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“Scared. Confused. Overwhelmed.” She laughed a little. The look in those big green eyes stabbed at him a bit. “And tired actually. If Sasha is anything likeme,anyway. I've been working a lot lately. Trying to...come to a decision.”
All thoughts of romance went out of his head. Somethingelsewas hurting her. Ben wanted to fix it. “Talk to me. I promise I'll listen.”
“Matt's offered me full-time at the clinic. But it would mean...changes. For my family. I'm not sure I want to do that to them right now.”
“But you love the clinicmore.” Hell, now he understood some of her hurt. Dusty took a huge part of who she was from where she fit with her family. He had always known that. Being aTalleywas just as important to her as being aTylerwas to him. “Babe, all your family wants is for you to be happy. They can hire help at the inn. But is it really that making you hesitate?”
“What do you mean?”
It was getting colder out. He needed to get her inside before she turned into a Dusty-cicle. But for now, it was time for some home truths. “I think it's fear, babe. What is the worst thing that can happen if you make this change now? I went through the same damned thing, stationed at Fort Carson. I wanted to come home so bad my teeth ached just thinking about it. But if I didn't reenlist—and I couldn't make it and take care of myself financially here, I would have failed. It took me six months to make the decision—and I had two hundred grand in the bank as a fallback option if I screwed up. Or if book sales weren't what I wanted. Just in case. And a pal told me the truth—if I screwed up here, I could always reenlist. So, question: If you screw up with Matt, what will happen? What will you do next?”
“I don't know. That's something I'm still trying to figure out.”
“I'll tell you the one thing you are not doing, Destiny Marie Talley.” He kissed her again. He just couldn't help himself.
“What is that?”
“Youare not reenlisting in the army! I am not letting you leave Masterson County—or me. I just am not. So if that's your plan, or flying the coop to Texas to join that wicked cousin of yours down there, or going to St. Louis to set up a tent beneath the arch—if either of those are your backup plan, just think again. I am not letting you. Now, inside, woman. Parts of me are about to freeze off here. And that just isn't allowed to happen.”
She laughed. Which was what he wanted in the first place. Ben pushed open the back door of the barn, to be greeted by the warmth inside. There was a small kitchen area there. And an open window area where the servers—in this case, those gorgeous, maddening, far, far too sexy Talley women—would serve the food-buffet style.
Her family was already in there, waiting.
Marin shot him a wicked look. “There you are, handsome. I see you found something we were missing out there in the cold.”
“Something like that. Now I need a gorgeous woman to help warm me up. Dusty has volunteered, though. So don't you get any ideas.” He handed Marin the bag in his hand. Then hooked one arm around Dusty's shoulders. Pretending to keep it casual. Friendly.Brotherly.
He almost snorted at that.
He would never feelbrotherlyabout Destiny Marie ever again.
Nope. Ben had made his decision. He wanted what Gil had. What Hunter had. Chandler, and Clint, and all the rest of the men who had been captured by their women already. He wantedthiswoman as his one and only.
He just had to convince her of that first.
29
Fletcher Tyler had always thoughtDusty Talley was the perfect woman. Utterly perfect. Well, since she’d become an adult, that was.
That she was his sister’s best friend had nothing to do with it. And it wasn’t like Fletcher would do anything about that—he thought she was the perfect woman, that didn’t mean she was the perfect womanfor him.
She was beautiful, funny, intelligent, and loyal. And incredibly sexy—hard for a guy not to noticethat.He liked watching her snap at his brother Ben, that was for sure.
Dusty and Ben bickered a good deal of the time their paths crossed. Fletcher suspected Ben thought Dusty was the perfect woman, too. In a lot more elemental ways than Fletcher did. Ben just hadn’t done anything about it. Fletcher had thought he would, a while back. When Ben had first come home a few years ago. But Ben had gotten busy remodeling his building, and then everything that had happened to their family in the meantime. Especially what had happened to Nikki and Dusty eight months ago.
Fletcher wasn’t stupid, though. There wassomethingabout the way the two of them had always looked at each other since Ben had come back to Masterson County.
The rest of the family was filling Tyler Hall up quickly. They were having a welcome-to-the-family party for his bastard of an uncle’s six youngest daughters, ranging in age from four months all the way up to thirteen years. Fletcher and some of his other cousins had pitched in to help pay for catering and balloons and party decorations. And presents for the kids.
They wanted to make it a special event for the kids. To show them that they were loved. Those kids hadn’t had enough love in their short lives.
And if Fletcher ever caught his uncle out alone, well, Fletcher was going to reeducate Bruce on how a Tyler was supposed to act.
Especially toward his own kids.
Bruce would be charged with child abuse and neglect, among other things, as soon as he was caught.
Bruce and that psychopath Morris Preston had nearly killed Fletcher’s brother. They’d tried to kill Gil’s woman multiple times. Morris Preston had been responsible for almost killing two of Fletcher’s young cousins. Auggie and Junie were young. Innocent. Bruce’s own daughters.
