Chapter Nine
THORN
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“I CAN TOP you up, too, cowboy.” The waitress carries a pitcher of beer toward me. She isn’t wearing sexy attire—this is a family lodge—but she sure holds a lot of flirt in that offer.
I slide my empty glass across the table. “Sure can, darlin’.”
I hear Flora make a feminine grunt and wait for her to leave before she says, “It seems you have settled into old habits.”
Why is it that when Flora struts around the pool table, in no way attempting to look sexy, my insides ignite on fire?
She leans over the pool table, her ass perched up in my full view, and pulls back her cue stick. “What were the terms you used yesterday? Ladies’ man, skirt-chaser, hound dog?”
The tip of the stick strikes the cue ball, and it rolls swiftly, but it misses its mark by mere inches.
Something inside me shifts, and I’m done keeping quiet. Maybe it has something to do with my slight buzz now because I stroll behind her and press my front against her back.
“That’s rich coming from you,” I whisper into her ear, but not before the intoxicating smell of her floral hair fogs my mind.
I hear her slight intake of air and feel her body tense against mine, where she fits perfectly in my grooves.
“Why is that?” Her voice is a husky whisper.
I move away and bend down to make my shot.
“Thorn, it’s not your shot.”
I ignore my brother, keeping my eyes focused on the ball. “You screwed me all summer and then took off without a word. Who used who?”
Flora gasps and hits the pool cue out of my hand. “Fuck you, Thorn.”
I straighten. “That’s what we did. All summer long.”
“Time for the dirty. Spill the tea.” Dani claps her hands.
“Can we stop the teenage drama?” My brother taps my shoulder with his cue stick. “Dammit, you’re two adults who don’t like each other. That’s fine. Move on. Stop dragging up the past.”
“They need to clear the air,” Dani shouts at my brother.
“Don’t try to turn this on me.” Finally, the person I want to hear talk. Flora steps closer to me. “You were the one sneaking off to spend your nights fooling around with other girls.”
“You’re getting looks.” Theo tries to wedge between us, dipping his head to block the room around us.
I shove him back. “There it is, that judgment you claim not to possess. I gave you my whole damn heart that summer. I spent my life afraid to open up to people the way I did with you, and the entire time you just assumed I was screwing around behind your back.”
“I didn’t assume,” Flora says.
“I don’t think this is the time or place,” my brother hisses louder, leaning between us.
“I think this is the perfect time and place,” Dani leans over her sister’s shoulder. “If he has nothing to hide—”
“I have nothing to hide,” I bark. “Let me make this as straightforward as a dirt road. I didn’t have sex with anyone else that summer. I didn’t see another girl. I didn’t even kiss another girl.”
The storm in her eyes melts away, and hints of sadness cloud her expression. “I saw you.”
“Saw me what?”
“It was a long time ago.” My brother grasps my shoulder hard enough to make it ache. “Walk away.”
I’m not fucking moving. I wait for her to talk.
“I saw you the night you rushed home because your dad got arrested again. I followed you and saw you leaving your dad’s rundown barn, shirtless, with a girl who was wearing your Stetson.”
“What?” It seems to be the only reply I can muster up.
“I saw you.”
Those three words pound in my ears as my mind races to recall what in good heavens she’s talking about.
A night my dad got arrested—hell, there had been too many to remember. A girl wearing my Stetson and leaving the barn. None of this rings any damn bells. I didn’t drag women into the barn for a quickie. All the years before Flora, I’d been too busy racing dirt bikes through the rugged terrain without a helmet, taking stolen cars on joyrides down rural backroads, and climbing abandoned grain silos. The list of stupid shit I’ve done is long, and I’m surprised I’m still alive. But the one person I didn’t want to turn into was my dad, who only got out of bed for alcohol and screwing gals in barns.
“A lot of shit went down at my dad’s parties,” Theo says. “Why don’t we leave the details in the past.”
“Theo, you’d remember the night.” Flora’s gaze passes mine. “You called my house to warn me he’d snuck into a barn with her.”
My stomach plummets.
Flora’s gaze meets mine. “That he snuck into the barn with a different girl every night.”
I stand frozen as the weight of my brother’s betrayal punches me in the gut.
FLORA
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“FLORA, I DIDN’T know. I’m so sorry.” My sister’s apology touches my ear, but the shift in Thorn’s expression holds me captive.
I should follow her gentle tug and retreat from this mess. I should count my blessings that I found the strength to confront him. But the way he stares straight through me, lost in a sea of flickering emotions, playing so raw and vividly on his face, keeps me grounded.
He pivots to Theo, slow and intentional. The space between them lies thick, like a heavy fog.
“I thought we had each other’s backs.” The anger manifested in Thorn’s growl vibrates through the floor.
Theo holds up his arms. “I was young and stupid.”
“You are my brother. You are my ride or die.” Thorn doesn’t raise his voice, but the sharp, cut-edge tone is chilling. “You straight up lied to her?”
“Wait? What?” Dani sounds as surprised as I feel. “What?”
“It wasn’t a straight-up lie.” Theo takes a step back. “You went into the barn with her and were shirtless. I just omitted a few details.”
Thorn grunts. “Omitted a few details? What details, Theo?”
His brother shrugs, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “You know, this and that.”
“Theo, I reckon you’re gonna start spillin’ details before I lose my cool.”
He blows out an exaggerated breath. “I may not have mentioned that you tore your shirt while wrestling with the sheriff to let Dad go. Or that you followed that lil’ lady into the barn to extinguish a fire someone started.”
My heart sinks. My heart sinks so fast I don’t know what to do.
“Aren’t you asshole of the year?” Dani spits out what I’m thinking.
Only, aren’t I the asshole of the year too? For listening to Theo? For assuming what I was seeing was the one thing I secretly feared?
“After everything we’d been through growing up—” Thorn starts, but his brother cuts him off.
“Yeah, after everything we’d been through, you chose a girl over me.” Theo is straight in front of Thorn now. “Over your blood.” He shoves him, but Thorn barely moves. “You were trailing Flora’s every move, clingy like a tick on a hound dog. So much so you forgot I was even alive that summer.”
“Bullshit.”
“You barely came home.” Theo takes a step, emphasizing his conviction.
“You didn’t want to be at home either.” Thorn counters.
“But at least being home with you was bearable. Being at home with Dad was a nightmare.”
“You spent most of the summer at the Walker Ranch doing the one thing you told her I was doing. The one thing you fucking knew I didn’t do.”
Thorn bunches the fabric of his brother’s shirt into his fists. Theo stumbles against him.
“If you were anyone else, my fist would land on your jaw,” Thorn thunders. “But I’m not dad. I just didn’t realize how much like that son of a bitch you are.” He shoves him back, and Theo slams into the pool table.
Thorn turns to me. His eyes ache with pain and betrayal that burns into my soul. “You should’ve talked to me before taking off.”
He storms past me. His forceful stomp leaves an imprint echoing behind him.
“Aren’t you a class act?” My sister charges at Theo and punches him straight in the nose before I can stop her.
“Shit! Woman!” Theo covers his nose, and blood seeps through his fingers.
“Oh, did that hurt?” My sister places her hands on her hips and smiles innocently as laughter fades, voices hush, and eyes turn our way.
“Of course, it fucking hurt, you crazy bitch.”
“Dani, seriously.” I want to chase Thorn, but what would I say?
Instead, I decide to help the liar.
“Get away.” He jerks back when I reach for his chin.
“Tilt your head back,” I instruct him. “Come on,” I insist when he just stares at me. “Do it.”
“Stop.” Dani pushes her way between us. “Go after Thorn.”
“He doesn’t want to see me.”
“Yes, he does. He’s wanted to see you since the day you left, and now he knows you didn’t leave because you didn’t love him.”
“But he also knows I didn’t trust him either.”
My sister places her hands on my shoulder. “Good. It’s out in the open. You can see you should have trusted him.”
My insides crush. “I should have trusted him. Besides Theo calling me, Thorn never gave me a reason not to trust him.”
“Don’t tell me. Go tell him.” My sister spins me by the shoulders and gives me a shove. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this one.”
“This one wouldn’t need taking care of if you hadn’t punched me in the face,” Theo mutters.
“You shut up, or I’ll do it again,” my sister threatens as I chase after Thorn.