Chapter One #3
She looked down at her watch. “Hey, you could be the answer to my prayers. How
long are you here?”
Forever. A few days. It could be anything. “At least a
couple of weeks. I’m kind of on a sabbatical.”
If by sabbatical she meant fired and blackballed across the
industry…
“I’ve got a rehearsal in a couple of minutes, but I would
love to talk to you about something. Any chance you could have a drink with me?
The cast is celebrating a birthday tonight at Hell on Wheels. We would love to
see you.”
What else was she doing? Brooding. She could do that any
time. Railing at fate. Also something she could put off in favor of drinking
too much and making some truly bad decisions. If she’d said Trio, it might have
been an easy no. Zane Hollister ran Trio, and despite the fact that he hadn’t
been around when she was a child, he kind of acted like an overprotective
uncle. Sawyer Hathaway, who owned and ran Hell on Wheels, had been
around for her childhood. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her, but he also wouldn’t
call her brothers if she ended up crying in the bathroom.
“Yeah, that sounds great. I would love to meet the cast.
It’s been a long time since I got to enjoy a season,” she said.
Cleo smiled brightly, an air of odd relief about her.
“Excellent. Drinks are totally on me. We’re going to meet around nine. Come
with an open mind. It’s good to see you.”
And she was gone.
Why did she need an open mind?
It was a mystery and one she could solve.
She washed her hands and took a long breath. Smile.
Everything was fine.
* * * *
Shane sat back and tried not to give away the fact
that his whole body had gone on full alert the minute that girl walked into the
café hauling that big old suitcase behind her.
Really big suitcase. The last time she’d been in town she’d
used a carry-on.
It was creepy stalker shit that he knew that, but he
couldn’t help it. He’d been looking for any excuse to get close to her, and he
had been prepared to carry whatever luggage she had.
Thanks so much. That’s so sweet of you, but I’m leaving
for home in a couple of days. I need to spend as much time with my family as
possible.
And yet he’d caught her watching them. Even after she’d
turned them down at the Christmas party. When she’d danced with him, he hadn’t
felt like she was trying to stay away from him. Her body had brushed against
his, and they’d had a magical moment when she looked up and her mouth had
opened slightly and he’d almost kissed her.
Brooke Harper didn’t look toward the back of the café. Her
whole attention was on her brothers, who sat on the other side.
“What exactly are we going to do until they finish up?” Bay
had his back to the door. “I can’t drink anymore coffee, and if I stuff another
piece of pie in, Trev is going to make a joke about me being tubby. You know
not all of us have ex-NFL quarterback metabolisms.”
Trev McNamara was actually the best boss they’d ever had.
Well, he and his partner were. The Circle G was run by Trev McNamara and James
Glen. Trev had bought into the ranch years back after his NFL career had ended
in scandal and he’d moved from Texas to Colorado, bringing along his wife,
Beth, and partner, Bo O’Malley. Bo preferred working the ranch to dealing with
the business side of things. Bo was great, but Shane wouldn’t call him a boss.
When the Harper brothers had walked in and taken a place
near the big windows, he’d known he would try to wait them out. Or at least
sneak by without Max Harper starting something. Bay couldn’t help but take the
bait every single time. Now he had a different reason. Now he wanted to sit
here and watch her.
She was smiling, but it wasn’t her goddess of the world
smile. There was a tightness to her whole body that gave her away. He’d made a
careful study of the woman who would fit so perfectly between him and his
brother. He was starting to think she might be the only woman in the world for
them.
And wasn’t it the story of his life that she didn’t want to
want them.
The chemistry was there. She was curious. She watched them
both but she was…scared? Disappointed in her own needs? Disgusted that she was
attracted to a couple of lowly cowboys? One he could fix. The second he could
possibly turn around.
He was deeply worried it was the third, and he couldn’t make
himself more respectable.
Bay, he could talk up. Bay was a real artist. He was quirky.
Bay was Stef Talbot’s student.
Shane was just his bastard brother.
“I know you think it’s a funny rivalry, but the Harper
brothers are cornerstones of this town.” His brother rarely thought about
anything but his art. He was brilliantly talented but could be short sighted
when it came to…well, anything else. “If we irritate him and he wants us gone,
he can do it.”
Bay sat back with a long sigh. “Somehow I think Stef would
have something to say about it. He’s happy with the work I’ve been doing. He’s
planning a whole… What did he call it?”
“Showing.” Sometimes Shane was sure he listened to Talbot
more than his brother did. Sometimes he was sure he knew more about the damn
art world than the actual artist. “He and Jennifer are going to do a showing at
the end of the summer, and they’re inviting a bunch of people they know who
have influence in that world. He thinks you’ll be able to make some serious
sales.”
Bay nodded. “See. There’s no way he’s going to pick Max over
his star pupil.”
Short sighted. “Max, who he views as his brother. Max, who’s
the godfather to his son. That Max?”
Stef Talbot didn’t have any blood siblings, but he
considered the friend group he’d grown up with to be his family. Max and Rye
Harper and Callie Hollister-Wright were his siblings, and he would never turn
his back on them. Rachel Harper was Jennifer’s best friend. The billionaire did
not need to make money off of them. It was pure kindness that he was doing all
this work for Bay.
Bay sighed. “Fine, but I don’t think you understand. I know
he seems like we annoy him, but Max enjoys being annoyed. He’s one of those
guys. He likes the banter. Especially now that he’s married with all those
kids. It reminds him of when he was young and could fuck around with people.”
Shane worried the “banter” reminded Max that they were
assholes who’d hit on his wife before they got married.
And now he wanted to hit on the guy’s sister again.
She laughed at something her brothers said but he still
didn’t buy it.
None of her socials had mentioned she was coming to Bliss.
In fact, she’d talked about spending the whole summer in Manhattan working on
what she called her fall line.
So why was she here?
“They’re awful. I don’t understand how we’re supposed to
deal with half-done costumes? Are they going to be ready? We’ve only got six
weeks before we open,” one of the women was saying in the booth in front of
them. There were four people, and they’d been here even longer than he and Bay.
Three women and one man, and they were obviously in some kind of crisis.
But he had a crisis of his own.
She was here, and it might be their last shot.
Were they even ready to make a go of it with any woman? Much
less the one he was pretty sure was the right one? What the hell did they have
to offer her? It wasn’t like they owned much of anything.
Bay held up his hands, obviously giving up the argument.
“Fine. But when I’m polite to the man, you’ll see what I mean. We have a
relationship, Max and I, and this will tilt that fucker, and you might not like
where we land.” He took a long breath. “I don’t think we should be held hostage
here so my presence doesn’t offend the prince of Bliss County. Besides, don’t
you think our waitress is going to get antsy? We are literally taking up a
table she could be earning another tip from. Especially since you’re a miserly
bastard.”
He wasn’t. They didn’t have a lot of money, but he tipped.
He simply didn’t throw down wads of cash the way Stef did. He tried. The whole
money thing was in his lap, like most of their existence.
“Shane, I’m sorry.” Bay frowned, his eyes softening. “I
shouldn’t have used that word.”
He had to think about it for a second, and then he waved his
brother off. “It’s fine. I am what I am. It doesn’t bother me. Also, you didn’t
mean it that way. You know your mother was surprisingly old fashioned for a
woman of her age.”
He’d been called it all by his stepmom’s family. Bastard. By
blow—he still wasn’t sure what that meant. Illegitimate. Base born.
That was Shane Kent. First of his name. Ruiner of Marriages.
Mistakenly Born.
Someone should have worn a condom.
“My mom was a mean woman who couldn’t find it in her heart
to be kind to a kid who had nothing to do with the circumstances of his birth,”
Bay corrected.
“No, but my momma could have handled it better.”
His mother had gotten sick of waiting for her married lover
to leave his wife and marry her.
“I’m sorry all the same. I’ll be nice to Max, but we have to
think about the fact that we’ll be late if we don’t leave soon,” Bay pointed
out. “Some of those supplies we picked up are for the work this afternoon. Bo
is planning on mowing the back field, and we need to get those parts in or he’s
going to have a hard time with it.”
He’d thought he might be able to get through this without
telling Bay who was sitting in a booth across the café, but they were tight on
time. He glanced over and she wasn’t there. Her big suitcase was by the table,
and it looked like Max and Rye were in serious conversation, though Max also
had a now-awake kid trying to stuff his fist in his father’s mouth.
Damn, but he wanted that life.
He shoved the thought aside. The key takeaway was that
Brooke was gone and they could sneak out and walk right by. Easy peasy. They didn’t have to engage. She likely wasn’t
staying for long and would be back to her high-powered job in New York,
surrounded by men with affluence and money who came from good families.