

Brooks

Blue’s Diner is busier than usual for a Thursday evening. Likely because school is out and summer is in full swing. With the longer days and the warmer weather, the people of Blue Haven are out doing things. No one wants to be stuck at home cooking on such a nice day. Which is exactly how Harper and I ended up here after work.

The season is in full swing at the ranch. The days are busy. We’ve been booked solid for the last month. It’s exhausting, but it’s a good problem to have. The ranch has been in my family for generations, and there have been plenty of seasons where we could barely afford to keep it running. I never want to see it get that bad again. Not while I’m in charge. I want to make sure that the ranch is set up well enough so that when I pass it on, it’ll be a smooth transition, just like it was when I received it.

Now, if only I knew who I would be handing the ranch off to. I trained for almost thirty years to take over for my dad. When Zach was born, I felt sure that he’d follow in my footsteps, but I can’t even get Zach to text me back these days.

Harper and I manage to find a booth toward the back of the restaurant. My stomach growls from the scent of the fresh french fries being delivered to the table next to us. I skipped lunch today, busy fixing a fence on the backside of the property, so I’m more than ready to dig into one of Blue’s burgers.

Harper grabs one of the menus from behind the napkin holder and looks at it like she doesn’t know everything that’s on that thing word for word.

“Why’re you looking at that? You know you’re getting the chicken tenders,” I tease.

She glares up at me. “I thought about trying something new.”

I lean back in my seat and cross my arms over my chest. “Oh yeah? What’re you thinkin’?”

“Well, I was looking at a… salad,” she says slowly.

“Girl, quit playin’. You’ve never ordered a salad a day in your life.”

She sighs and rolls her eyes before she closes the menu and puts it back behind the napkins. “You ruin everything.”

I laugh. “No, please. Order your salad. I can’t wait to watch you eat that while I dive into my nice juicy burger.”

“You’re an asshole, Brooks Calloway.”

“Yeah, you’ve told me that before.”

This is how we are. She’s one of my very best friends and one of the best business partners I could ask for. One of the best people I know, too. We tease each other because it’s easy between us. It’d be even easier between us if there were some sort of romantic spark. Unfortunately, there’s not. We’ve discussed it before because being close friends in a small town always opens you up to unnecessary rumors. But neither one of us was interested in more than a friendship.

“Oh, look. It’s the girls,” Harper says suddenly, her face lighting up as she waves at someone.

I have no idea who the girls are, so I turn in my seat to find Aspen and Jasmine standing at the front of the diner.

Harper waves them over. Jasmine takes Aspen’s hand and pulls her in our direction.

“Hey!” Harper greets them. “What are you two up to?”

“We just went shopping,” Jasmine answers. “Have y’all ordered yet?”

“Nope.”

“Good. We’re joining you,” Jasmine declares and motions for Harper to scoot over. “There aren’t any seats left, and I’m freaking starving.”

“Jazz,” Aspen whispers with wide eyes. “We can’t just invite ourselves.”

“Come on, they don’t care.” She looks at us. “Do y’all care?”