Chapter 2
KADE
The Wildflower is rowdy—same as every Thursday.
Tables are dotted around the room, the hardwood worn and guaranteed to be sticky as laughter, music and the clang of pool balls breathe life into the place.
Lately, that noise has barely touched me.
Tonight, Wyatt, one of my older brothers, and I are out with a few of our ranch hands, ready to let loose after another long day.
This is a typical Thursday night for Wyatt and me.
We’re the only siblings that you can count on like clockwork to be out on a Thursday night.
We’ll huddle around the pool table, playing each other, with the loser buying the drinks.
Right now, I’m sitting on the edge of my stool, watching as Wyatt lines up his shot.
He’s flexing for the brunette buckle bunny who hasn’t been able to take her eyes off him since she walked in.
I love Wy, but I hate how women always orbit him like he’s got his own gravitational pull.
As if you’d do anything with them, Kade.
I’ve been in a self-imposed exile ever since Grayson and Avery rekindled.
Not because I want Avery for myself—that’s far from it.
She’s like a sister to me and always has been.
Sure, I’ve always been a romantic at heart, you can’t have parents like ours and not be one.
Unless you’re Wyatt. But this is something different, a yearning or a craving for something I haven’t been able to quite put my finger on. Until today.
Somewhere along the line, I realized that I’d never find my person if all I was doing was having meaningless hookups, and so I gave up on them, figuring I’d find her another way.
Then today I locked eyes with a woman as she argued with my brother, and I felt something.
A connection or a spark of something that wasn’t just about sex.
It was like my soul met a kindred spirit, and as I stood there watching her drive away, a pain I’ve never felt before seized my chest.
Grabbing the chalk, I dust it over the end of my stick and huff, “Hurry up, Wy. We haven’t got all night.
” My frustration is clear to my own ears.
I’m annoyed that I let her get away, that I didn’t step in before Wyatt scared her off, and now I’ve lost her.
Possibly forever, because there’s no way in hell that I’m going to the Harts ranch and demanding they tell me where she’s staying. I’m not a stalker.
Wyatt pulls back his cue and pots three balls before straightening and turning to face me with a cocky grin on his face. “I can beat your ass quicker if you like, or we can call it a win for me, and you can get to buying the next round.”
I roll my eyes, standing and shoving his shoulder with mine as I pass to line up my shot. He can be such an ass sometimes. Yes, I’m distracted, and normally I’d be the one beating him because he’s too caught up in whoever he’s going to end up going home with, but he doesn’t need to gloat about it.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I pull it out, reading over the message from Dax Beckett, the rodeo promoter for Wild Ride Rodeo.
Dax
Are you going to be riding next Saturday? Royce wants to know.
A spark of panic flares in my gut, and I dart a glance at Wyatt to find him pulling the buckle bunny into his arms on the other side of the table. It’s only when I’m certain that he won’t know who I’m texting that I reply.
Kade
Yeah. I’ll be there.
Last year, I did something I promised my father I never would: I rode in my first ever rodeo. It was an accident. Not literally, but I wasn’t meant to be there. I’ve trained with the guys a few times over the years—always in secret—but I’ve never set foot in the arena as anything but a spectator.
My uncle, Kurt, rode in the rodeo and I’d beg my dad to take me every time.
Even though I was only ten years old, my dad knew how badly I wanted to ride and follow in Kurt’s footsteps.
There was something almost freeing about seeing him under the big lights as the crowd cheered for him.
We were there when he had an accident, but more importantly, I saw what the loss of his brother did to my father and so I didn’t argue when he made me promise to stay away from riding in the rodeo.
Then, one day last summer, when Wade Maddox, one of the state’s best rodeo riders, had an accident, I said I’d fill in for him. The words were out of my mouth before I could fully comprehend them. And the next thing I knew, I was mounted up, riding a horse as it bolted out of the chute.
It was exhilarating.
And wrong.
If that wasn’t enough, I’ve chased that thrill at every opportunity. When I’m on the back of a horse being thrown around, I forget about everything; my world narrows to holding on and lasting until the timer goes off. That feeling, it’s become an addiction, and I crave it every time.
Sure, keeping it a secret from my family and wearing a bandana to hide my identity has left me riddled with guilt because it feels like a betrayal to the promise I made to my father.
I know I should stop. But when the euphoria rushes through me, as I hold on for dear life, it feels like letting go of this is the last thing I can do.
“Now who’s wasting time?” Wyatt jests, breaking through my thoughts.
Pocketing my phone, I shake my head in the hope it will scatter the ever-growing guilt. I assess the table, lining up my shot. Of course, I miss, and the ball bounces off the cushion, knocking one of Wyatt’s into the corner pocket.
He lets out a holler that draws stares from the other patrons, and I dip my head as heat fills my cheeks. “Beers on you, Kade. Get to buying, brother.”
Exhaling heavily, I drop my pool stick onto the worn, velvet-lined table and head in the direction of the bar.
I need to stop. This can’t go on. It’s not the losing to Wyatt, but the lies that have been eating me up inside for a year now.
It’s almost too much, but there’s no way I can come clean to my family, so the only thing to do is to stop riding.
Leaning against the bar as Titan, the owner of The Wildflower, finishes serving another patron, I scrub a hand over my face before cracking my knuckles.
I turn to scan the room, giving myself something else to focus on.
There’s a lot of people in here tonight, and the crowd is littered with faces I don’t recognize.
Although, there are still a hell of a lot who I’ve known since I was a baby running around in diapers.
When my eyes land on a woman with honey-blond hair and an unreadable expression, I straighten, my feet ready to move even if my mind can’t figure out what I’d do when I get there.
It’s her. The woman from the ranch. The one I thought I’d never see again but who I’ve been reeling from ever since I watched her car drive away earlier.
“What are you having, Kade? The same?” Titan calls, and I reluctantly drag my gaze away from her, my eyes wide like I’ve been caught about to do something I shouldn’t.
“Uhh.” I glance over at her again, but this time our eyes lock, just like they did back at the ranch.
Breath gets lodged in my throat, and I struggle for air.
Within seconds, she looks away, and the space she leaves me with feels louder than the bar.
She’s apparently unaffected by the sight of me as I gasp for air.
“You okay there?” Titan asks, concern etched into his features. He reaches below the bar-top and pulls out a glass, filling it with water as he eyes me cautiously.
“Just two more beers, please.” I grab the water, more to give myself something to do as I stare at the bottles that line the wall in front of me, and chug it.
What the fuck was that?
It’s only when I’m certain that I won’t have a repeat of moments ago that I dart a glance in her direction again.
There’s a guy talking to her now, his hand close to hers on the bar top as he towers over her.
I shake my head and huff out a laugh. Just because she arrived at the ranch by herself doesn’t mean she isn’t taken.
A woman like that being single is about as rare as Wyatt turning down free beer.
Even from this distance, I can hear the frustration tinged with a hint of worry when she raises her voice and says, “I said, leave me alone.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and I move, my eyes locked on her.
I don’t stop, even when the wall of muscle from the guy who looks like he’s been dropped in town straight from a frat party is in front of me.
Instead, I grab his shirt and push him back, the momentum forcing him to move.
I don’t stop until we’re on the other side of the room and far away from her.
Caught off guard, he stumbles, his arms flailing as shock registers on his face. It quickly morphs into anger, and he grunts, “The fuck?”
“She said, leave her alone,” I grind out, the warning clear in my tone.
Pushing my arms away, he steps closer, until I feel his breath on my face. He’s clearly used to his brand of intimidation working, and where most would cower away, I stand tall, ready for the first hit. Craving it. “And what are you gonna do about it? It’s none of your damn business, bro.”
I open my mouth to speak but I’m pulled back, and Wyatt steps between us.
My chest rises and falls with a chaotic, wild anger that feels foreign to me, and it’s only as I get the emotion under control that I register just how quiet it’s grown; you could hear a pin drop and only the low thrum of music fills the silence.
“We got a problem here?” Wyatt asks, his six-foot-four frame towering over the guy.
The guy looks around, eyeing up the regulars—people I know will have my back no matter what—before holding up his hands and shaking his head as he steps back. He looks over Wy’s shoulder, eyeing me up before shifting his attention back and replying, “Nope.”
Wyatt stays in place until the guy has gone back to his friends on the other side of the bar, and the normal chatter returns, but I still don’t move.
I’m too busy fighting with that thrill-seeking demon that rears its head at every opportunity.
Grayson and Wyatt have always stepped in to fight my battles, like they think I need protecting, but I’m more than capable of standing up for myself.
Clenching and releasing my hands, I grind out, “I had it handled, Wy.”
“Right, and that would have ended our night. Besides, you didn’t really think you’d get out of buying the drinks if you got into a fight, right? I’m not that easily distracted, Kade.” Wyatt chuckles, shaking his head.
I stare at him for a beat before forcing myself to relax and smacking him on the back as he passes me. Distractedly, I reply, “Not a chance.”
Titan has the beers waiting on the bar as Wyatt approaches, and he swipes them up, aiming one back at me before he walks away. I know that he’s only looking out for me, but I’m grown enough to do that myself.
It’s only when I lose him in the crowd that I suck in a breath and turn to the woman who’s got me so twisted up.