Bonus Epilogue
A CHESTNUT SPRINGS TEASER
“ Vi!”
I can hear Billie shouting at me from the living room. I laugh, because she’s so goddamn impatient and I’ve come to love that about my best friend. You can’t rush good popcorn though. The butter, the Cajun spice, cooked in a cast-iron skillet just like I did back home on the ranch in Chestnut Springs.
I have to get it right. It’s girl’s night. I’m not having shitty popcorn. We’re all moms now. We need this time and we need it to be good.
Not just good. Great.
“Violet!” A night away from the kids, and I get the demanding version of Billie.
Charming.
“What?” I shout back into the living room. If her and Vaughn hadn’t built such a big house this wouldn’t be a problem. At mine and Cole’s cozy farmhouse we don’t need to shout for the other person to hear. “I’m just finishing popcorn for the movie!”
The butter is slowly starting to melt in the pan, just the right temperature to brown carefully.
“Your brother is on the news!” Nadia pipes up.
My head snaps in their direction. “Which one?” I yell back, wincing at our interaction.
“The hot one!” Billie shouts, and I roll my eyes.
“The bull rider, Vi.” Mira clarifies, somehow projecting her silky voice without sounding like she’s screaming.
Suddenly the butter is forgotten. Rhett is wild, always in trouble, and often injured. Bull riding is his one and only true love, but it’s also a great way to get yourself killed.
That said, he’s made an incredible living for himself. He’s become the face of the sport and gets to do what he loves for a paycheck. The sponsorships he’s snagged along the way don’t hurt either.
And that’s the dream, isn’t it? At least all those days I spent in the hospital with him as a teenager paid off.
I rush into the living room, heart pounding and palms suddenly clammy, fearing the worst.
But instead I see a paparazzi following my perfectly healthy brother, trying to shove a microphone in his face as he leaves an arena after an event.
“Rhett, can you comment on the video that’s been circulating? Any apologies you’d like to make?”
My brother’s lips thin and he tries to hide his face behind the brim of his hat. All I catch is a brief flash of anxiety in his eyes as his jaw pops.
“No comment.” His typical playful tone is absent tonight.
“Come on man, give me something.” The slender man reaches across and literally presses the microphone against my brother’s cheek. Bumping it up against him rather aggressively. “Your fans want an explanation,” the reporter demands.
And then, my wild-child brother punches the guy square in the face. Hard.
My stomach drops as I watch the camera swivel to the ground. The screen shaking around as shouting commences.
When I turn to look at the couch Billie, Mira and Nadia are staring at me with wide eyes.
“Well . . .” Mira starts with a grimace.
“Hot and a hell of a right-hook,” Billie chuckles.
I blink, confused about what I just saw. Worried about my brother. And...
“Vi, what’s burning?” Nadia says tentatively.
“Shit!” I turn back to the kitchen, racing in to pull the pan off the burner.
And then I yank my phone out of my back pocket and dial my brother.
“Vi?” He picks up right away.
“Rhett. What’s going on?”
He groans. “Vi. I fucked up.”
The rules were simple. Keep my hands off his daughter and stay out of trouble.
But now I’m stuck with her. There’s only one bed. And well, rules are made to be broken.
I’m the face of professional bull riding—the golden boy. Or at least I was, until it all blew up in my face. Now my agent says I have to clean up my image, so I’m stuck with his ball-busting daughter for the rest of the season as my “full-time supervision.”
But I don’t need a goddamn babysitter, especially one with skin-tight jeans, a sexy smirk, and a mouth she can’t stop running.
A mouth I can’t stop thinking about.
Because Summer isn’t just another conquest. She sees the man behind the mask, and she doesn’t run—she pulls me closer, even when she shouldn’t.
She says this means nothing.
I say this means everything.
She says there are boundaries we shouldn’t cross. That my reputation can’t take any more hits—and neither can her damaged heart.
I say I’m going to steal it anyway.
Want to meet Rhett? What about the rest of the Eaton brothers? Take a trip to Violet’s hometown in Flawless!