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His gaze lowered over her as though he was savoring the memory. “You’re a long way from bad in bed.”
She couldn’t help smiling. “I could say the same about you.”
He grinned at her. Then he nodded goodbye and closed his door, and she stood in the driveway, watching as he drove off.
“Holy shit,” she muttered as she started toward the house. He’d said he was having a hard time regretting what they’d done, and truth be told, so was she.
But how would last night affect the rest of her stay in Coyote Canyon?
Brant didn’t know whether he should try to call Charlie or not. He felt bad about what’d happened, had certainly never intended to hurt his best friend. It’d been so long since the wedding, he hadn’t thought of Charlie as having any claim on Talulah. Maybe how Charlie would react should’ve been more obvious to him. He would’ve expected it if she was planning to move back to town or there was even a remote chance of a reconciliation between them. But she didn’t regret leaving Charlie behind. Spending one night with her, when neither of them was committed to someone else, simply hadn’t seemed likethatbig a deal.
Until Charlie found out, of course. Now it seemed like a really big deal—so big Brant couldn’t believe he’d gotten himself into such a mess. He’d always been careful when it came to women, especially the women in Coyote Canyon. The ranch was his livelihood, his future; he couldn’t imagine he’d ever leave the small town he called home. That made it imperative he protect the relationships he had here, so it was pretty ironic that his first major scandal would involve Charlie.
After he pulled into his own drive, he found his phone, which was right where he’d left it yesterday, charging in his truck, and scrolled through his missed calls and messages. There were a few from his brothers, wondering where he was. But the majority had come from Charlie.
We still on for tonight?
Where are you, bro?
Are we playing pool or not?
That was how Charlie’s first few texts had gone. Then there’d been a lull for several hours—during which Brant imagined him growing bored and more and more curious and obsessed with Talulah. Once it was late enough that he felt he could safely drive past her aunt’s place without being noticed, the tone of his messages had drastically changed.
Are you freaking kidding me?
That had come in at 2:00 a.m.
No way are you with Talulah! You’d better not be fucking her.
4:30 a.m.
You bastard! I’m never going to forgive you for this.
6:00 a.m.
He must’ve sat in front of her house all night, waiting to ambush Brant as soon as he came out.
In addition to those texts, Charlie had left several profanity-filled voice mails, telling Brant what a lousy friend he was.
With a sigh, he got out and slid his phone in his pocket. He wasn’t going to call Charlie. Charlie wouldn’t listen to him right now, anyway.
“There you are!” His youngest brother, Kurt, who was twenty-five, had spotted him from the closest paddock and nudged Fancy, one of their best horses, into a gallop to reach him. “Where the hell have you been?” he asked, bringing the horse to a stop a few feet away. “I thought you were going to move the cattle this morning.”
Brant didn’t want to talk about what’d happened. But hehadcommitted to moving the cattle, which his brother had obviously just done for him. And with all the drama involving Charlie, he knew his brothers would hear about Talulah sooner or later. Everyone would. It would be better—for Charlie—if he did what Talulah had asked him to. Otherwise, what she said later wouldn’t ring true. But it was going to be difficult to navigate the next few days without resorting to outright lies. “Talulah Barclay’s great aunt’s house.”
Kurt took off his baseball cap and beat the dust off it while his horse threw its head, trying to force enough slack in the reins to nibble at a dandelion coming up through the gravel. “I heard she was back in town. Everyone’s talking about it. But...what were you doing with her?”
“Ellen texted to ask if Talulah could borrow the portable air conditioner we’ve been storing in the bunkhouse, so I drove it over.”
“And that took all night?”
Brant indicated the gouge on his forehead. “I hit my head hard enough to get a concussion while I was there,” he replied. “I couldn’t exactly drive.”
“Why didn’t you call one of us? We would’ve come to get you.”
“Talulah had a doctor check me out. He felt it was better if I just rested there until morning.”
“Oh.” His brother gave him the once-over. “So...are you okay?”
