Chapter 11
ELEVEN
MADDOX
Something’s wrong with Austin. She’s not being her usual playful, bratty self.
Sure, we’d ended the other night on the wrong foot, but tonight she seems closed-off and she won’t meet my eyes.
I’ve pissed her off before. I know what the cold shoulder from Austin Taylor looks like, and this is more than that.
“What’s wrong with your friend?” I ask when I slide up next to Kendall at the kitchen counter to fill my dinner plate.
Kenny just shrugs, knocking the serving spoon on the edge of her plate to get the mashed potatoes to dislodge from it. “She doesn’t like talking about it when she’s down. Eventually, maybe, but not right away.”
I stare at my sister, waiting for her to elaborate. She doesn’t seem to plan on it. “I thought you were her best friend.”
“Yup. Doesn't mean she wants to talk about it with me. I figure you of all people should understand that, old grumpy ass.” She gets frustrated with the potatoes and moves on to the macaroni, leaving me behind to fight the same battle. “Why’s it matter to you anyway?”
I use the fight with the potato spoon to delay my answer since I have no fucking clue what to even tell her. Why does it matter to me? Why should I care? She’s just my kid sister’s best friend.
“You know Mama gets worried easily. I figure she’ll ask later, so I thought I’d go ahead and find out what I need to tell her when she does.” I’ve never been good at thinking on my feet. If Mama had a concern about Austin, she’d go to Kenny, not me.
Now I sound like one of the old ladies that spends an hour after service gossiping about everyone in town on the front lawn despite nodding along with the pastor when he told everyone not to judge others.
Kenny doesn’t call me on it though. “Well, word of advice: Austin lashes out like a cornered animal when she feels vulnerable so I wouldn’t ask her what’s wrong.”
She walks off to join the table and Jameson nudges me out of the way so the food line can continue.
Lashing out because she felt vulnerable sounds a lot like what might’ve happened on Friday.
One second, she’d been obnoxiously flirty—even asking me to take her home—then the next, she’d been tossing out my siblings’ names like daggers.
Sheriff rubs against my legs with a gruff meow, pulling me back to the present.
A house full of people, but I’m the prime target of his faux affection somehow.
I reach over and tug a small piece of chicken off my plate, tossing it to the floor.
He immediately abandons me for it. “Don’t say I never gave you anything. ”
It’s Sunday night, which means the Big House is full with all the strays Mama’s added to the family.
We’ve had to pull up extra, mismatched chairs to the dining table and will spend the evening knocking elbows with the people on either side of us because of it, but it’s better than risking Mama’s wrath.
Sunday dinners were non-negotiable for everyone except Colt.
Theo cuts Callie’s broccoli up into ‘even mini-er trees,’ as the little girl put it, while she sits in Kendall’s lap. On Kenny’s other side, Austin is messing around on her phone under the table so Mama doesn’t see.
I sit down next to Tyler, but his attention is where it always is. Jamie takes the seat across from me and next to Tate, immediately picking back up on the conversation we’d been having earlier this afternoon.
“So did you want to go with me to pick up the new horses in Nevada, or what? I plan on stopping by California on the way to see Colt ride.” Apparently, my earlier non-answer wasn’t enough.
“Not especially,” I say, keeping my voice down for Mama’s sake.
“I wanna go,” Tate immediately says, excited eyes turned on Jameson.
My brother’s eyes flick to hers and then back to mine, asking without asking if I can afford to lose three sets of hands on the ranch, since we both know exactly what will happen if he says she can go.
I nod anyway, spearing a piece of broccoli with my fork.
My sister smiles widely, taking my nod as her permission since she’s completely blind to the effect she has on Tyler and wouldn’t have caught on to Jamie’s question even if he asked it aloud.
I feel Tyler’s eyes on me, but I don’t give him my attention.
He clears his throat, but I still don’t take the bait.
February is one of the busiest times of the year with the calving season starting up.
Being without Jamie, Tate, and Tyler was going to make that weekend hell, so he can tuck his tail between his legs and ask out loud if he wants that time off work.
With a sigh, he finally swallows his pride and asks under his breath, “Can I go with them too?”
I pretend to think about it for a few minutes, because sometimes, it’s just good fun to give Tyler a hard time.
I don’t want him getting too comfortable.
We’ll never be friendly enough that I wouldn’t knock the shit out of him if he ended up hurting my sister somehow.
I’m Tate’s big brother first and foremost, Tyler’s boss second, and his friend third.
“Fine,” I agree. “But you’ll need to make sure there’s at least two other ranch hands that know how to run the skid steer in snow. And not any of the ones that just came in, either. Eric and Blake would be my preference.”
Tyler’s too busy grinning to even thank me. Jameson snorts.
Next to me, Bailey’s phone buzzes on the table and her fork clanks against the plate loudly when she drops it to flip her phone face down.
“Who’s blowing up your phone?” I ask, since she’s clearly hiding something. I wouldn’t have even tried to read the notification on the screen if she hadn’t made it so obvious she didn’t want me to see it.
“Noneya.”
“So then it’s Cartwright.”
“So then it’s Noneya Damn Business, Maddox,” she snarks back and Jameson whistles low, which catches Rainy’s attention. She runs to the back door, barking her head off because she’s convinced the sound came from outside. I don’t think I’ve ever met a dumber smart dog.
“Why’re you still mad at me?” I ask Bailey, using noise and everyone else’s distraction to my advantage. “You already forgave Colt, and he’s the one that was actually brawling. I heard you on FaceTime with him yesterday while you were in the office.”
My phone chimes with a notification, saving Bailey from having to answer since I freeze.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Austin still as well, pulling her hands out from under the table where she’d clearly been messing with her phone.
No one else seems to notice the tone, which is relieving since it’s specific to the cam girl app.
I flip my phone over on my thigh to read the notification.
RedRanger has canceled the live show scheduled for 9:00 PM.
My earlier concern comes back full-force and it must show on my face because when I look up at Austin, her eyes harden and her jaw sets.
Jameson finally gets Rainy to shut up and realize he’s tossed her a piece of chicken, using his leg to hold Sheriff back from grabbing it first. The cat meows unhappily when Rainy snatches it, but Jamie’s already tossing a smaller piece down for him, too.
“Mama, Maddie’s got his phone out during supper,” Bailey says in the sudden quiet.
“Maddox Clyde!” Mama squawks, getting ready to tear into me.
“I’ll remember that,” I grumble under my breath at my sister, standing for a second so I can stash my phone in my back pocket.
My eyes flick back over to Austin as I sit back down, ignoring Mama’s tirade in the background.
Austin bites back a tiny smirk, pushing her phone down between her thighs so she doesn’t get called out next.
I toss her a wink and pick up my fork, spearing some macaroni.
“…and you out of everyone ought to know better than to have it out at my table! I bet if I ask little Miss Callie Anne what my supper rule is, even she’d be able to tell me!”
Camping outside the bathroom to ambush a woman when she comes out is definitely in the top ten most creepy things a man can do, yet here I am. Austin’s been difficult to get alone tonight and I know she’s avoiding me. She groans when she opens the door and sees me, proving my point.
“Why’d you cancel your show?”
She huffs and makes for the stairs, but I catch her by the upper arm to stop her. My brows furrow when she stiffens, but I immediately let her go and take a step back. It’s not like Austin to freeze like that. She’d sooner turn around swinging that knife she always carries around.
“Missing me already, Rancher?” she coos. The sickly-sweet tone doesn’t sound as teasing as usual, though I’m surprised I even notice. I’ve never been able to pick up on cues like that, especially a woman’s.
Jameson was great at it. He used to try to explain how he knew when Bailey needed space when she was upset versus when she wanted to talk or how he parsed Tyler’s sarcasm from when he was being literal, but it was pointless.
I needed interactions to be a little more… blunt. Most nuances just went over my head. Despite a lifetime of that, I was noticing a small change in Austin’s tone, just like I was noticing a bunch of other oddities.
She was wearing her jacket indoors, even though it was nice and toasty right now, even upstairs.
She wasn’t crossing her arms under her breasts to bring my attention to them like she typically did when she flirted.
Her face looked different, too, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. Something with her makeup, I think, but I’d learned from my sisters that wasn’t something I should bring up.
Worst of all, her pretty, blue eyes were flat. Dead. Usually they shined with amusement when she gave me a hard time, but right now, it all seemed like an act.
“Quit flirting. What’s wrong?” The words come out gruffer than I want them to, like I’m demanding she tell me instead of asking her to, but I don’t like seeing her like this.
She obeyed me so prettily when she was Red.
Maybe if I used the right tone, commanded instead of asking, I could get her to just be blunt about it.
“Nothing’s wrong. How many times do I have to tell you to stop fawning over me like I’m one of your little sisters? You’ve seen my pussy,” she reminds me, and dammit if my dick doesn’t twitch because of it.
“Well-the-fuck-aware,” I tell her through gritted teeth. I keep trying to forget about it actually, but between her snarky comments and my reawakened sex drive, I haven’t been able to. “Not sure what seeing your pussy has to do with checking on you, though.”
Austin’s breath hitches just the slightest bit and if I hadn’t been paying such close attention to her, I wouldn’t have noticed.
“Did I do something wrong? Did I make you uncomfortable on the chat site? I didn’t know it was you, Tex, I swear. I wouldn’t have kept watching without you knowing it was me.”
Her eyes squeeze shut for a second like she’s pained by my words and I feel like I’ve made things even worse somehow. I reach for her again but drop my hand when I remember how she’d stiffened up earlier.
“I’m spending the night with Kenny tonight,” she finally says, voice low as she opens them again. “That’s why I cancelled the show.”
My eyes flick over her face, desperate to read her better, attempting to read her body language like Jameson had tried to teach me.
God, I’m so bad at this. I wish it were simple. I wish I could just have a productive conversation with someone without having to focus so hard on making sure I was interpreting every little bit of it the right way.
“Tex, what did I say last night that upset you?” I ask quietly, stepping closer. Kenny said Austin doesn’t like being vulnerable, but how did I make sure I wasn’t making her feel that way? How did I get her to understand how badly I wanted to fix whatever was wrong?
Austin’s eyes lock on mine, pretty and guarded. I know how they look after she’s had an orgasm, but I don’t know that I’ll ever see them without this constant leeriness she carries around with her.
“Did you tell anyone?” she finally asks just as quietly. It throws me off—both the sudden change in subject and the way she sounds. Insecure, uncertain. So unlike her usual boldness.
“No, Tex,” I swear. In fact, I was probably gonna end up taking this secret to my grave.
She bites her bottom lip and nods, tucking her red hair behind her ear when she looks down at her socked feet. She wraps her arms around herself and I swear she flinches, but Bailey rounds the corner of the staircase at the same time.
She stops short at the sight of us and only then do I realize how this looks—Austin and I alone in the hallway, barely any space between us, whispering low. I jolt away like a cow being branded.
“Smooth,” my sister remarks with a quirked brow.
“Wasn’t doing anything,” I mumble back to her like I’m a kid in high school that got caught with a girl in his room.
Austin uses the distraction to her advantage, slipping past me to head downstairs. Bailey passes by to go to her bedroom across the hall.
I sigh, rubbing a hand over my face and grumbling to a man I wished could still hear me. “Dad, what in the hell’s going on with me?”