Chapter 2
Just Friends – First Time Flyers
Tally
Iwatched him go from the window, peeking through the shutters staring at his silhouette, long and lean against the pale light of the moon. An ethereal silver glow highlighting Wilder’s outline against the inky darkness of the night. Almost portrait-like.
He moved like he always did, easy and confident, like the world belonged to him and he was being more than generous letting us share it with him. Not before he did what he always did, and that was stand there longer than he’d ever admit, watching, just to make sure I was still safely inside.
“Stupid enticing man,” I muttered, unable to drag myself away.
I saw him shove his hands into his pockets as he avoided the security lights. Following the same path, he did every night that he slipped from my bed.
The navy blue sky above was readying to dim for dawn, the vastness of it making me feel small. A tiny spec of insignificance. This was my favorite time, the quiet before the chaos of the day. The stillness of the sapphire ocean above was calming.
I’d called it that once, a throwaway line, and now Wilder referred to it in the same way. For some reason that felt good, like something I’d said mattered.
Yet, why I cared I had no idea. We’d made it clear from the beginning. It wasn’t romance. It wasn’t forever. It was tension and timing and taking what we needed when we needed it.
“It’s just fucking sex, Tally,” I muttered to myself, padding back to my bed. The bed that was still warm from him, that still smelled of his spicy cologne. The bed where he took me to places that I’d never dreamed my body needed to be.
The sex was hard at times, it could be fire-y, his mouth was filthy, and we liked to experiment with different things. But it was never sweet and romantic. Never soft and slow. It was exactly what we needed, just like the first time.
I remember I’d had a bad day. The ranch had been chaotic. Some piece of machinery had packed up, again, so Gunner had to go play mechanic, swearing under his breath that it wasn’t his job.
Dream Maker refused every cue I gave him. Like the months of training we’d put in didn’t matter. Like he didn’t remember who I was or why we were doing this together.
One of the new stable hands dumped a bale of wet, moldy hay into a stall instead of the compost and I had to sort it. Again.
And when Gunner came back, already in a mood, he snapped at me for going over budget on a new training saddle. Like it was going to bankrupt the entire ranch.
He apologized later and bought me a ridiculously large strawberry meringue cake from town.
Even so, by the time I made it back to my cabin, my head was pounding, and my patience was paper-thin.
Then Wilder knocked on the door with a casserole from Lily, I asked him why he looked so miserable and that was it.
We hadn’t even made it to the bed that first time.
He railed me against the wall, his mouth all heat and hard, his voice low with a deep rasp like he smoked a hundred cigarettes a day.
Everything about him was pure and raw and what I needed to salve my soul to go with the hot bath that had eased my muscles.
He was good. I’d give him that. The best I’d ever had in fact.
Not that I’d had lots, but enough to know Wilder Miller was extremely talented with his tongue and his dick.
But he scratched an itch. That was all, because relationships were not in my future.
Tried that, was treated like horse shit, and didn’t like it.
My own fault for believing the golden tones and lies of a man who called sex ‘naughties’.
Pulling the covers around my chin, I wriggled around to get the warmth back into my body.
I’d pulled an old band t-shirt on, but that sleepy coziness had gone.
It was too early to get up, I had another three hours before I needed to get myself ready for work and if I didn’t use that time to sleep I’d feel like shit all day.
Trying to relax my body didn’t bring that heaviness to my eyes that I needed.
Thank God my phone was charging across the room, otherwise I’d reach for it and then get lost in the maze of videos of horse training and bare-chested cowboys doing synchronized gym exercises—shoot me, it was my new obsession, and I knew watching them I’d never fall back to sleep.
Instead, I reached for the book on my nightstand.
It was a romance, at least it was supposed to be.
I’d gotten it from the library, recommended by Dolres the librarian.
It was a bit dry, literally, because there was no sex in it.
After this one I wouldn’t be taking her recommendations again, a girl needed something to keep her occupied when a certain rancher wasn’t around.
After just two pages my eyes started to feel heavy, and I willed myself to sleep, because no matter how much I told myself it didn’t matter that he never stayed a part of me still listened for the sound of the door opening.
“Morning, Tally. Coffee on?”
Gunner grinned at me and headed straight for the coffee jug. It was the first thing he did every morning, and I’d learned to make it strong after my first disastrous attempt when he almost spat it over his desk.
“How was your weekend?” I asked him, checking my schedule for the day.
“Good.” He strolled to his desk with that Miller swagger, the same as his brother’s, both his brothers’. “In fact, I have news.”
His smile was beaming, childlike even. “Good news I’m guessing.”
“The fucking best.” A little blush came to his cheeks. “Actually, there are two pieces.”
“Good and bad or just good?” Rolling my chair closer to his desk, I prepared myself.
I rarely only got good news, it was the way of life, my life at least. What was given with one hand was often taken with the other.
Take my brothers for example, Cole was a funny, happy soul, whereas Liam, my eldest brother, was grumpy and antisocial, had been from a baby apparently, which only got worse when he was seventeen.
Mom and Dad tried to rectify it pretty quickly as there was only ten months between them.
Irish twins apparently. They waited another five years to create perfection, though, i.e. me.
“Both are good news,” Gunner told me, his eyes wrinkling at the corners. He was practically bouncing in his seat, desperate to tell me.
“Go for it.” I gave him a nod, putting him out of his misery.
“Firstly, we finally have a stallion.”
“We do?” That was the best news. Gunner had been wanting to ramp up the breeding part of his business for the last few months, since the new stables had been finished.
He’d been struggling, though, to find the right stallion to start the Miller bloodline with Songbird, our brood mare.
She already had a foal, Gypsy, who was coming up to a year old and was the most beautiful soul.
Songbird’s own pedigree was incredible, but Gunner had wanted her to have one foal that she could keep, so had bred her with another stud.
It was before I worked here, but I’d seen a picture of the handsome American Paint Horse who’d been a champion barrel racer.
Now he wanted her to breed racehorses and finding the right stallion was the first step.
“We do,” he confirmed. “He’s a thoroughbred with the traits that we want to establish, he’s already produced a Belmont Stakes winner, and his mother was a Kentucky Derby winner. He’s fucking beautiful, Tally. Black as night, a good balanced structure, calm and you should see him run.”
“Where did you find him?” My heart was racing at the possibilities ahead, that I might get to put into practice everything I’d learned over the last six years in Kentucky.
“Jack Parnell. He’s got a breeding stable just outside of San Antonio.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “Did you take Cassidy for a romantic break to look at horses?”
“No, I did not!” He looked affronted as they’d just spent a long weekend at a beach hotel in Corpus Christi. “Jack called me to say he thought he had what I wanted, and it was Cassidy who insisted we hire a car and go see him before we left for home.”
Rolling my eyes I scoffed. “Okay boss, I believe you. So, what’s the second piece of good news?”
“Now this,” he said, wagging a finger at me, “is the best news, a doozy piece of good news.”
Chuckling, I shook my head, entertained by my boss's good mood. To be fair he was a great boss and him being salty with me over the training saddle was a one off.
“Tell me,” I replied. “I’m all ears.”
“Cassidy and I got engaged.” He stamped his feet like an excited toddler and the expression of joy on his face was adorable.
“I had dinner set up on a private beach, with a little treasure hunt that led her to the most beautiful, got to say, huge, emerald ring. And then we went for a midnight horse ride along the beach, and I won’t tell you how that ended. I did good, didn’t I?”
Beaming, I jumped up and rushed to his side to hug him, but I caught the way his hand twitched at his side like he wanted to reach for me first and just didn’t know if he should.
So, I leaned in, just enough to make sure he’d feel the weight of me there, even after I let go.
“That’s fantastic news, for you and Cassidy.
” I leaned back to study him. “I’m guessing she loved it. ”
He scoffed and threw his hands in the air. “What do you think?”
There was that Miller confidence that I’d grown to love.
“I’m so happy for you. I need to see that ring, though.”
“She’s coming over here soon, we have camp stuff to discuss. You can see it then.” There was that glassy eyed look he got when talking about his two of his favorite things: Cassidy and the kid’s camp they were building.
“How’s it going with the camp planning?” I rolled my chair back to my desk.
“The carpenter is back next week to finish the interior of the bunk house and the classrooms, then all the furniture and supplies will be delivered. We got the final permits through, so soon we’ll be ready for the trial run.”
“Bertie’s class, right?”
“Yep, Bertie’s class and she’s already appointed herself as ranch foreman for them.”
As we laughed at the idea of Bertie ruling the roost, the door swung open drawing our attention.
My traitorous heart skipped two beats as Wilder walked in.
There was no denying they were brothers.
Despite the subtle differences the resemblance between them was strong.
All three hit at least six-three, although Nash was the tallest and more muscular.
He’d been a footballer once upon a time, or so I’d heard.
Gunner had the darkest hair of the three of them and wore it a little longer than Nash’s.
Then there was Wilder, his eyes were darker, his lashes longer, there were natural streaks of gold in his hair and his ass was the best by far.
“Hey,” he said, glancing at me before grinning at his brother. “I just saw Cassidy, congratulations.” He pulled Gunner up from his chair and into a full embrace, patting his brother’s back with both of his big, strong hands. “We seriously need to get those houses built, brother.”
After a few seconds of fierce, manly hugs, they let each other go and Gunner dropped back into his chair, picking up his mug of coffee.
“You set a date yet?” Wilder asked, his eyes drifting to mine.
I tried to concentrate on my screen, desperately ignoring the cowboy leaning against the desk of our administrator, Ruth. His smell was drifting my way, spice and leather, distracting me and forcing me to push my thighs together.
“Maybe next summer,” Gunner replied. “We want to get the house built first so I can carry her over the threshold.”
“You sad sap.” Wilder appeared in my periphery, his damn bulge right in my eyeline. “Aside from wanting to congratulate you, I have news for you.”
“Wow, it’s the day for news, isn’t that right, Tally?”
Clearing my throat, I risked looking over at them. “Yep, seems like it.”
“We found a stallion to start the breeding,” Gunner explained.
“Really? That’s great, bro. Things are all coming together.”
“Sure are. Now what’s your news?”
Wilder pulled his hat from his head and scrubbed a hand through his hair before putting it back on. When he turned, I saw his leather gloves hanging from the back pocket of his jeans and I wondered if the bare-chested cowboys of TikTok needed another member.
“You know that Henry’s farm rental contract was up for renewal?”
“Yep, I do.” Gunner leaned back in his chair and kicked his feet up onto his desk.
“Well, he doesn’t want to renew. He just called Nash.”
“Interesting.” Gunner nodded, steepling his fingers under his chin. “So, what’s the plan?”
“Well, Nash and I were talking and thought that maybe we should take it back as part of the ranch. What do you think?” Wilder looked over at me and flicked his tongue against his top lip. “It’ll mean more work, more ranch hands.”
“How much more land is it?” I asked, curious. “If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Not at all, Tally, it’s a good question.”
The bastard winked at me and let his eyes move slowly up and down my body. I saw it because I knew every single one of his tells, how his nostrils flared when he was looking at me. How he touched his belt buckle when he was getting hard.
“It’s around five hundred acres,” Gunner told me. “Davis Quinton rents another four hundred from us.”
“Which means that’s nine hundred we could add to our nine,” Wilder added.
“But Davis—”
“Is at this minute on the phone to Nash. Henry told Nash that Davis has decided that he’s had enough, too. He wants to retire and move to Canada to be near his daughter, so Nash called him.”
“You think you and Nash can manage an extra nine hundred acres?” Gunner shrugged. “I mean I know you can, but do both of you?”
I saw the smile on Wilder’s lips before I think he even realized he had one. It started with a twinkle in his eyes and then a little flicker at the corner of his mouth.
“Too fucking right. It would mean we could move a lot of the cattle away from this side of the land, away from the development side. It’s just a pity we didn’t know before you built the stables and the camp buildings, we could have put them there.”
“Ah it’s one of those things.” Gunner dropped his feet to the floor. “I think we should do it. Maybe you could build your house there, too. It’d give you more room.”
My eyes went wide. I had no idea he was building a house. I knew Cassidy and Gunner were, but Wilder had never said anything about his own home.
When he averted his gaze from me, I knew that I shouldn’t have expected to know. We were only sex after all, and I was more than fine with that. So why the hell did it sting so much?