Chapter 4 #2
He grunts and doesn’t drop his hand from my elbow until we’re inside his farmhouse, standing in the living room.
The space is filled with leather recliners facing a big screen TV mounted on the wall, and a fireplace to the right with photos.
There are photos of veterans who have served beside Bronco.
My eyes go across the room where there’s a wall of fallen soldiers.
These are the men Bronco served with, the ones who never made it back.
I scan the wall looking for my brother, but he’s not there.
He’s encased in a simple wood frame on a little side table.
Bronco hasn’t put him with the living, but he hasn’t put him with the deceased either.
He points out the large window in the direction of the barn. “Why the hell are you taking photos of my men shirtless and covered in Crisco?”
“You said I could use the farm as a fundraiser,” I remind him, suddenly nervous. He could put the brakes on this whole thing. I mean, this is very different from what we agreed on. But if it saves the retirement community from bankruptcy, then I have to try.
“And for that you need the men shirtless?” he barks out.
“A petting zoo is a very complex thing,” I say.
He crosses his arms over his chest. “Is it now?” Dammit, it’s that Southern drawl that makes my knees go weak. Not the way his flannel is pulled tight, and his shoulders look so big. Bet they’d look good between my thighs. Nope, can’t be thinking about him that way.
I lift my chin at the hint of challenge in his voice.
Bronco is the kind of man that you have to meet on equal footing, or he won’t respect you.
“If you pause and think about it, what is a petting zoo really but a place where one can go to touch animals? And really, what are cowboys if not animals?”
He steps close, invading my space and looking like he’s one second away from devouring me. I hope the guilt and the attraction don’t show on my face as he grabs one of my curls and twines it around his finger. “What did you do, Lauren?”
“The petting zoo wasn’t getting any interest online as a fundraiser, so I changed tactics, that’s all! It’s not a crime to change direction with a fundraiser,” I answer as confidently as I can muster.
“What. Did. You. Do?” He’s starting to sound mad. Really mad. Madder than I’ve ever heard him, and the last person I want to be angry with me is Bronco. Especially when he has every right to be.
“I auctioned you! OK, there! Are you happy? I said it was a petting zoo for grownups. Basically, women can come and cuddle with a cowboy,” I work hard to keep the defiance in my tone.
He opens and closes his mouth without words. His fingers drop my curl, and I feel oddly lost without him touching some part of me.
I wait a few beats and ask sweetly, “Are you having a stroke? Please don’t have a stroke. I can’t deal with that today. I still have a lot of photos to edit and about a hundred media requests to field. Do you have any idea how much attention your farm is getting online for the um…scenery?”
He closes his eyes briefly. “This is what an aneurysm feels like.”
“You’re probably fine,” I answer, my gaze flicking to the steady thrum of his pulse against his neck.
Years of CPR classes come in handy where I work, so I’m trained to recognize a medical emergency.
“Listen, I’ll just scoot out of your hair and you can finish freaking out, and later, we’ll talk about–”
“No,” he says the word so suddenly that I stop talking. “You are not doing this. You are not using the farm this way.”
“Why not? It’s not illegal. I checked,” I answer quickly. Bronco is a stickler for rules. I mean, it makes total sense given that he’s seen combat and had dozens of men depending on him to keep them alive. But sheesh, give a girl some credit. “Nothing illegal is happening.”
“You can’t auction off my men like livestock!” he protests.
“But you have some grade-A beef around here.” I can’t help teasing him just a little bit. There are moments around Bronco when I could almost swear that he gets jealous if other men pay me attention.
“You’re objectifying my men.”
“They don’t mind. I checked that too. Weirdly, they seemed really excited to take off their shirts in front of me.” Okay, so I probably shouldn’t be pushing at the grumpy cowboy, but he’s not jealous…is he?
He narrows his gaze. “Who specifically was excited?”
I tap my finger against my chin and think for a beat. There were so many cowboys behind the barn. “Flint, I think that’s his name. He’s the one with nice biceps. Doesn’t matter. They were fine being objectified. Really, all of your guys were so nice to me.”
“Yeah, I’m sure they were,” the fury in his voice has me questioning everything I thought I knew about Bronco. Is it crazy to think my brother’s best friend might actually want me the same way I want him?
“Oh, don’t be mad. They were all so eager to help me out.
You know, you’ve got a really great crew of guys here.
They’re all so helpful and sweaty and…virile.
” I think of my collection of smutty romance paperbacks that I keep buying for fifty cents from the library’s discarded bins.
It sounds like a word one of those books would have on the cover.
“I said a petting zoo, and that’s final,” he says with the authority of a man who’s not only used to being in charge, but one who’s used to being obeyed without question. “Whatever you’re doing right now, it’s not what we agreed to.”
“Don’t you want to know who got the winning bid on you?” I tease in a sing-song voice. It’s my last card to play, and I’m hoping that if he’s curious enough, he’ll agree to the cowboy auction. After all, it’s not like he’s going up on the auction block again. Once was enough for my poor heart.
He waves a hand like he wishes he could erase this whole crazy idea from my head. Too late for that. Too late for both of us. “I don’t care. You go online right now, and you stop the auction.”
“I’m going to let you sleep on it,” I counteroffer. Vale would be proud of me. He tells me that I crumble too easily. Well, not today.
“My answer is still going to be the same tomorrow.”
I make a show of slumping my shoulders. I walk slowly to the door while he watches me go, the camera thumping against my chest with every step. I swing open the door and turn to him. “OK, I’ll go home. But Bronco? Just so you know, I’m the one who got you.”
He lets loose with a blue streak right as I close the door behind myself. Yep, he’ll be thinking about the auction all night long.