Chapter One
Bliss, CO
Brooke waved to Logan Warner, who sat in the
driver’s seat of the Navigator. They hadn’t been forced to do anything so
ordinary as fly into the small airfield in Alamosa. Nope. Seth Stark’s “cabin”
came with its own landing strip and small hangar.
And Nell and Poppy protesting at the end of it.
It was good to be home.
“Tell your brothers hi for me and that we hope they’ll come
out and meet our little monster,” Logan said with a smile. Logan had dropped
off Seth, Georgia, and their son at the big cabin they kept here in Bliss and
given Brooke a ride into town. He was planning on slipping into The Trading
Post and surprising his moms.
“I will, and thanks so much, Logan.” Logan was only a year
older than she was and he had a kid. A whole kid. Wesley Stark-Warner was the
cutest baby. After her niece and nephews, of course. Wes was a cuddly
six-month-old who looked at the world through curious eyes.
She’d held him and wished she could find wonder in the every
day the way that baby did.
The Navigator rolled away, and Brooke stepped into Stella’s
Café and thought about the fact that just this morning she had been in
Manhattan. It had taken less than twenty-four hours to leave her entire life
behind. She’d even packed what little she had in case she decided not to come
back. She’d stuffed her suitcase as full as possible and started searching the
Internet for the cheapest flight she could find, thinking it could be days
before she could get home.
“Brooke,” a familiar voice called out.
She turned and saw her brothers sitting near the window in a
corner booth at the front of the café. Their booth. When she’d been a kid, they
would always try to get that particular booth because you could see all of the
people walking down the sidewalk. Stella’s was in the heart of Bliss’s
downtown. Which consisted of about two blocks. Doc’s office was on one end and
the “downtown” ended with the sheriff’s station on the other. In between were a
bunch of stores and restaurants. Stella’s and Trio and The Bear Creek Lounge.
The Trading Post was across the street, and she’d noticed the Bee Bliss Store.
The honey farm had been selling their wares for decades, but someone had given
the place a glow up.
Home. She was home, and even though a couple of things had
changed, what hadn’t was this feeling.
Her heart filled. She’d been numb the last couple of weeks,
but seeing her brothers made those walls quake. The numb part was going to end
at some point, and she was not looking forward to it. Not at all.
But not now. It wasn’t happening now. She plastered a smile
on her face and strode over, rolling her big suitcase along the black and white
laminated floors. Nothing changed in Stella’s except the special. When things
got worn, Stella found a way to restore them, from the red leather seats to the
shiny countertops, Stella’s looked the way it had when Brooke was a kid.
A wave of comfort sank into her skin for a moment. This was
her home. These were her brothers. They would understand. They would help her.
Then she remembered all the ways they’d helped her before.
Like giving up their twenties to raise her, pouring all their money into her
education. They’d spent their party time, college time, young adult era,
working—Max on the horse ranch they’d grown up on, and Rye had taken a job as a
county deputy and later was elected sheriff. All so she could have a good life,
be successful.
She put them in danger by joking about them.
“Hey, how was the flight? I heard Seth took the big jet this
time,” Rye said, scooting out of the booth and opening his arms for a hug.
She breathed her brother in. He smelled like pine and fabric
softener. Home. She was not going to cry.
She stepped back, settling the big case beside the booth and
sliding in across from them. Max hadn’t gotten up but she didn’t mind because
he had a baby sleeping on his shoulder. Her newest nephew. Eli Harper was
almost a year old, and he was the sweetest chunk of humanity. “It was great. I
was so lucky Georgia called.”
Max snorted, his hand on his son’s back. “You weren’t lucky.
Rach called Georgia and demanded she take you with them. She knew damn well
Seth, Georgia, and Logan were coming home this weekend and staying for a few
weeks. She also knew you hadn’t taken a lot of personal time in the last couple
of years beyond quick trips, and she knew that company of yours takes time off
this month to send a big part of the team to Milan.”
Brooke felt her jaw drop. “Rachel said she was inviting me
out of courtesy.”
Rye’s head shook. “Nah. She planned this whole thing to make
it as easy for you to come home as possible. Now she thought you would be
coming in for the shower. She meant to talk you into a week if you weren’t
going to Milan.”
That ticket to Milan had been far too expensive. “I’m not
part of that team, and we do slow way down when they’re gone. We’re encouraged
to take time off now.”
Not untrue. They were between fall and spring. She supposed
most of the vacations she’d taken in the last few years had been around this
time. Had her sister-in-law been plotting and planning? To get her home?
“Yeah, see, you look at Rach and see nothing more than a
gorgeous woman,” Max began.
Brooke shook her head. “No, I do not.”
She was well aware Rachel Harper was a force of nature. Her
sister-in-law was the single most competent woman she’d ever met.
“But there’s more to her than beauty.” Max was good at
ignoring anything and anyone when he wanted to make a point. That he didn’t
need to make. Her brother was incredibly dramatic for a cowboy. They tended to
be known for their stoicism, but not Max Harper. He was a rebel. “There’s a
ruthless will to that woman that will not be denied.”
“His balls just met up with her ruthless streak,” Rye
quipped.
Oh, she loved her brothers, but she was with her sister on
this one. “Four kids in seven years, Max. Four. If she had taken your balls
herself and hung them like a trophy on the wall, I would have helped her design
the case for them.”
Max shrank back a little. “I think Rachel might be a bad
influence on you, sister.”
Rye grinned. “Nah, she’s taught Brooke how to stand up for
herself. And don’t tell her you taught her how to do that. You taught her to
knee a dick if one got too close to her.”
She hadn’t had one get close to her in forever. Not since
she’d broken it off with that guy from down the hall when she found out exactly
how many friends with benefits he had.
“Well, she had to protect herself because she was so
pretty,” Max argued. “Still is, and that is one thing I need to talk to you
about.”
Rye sighed as though they’d already had this argument.
“They’re out on the G. I scarcely think they’re going to try to run our sister
down. She told them a polite no at Christmas. Stef swears they’re good kids.”
A flash of heat went through Brooke. “Are you talking about
the Kent brothers?”
They were the only cowboys who hit on her at Christmastime,
and it wasn’t some sleazy thing. Bay had asked nicely if she would join them
for a drink at Trio or to have some dinner or lunch while she was in town. His
brother had stood behind him, watching her with hooded eyes like she was a
treat and he was sure he would be denied.
Now that she thought about it, only their words had been
polite. Everything else about their demeanor had reminded her of a couple of
hungry predators desperate to eat her up. She’d stood there in the beautifully
decorated town hall with all the happy families around her. The wholesome
atmosphere should have had her backing away, and yet all she could think about
was how nice it would be if they made a meal of her. She’d had a vision of one
of them feeding her his cock while the other ate her pussy like a starving man.
And she’d said no. That woman in her vision wasn’t the woman
who took Manhattan. She was too old to run around having wild nights with
cowboys. By the time her mother was her age she’d had two kids and been married
for a long time. To a dick, but married.
She’d told herself that no came from a place of
logic and reason. She was leaving, so it would be nothing more than a one-night
stand. They didn’t have a place in her life, and it was so obvious they were
looking for something more. They needed. She’d felt it, and it called to her
and… Damn it. She’d said no because she felt something for them and it scared
her.
Max growled. “Little fuckers called me old.”
“They called you vintage,” Rye corrected.
“They asked me if I remember when JR was shot.” Max’s jaw
tightened. “I wasn’t born then. I don’t even think our momma was born then.”
So the Kent brothers were having fun with hers. She wondered
if they knew she was their sister. Likely not. They probably thought she was a
tourist having fun for the night. Or a relative visiting, which she had been.
That feeling she got from them had probably been nothing more than her own
projection. She read way too many romance novels. “Mom was born, but she would
have been a baby. So the Kent brothers are back in town? I know they were here
for the holidays, but I assumed they would go back to whatever ranch they were
working. I think the older one mentioned they were between jobs and would be
working again after the new year.”
“They decided to hang around,” Max said with a frown. “Stef
talked to Jamie and McNamara, and now they are living and working on the G.”
They were here? Not here here. But
here in town. Not in town since the Circle G was absolutely outside of town,
but here.
Her brain was threatening to fritz. Lack of sleep. That was
it. It wasn’t her libido turning on and thinking about how well those cowboys
could handle her.
“Are you talking about Shane and Bay?” Stella stood at the
end of the booth. She was dressed in blinged-out jeans, a Western shirt, and