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I rolled my eyes but smiled. Only Kaylee would call 911 because a cow was in front of her house having a calf. At least it hadn’t been a fire.
The next message was from Brock. “Give me a call, ASAP.”
That made me take notice. I wanted to listen to Kaylee’s message first, though.
I hit play, and her voice made my breath hitch and my chest tighten. Just that sweet sound made my entire body feel warm. Comforted. And that freaked me out.
She rattled on about the cow, its giving birth, the 911 call, and the reason why Channing was there. I couldn’t help but smile again. Had she been worried what I was thinking when I’d called and that dick had answered? I didn’t want to admit it in the light of day, but that asshole answering her phone had been what had caused me to go and get shit-faced.
Pulling up Brock’s name, I hit call.
“Ty,” he snapped.
“Brock.”
He sighed. “Are you alone?”
Laughing, I asked, “What kind of question is that?” I opened the door to my room—only to find the brunette from last night getting ready to knock on my door.
I stopped in my tracks, and she smiled as she looked me over from head to toe, then licked her ruby-red lips.
“It’s the kind that needs to be answered right away. Kaylee is probably walking into your hotel right now, coming to find you.”
I froze. “Kaylee?”
“No, it’s Mary,” the brunette said.
A strange growling sound came across the phone. “Fucking hell, you asshole! You slept with someone last night?”
“What? No!” I said, then looked back at the girl.
“Yes, silly, that’s my name,” she said with a giggle.
I wanted to roll my eyes at her, but I wasn’t that big of a jerk. “Brock, I’m walking out of my hotel room, and someone was just about to knock on the door—hold on.”
“That better be the case.”
I sighed. “Mary, did you need something? I’m running late for breakfast,” I said, more into the phone than to her.
“Oh, well, I just left your friend Dirk’s room, and I thought maybe you might like to—”
“No, thank you,” I said as I pulled my door shut and walked around her and headed to the elevator. Dick move, but if Kaylee was here, the last thing I wanted was for her to see some woman standing outside my hotel room.
“Brock?” I said into the phone, not even bothering to look back at Mary, or whoever the hell she was.
“Yeah, damn Dirk. One of these days, he’s going to meet a woman who’ll knock him flat on his ass and make him stop all the manwhoring.”
I chuckled. “I don’t know—the guy likes his pussy.”
The elevator doors happened to open just at that moment when I was talking about Dirk’s proclivities, and two older women glared at me.
“Excuse me, ladies,” I said, stepping into the elevator as Brock lost it, laughing. “I might lose my signal,” I said to Brock, giving them both my best smile. My charm didn’t work, though, and all I got were two scowls in return.
Oddly enough, I never lost my signal.
“So, do you want to tell me why Kaylee is here in Billings?”
“Not really.”
I rubbed at the instant headache in my temples. “Brock.”
“Listen, this is between the two of you, but something happened last night, and she was worried you were going to read into it wrong.”
Even if I tried to hide it, I wouldn’t have been able to contain the slight upward turn of my mouth. “Channing?”
“Yeah. Ty, listen, do me a favor: don’t blow her off or act like you can’t stand being around her. She took a flight in this morning to be there.”
“A flight?”
“Just promise me you won’t be a dick to her.”
“Brock, I wouldn’t do that to her. I mean, we have a sort of . . . messed-up relationship, or friendship, or whatever the hell it is. I know I’ve hurt her before, and I had some messed-up reason for justifying it, but I’m not going to hurt her. Ever again.”
“Good, or I’d have to break your other leg in a few spots.”
“Like that would ever happen,” I scoffed. “I’m supposed to meet Rich and Bill for breakfast, and I’m running late. I’ll keep an eye out for her.”
“Ty?”
“Yeah?”
“She loves you. I just thought maybe you should know that before she gets there, and maybe it’s wrong of me to tell you, but it’s out there now.”
I stopped walking, anxiety instantly filling my entire body. Swallowing hard, I forced myself to move, then forced the next question out as I approached the hotel restaurant.
“How . . . how do you know that?”
“She told me last night.”
“What do you mean, she told you last night?”
“I’ll talk to you later.”
“Brock. Brock!”
The line went dead, and I let out a growl as I shoved my phone into my pocket. I was going to kick his ass for getting involved in my personal life. And why in the hell was Kaylee telling my brother she was in love with me? She couldn’t be in love with me. Yes, what we shared that night was fucking amazing, but she didn’t know the real me. She couldn’t—because that was the part of me she wouldn’t want to love.
