Chapter Three – Caden
Caden
Once I got into my truck, I grabbed the steering wheel and cursed.
“Fuck.”
My head spun with emotions I hadn’t felt in years. Desire, longing, and something I couldn’t quite put my finger on and honestly didn’t want to think about.
I closed my eyes and tried not to see Lilibeth dressed in nothing but lace underwear. Christ Almighty. I knew she had a nice body, but to see those curves up close stole my breath. Then, to see her red-rimmed eyes…it nearly broke me.
Looking back at the house, I drew in a deep breath before turning the ignition on and pulling out of the driveway. I needed to avoid Lilibeth as much as I could. She was quickly becoming a weakness, and I would never be weak for a woman again. Ever.
Ten minutes later, I pulled in and parked at Anna’s Café. It was rare for me to come into town anymore to eat breakfast. One, I was too busy on the ranch, and two, I couldn’t stand the pity on people’s faces whenever they saw me, even a few years later.
The gossip ran rampant after Rachel left River Falls.
She had, of course, told people I’d proposed, and that she’d turned me down—twice now.
It was even in The Daily Dirt. I thought my mother was going to come unglued when she read it.
She told my father she was going to give Janet Miller a piece of her mind once and for all.
It took my father, grandfather, and me to talk her out of it.
It wasn’t uncommon to see our family featured in the local gossip column.
Almost all of us had experienced it at one time or another.
The bell above the door rang, and I swore everyone in the café turned to look. It didn’t take me long to spot my younger brother, Gatlin, sitting at a booth. I quickly made my way over to him and sat down.
Glancing up, he smirked. “Sure, join me for breakfast, Caden.”
“Did Emeline or Ensley call you to go check on Lilibeth?”
Confused, he narrowed his eyes. “What?”
“Did anyone call you to see if you were in town?”
He sat back. “No. What’s wrong with Lilibeth?”
“Nothing. She’s fine. Just overslept and no one could get a hold of her.”
“So our sisters thought you’d be the ideal person to go and check on her? That’s insane. You clearly don’t like her.”
Lucy Miller, Anna Miller’s daughter and the café’s owner, walked over. “Hey there, Caden. I haven’t seen you around in a while.”
“Hey, Lucy. I’ll take a coffee and a water.” I looked back at Gatlin. “Have you ordered yet?”
“Just now.”
Turning back to Lucy, I said, “I’ll take the breakfast special, over-medium for the eggs, please.”
“Sure thing,” Lucy replied, before turning and walking back toward the kitchen. I glanced around to see that everyone was back to minding their own business.
When I looked back at my brother, he raised a single brow.
“I like Lilibeth just fine.”
He laughed.
“Okay, she gets to me. I don’t know how to explain it. And I don’t know why Ensley asked me. But,” I lowered my voice, “she fucking answered her door dressed in nothing but a bra and panties.”
Gatlin slowly shook his head. “You poor bastard. I’m sure that really hurt your eyes.”
I shot him a dirty look. “You don’t get it, Gatlin. The woman drives me mad.”
He leaned back in the booth. “No kidding. The question you need to ask yourself is why does she drive you mad? Are you attracted to her, and that pisses you off because you’d rather walk around grumpy and hating the world?”
I scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m not. I’m asking a legit question, Caden.”
“I don’t hate the world.”
“Could have fooled me. Oh, maybe you just hate women, so you take out your self-induced loneliness on everyone.”
Lucy walked back over and placed my coffee and water on the table.
I put sugar and cream in the coffee, the entire time feeling my brother’s intense gaze on me.
“Why the fuck are you staring at me?”
He shrugged. “What happened after she answered the door in her underwear?”
“Nothing. She grabbed a coat and put it on.”
“And once you made sure she was okay, you decided to come to Anna’s for breakfast?”
“I did. Is there a problem with that?”
He raised his hands in defense. “Not at all.”
The bell above the café door rang, and we both turned to see none other than Lilibeth walking in.
“Christ,” I mumbled, as Gatlin chuckled.
“You can’t seem to get away from this woman, can you?”
“Good morning, Lucy,” Lilibeth said, in her usual chipper voice. “May I please grab a coffee and an orange danish to go?”
I was silently praying she wouldn’t look over and see us sitting here.
“Should we invite her to join us for breakfast?” Gatlin asked, his voice lowered this time.
“No, we should not. Besides, she needs to get to her store. Remember the whole oversleeping and running late thing?”
“Right. Right. You planning on doing any Black Friday shopping since you’re in town?”
My coffee mug paused right before I took a sip. “Did you seriously just ask me that?”
He laughed. “I did.”
“Are you?”
“Hell yeah. I usually get all of my Christmas shopping done the weekend after Thanksgiving.”
I shook my head and whispered, “Pussy.”
Gatlin grinned. “Last chance. She’s leaving.”
Turning my head, I watched as Lilibeth breezed out of the café as quickly as she’d come in. I silently thanked God she hadn’t seen us.
“Caden, explain to me why you dislike Lilibeth so much. She’s beautiful. Always has a smile on her face, and is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Why does she get under your skin?”
“She’s annoying.”
When he didn’t say anything, I finally met his gaze. “Or, you’re attracted to her, and that pisses you off.”
“Why would I be pissed off if I was attracted to someone?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because she’s the first woman since Rachel who’s made you feel something in that cold black heart of yours.”
“Wrong.”
“Am I?”
I nodded.
“You don’t think she’s pretty?”
With a one-shoulder shrug, I replied, “She’s cute.”
“Cute? You think that woman,” he jerked his head toward the door Lilibeth had just walked out of, “is simply cute? Was she cute in her bra and panties a few moments ago?”
I smirked. “Cute isn’t the word I would describe.”
A wide grin appeared on his face. “So she was hot.”
Sighing, I nodded. “Yes, Gatlin, she was hot.”
“And you don’t want to ask her out for what reason exactly, Caden?”
“If you like her so much, why don’t you ask her?”
He leaned back against the bench and nodded, looking thoughtful. “You know what? I might just do that.”
I was stunned, once again, by the intense anger that instantly bubbled up inside of me at the idea of my brother going out with Lilibeth. I ignored it and took another drink of my coffee, hoping like hell my expression was neutral. “Go for it then.”
Gatlin nodded just once this time, firmly. “I think I will. I’ll stop by her store after breakfast and ask.”
“You do that.”
“I will.”
Rolling my eyes, I exhaled. “Can we please change the subject?”
Gatlin held up his hands in surrender. “By all means.”
“Have you spoken to Uncle Mike about that pipe leak at the barn? We need to get that fixed.”
“It’s on my list of things to do today.”
“Good. We’re expecting a pretty decent storm next week, so I want all cattle accounted for. We need to have the guys on rotation, making sure none of the water pipes freeze.”
Gatlin replied, “Already done.”
“Thanks.”
“You know, maybe I’ll ask Lilibeth to be my date for the fundraiser dinner next week.”
I frowned. “Are we back on that conversation again, man? Geez. Do whatever you need to do, like I said.” Watching his smirk, my curiosity got the better of me, so I asked, “That’s next week?”
He laughed. “It’s always the weekend after Thanksgiving, Caden. You should really bring a date this year.”
“No, thanks.”
When he didn’t say anything, I glanced up from my coffee cup.
“It’s been over two years, Caden. How long are you going to let Rachel rule your life like this?”
“Why is everyone on my ass about this? She isn’t ruling anything. I simply don’t want to bring a date.”
He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “If you think for one second Rachel is miserable and hiding out at home, you’ve got another thing coming. Caden, you dodged a fucking bullet with her. All she wanted you for was money.”
“I also spent over a decade and a half dating her. Loving her. That’s not something you can just walk away from.”
Sitting back, he slowly shook his head. “She has, though, and she’s never looked back.”
I bit back the curse and looked around for Lucy. Maybe it wasn’t too late to just leave.
“I’m not trying to bust your balls, Caden. I hate seeing you so unhappy. I don’t think she deserves that kind of power over you.”
“Have you ever been in love, Gatlin?”
He looked at me and sighed. “No, I haven’t.”
“I thought I was going to live my life with her. Raise a family, teach my kids all about ranching and have Rachel right by my side through it all. For sixteen years, I devoted my entire life to her. Only to find she’d never once paid any attention to what was really happening in my life or on the ranch.
If she had, she would have known all along I wasn’t going to be able to give her the life she truly wanted.
“I still feel betrayed by the one person I thought I could trust implicitly. So yes, I am bitter, and I highly doubt I’ll ever trust another woman again.
My heart is empty, Gatlin. I’m trying to find the person I was before her, and he just isn’t there any longer, no matter how hard I fucking look.
Because when she walked away that day, a part of me did as well. ”
He swallowed hard. “Caden, not every woman is like Rachel. You have to know that. Look at our own sisters and our mother.”
I exhaled. “I just don’t think I’ll ever be able to give anyone what’s left of my heart without wondering when they’ll break it. And I’m just not willing to take that risk.”
Lucy approached and placed our breakfasts down on the table. “Here you boys go. Do you need anything else?”
“No, thanks, Lucy,” I said with a smile.
“Thanks, Lucy.”
“Sure thing!”
When she turned and walked away, Gatlin cleared his throat. “I’m sorry I said anything. I have no right to judge you, seeing as I’ve never gone through what you have.”
“You’re right, though. I am a miserable son-of-a-bitch.”
He pointed his fork at me. “You said that, I didn’t. I also won’t disagree.”
I let out a soft laugh. “I’m glad I ran into you this morning.”
My younger brother grinned. “Me too. I miss our mornings at the café.”
“We should make this a habit again.”
Gatlin nodded. “I agree. So, back to Lilibeth…she answered the door in her undies, huh?”
“Undies? What are you, twelve?”
He rolled his eyes. “Is her body as nice as I think it is?”
I brought my coffee up to my mouth and paused. Smirking, I said, “It’s fucking amazing. Not only does she have curves, but she clearly works out.”
“Lucky bastard.”
I winked. “It made the hassle of coming into town worth it, I can tell you that.”
Chuckling, Gatlin replied, “I bet.”
For half a second, I thought about telling my brother what I’d overheard Lilibeth say about her virginity, but decided against it. I was never one for gossip, and I wasn’t about to start now.
“Okay, back to reality. That storm is moving in, I’d like to make sure we’re ready for it.”
Gatlin and I easily fell into a conversation about the ranch. It pushed all thoughts of Lilibeth and her sexy-as-hell body right out of my head.
For now, anyway, because I had a feeling that once I was in my bed tonight, those visions would pay me a visit.