AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The brothers all resembled each other. A family of panty-incinerators. But they were individual in the way they stood and their default expressions. The brother from the army had a permanently wicked gleam in his eye. Austen. He had an ease about him the others didn’t possess. The opposite of Cody. Wilder was the deputy, and where Cody was the serious sibling, Wilder encompassed everything brooding. He was a little more relaxed than when he was in uniform yesterday. Eliot was the rancher, and he walked like he carried the weight of all the horses and cows on his shoulders.
All the brothers possessed this little twinkle in their eye that they only brought out for certain and rare reasons. I bet they’d been a menace to the single women of Buffalo Gully growing up.
And now.
None of the brothers amped up my heart rate like Cody. Cody in his business casual. Cody in cowboy boots. Cody with a cowboy hat shading half his face, except for that knowing gaze that now said he knew what I tasted like. All of it. Devastating. Then Cody on a horse sent my ovaries through puberty a second time when I witnessed the tight but flexible set of his body on a horse.
I fanned myself with a hand even though the heat wasn’t awful today.
“Do you like steak?” Grayson asked for the third time. He was worried I wouldn’t like the food. He’d been concerned I wouldn’t like the house or getting dirty when we toured the property. He thought I might feel overwhelmed by all the horses and cattle. The cacophony of mooing when they were working cattle and the random clangs of the gates they lined the cattle in were unusual noises and sometimes startling.
None of it stressed me out. I was used to the clatter and smells of the city, so this was all new, but in some ways, it was similar. Instead of a throng of people and sidewalks, there were livestock and corrals. Instead of skyscrapers and businesses, there were barns and shops and sheds.
The only stage I could perform on was if I twirled through the pastures like inTheSound of Music.
Those were hard concepts to get through to a kid whose mom hated this life. “I like steak, and since I’m not cooking, even better,” I assured Grayson.
“You hate cooking?” Ivy asked, scandalized. I’d been making lunches and suppers since my first day working.
“No, but I like a break from doing something every day, even if I enjoy it.” Except for dancing. The kids made sure we got our stretches and practice in while we were playing outside. They were delighted to learn a flying squirrel was a dance move.
The guys swaggered up the winding dirt road from the barn to the house. A flank of four cowboys.
I went from city girl to having a major thing for cowboys.
For one cowboy.
Excited nerves rippled through my belly. That casual swagger. The rolling gait and the way his cowboy hat shaded his face. He was hell on my senses. I could cross to him right now and drag him...somewhere. What was sex in a barn like?
Eliot clapped his hands together. A puff of dust came off his gloves. He took them off and slapped them against his thigh. “Ready for some grub?”
“Grayson told me a lot about your grilling skills.” I smiled at Grayson, who adamantly nodded.
Ivy perched on the deck stairs next to me. “He calls himself the Grill King.”
“I had a crown,” Eliot said. “But I lost it.”
“A king never loses his crown,” she said solemnly.
I nudged her and grinned. “We’ll have to make him one.”
She brightened. “We can make it out of dandelions!” She darted across the yard, stopping to pick flowers as she went. Grayson stood like he was going to follow her.
Cody smiled at Ivy’s exuberance. He swung his dark stare to me. Electricity sizzled between us. Could the others feel it? Was it obvious I had a thing for this guy?
Yes.
I noticed Eliot elbow Austen, who glanced between us like he was in on a secret and giddy about it. Wilder was the only one who was subdued. A sense of loss emanated from him. I didn’t know his and Sutton’s story, but it was clear he wasn’t happy about it coming to an end.
“Tova’s teaching me how to dance,” Grayson announced as loudly as if he were standing in a pulpit.
Cody nodded. “Grayson’s taken to it like a horse to a dirt bath.”
I smiled at the pride in his voice.
“No shit?” Eliot said, oblivious to Cody’s censuring scowl. “Maybe some two-stepping will help you stay in the saddle.” His tone was gently teasing, and Grayson nodded excitedly.
I didn’t need to come to his defense, but I was too used to citing the benefits of dance to guys like Frederick. “Dancing is excellent for the core, and while I’ve never ridden a horse, I assume it requires a lot of core strength.”
