Ray
I came back from my trail ride refreshed and clear-headed.
The winding slope through the forest had calmed me in a way that was hard to explain.
The steady cadence of Sunset’s hooves tamping down the dirt served as a metronome to even out my heartbeat, and with each step farther into the forest, I felt the weight of life lifting off my shoulders.
Pressure like I’d never felt before had been weighing me down over the course of the last month.
Dad had been working overtime, trying to make up for the work he’d gotten behind on while out on administrative leave.
That left me as the sole parental figure to three teenagers.
I did my best, but I couldn’t hold a candle to the woman my mother had been or the man my father was, nor did I want to parent teenagers when I had barely crested out of those years myself.
Life wasn’t fair, but I had only one life, and I refused to let my baby siblings grow up too fast, as I had been forced to.
Lucia and Sofia, the twins, kept me on my toes. If they weren’t sneaking out, they were blasting pop music from their room or attempting to give me a heart attack with their wardrobe choices.
At least Benny, the other teen occupying the house, was quiet and respectful.
At seventeen, he was more responsible than any of the other kids by a long shot, even me at times.
Between football, track, and swimming, we barely saw him.
When we did, he was eating us out of house and home, growing like a weed and focusing on his endless schoolwork.
Although at fifteen and seventeen, the kids were pretty self-sufficient, they still couldn’t be left to their own devices, and with Dad working nonstop, someone had to step in.
Which left me, the oldest, to pick up the slack when Dad needed help.
As Sunset and I trotted our way back to the stables, I felt the prickling sensation of eyes on me.
I ignored Wade’s gaze, feigning indifference, even though the mere thought of his eyes trailing over the slopes of my body as I used every muscle to stay atop the horse sent sparks straight to my core.
I can only imagine the visual, as I’d seen him in the same scenario time and time again during his rodeo days and riding around the ranch.
Watching him on a horse was sweet torture and an aphrodisiac blended into the form of a powerful cowboy riding a majestic horse in the tightest jeans known to man.
Pulling the reins to stop Sunset, I dismounted with the grace of a manatee. No matter how many times I went out for a ride, I always ended up feeling the effects of it for days.
I wasn’t put on a horse as soon as I came out of the womb like the Daniels boys, nor was I a natural like Izzy. I rode occasionally when I could, which often left me sore and waddling around the house for a couple of days as my muscles attempted to heal from the relentless beating they took.
I had somehow ended up with a couple of free hours between clients this afternoon, so I took the opportunity when it presented itself.
I surely hadn’t come down to the ranch hoping to catch the eye of a certain broody cowboy who was currently slinging hay like it owed him rent money.
Not. At. All.
“I can feel you staring, Sunshine,” he called from the large stable doorway.
With expert ease, he sliced the twine that held together the dry hay, his back to me as he spoke.
I rolled my eyes and walked Sunset over to the wash rack to hose her down. Even though it wasn’t extremely hot, Sunset was getting up there in age, and the water helped cool her down, wash her off, and calm any inflammation in her joints that might surface from the walk on uneven terrain.
Just as I was finishing cleaning her off, Izzy brought over Oakley and repeated the routine, cooling down her own horse.
Oakley was much younger than Sunset, but the riders undoubtedly treated championship horses better than they treated themselves.
Izzy and I put the girls out to pasture to graze after they had been cleaned off. We leaned against the metal fencing, watching the majestic gait of the pair as they trotted off happily to munch on grass, and probably roll in dirt directly after their bath.
Izzy turned around, leaning back and propping one booted foot on the rungs of the fencing. Her long dark hair was braided and draped over one shoulder, her head covered with a straw Stetson.
With her dark features and angular lines of her face, she looked menacing, but those close to her knew she was soft under all that rugged exterior. She was all bark and no bite.
“You know, if I wasn’t already engaged to a fine fuckin’ specimen of a man…” She sighed, nodding her head in Wade’s direction. I turned around, mirroring her pose as we watched him work.
Wade was unloading hay from the trailer into the barn, his muscles contracting with each tug and pull on the heavy bales.
He wasn’t wearing his signature cowboy hat today.
Instead, he had a ball cap on to shield his face from the blinding sun.
His hair was pulled back into a bun and threaded through the snapback, keeping it off his neck.
The grey T-shirt he was wearing was drenched with sweat, sticking to every line and curve of his muscled torso.
The way his jeans clung to his thick thighs and ass was enough to have me nearly panting and my nipples tightening in desire.
Every cut of muscle and rope of sinew had been hard earned through rugged manual labor.
“Yeah…” I sighed wistfully.
Sensing an audience, Wade did what he did best and leaned into the show. His eyes met mine in a silent challenge as he brushed his gloved hands over his jeans, dusting off the stray hay remnants.
With his eyes locked on mine, he placed the tip of his gloved pointer finger between his teeth, biting down to tug off the leather, repeating the motion with the other hand. He tucked the set of gloves into the back pocket of his jeans, giving them a little extra tightness around his ass.
He pulled off his ball cap and fisted the back of his shirt. In one swift motion, he tugged it over his head and used the shirt to wipe the sweat from his brow.
Eyes locked back on mine, he tossed his T-shirt to the side and slipped his hat back on— backward.
Fuck.
I watched a drop of sweat trail down his neck and roll across his stomach, settling in the waistband of his boxers that peeked from under his jeans.
I could feel the tingling between my thighs as I watched him work, shamelessly checking out the way his chiseled abs rippled with each tug and pull of the hay bales.
Over the last year, especially, we had fought our feelings for each other tooth and nail. I knew one day they would come to a head, but I wasn’t sure I was ready for the impending explosion and destruction that moment would leave in its wake.
Wade and I were playing with fire, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to watch the world burn yet.
“Girl, I know I’m your sister,” Izzy started, also shamelessly checking him out. “But if you don’t ride that…”
“Hush,” I scolded, slapping her in the chest with the back of my hand. “I’m sure you’d be changing your tune if Tanner were here.” I cut my eyes over at her, and I may have been seeing things, but I could have sworn a flicker of disappointment flashed across her face.
Tanner was her long-term fiancé. They had gotten engaged after her last big rodeo win. He was an attorney in Atlanta, which meant she didn’t see him as often as I think she would have liked.
He was nice, clean-cut, and had a respectable job. Honestly, he was a little too clean-cut for Izzy’s tastes, but she sang his praises any chance she could, and they had been together for years.
She schooled her features quickly, washing away that fleeting look, a feline smile lazily stretching across her face. I knew that smirk, and it generally meant trouble.
The myth about barrel racers being a little bit crazy? Yeah, it wasn’t a myth at all.
“Hey, Cowboy!” she shouted in Wade’s direction. He stopped what he was doing to turn around, his hands on his hips, accentuating the muscles in his abs and the sweat-slicked V that trailed down to—nope, he was my best friend.
I would not think about what he was packing below the belt. Even if he was giving off broody big-dick energy.
“Yeah, rookie?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow.
“We’re all heading down to Jack’s this Saturday to celebrate the last free weekend before real training begins. Tanner’s got the weekend off from trial prep, Max and Stella will be back and already have a sitter for Charlie, and Ray here needs a dancing partner. You up for it? First round’s on me.”
I hadn’t heard anything about going to Jack’s—the dive bar in town—this weekend, so I was sure that Izzy was up to something, but I’d let her meddle just a bit. It wouldn’t hurt to have a night out.
Wade’s eyes caught mine, questioning if I was thinking the same thing he was. We both could sense that there was an ulterior motive behind Izzy’s invitation, but I tipped my head up in a defiant nod, challenging him to a good time.
“I’m sure your sister could have her pick of dancin’ partners,” he started, and I felt my bravado slowly deflate. “But it’s been a while since we’ve shown the town what the dynamic duo can do.”
I could feel the excitement vibrating through my core at not only a night out, but a night out with my best friend and sister. I caught his eye and gave him a smile, but the responding grin he shot back didn’t reach his eyes.
The performance he had just put on? It was just that, a performance. He was pretending as if everything was fine, so people would stop questioning if he was okay.
I missed seeing the slight twinkle of mischief that always seemed to sparkle in his gaze and the way his smile lit up his entire face.
Hopefully, a night out was just what we all needed to get our heads on straight.
My mind played back to one of my favorite times we’d gone out dancing together. The only night we tiptoed over the line from friendship into something more.