Chapter 3
WAYNE
“Morning, Pops,” I say as I swing the front door shut behind me.
My dad, the always-stoic Everett Riggs, blinks at me in surprise. He’s half-hunched over in the recliner tying his boots. He doesn’t say anything as I toss my duffel bag down by the door, just stares at me with his brows furrowed.
I spent the night at the motel downtown to give Jenny some time to get over her little bitch fit, which turned out to be a truly excellent idea.
I didn’t expect to run into Katie McArthur, and I sure as shit didn’t expect her to look like that.
She’s got a hell of a body these days, and a good fuck was exactly what I needed to blow some steam off.
She passed out after we finished and I wound up spending the night in my SUV, not wanting to cuddle up with her and not willing to drive home after drinking. At least the room I paid for—which I’d planned to stay in alone—didn’t go completely to waste.
Dad says nothing for a long, tense moment. “Wayne,” he mutters, nodding his head. “You planning on staying for a while?”
His eyes flit between me and my bag, a million questions lingering in his eyes. I pray to hell and back that he doesn’t bother asking any of them. I feel like total shit, my hangover pounding away in my head, and the last thing I need is a goddamn interrogation.
“Just on vacation for a bit,” I say with a careless shrug.
“Why?”
My brows arch up to my hairline at the blunt question. A scoff falls from my lips.
“Do I need a reason to come home?” I ask scathingly. “I am your son.”
The last thing I need right now is for him to find out I got fired. I just need a landing spot until I figure my shit out, and then I’ll be gone again.
“How convenient for you to be part of the family when you feel like it,” Jenny snipes from the kitchen.
I roll my eyes at the acid in her tone. Looks like one night wasn’t enough for her to get over whatever crawled up her ass. Sure, I’ve been gone for a while, but it’s not like I disappeared entirely. I answer her calls when I have the time.
“Good morning to you, too, Jen,” I say, snark heavy in my voice.
“You know better than to call her that.” I blink in surprise at the immediate correction, and the actual note of scolding in his tone.
Yeah, it’s not my sister’s favorite nickname, but he’s never corrected me on it before.
He’s always been content to let us bicker.
“You’ve been gone for years, Wayne. You never call and you hardly pick up when your sister checks in.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable for us to be confused about you showing up for a vacation out of nowhere. Especially when you reek of whiskey.”
My own annoyance mounts more and more the longer he talks, and by the time he comments about my obvious hangover, my jaw is tense and I’m fighting back a sneer.
I’ve been gone because of him.
He hit rock bottom when Mom died, and he let it ruin everything. He never even tried to pick himself back up, and it was on Jenny and I to figure out how to survive on our own. I was grieving the loss of my mother, and my dad turned into a shell of a person, someone I didn’t know.
So yeah, I left. Fucking sue me.
I built a life for myself, got my law degree, got a good job, did whatever I pleased whenever I wanted to. This is just a hiccup in the road, and I don’t intend to let it drive me into the ground.
“I had a few drinks with friends last night,” I snap. “Got a problem with it?”
Frustration flashes in his eyes, and my blood rushes through my veins in anticipation of a shouting match. I’ve got plenty of anger to get out of my system, and screaming at my dad will bring it back down to a manageable level.
Before we get into it, a sharp knock sounds at the front door.
The sound shatters the tension mounting between us, and my dad shoves up from his recliner to get the door. He gives me a wide berth as he stalks past.
“Everything alright, Tony?” he asks after opening the door, spoken in a tone that’s worlds more civil than he’s using with me.
“Yeah, just wanted to let you know the doc is here,” the dark-haired man answers, glancing past my dad and raking his eyes over me curiously. “Al’s out for his treatments this morning and you spend the most time with them other than him. She wanted to know if any of the calves were having issues.”
“Perfect, I’ve got a few I want her to look at.”
I don’t get a chance to ask what the comment about Al means before my dad walks out without a glance back at me, slamming the door shut behind him. I blink at the dark wood of the door for several beats, confusion and frustration swirling in my gut. How dare he just walk away from me?
Fucking coward.
Jenny walks past me with a thermos of coffee and an annoyed glance, heading toward the door.
“You’ve never come home for vacation before,” she says with her hand on the doorknob.
“And you barely talk to me. You guys haven’t spoken in almost a decade.
Can’t blame us for being confused about you showing up out of nowhere.
I’m thinking you got yourself in trouble and are just hiding out here. ”
I refuse to flinch at the accusation, not wanting to confirm her suspicions. I’m a lawyer. Having a good poker face comes with the territory.
It’s harder to fool people who know all my tells, though.
I follow her out silently, unwilling to let her end the conversation like that but still searching for the right words. All I’m asking for is a place to crash—at my childhood home with my fucking family—but everyone’s acting like I’ve spent the past decade actively betraying them.
So what if I left town and built my own life? That’s what people are supposed to do when they grow up.
We make it down the porch steps and halfway to the barn before my attention is caught by a woman—no surprise there—a short, curvy brunette with her hair tied back in a neat ponytail. She’s wearing jeans and what looks like one of my dad’s flannels, and she smiles widely at Jenny.
“Morning!” she calls out in greeting. “Thanks for helping me out today, it’ll just be easier with someone who knows a bit more about the history of the area.”
“Happy to help,” Jenny says, passing the thermos of coffee over to the brunette. “Mary, this is Wayne. Wayne, this is Mary.”
I hold out my hand to shake hers before the realization hits, and my eyes blow wide.
“You’re my dad’s girlfriend?” I blurt, dropping her hand instantly. “Aren’t you… young?”
She looks closer to my age than my dad’s, and I shoot Jenny a confused look. There’s no way my sister is just okay with this, is she?
“Fuck’s sake,” Jenny says, her eyelid twitching in annoyance. “Ever heard of inside thoughts, Wayne?”
She and Mary share an amused glance that I don’t really understand, and I look between them in confusion. The fuck has happened since I’ve been gone?
“Everett and I don’t pay much attention to the age gap,” Mary says, her blue eyes twinkling with mirth. “You’ll get used to it.”
I hear a lyrical laugh followed by my dad chuckling from off to the side, causing me to look over toward the calf pens.
The first shock comes in the form of my dad actually smiling, and the second comes in the form of Katie McArthur’s bubble butt.
Why is she here? I blink in shock as Katie—the same girl who used my hotel room last night—bends and runs her hand over the flank of one of the calves to calm it before lifting its leg up to check its range of motion.
She looks considerably less hungover than I feel, but I can see the edge of a bite mark on her shoulder when her shirt shifts a bit.
Seeing proof of my claim on that perfect body makes my blood go hot.
Jenny and Mary continue idly chatting, but my attention is mostly on Katie.
How does she look just as good in jeans and boots as she did in that tiny skirt last night?
I wasn’t planning on a repeat performance, but she was a fantastic lay.
If she’s around the ranch regularly, it’ll be convenient, and I wouldn’t mind hearing her scream my name again.
She’ll probably trip over herself to wind up in my bed again, especially after last night.
Hell, she’s probably never cum that hard in her life.
“Eyes off the doc, creep,” Jenny says, kicking lightly at my ankle.
She seems to be in a better mood, and her comment comes across closer to teasing than a genuine insult.
“Doc?” I ask, not looking away.
“She’s our vet,” Jenny replies, with a sneer. “You went to school with her, and were probably awful. Don’t chase her off. We like her.”
I bite back my grin at Jenny’s implication that I don’t remember Katie—I spent all fucking night remembering her.
Still, I wasn’t expecting her to have a medical degree. That’s pretty impressive, actually. She was always a bookworm in high school, all thick glasses and baggy sweaters, spending all of her time in the library. I guess it makes sense for her to have made progress like that since we graduated.
“You should go shower. You reek,” Jenny says mockingly as she looks over me witheringly. “I know we live on a farm, but if you’re going to be staying… you should take care of hygiene. We do have standards here.”
I roll my eyes, but she’s probably right. Besides, I have no interest in wandering around the ranch. If I stay out here too long, someone will try to rope me into helping out, and I’m not in any mood for physical labor.
“Yeah, whatever,” I scoff, already turning on my heel to head back toward the house. “See you later, Jenny. Oh… and uh, good to meet you, Mary.”
They call out their own goodbyes as I wander back home, my hands shoved into the depths of my pockets.
The summer heat is oppressive, and the bugs sing loudly as I make my way back up the porch steps.
I wasn’t excited about coming home, but if Jenny and my dad can get over their attitudes, I might be able to actually relax on this trip.
At the very least, I can spend most of my time here in Katie’s bed. I can’t seem to get how good she felt out of my head, and I’m definitely looking forward to more.