Chapter 6
Caden
I snicker at the nickname as I drop my own barbell and shake out my palms.
“Your bicep’s twitching,” I tell him roughly, before grabbing two more weight plates and sliding them onto the ends.
There’s no reason for us to be lifting right now, especially after doing two hours of self-inflicted drills at the rink, but seeing as we’re warmed up and still pumping with adrenaline, we decided to hit up the gym and see who taps out first.
And from the way that Cassidy throws his head back and groans when he sees how much weight I’ve just added to the barbell, amusement tugs up the corner of my mouth because it looks like it’s going to be him.
“No fucking way,” he says simply, even as he goes to collect two more weight plates of his own. “Like, one lift of that and then we quit, right? Because I’m not trying to go to the emergency services, man.”
“At least three lifts,” I reply, securing my hands around the metal, and breathing out a gruff laugh when I watch the pole bend at the weight of the plates.
We’re doing standard curls and lifts, so given our size we can both handle it. It’s the overhead pumps that we have to be careful about, especially given the fact that I’m not supposed to overwork my body during the season.
“Two,” Cassidy rasps, and then he grunts hard as he does his first lift.
I can’t help but smirk as I do my second curl, chuckling, “You’re a fucking PT.”
“And to remain a PT I can’t rip all of my goddamn muscles off,” he pants back to me, but he slowly does the last two lifts before dropping the barbell like it’s on fire.
“You’re insane,” he rasps, both of us laughing as we replace the equipment, and I glance down at my muscles once my hands are free, smiling to myself as I think of Winter.
I know that she isn’t with me for my body, seeing as we started dating before I got this big, but I also know that she secretly loves it when she sees me after working out on the ice.
I duck my head and rub my nape, hiding my smile as we walk toward the lockers.
It’s around five o’clock now so, once I’ve showered, I can head straight to the ranch.
“Thanks for inviting me down to the rink,” Cassidy says, as I grab my shower stuff from my bag.
“It was good,” I tell him honestly, because Cassidy is one of my closest friends in Texas. We were lucky that he could take a few hours away from his shift at the gym today.
“I haven’t skated in fucking ages.”
I flick him a grin. “I can tell.”
He laughs out loud and shakes his head, making his way to the office as I head to the showers.
“Catch up again before you leave town?” he calls over, and I give him a nod as he unlocks the door.
“Sweet,” he says. “See you around.”
And then I shove open the shower room door.
The gym in our small town is a renovated barn made of Southern pine, with black tiles covering the bathroom walls and low lighting to keep it private.
Hot steam fills the air, and I shove my hair back as I step into a stall, tugging my clothes off before I hit the spray, more than ready to head home.
I stand under the jet-stream for a long moment, savoring the burn of the water on my sore muscles, and then I pump out a load of shower gel, lathering and rinsing it off my swollen quads.
I wash quickly, towel off, and then I’m stepping back into my jeans, my soaked gym gear in my fist as I shoulder my way out of the stall.
I grab the rest of my stuff from the locker and then I head toward the lot, throwing everything into the back of my truck before ducking into the drivers’ seat and starting the engine.
I take my black hoodie from the passenger seat and tug it on before hitting the gas, the radio playing some heavy rock station as I pull onto the road that heads to the ranch.
Our area in Kentucky is comprised of acres of ranch-land and secluded suburbs, with expansive valleys and sprawling forests, the only exception being the traditional town square.
I turn up the volume on the radio and lean back in my seat, and even though my eyes are on the road, my thoughts are already back at the ranch.
Thinking about Winter. Thinking about how good tonight is going to be.
I told her earlier that I’d make our dinner, so as soon as I reach the ranch that’s what I’m going to do, and hopefully an hour will be enough time for her to finish up with the horses and come to our room.
I flick the indicator even though the road is quiet, and turn onto the land that heads to Hartstrings Ranch, although I slow down a little when I see the welcome sign, because there are a couple of cowboys milling around beneath it.
But even from this distance I know.
They aren’t the wranglers from our ranch.
I watch them silently through the windshield and then drive right on past them as I reach the sign, but when I’m parked up at the front of the house, I slowly begin trudging back toward them.
The thing about living in a small town?
Everyone knows everyone.
I nod my chin at them as I approach. “Cooper. Nash.”
We’ve all known each other since high school, but they’re hands at another ranch and we’ve never been close – plus, there’s no reason for them to be hovering around, and I have other things that I’d rather be doing right now.
There’s no real animosity between us, but I’m not in the friendliest mood and, honestly, these guys probably aren’t either.
“I heard that you were back in town,” Nash tells me, while I tug my hoodie away from my chest, the water from the shower making it feel tight.
I glance at him slowly and say, “Yeah, I’m here.”
“And your girl’s teaching riding classes,” Cooper casually drawls, making me look in his direction as I plant my boots on the ranch’s threshold.
He’s standing a couple of feet away from me and I can see the outline of his handgun under his flannel.
“That’s right,” I reply.
“Wish she’d teach me.”
I can’t help but smile and crook two fingers. “Come about three feet closer, man.”
Nash chuckles and pushes his hair back. “We’re not here to talk about that. We’re here on business.”
“You don’t have any business here,” I tell him. “You don’t ride for our brand.”
Cooper scuffs the dirt with his leather boot and laughs huskily before rumbling, “Ouch.”
I give him a cautious once-over, not sure about where they’re going with this conversation.
“How’s Carter?” Nash continues, and I glance toward him, suddenly guarded.
“Why’d you ask?” I say slowly, tucking my hands in my pockets as I look him over.
And even though the guys are being friendly, now I know why they’re here.
They either know that Carter’s having trouble with his horse, or that Carter’s horse is going to be trouble – not that he’s caused any physical problems, but given how things are going, it’s not looking great.
So either Carter opened up a little too loudly while he was in town, or the competition has been scoping us out on our own land while we weren’t watching.
The main question is, why do Cooper and Nash want us to know that they know about Carter’s Quarter Horse?
Do they want to psych us out by thinking that they’ll beat us at the rodeo in February? Or is this their roundabout way of actually asking for a job?
Because if it turns out to be the latter, that’s one fucked-up way to go about asking.
“Anyway,” Nash drawls, clapping his hands together as if his work is done. “Just thought I’d offer a little food for thought. We scratch your back, you scratch ours.”
I blink at him, my brow rising, because… what the fuck does that mean?
And when he offers no further explanation, I roll my eyes and shake my head.
“Whatever, man,” I rumble, giving them a tip of my chin before turning around, and then I’m trudging back to the ranch with no intentions of relaying any of that bullshit to Ade or Mav.
My brothers have enough on their plates as it is, and I don’t want them to get in their heads about Nash’s supposed insight.
Besides, I have a romantic dinner to make, and that’s all that I want to focus on tonight.
I head straight to my room once I’ve entered the house, tossing my bag of hockey gear in the corner and tugging off my hoodie so that I can pull on a shirt.
After tonight’s ice session with Cassidy my muscles are swollen as hell, and I rub my nape as I make my way to the kitchen, hoping that Winter’s going to like it.
Ade works silently at the stove while I open up the cupboards and grab everything that I need, and he glances back at me over his shoulder as I move to the opposite end of the wooden counter.
“What are you doing?” he asks slowly, eyeing up the food as I start prepping it.
“Dinner for Winter and me,” I rumble back to him, before flicking a glance at what he’s cooking.
It looks like some kind of chilli, and I nod to myself. “That looks good.”
“Aren’t y’all joining us for dinner?” he asks, a crease on his brow as he stops stirring.
“I’m only back for a few days,” I murmur. “It could be a month before I get to see Winter again.”
Which is a prospect that I don’t want to think about, because it’s hard enough going two weeks without her.
Ade watches me in silence for a long unending moment, before exhaling hard and finally nodding his head.
“Fine. Yeah. Do you need any help with that?” he asks, gesturing to the food.
I shake my head as I begin carefully chopping, and then I glance up when I hear the barn door open outside. I wonder if it’s Winter heading into the workshop, or if it’s just one of the ranch-hands as I get back to work.
“Did you go to the rink tonight?” Ade asks.
“Yeah, I called Cassidy and we did two hours of drills on the ice.”
“Felt like you were out for longer than that,” he admits.
“We hit up the gym off of Main Street after.”
He nods and glances over to me, a smirk on his mouth when he sees my biceps.
“For training purposes, right?” he drawls, his deep voice teasing. “Definitely not for Winter.”
I breathe out a laugh as I continue chopping, and I nod my head because, yeah, it’s for Winter.