****
As soon as the men got clear of the main house, Cade and Josh started in on Jake.
“So, you and Trish, huh, bro?” Josh smiled smugly.
“Don’t start that shit with me, Josh.” Definitely on the grouchy side of things, he wasn’t ready to talk about this with anyone.
Cade looked from Josh to Jake and smiled broadly. “I told you, Josh. If there was nothing going on, Jake wouldn’t be all up in your face after a simple question. Callie and Eva were right. There’s definitely something going on.”
“Fuck you, Cade.” Both men had a good laugh at Jake’s expense.
“So, how serious is it?” Josh leaned his forearms across the corral fence and waited for his brother to reply.
“It’s not. Yet, anyway,” Jake scowled.
“Yet being the key word, bro?” Cade crossed his arms across his chest.
Jake finally let down his guard and faced the two men who were his brothers. “I’m hoping so. But she’s so damn stubborn, I’m having a hard time talking her into just considering the possibility of being more than friends. Hell, the only time she’s even been open to the idea was last night when she was drunk off her ass.”
Josh looked at him with some compassion. “I know about that. It took me a long time to even get Eva to stop flinching when I touched her, much less allow for anything else. You think maybe someone abused Trish, too?”
Jake thought a minute and said, “Hell, I don’t know. Maybe. Something sure happened in her marriage to turn her off of men. She’s never been skittish like Eva in the beginning, but Pete burned her in some way for sure.”
Cade jumped in. “Maybe she’s still grieving for her husband.”
“That’s what I thought at first, but she said some things last night that dispelled that theory. She told me she’d filed for divorce right before Pete died. She said something else about Pete having a hidden side to him. She didn’t make a lot of sense.” Jake ran a frustrated hand through his hair.
Josh added, “Eva thinks she’s carrying some scars from her marriage, too, although she doesn’t think it’s necessarily from physical abuse. She’s tried to get her to open up about it, but so far, no go, bro.”
“Callie thinks something’s there, too, but she has no idea what it is. She said Trish said something about Pete making some bad investments which led to her declaring bankruptcy. I don’t know if that’s part of it.” Cade shook his head in sympathy for Trish.
“Whatever happened affected her ability to trust in other people. She only trusts herself and her parents and probably Eva and Callie. She doesn’t trust me as far as she can throw me, which is frustrating as hell. It’s not that she thinks I’d try to do her any harm, exactly. It’s like she can’t trust me, like she’s waiting for me to let her down. She won’t let me help her. I offered to give her some furniture, and she about bit my head off.”
“What does she need furniture for? Isn’t she living with her folks?” Cade asked.
“Not for much longer. She’s going to rent that house I bought a few streets over from mine. She doesn’t have any furniture. She said she sold all of hers before she moved back here. She almost didn’t take the house, because she said she’d never qualify for credit. She wanted it so bad she could taste it, but she’d rather do without it than accept my help. Anyone’s help. She nearly throttled me when I suggested that I’d cosign on a loan for her. I told her you guys had some old stuff you were getting rid of, too. She’s going to offer to buy it.”
Cade nodded and said, “Yeah, she’s already talked to Callie. Well, at least she’s renting the house from you. That’s got to be a good sign.”
Jake’s guilt surfaced as he said, “She doesn’t know I own it. Hell, I’d let her live there rent free, but I had to name a price, or she’d never have taken it. I have to find some way to tell her it’s mine, but I’m waiting for a better time.”
Josh looked at his brother. “Jake, if she has trust issues, you’d better make it quick. The last thing you need is to be caught up in something that Trish might consider as any kind of deception.”
“Yeah, I know it. Damn it all to hell. I just want to help her.” Jake’s frustration rang out clearly.
“I get that, Jake, I really do, but sometimes women who have been burned need to prove they can do for themselves. I don’t mean prove it to you or someone else, but so they’ll know it and believe in themselves again. That’s how Eva was in the beginning. Not only didn’t she trust any man, but she didn’t trust herself. She needed to know she could handle herself, despite the mistakes she’d made in the past. Maybe that’s how Trish is feeling.”
“Maybe.” Jake continued to process his thoughts.
“So what’s the plan, bro? You looking for something long term, or just a quick roll in the hay?” Josh slapped his brother on the back.
Jake looked at his brother coldly. “Be careful, Josh.”
“That’s what I thought.” Josh smiled. “You’ve got it bad, don’t you?”
Jake relaxed again. “It’s too soon to tell. I sure do want to find out, though. She’s a hell of a woman.”
Cade added, “She comes with strings, Jake. Those little kids of hers own her heart.”
“You don’t have to tell me that. Hell, I’m as crazy about the kids as I am about her. Almost, anyway. The whole idea of an instant family doesn’t put me off at all. We’ll get along just fine. I accepted your ass into the family, didn’t I, Cade? And you were two hundred pounds of mean, shitty attitude when you first got here.”
Cade smiled at the memory. “I was that, wasn’t I? You and Josh tolerated me, but Callie brought me around. Your grandparents, too. You two were suspicious at first.”
“We got past that pretty fast after our folks died and you mellowed out some. You were always watching out for Callie, and we knew what a handful she was. We knew she drove you crazy sometimes, but you never lost it with her, so we figured you were alright. Hell, we all knew you’d end up marrying her before you did.”
Cade smiled. “Well, I sure won the prize, didn’t I? Hang in there with Trish, Jake. It’ll be worth it in the end if you can get past her walls.”
“I don’t really think I have a choice. It’s either win her or die trying.”