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When I returned from the tack room after putting my saddle away, I found my brothers leaning against the wooden pens built into the garage for bottle calves.
I took off the old cowboy hat I’d had for years and ran a hand through my hair, warm and damp from working in the sun all day. “Say it now, fuckers, before we get into the house.”
Tova was hanging with the kids in the main house where I’d grown up, though it looked little like it did when I was a kid.
Eliot lived there now. He’d remodeled the kitchen and the living room and was redoing his old bedroom. I didn’t ask him why he didn’t take Barns’s old bedroom. None of us would want to spend a single night there before it was gutted and redone.
Eliot folded his arms. They all looked the same as me. Dusty. Sweaty. Tired but exhilarated. Wilder was out of his uniform for once and looked like the brother I grew up with. Austen did as well because he kept all his ranch clothing at the house and stayed with Eliot when he was in town.
“Just what do you think we’re going to say?” Austen asked, a shit-eating grin on his face. “I wanted to ask how your kids are thriving under such a hot nanny. Or is it you who wants tothriveunder her?”
I narrowed my eyes at him, but I didn’t hide my flinch well enough.
Wilder’s brows went up, and Eliot made a choking sound. Austen chortled.
“Was that why you warned me away?” Wilder asked. “You and her?” He snorted. “‘Just the nanny.’”
Eliot turned an alarmed gaze toward Wilder. “Are you looking to get some?”
“No,” Wilder scoffed. “This isn’t about me.”
“Good.” Eliot kept his glare on him. “You don’t need to hurt Sutton more than you have.”
Austen’s grin stretched wide, ready to antagonize any vulnerable brother. “What if Sutton’s found plenty of guys who want to keep her company? Hey, Cody, what’d Aggie say about that other vet in Crocus Valley?” The bastard was a fire starter, but he’d taken the attention off of me and Tova.
A red swath worked its way up Wilder’s neck. “Shut it. She’s not fucking around.” His searching look landed on me.
“Don’t think so,” I said, throwing him a life preserver. “But all the women he’s scorned are getting her business off the ground.”
Wilder grunted and folded his arms like Eliot. He appeared to be a solid post in a windstorm, but the winds raged inside of him. I lost hope he’d get his head out of his ass and stop the divorce before the papers were signed.
“Back to the nanny,” Eliot said.
“Tova.”
He smirked at my not-so-subtle hint to quit calling her the nanny. “Right.Tova. Something happened?”
“None of your business.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Austen said, getting uncharacteristically serious. “Today, I got to see my brother Cody again. You weren’t ‘Mr. Stick in the Ass’ working the corrals. I think—I could’ve been hallucinating—you even smiled.”
“Fuck off.” I wasn’t cranky until now. The atmosphere between me and Tova this morning wasn’t as awkward as I’d feared. The air had sizzled between us, a quiet current only the two of us knew about. I wasn’t going to let my brothers make it weird.
“Speaking of fucking...” Austen arched a dark brow.
“No,” I snapped. I would’ve, though. I’d been so close, and Tova hadn’t seemed ready to stop at some oral.
Some oral. Understatement of the year.
I had the best sleep last night that I’d had in months. Even my persistent erection had been placated by Tova’s orgasm.
“You got protection?” Austen asked.
Eliot glanced from him to me.
Confused, I gave him awhat are you talking about?look.
“Condoms,” he said. “Rubbers. Raincoats. Love glove.”
