24. Christian
Christian
My girl is panicking as we make our way back to the bar, and it’s fucking adorable. She’s fussing with the hem of her dress like it might somehow erase what we just did in the cab of my truck.
I don’t take her hand even though I want to. God, I want to, but she’s already flustered, and that might push her too far. So instead, I rest my palm low on her back just enough to remind her I’m right there.
Every step and every breath she takes is a quiet little reminder that I’m still with her—still inside her—and that’s the kind of thing my possessive ass feeds on. Not all the showy stuff, but this. The quiet, intimate proof that she’s mine—even when no one else can see it.
“Still feel me, darlin’?” I’d whispered against her neck just minutes ago—her skin still flushed, her lips kiss-swollen, and my cum dripping down her thighs like a secret meant only for us.
She’s wearing me, and fuck if that isn’t the hottest thing.
I’m obsessed.
Fully, irreversibly, can’t-think-straight obsessed with my woman.
I’m pretty sure Piper’s already halfway in love with my brother, but who isn’t?
Colt’s the biggest thing to ever roll out of Rosewood Falls, aside from the rodeo queen who married a pastor and somehow got a reality show out of it.
But as we approach the bar, she suddenly stops—her hand frozen on the door handle and her brows lifting like she just remembered something important.
“Wait… will Trace Montgomery be here too?”
“No, it’s just Colt. He always comes home for a week or two over Cal’s birthday and Christmas.”
“Are you being serious right now?” she asks, eyes popping open even wider. “You knew he’d be here tonight?”
I can’t help but laugh. The way her mind is racing right now is cute as hell. “I did… and I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“That’s the kind of thing a girl needs to be prepared for, Christian,” she says, half laughing, half mortified. “I just wish he didn’t catch me on top of you.”
“He didn’t see anything,” I murmur, brushing my knuckles gently along the back of her hand.
“You seriously couldn’t keep your hands to yourself for one more hour?”
“With the way you were eye-fucking me across the room? And in that dress?” I let out a low whistle.
“Darlin’, I was barely holding it together as it was.
There was no chance in hell I was making it another hour.
” I bump her shoulder playfully with mine, just enough to make her smile.
“Besides, he already knows all about you, so you don’t need to worry about a thing. ”
“As Travis’s ex-girlfriend? Or…”
“Or?” I ask, trying to coax an answer out of her.
“Or your…” Her teeth catch her bottom lip, and she looks at me like she’s unsure how to label us. I get it. We’re existing in this complicated space where we’re caught between what we are and what we’re waiting to be.
The second Travis knows, we can stop pretending this is anything less than forever.
I close the distance between us, my hands finding their home on either side of her face. My thumbs trace her cheekbones as I hold her gaze.
“Colt knows you as mine because that’s exactly what you are.
” She blinks, lips parting on a soft breath.
“He knew you as the woman I wanted, then the woman I couldn’t have.
And now?” I lean in closer until our breaths mingle in the space between us.
“Now he knows you as the only woman I’ve ever loved. ”
She brushes the tip of her nose against mine, and everything just feels... right.
“You two really are close, aren’t you?”
“I helped raise him,” I murmur. “Can’t get much closer than that.”
The truth is, Colt’s more like a son to me than my kid ever was.
It was my job to pack his lunch and tie his shoes before he learned the loops himself.
I’m the one who dropped him off for his first day of school, watching as he clutched his backpack tight, while our dad worked himself into the ground trying to keep the farm afloat.
I was the one sitting through countless guitar lessons, watching his tiny fingers learn to dance across the strings.
I got to watch Colton grow into someone good.
Someone who’s honest to the bone with a heart that’s too damn big for his chest. But I was lucky enough to help shape that heart, and that’s something I wear like a badge of honor, even on the days when I feel like I’ve failed in every other way.
Especially on the days when being Travis’s dad felt like a title that was never really mine.
I hold the bar door open, and Piper steps inside, carrying every ounce of my attention with her as I guide her toward the corner table where both of my brothers sit alongside Savannah and Violet.
When I say every single pair of eyes lands on us as we reach the table, I mean it.
Piper picks up on the shift around us immediately and stiffens slightly beside me.
We’re obvious as hell, and she knows it.
So does the rest of the table—at least, I’m willing to bet they do, considering she’s still got that freshly fucked glow about her, and I definitely don’t look as put-together as I did when I first walked in here.
My shirt’s a little wrinkled, and she’s glowing in a way that says someone just worshipped the hell out of her body.
“Where have you two been?” Callan drawls, leaning back in his chair with a shit-eating grin that makes me want to dump his beer over his head. Instead, I flip him the bird, and the asshole just laughs.
If Piper was uneasy walking in here with everyone’s eyes on us, that discomfort vanishes the second she really looks at my brother.
Then she does something that catches the whole table off guard.
Hell, it catches me off guard. She throws her head back and lets out that big, infectious laugh of hers.
“I’m sorry…” she manages between giggles, “I’m trying to play it cool, I swear, but Colton Crawford is sitting at this table, and I…
” She points at my brother, her cheeks flushed pink.
“Well, we already kinda met, but I honestly have no idea what to do with myself right now because what the actual hell?”
The way she wears that excitement like a damn crown hits me right in the chest because she’s not pretending to be anything other than exactly who she is, and that only makes me fall a little harder.
I gave my brother a heads-up about Piper’s little starstruck situation and told him she might get slightly dazzled at first. He’s used to the attention, so it’s no big deal.
Give it one night of being around him, and she’ll start seeing him as just Colt, my little brother, instead of Colton Crawford, country music sensation who’s currently got her brain short-circuiting.
A less secure man might get twitchy about her little fangirl moment. He might let that spark of jealousy catch fire and burn through his common sense. But this woman is mine down to her bones and branded on my soul in ways that have nothing to do with fame or fortune.
Besides, the way she was moaning my name ten minutes ago in my truck, her nails leaving crescents in my shoulders, and her breath hot against my neck? Yeah, I’m not worried.
Colt stands, all six-foot-something of country boy charm, and leans in to place a kiss on Piper’s cheek.
“It’s nice to meet you… twice.” His grin is pure Crawford mischief. “I’ve heard a lot about you.” Piper laughs, giving him a smile that lights up her whole face, and she slides into the seat next to her sister.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you too, face-to-face, that is.”
I chuckle under my breath, and Colt turns to pull me into one of those solid, back-slapping hugs that say it’s been too long—because it has. I haven’t seen my brother in almost a year, not since he and Trace hit the road.
“Look at you,” I say, gripping his arms. “Who’d have guessed hauling a guitar around would give you these?”
“Gotta keep up the illusion. These arms sell tickets.” He smirks, then adds, “Nah, you can blame Trace. You know how he is—had me in the gym every morning like we’re training for the rodeo instead of a tour.”
“How’s he doing?” The way Colt’s face falls tells me everything before he opens his mouth.
“He’s alright. He’s gone to his sister’s.” He pauses, swallowing hard. “Their mom’s getting worse, and with him being on the road so much… Well, he just wants to be with her while she still knows who he is.”
Trace and Colt met at guitar practice when they were both eight years old and barely tall enough to hold their instruments properly, let alone play a full chord.
From that first day on, they became inseparable—two boys who lived and breathed music, spending almost every weekend together, splitting their time between our farm and the Montgomery place.
“She’s still in the early stages,” Colt adds, “but it’s moving fast.”
“Tell him we’re thinking about him,” Callan offers. “And obviously, he’s welcome here over the holidays. It’d be nice for everyone to meet him.”
“Who hasn’t met him?” Colt asks, his gaze sweeping the table like he’s doing a head count of our ever-growing family.
Piper raises her hand in the air, and I can’t help the laugh that rumbles low in my chest.
“I’m sorry,” she says, her cheeks turning that pretty pink shade that drives me crazy.
“I’m not cool, and this is just how I am right now.
The next time we meet, you’ll get normal Piper, not this—” She waves a hand at herself, all flustered energy, like she thinks she has to apologize for being real.
“I’ll mention it to him.” Colt nods, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I’m sure he might be able to get down here for New Year’s or something.”
Voices melt into the background as I grab my brother’s shoulder.
Looking at him now, I feel that familiar pride rising in my chest. This kid who used to follow me around the farm with his toy guitar is selling out stadiums now, but when he looks at me, I still see that little boy’s hazel eyes shining back.
“It’s so good to see you. You still staying at Cal’s?”
“Yeah, but I was thinking maybe I could come help you out at the farm. Stay a couple nights, get up early, and give you a hand?”
“You want to?”
“Yeah, of course I do. I grew up there, too, remember? Let me pull my weight for once.”
“I’d love that. So will Preston.”
His whole face lights up, the way it used to when we were kids and I’d ask if he wanted to ride in the truck bed or sneak pie before dinner.
“How is the old guy?”
“Pretty sure he still thinks retirement is a dirty word.”
“And Ivy?”
“Still riding his ass like always, but I think he’d be lost if she stopped.”
We both laugh as I tip my beer back, and Colt leans in close, lowering his voice to something that’s just between us.
“Good to see you happy, big brother,” he says, eyes flicking toward Piper. “I know it’s complicated… but she’s beautiful.”
Piper isn’t just beautiful. She’s otherworldly, a goddamn supernova that’s burned away all the shadows in my life and left me standing in the light… And the best part is she’s mine.