Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Myles
I coasted down the Baileys’ drive. Snow dotted the roofs of the shops and barns. Chickens pecked over packed snow in their path. A whole pile of cars and pickups lined the driveway like when I’d first arrived for the funeral. Aw hell, the whole gang was here.
“Does she own all these pickups?” Cruz had his face pressed against the window. He’d been unusually subdued since we’d left city limits and rolled through Bourbon Canyon. The closer to the ranch we got, the quieter he grew.
I thought he was turning sullen, but a look of awe had only grown in his expression.
“No, dumbass,” Lane answered. He’d brushed his hair off his face and wore his nicest pair of torn jeans and a red polo shirt with no stains. Cruz had asked him if he was going to work at Target.
Cruz was still in all black, but he’d also picked clothes that didn’t have an ashtray scent on them.
His leather coat would never lose its stale-smoke smell, but he’d also hand brushed his hair off his face.
I relied on Mae to see through their exterior to their efforts.
That they’d put thought into their appearance gave me faith our mother hadn’t irrevocably fucked them up.
“All her nosy kids are here,” Lane added, a thread of anxiety in his voice.
“No smoking, all right?” Mae might’ve been okay with a fifteen-year-old Wynter learning the taste profiles of bourbon, but she’d charge after a lit cigarette.
“I brought my vape.”
“No vaping,” Lane and I said in unison.
“Bruh, I get it. I was kidding.”
Was he?
I parked, and we all got out. I took them down the familiar path between the driveway pad and the kitchen door. I was used to being the one on the outside, but this time, I wasn’t. I was in the middle. Not an outsider, but not a Bailey. My brothers were going to feel like ducks in the goat pen.
Mae opened the door and leaned out, a smile wide on her face. “If I hadn’t already known you were related, I’d know it now.” She pushed the screen door open farther. “Come on in.”
I stepped in and was encompassed in a powerful hug as if I hadn’t seen her just yesterday morning. Then it was Lane’s turn. His stunned but wary expression trailed around the packed kitchen.
A room full of Baileys and Kerrigans watched us.
I only had eyes for Wynn. She was in a fuzzy pink sweater, the same one she’d worn when I’d fired her—point taken—with her arms hugged around her.
Her soft blue jeans clung to the lines of her legs, and it took all my restraint to keep from crossing to her and picking her up in my arms.
The feelings tumbling through me were suffocating. This woman was my world. Without her, I didn’t give a shit about anything. I had a hard time even caring about Foster House.
Foster House was my everything. Had been my everything.
Wynter Kerrigan had taken its place. She’d given me another identity, one that didn’t revolve around business.
She’d encouraged me to stick around when her siblings wanted to run me off.
She’d prompted me to contact my brothers.
Without her, I kept all the important parts of life at a distance.
I hid behind my company and let everyone else live their life.
I had to stay and win my girl back.
“The pork chops aren’t done yet,” Mae said as she released Cruz from a crushing hug. Lane was tucked behind me, his normal bravado hiding like he was.
Did they feel like two kids shoved into a room of grownups and told to perform? They were both adults, but Wynter was the closest in age to them, and she had six years on Lane.
I’d start with introductions. “Lane. Cruz. You’ve met Mae. As for the rest, the guys all have the last name Bailey and their first names start with a T. The girls all have the last name Kerrigan and are named for seasons.” Frosty’s mine.
“He’s mostly right,” Tate said, a touch of amusement in his tone. “I’m Tate, and my wife, Scarlett, is a Bailey. My son, Chance, has our baby girl in the living room and is playing video games.”
“Nice.” Cruz started around me. “What’s he into? Smash Bros.? League of Legends? Fort—”
I tugged on his shirt and stopped him. His interest changed into sheepishness. I almost felt bad, but we weren’t here for fucking video games. “My apologies, Scarlett. I saw a headcount of four and didn’t realize Junie wasn’t here.”
“She was named that instead of spring,” Autumn explained, like the compulsion to clarify Junie’s name was bred into her. “Since technically most of June is in the spring. I’m Autumn.”
The others introduced themselves, leaving Wynn for last.
“I’m Wynter.”
“We didn’t get a chance to meet before you dumped him,” Cruz said.
“Jesus,” Lane muttered.
Mae was beaming like she was in the zone. Like she’d been gone from her calling and couldn’t wait to wade into my brothers’ lives as far as they’d let her. “Since we’re all introduced, and you two still have your coats on, would you like a tour of the place?”
“Sure.” Cruz was already heading for the door. Lane gave him a funny look. As little as I knew them, I could see why. Cruz wasn’t the get-up-and-go type. He wasn’t the get-shit-done guy. But he was the first one outside and waiting for Mae.
I let Lane go out before me. I waited for Wynn, grabbing her ranch coat off the hook and holding it up for her. When she neared, we both had to step to the side to avoid getting trampled by the throng of people going on the tour.
I helped her get her coat on. “Thank you,” she murmured.
The last person piled out the door. Scarlett disappeared into the living room, probably to stay with Chance.
I was alone with Wynn, yet torn about ditching my brothers.
They were in good hands, but I’d also bribed them with Mae’s dinner, the pie she said she’d make, and that they could come to my hotel and have the continental breakfast in the morning.
Food was apparently the way to their heart.
Wynn was the way to mine. “Can we talk?” I sank into the warm depths of her eyes. I’d wait a hundred more nights in the cold for her.
“Tonight’s not about us.” She tried to move around me.
“Tomorrow night?” I couldn’t corner her. I didn’t want her to feel coerced. I’d woo her. The right way. I’d earn her trust. Somehow. “I can take you out in town, or we could run to Bozeman.”
“Don’t you have a business to get back to?”
“I’m working remotely. Mrs. Crane is grudgingly learning how to work virtual meeting programs, but I had to give her a raise to do it.” And another week of vacation a year.
Disbelief crossed her features. “You’re working from Montana?”
I nodded. “I can’t win you back from Denver.”
“And then what?” She shook her head. “Never mind. I know the answer.”
“Distance isn’t an issue. I have it on good authority there are private jet co-ops.”
A smile played along her lips. “I’ve heard about those.” She grew serious. “You said win me back. So…were we a thing?”
I brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “We were definitely a thing. The best thing.”
The seriousness in her expression deepened. “I don’t know how I can ever not think you just won’t be there one day.”
“You’ll always know where I am.”
She huffed and pushed around me. “That’s so much better.”
“Wynn, dammit. I’m sorry. I don’t know how to not fuck up. I’ve never done a relationship.” She stopped with her hand on the door. She wasn’t looking at me, but I gestured around the kitchen. “I want to get this right, but I don’t know how.”
She finally turned those beautiful gems toward me. “All right. Tomorrow night. We’ll go to Curly’s. Pick me up at six. That’s when their buns are the freshest.”
“Six.” I fought a wide grin.
“How’s your neck?” she asked quietly. When I gave her a quizzical look, she shrugged. “You looked uncomfortable in your car.”
“Oh, that. Rookie mistake. I should’ve put the seat back. I didn’t plan to fall asleep.”
“What do you mean rookie mistake? You sleep in your car often?”
“A lot, yeah. Back in the day.” The before–Foster House days.
Her shoulders sagged. “God, you make it hard to be mad at you.”
“Do I make it impossible not to kiss me?”
“Oh my god, are you flirting?” She pinched my cheek. “Where did the CEO with the stick up his ass go?”
I leaned in, waiting for her to push me away. She didn’t, so I closed the distance. Right before our lips touched, she put a hand on my chest.
“Not before our first official date. I’d hate for you to think I’m a sure thing.” She walked out, and I followed, failing to suppress my chuckle.
We were packed around a table that magically grew longer with more and more people. I’d never seen it stretched so wide. Wynn was at my side. I put my hand on her knee under the table, and she didn’t shift her leg away. She didn’t soften either.
Lane and Cruz were adept at fitting in. They were slouched over their plates, talking with their mouths full. Lane caught himself first, then nudged Cruz. The small elbow jabs weren’t the only silent communication they’d adopted. They had various looks they exchanged.
Right now, Lane was giving Cruz an Are you fucking serious? stare. The rest of us were pointing the same expression Mae’s way.
“I could live here?” Cruz asked.
“And work,” Mae said with a firm nod.
Tate sucked in a breath through his nose. “We don’t need—”
“We do.” Mae straightened. “I’m not as young as I used to be, and I love this place. I really do. But I don’t want to be out in the cold gathering eggs every winter.”
“Chance can do it in the mornings,” Tate countered.
Chance’s head popped up from the huckleberry bourbon pie he was digging into, dismay ripe in his eyes. Wynn’s leg quivered as she coughed out a laugh.
“Chance can’t be expected to get here every morning when snow’s on the ground.” Mae adopted her stern mother tone. “Cruz is interested in ranching. It’d be good for him to learn.”
Lane snorted. One of my brothers knew what they were getting into, and it wasn’t Cruz.