AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ford worked hard the day after he’d slept in that chair, holding Autumn. After he’d tasted her lips and run his hands over her body. He could still feel the weight of her breast in his palm, the heat of her skin. And her scent seemed to have taken up residence inside his nostrils.
Autumn Harris was dangerous to Ford; she made him ache for something that felt just out of his reach.
“And that has to stop, or at least it has to stop until you sort out the shitstorm that is your life.”
One thing he’d realized after a full night’s sleep was that his body felt refreshed and alert. Not heavy and tired like it usually did.
“So this is what I’ve been missing my entire adult life,” he muttered.
He needed to talk to his parents, owed it to them, but it would hurt them to hear what he’d gone through without them. What he’d continued to suffer because of it for most of his adult life.
“And that makes me sound like a damned martyr.”
Maybe Nash was right in that he was the eldest sibling, the go-to man for others, so he’d kept his demons close, unwilling to share. Did he think it made him weak?
“And now that makes me sound like a selfish, conceited shithead,” he muttered.
He’d been able to rationalize everything in his head before. Now not so much.
“Life was so much simpler when I just got on with stuff my way.”
Mounting Lance, he headed back to the ranch. Nash hadn’t appeared today, which was often the case on a Saturday, but his absence told Ford his brother was seriously pissed with him.
Drinking deep from his flask, he thought about Autumn again. If they spent time together it was, to his mind, inevitable they’d end up in bed. He just wasn’t sure that once, or even twice, would be enough with her. Would she want more?Would he?
He rode slowly back to the ranch, his eyes tracking the fences he passed and checking cattle as they always did. When he rode into the stables, he found his siblings standing outside, waiting for him.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” they said together.
Maggie looked tired, and he felt a pang of regret that it was likely him who’d kept her awake last night. Nash looked angry.
“You told Mom and Dad yet?” Maggie asked, her voice cold and flat.
Ford shook his head and rode past them into the stables. Once there, he dismounted and uncinched Lance.
“Jess, you come on and take Lance now,” Nash said, having followed Ford inside.
“I can tend my horse.”
“Not today you can’t.”
The ranch hand shot looks at the siblings but didn’t say anything. He just took the reins and led Lance away.
“So, what? We’re going to fight it out?”
“Let’s go somewhere quiet,” Maggie said.
Ford walked to her. Cupping her cheek, he leaned down and kissed it. “I’m okay, Tigger.”
She fell on his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist. He held her close, pressing his lips to her head. He felt Nash’s hand on his back, the other placed on his sister’s head.
“I’m so sorry. I just thought it was best to handle it the way I did, and then as the years passed, I believed it was best to keep it that way.”
“I know.” Her words were muffled.
He held her for a while and then released her to hug his brother. “I really am sorry.”
