Chapter 2
HUNTER
My brother was as predictable as the sunrise. He was always the first one on the ranch, and it had been that way since we were teenagers.
Colt would be up and out before I’d even untangled a single limb from my sheets, and I used to think he’d never change.
But then he had Ruby and then Blaire came back to town, and love had made a stranger of him.
And today, I beat him to it.
The air was already thick with the morning heat, and the world was washed in a golden light that spread over the pasture. I stood in the middle of our land with sweat clinging to my brow and waited for the weight in my chest to loosen up enough to let me breathe easier.
I didn’t know what the hell was wrong with me, but for some damn reason, I couldn’t get out of my own damn head. No matter what I did, I couldn’t outrun it. I couldn’t outrun her.
Hell, maybe I didn’t really want to.
I tried to lose her in the rhythm of the morning as I fed the horses then climbed beneath one of the tractors to see what kind of damage one of the hands had done to it yesterday.
I did every bit of work I could think of until my shirt became wet with sweat and my aches ached, but none of it made a difference.
Maggie Dawson had worked her way into my bones, and it was only getting worse.
I kept myself busy, hoping if I just moved fast enough maybe I wouldn’t feel her at the edge of every single thought, but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to shake her loose.
I saw the green of her eyes every time I looked out over the green hills, and the ache in my chest only worsened. It was like the land itself was set on reminding me of what I couldn’t have.
I wiped the sweat from my brow and rested my weight against one of the stables just as McCoy walked in with a coffee cup gripped in each hand.
The horses stirred at his arrival, and I glanced over at the ornery mare we’d taken in a few weeks ago.
She flicked her tail back and forth when she caught sight of him, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
The only thing Reid McCoy had more luck with than women was horses.
“Mornin’,” he said before he extended one of the coffee cups toward me. “You’re up early.”
I nodded before taking a sip of the coffee that was as black as my mood. Just the way I liked it. “Couldn’t sleep.”
McCoy grinned like he knew exactly why I’d been up before the sunrise, but he just leaned against the stable door across from me and dropped one of his hands into the stall as if he were uninterested.
“Rough night?” he asked, and that damn mare hesitantly moved toward him, nostrils flaring as she sought out his touch.
He gave her the laziest smile, coaxing her forward until he could run his hand down her neck. I envied how effortless it was for him. Everything just kind of bent itself toward him, four legs or two.
I shrugged, feeling sweat trail down my spine. “Didn’t exactly sleep like a baby.”
He scoffed before he looked up from the horse. “That’s because you need to get laid. Desperately.”
A bitter laugh ripped out of me. “Who’s to say I haven’t gotten laid lately?”
“I live with you, asshole.” McCoy turned his attention back to the mare. “You’ve been wound up so tight I’m surprised you haven’t bitten anyone’s head off yet. You just keep staring at Ma—”
“I’m not my brother,” I cut him off, and rolled my shoulders back against the stable post.
“What about your brother?” Colt’s voice called out from across the barn just before I heard the familiar thud of his boots closing the distance between us.
He walked up to us, surveying the scene, and the corner of his mouth twitched as he looked back and forth between us.
“Oh nothing,” McCoy said. “Just letting your brother know he’s underestimating the healing powers of a good fuck.” He winked at me over the rim of his coffee cup.
Colt shook his head even as he laughed. “I mean, you’re not wrong, but I think it has a lot more to do with who you’re fucking.”
McCoy and I both groaned, but it was good-natured.
“Here we go,” I said dramatically, and Colt’s gaze cut to me.
“Not all of us have been in love with the same girl since we learned how to walk, Colt.” McCoy rolled his eyes at him. “I like to have a little variety.”
“You’re so full of shit, McCoy.” Colt shook his head. “I can’t wait to watch some woman come along and knock you straight on your ass.”
“What about him?” McCoy pointed in my direction.
“Him?” Colt’s gaze slid to me, and he jerked his chin in my direction with so much pity written on his face. “Hell, I think we’re witnessing it right now. When’s the last time you saw our boy this bad?”
Colt crossed his arms and cocked his head as he looked me over.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, but neither of them was paying me any attention.
“Shit. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this strung out over a woman.” McCoy grinned as he continued rubbing his hand over the mare. “Especially not when they’re both pretending we all can’t see the way they look at one another.”
“Funny.” I took another long sip of my coffee and avoided looking at either of them.
Colt and McCoy were relentless, but I’d learned how to hide shit from them a long time ago.
So, I snorted, real casual, and lifted my boot onto the wall behind me.
“I’m not strung out over anyone. You two have lost your damn minds. ”
Neither of them bought it for a second.
“Yeah, right,” McCoy said with his slow drawl full of mischief. “That’s why you were up before sunrise and look like you haven’t slept in days.”
Colt clapped me on the shoulder, squeezing so hard it almost made me spill my coffee. “Listen, you don’t have to lie to us. We’re your brothers. We’ve seen you through worse, and frankly, through better.”
McCoy laughed, and I wished I had just stayed in bed this morning. “Seriously. Every time Maggie walks in a room, you look like you’re either about to bolt or—”
“McCoy,” I cut him off, and even I could hear the threat in my voice.
They just laughed.
“Or throw her up against the wall and fuck her where we all can watch,” Colt offered casually as he shrugged his shoulders. “Honestly, it would probably do you both some good to get it out of your systems.”
“That’s not going to happen.” I clenched my jaw so hard I could feel the ache, but it grounded me. I didn’t want to think about Maggie. “She’s not my type.”
McCoy’s eyebrows nearly hit his hairline.
“Not your type?” He barked out a laugh, exchanging a look with Colt.
“Every man from here to the county line trips over his own boots when she walks by. If she gave them even a moment of attention, they’d follow her straight off a damn cliff if she asked them to. ”
I shrugged one shoulder even though everything he said was pissing me the hell off.
“They can have it. You do remember that I dated her sister, right?” The words tasted bitter on my tongue, but it was easier to act like none of this mattered than to obsess over how badly I wanted her when I knew that wasn’t fair to her.
My brothers thought they had me figured out, but they didn’t know the half of it. If they were to see the way Maggie had carved herself into everything I did, they’d do more than just rib me. They’d worry, and that was the last thing I needed.
She was already taking over my every damn thought like a fever I couldn’t sweat out.
Some nights I’d wake up with her name caught between my lips, my sheets tangled around my legs, and I wouldn’t even try to shake her loose.
I’d just lie there, thinking about her until dawn broke, hating myself more with every heartbeat.
And fuck, it only made everything worse.
I’d never thought about Ella like that.
Not once. Not even when she cheated on me and left Willow Grove to return to Alabama.
My knuckles were split from where I’d put my fist through the barn wall and my throat was raw from the whiskey I’d used to burn away her name, but fuck, even then, even when she’d betrayed me, my chest had tightened with panic at the thought of Maggie following her sister home.
The girl I’d been dating for over a year had destroyed everything we were building together, and there I was, worried about the wrong Dawson sister.
If Maggie had been any other woman, if she hadn’t been connected to that past, I might’ve let myself want her outright the way I was already burning for her. But she was Ella’s sister, and fuck, every time I let myself forget it, the truth would slam into me like a physical blow.
I didn’t want to be the kind of man who could make her wonder if she was just a replacement, a second-best version of someone I couldn’t have anymore.
The thought of Maggie believing, even for a second, that I was settling for her after Ella left made my stomach turn. I couldn’t imagine her wondering if every touch, every whispered word, was really meant for someone else.
So I’d catch myself halfway to her, my body already leaning in, my fingers already reaching, then pull back so hard my body ached with the strain of it.
“Then you don’t have a problem with me asking her out?” McCoy’s eyes narrowed as he crossed his arms.
My head snapped up. “What?” The word came out like gravel, and the muscles in my jaw tightened so hard I thought my teeth might crack.
McCoy crossed his arms, his expression maddeningly calm. “I haven’t asked out of respect for you,” he said, gesturing lazily in my direction. “But if she’s fair game…”
“Of course.” My pulse pounded in my ears. “I’m not sure she’ll be interested, but don’t hold back on my account.”
His lips twitched, the bastard, and I suddenly wanted to slam my fist right into his mouth. “Good to know.”
“Well, you can ask her tonight,” Colt said with a smirk as he reached for a sugar cube and extended his palm to the nearest horse. “Mom and Dad offered to watch Ruby, so we’re hitting The Dusty Spur tonight.”
I snorted, but there was already a flicker of anticipation building in my chest.
“Oh, hell yeah.” McCoy rubbed his hands together. “We haven’t all been out in forever.”
Colt looked over at me, and there was none of the teasing left in his gaze. “Blaire told me to let you know that you better be nice to Maggie tonight.”
“What the hell?” I looked back and forth between them. “I’m always nice to Mags.”
“I’m just telling you what Blaire said.” Colt held up his hands. “She gave me strict instructions that you better be on your best behavior because, and I quote, Maggie really needs a night out.”
What the hell was that supposed to mean? What happened to Maggie that she needed a night out? “I’ll be a perfect gentleman.”
Colt gave me a look that he sometimes gave Ruby, and I tensed. “Just—don’t do the thing.”
“What thing?”
Colt fixed me with a look that only an older brother could deliver. “You know what thing. You act like you don’t care then spend the rest of the night brooding and staring at her like a lovesick asshole.”
I opened my mouth to tell him I didn’t do that, but he held his hands up in surrender before I could.
“I’m not saying you have feelings for her, since you very clearly don’t.
” He rolled his eyes dramatically, and McCoy almost spit out his coffee.
“All I’m saying is that it’s something you’ve been doing lately. ”
“You have,” McCoy chimed in, and I pushed off the wall.
“You know what?” I asked as I started walking out of the barn. “Fuck you both.”
The sound of their laughter chased me out, but I didn’t care. At least, I was trying to convince myself and them that I didn’t.
But I was a shit liar, and they both knew it.
But the idea of seeing Mags tonight, sitting across from her with nothing but a few feet of old pine table between us, made my chest constrict like a vise was tightening around my ribs. I could already imagine exactly how she’d smell, how she’d look, and I knew I was going to be fucked.
I’d done my damnedest to keep my distance since Ella left, especially after that night at the lake when we’d stripped down to nothing and almost let the water carry us somewhere we couldn’t come back from.
Then Ella’s name lit up her phone, and the look on Maggie’s face was something I would never forget.
Her smile had crumbled, and she’d scrambled for her clothes like she couldn’t get away from me fast enough. For weeks after, she couldn’t meet my eyes.
But every time she showed up now, I’d find her looking at me for a beat too long before she’d look away, and it was like the universe was seeing just how many cracks it could put in my resolve before I broke.
“We’re meeting at the Spur at eight,” Colt called after me, and I nodded without turning around.
I had until eight o’clock to get my shit together, but deep down, I already knew I was fucked.