Chapter 4
CHARLIE
Cody strode into the barn just as I finished grooming Cutie, the mare I’d been riding for the last few years. I still hated her name, but my little brother, the same one who was walking toward me now with a trouble-making grin on his face, had named her after I’d lost a bet.
I stroked a hand along her gleaming neck, patting her before I unclipped her lead rope and started taking her back to her stall. Cody fell into step beside me, that grin still on his lips. “We’re going out tonight. The first round is on Wyatt.”
I huffed out a snort of laughter. “What’d he do now?”
“Lost a steer. It took me all day to help him find it.” Cody leaned against the frame of Cutie’s stall door when I led her in. “You’re almost done with your chores, right? We want to head out in about thirty?”
“Just let me grab a shower,” I said. “Honky Tonks?”
“Yep.” He pushed away from the door. “Dallas is on his way up to your house. Said to tell you he’s borrowing a clean shirt.”
I snorted. “Of course he is. Every fucking time. I keep telling him to just leave a change of clothes, but nope.”
Cody chuckled and shrugged his shoulders as he started backing toward the exit. “Don’t I know it. He tried that shit with me when you started locking your bedroom door last year. I practically had to wrestle him to get my darn shirts back.”
I laughed. “Yeah. Maybe I should start doing that again.”
My brother gave me another shrug before he spun around and left. The engine of his ATV revved before he took off. I shook my head as a cloud of dust rose outside the barn. “Idiot.”
I loved all my brothers something fierce.
We Anderson boys—and Dallas, my best buddy who had been around for so long that he was basically the sixth Anderson son—were a close-knit group.
More often than not, when we went out at night, we did it together, and during the day, we all worked here on the ranch.
At thirty-nine, I was the oldest. Mason had come ten months later and Colt a year after that. Wyatt and Cody were the babies, with Wyatt having arrived just two days after my seventh birthday and Cody another two years later.
As far as I was concerned, our mother was a saint.
She’d never once complained about being outnumbered to such a great extent, and to this day, she spent as much time with each of us as she could, apparently never missing not having had a little girl to do girly things with.
Mom was a better wrangler than most we employed and she could leave anyone in the dirt with most chores to be done on the farm.
She loved to cook for us even though we ate like starving savages, and regardless of the fact that we were all fully grown men, she still mended our clothes or replaced them if they were too far gone—and I knew she kept sticking new shirts in my closet so that there would be enough for Dallas too.
As I strode out of the barn, I jumped on my own ATV, but I didn’t feel the need to rev the engine or spin my tires like my knucklehead brother. Instead, I just eased onto the dirt track that led away from the barn and drove slowly to my house, keeping an eye on the fences and the fields as I went.
Cody and Wyatt had their own wing in our parents’ house, while Colt, Mason, and I each had our own places on the ranch. Dallas had a house in town, but he was so rarely there that he might as well have made it official and moved in my guest room.
I’d offered, but he just kept waving me off. When I walked into my house to find him already showered, in one of my shirts, and sipping one of my beers at my kitchen table, I realized that he might just actually have moved in regardless—and without me even noticing it.
“How the hell did Wyatt lose a steer?” I asked as I cracked open a cold one of my own.
My friend shrugged and raked a hand through his reddish hair. His dark eyes were filled with laughter as they met mine. “I’m not sure. I wasn’t with them until later, but it sounds like it might’ve had something to do with some barrel racer who showed up to talk to one of the boys.”
I chuckled, nodding slowly as the pieces of the puzzle clicked together. “It’s probably the same barrel racer he followed to three different rodeos before he realized she wasn’t interested.”
Dallas frowned for a moment, then snapped his fingers and laughed. “That’s right. Last year, wasn’t it? Well, she sure sounded interested in someone now, but it wasn’t him. Poor guy. You grabbing a shower before we leave?”
“Yeah, I got to. We’re going to have to keep an eye on him tonight. He’s going to be on the prowl.”
“You’re not?”
I shrugged. “We’ll see if there’s anyone worth prowling for.”
Dallas scoffed. “It’s Honky Tonks, brother. There’s always someone worth prowling for.”
I jerked my head in a nod as I left the kitchen, carrying my beer to the bedroom with me. I wasn’t sure if I agreed with him, though. Lately, I’d been in the mood for something different from the usual.
I always had a great time at Honky Tonks, but I’d been going there since I was a teenager. I knew almost all the regulars, and that was where the boredom was coming from.
Everyone was someone I already knew.
The last few times we’d been there, I’d found myself on the lookout for someone else. Just somebody a little out of the ordinary. If I could find that, maybe I’d shoot a shot, but if not, I was more than happy to just laugh at my brothers while they shot theirs—and mostly missed.
When we walked into Honky Tonks, I took a quick look around, but as always, I already knew everybody in there. On the plus side, great country music played from the speakers and the vibes were all there.
It was going to be a good one—even if I wasn’t going to be taking any of these people home with me.
The boys and I each grabbed a cold beer and managed to snag our regular table. I settled in as Mason ribbed Wyatt about having to buy for everyone—and a few other things. My brothers and I looked very similar, having inherited our mother’s blue eyes and our father’s thick brown hair.
Wyatt had been growing his out though, making him the only one of us with hair hanging below his ears. Hell, his was almost all the way to his shoulders these days, and Mason never missed an opportunity to remind him of it.
“Was your hair in your eyes, pretty boy? Couldn’t see the steer through your shiny locks?”
Wyatt laughed and flipped him off. “I could see just fine. The little bastard just got away from me, but we found him, didn’t we? No harm, no foul.”
Colt nearly choked on the sip of beer he’d just taken. Thumping himself on the chest, he stared at our brother with eyes as wide as could be. “No foul? It took you two idiots most of the afternoon to find that thing. Who do you think was picking up the slack in the meantime?”
“Not you,” Mason said. “I was the one who had to skip lunch because of that.”
As my brothers kept bickering back and forth, Dallas smirked and drew my attention to him. “I heard you’re going to be teaming up with a woman again. Another marketing exec, no less. You must be pretty excited.”
I grunted and took a long sip of my beer. “Do you think there’s any chance I can convince Nathan not to retire?”
He chuckled. “Probably not. It’s about time he slows down. Your father told me to keep an eye on you and to remind you that this doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”
“He’s convinced this woman isn’t going to shake things up. He says he’s sure she’s going to keep things exactly the same way her father always has and that there’s nothing to worry about.”
“What do you think?”
“I think he was born in Texas and she wasn’t. I think she’s going to try to put her own stamp on the firm to prove that she’s more than just Daddy’s little girl.”
Dallas cringed. “Your dad made a compelling argument, but yours is better.”
I shrugged. “Nothing to be done about it now. We’ll just have to take the bull by the horns on Friday and hope like hell she doesn’t screw up the plans we already have in place with them.”
As we spoke, the door opened and a group of tourists came in. I could immediately tell they weren’t from around here, which meant they must’ve wandered in after deciding to experience a night out, Texas-style.
On instinct, I scanned them, stopping suddenly when I saw one of the most beautiful girls I’d ever seen among them.
I zeroed in on her, my senses instantly on full alert.
She had dirty blonde hair and what appeared to be a piercing, vibrant green gaze.
Wearing Levi’s and brown boots that were very obviously brand new, she looked like a high fashion model trying her hand at a country lifestyle magazine spread.
In the back of my mind, a little voice whispered that she was exactly what I’d been craving these last few months. My heart started pounding, my interest piqued.
“Are you even listening to me?” Dallas asked before he turned to see what had me so dazed. His eyes went wide. “Woah. That blonde one…”
At the same time, I said, “Dibs.”
He laughed. “Shit. I should’ve known she was the one you were staring at. We’re too old for dibs, though.”
I grinned and shook my head at him. “Not when it comes to her, we’re not.”
“May the best man win?”
“May the best man win,” I agreed, swiping my bottle of beer off the table and bringing it to my lips.
The music had been loud since we’d arrived, but it got even louder when a recent country hit came on. Almost immediately, the dance floor began to crowd and I recognized that the time was now.
After quickly draining my beer, I got up and made my way over to the girl, faintly hearing Dallas curse when he realized I was beating him to it.
She and her friends had found a spot at the bar, and I approached them confidently.
One of the girls nudged her with her elbow and nodded in my direction when she realized I was headed straight for them.
My girl—or at least, my target—turned slowly, surprise registering on her delicate features. She watched me closing the distance between us. Her head slanted ever so slightly to one side. Her gaze drifted from my face to my shoulders, my chest, and lower before it snapped back to mine.
When I reached them, I looked right into her eyes and smiled as I offered her my hand. “Would you like to dance?”