Page 30 of Roping Her In

“Do you want something to drink?” he asked, and he seemed completely nonplussed to have her in his house.

“What have you got?”

He moved over to the fridge and opened it. “Water, root beer, lemonade, and Hartford has some of his Diet Dr Pepper.” He looked at Hailey, eyebrows raised and a playful glint in those pretty eyes. “I dare you to have one of those.”

Hailey laughed and shook her head. “I’ll take a lemonade, though.”

The front door opened as Jake got out the drinks, and a man who looked somewhat like him entered. “There’s nowhere to park out there,” he practically yelled. “Someone’s parked in front of your house, bro.”

His eyes moved from the kitchen and landed on Hailey, and he came to a complete stop. “Oh, I guess that’d be your SUV.”

“Yes, sir,” Hailey said.

“I’m pretty sure Hartford went on a date, which means there should’ve been a space in the driveway,” Jake said.

“Yeah, I took it.”

“I’m not staying long,” Hailey said. “Hartford will be able to park in front when I’m gone.” She wasn’t sure why, but Jake’s brother made her nervous as he approached.

“This is Hailey Winters,” Jake said. “She’s one of my vet tech interns. Hailey, this is my younger brother Carson.”

“Of course,” Hailey said, though she was older than Jake, and that meant older than Carson, and she didn’t know much about him. She shook the man’s hand, noting that he watched her, with a darker version of Jake’s blue eyes with plenty of wariness in them.

“Yeah, I know who you are,” he said. “You’re doing a vet tech degree?”

“It’s just a certification,” she said. “A two-year program out of Amarillo State. It’s not one of the fully accredited degrees.”

“She’s great,” Jake said. “And her momma made chicken enchiladas for us.” He picked up a fork and practically dropped it onto the plate before he pushed it toward Carson. It made a terrible clattering noise that forced a pause in the conversation.

In fact, they then had a silent conversation Hailey didn’t understand, and Carson picked up his plate and headed for the table. Jake handed Hailey hers, as he could only carry one, and then he picked up the last plate and followed his brother.

Carson went around to the other side of the table, and Jake sat across from him. Hailey took the spot next to him, her shoulder brushing against his as she sat down. She was sure she wouldn’t be able to get a bite down her throat through all this choking silence, so she looked at Jake, who glanced at her out of the corner of his eye as he ducked his chin.

He finished chewing his bite of enchiladas and said, “These are real good, Hailey. Please tell your momma thank you from me.”

“Okay,” she said.

He swung his attention across the table to his brother. “How do you know who she is?”

“I reckon everyone in town knows who she is.” He grinned and looked at his brother again. “Well, maybe not you.”

“What does that mean?” Jake growled, and Hailey wanted to ask the same thing.

Carson looked at her, his eyes dancing with mischief, and Hailey’s nerves vibrated in a very bad way. “Carson,” she said, because she knew why everyone in town would know her.

Carson gestured with his fork as if to say, All right, you can tell him, as if this were great news and she wanted to be the one to spill the beans.

She blew out her breath, her stomach rioting for want of the enchiladas, but her throat absolutely refusing to open wide enough for her to take a bite. She held her fork very still and looked at Jake.

“I’m sure he’s talking about my arrest.”

Jake sputtered, which quickly turned into a cough, and he lifted his can of root beer to his lips and took a long drink. “Your what?”

“She got arrested a few years ago, bro, for stealing a bunch of money from Rockefeller’s.”

“I did not steal that money,” Hailey said. Immediate and sharp defensiveness entered her tone, and she took a deep breath as she looked at Jake. Her boss. The man writing the reports for her internship. “I didn’t steal the money. I was accused of stealing the money, and I got fired from my managerial position at an amazing restaurant, and yes, I got arrested.”

She pinned a dark look on Carson. “But it was really the owner’s nephew who’d done it. He’s the one that got prosecuted and put in jail, not me.”