Good for Rachel. “I think it’s nice that you have such good friends.”
“Family,” Rachel insisted. “It goes beyond friends. I’m not terrifically close to Marie or Teeny or Mel, but I love them. I’ve learned more in the time I’ve been in Bliss than in all the years before. I would never have given someone like Mel a second glance back in Dallas. But living here forces a person to be tolerant, and once you’re tolerant, you can see past a person’s oddities and get to know how truly amazing they are. But you can only do that if they’re honest with you.”
Hope didn’t like where this was going. She felt restless again. “Don’t play around, Rachel. Say what you mean to say.”
Rachel sighed. “See, I told Jen that was the way to go, but no, she said I should be gentle. Fine. You’re in trouble. I can see it plainly. Whatever you’re running from is starting to catch up to you, and it’s eating you alive. You can tell us because there’s nothing you can say that will make us turn away from you.”
But Hope knew the truth. Rachel was being naïve. “You would be surprised what I can say.”
“No, I wouldn’t. But I’m willing to wait. I just want you to know that you have a family here, and we’re all sitting and waiting for the time that you trust us enough to come out of whatever closet you’re hiding in.”
A lovely thought. Maybe. But she had to think about it. And she would have to talk to Noah and James first. God, she didn’t know if she could do that. “I’ll consider it.”
Rachel picked up her sandwich again. “See that you do. Now, what are we going to do about Noah and Max because we have a horse with a lame leg, and Max can’t figure out what’s wrong.”
That was a much easier task than dealing with her past.
“Tell Max we’ll give him twenty percent off house calls,” Hope said. “But he has to pay full price on all meds.”
Noah was going to kick her ass. And he’d give Max the discount, too.
Rachel’s brows went up in surprise. “Rumors are true then. Well, Noah worked fast. Excellent. It’s so much easier to work with the woman. You have no idea how much the people of this town celebrated after Caleb finally fell into Holly’s bed. Alexei is a damn town hero for making that happen. Now we don’t have to call Doc. We just call Holly. So much easier that way. So I’ll let everyone know to go through you. And let’s make it fifty percent.”
Rachel drove a hard bargain. But her husband was a hard case. “Nope. Dealing with Max comes with a price tag. Can you guarantee me that Noah will only have to deal with Rye?”
“Damn it, forty percent.”
“Thirty-five and Noah will personally apologize.”
Rachel sighed. “And I promise Max won’t throw him into the horse trough. Deal?”
They shook on it.
Hope sat back, a happy feeling overtaking her. She was going to get Noah on track, and if he didn’t like it, well, he could always spank her again.
“So what are you going to do about James?” Rachel asked.
Happy feeling gone. She had no idea. But she was going to come up with something because all of the sudden she knew this was one problem she couldn’t walk away from.
* * * *
James slammed out of the truck and then remembered he hadn’t been alone. Damn dog. He took a deep breath. The dog wasn’t at fault here. His brother was. He turned and opened the door, and Butch bounded out.
The big ugly mutt scampered around like a puppy. He ran in a huge circle as fast as his legs could take him.
It was obvious the big guy had been cooped up in an apartment for way too long without a place to run.
Had it been that way for Noah, too?
Well, at least the dog handled it properly. The dog ran around chasing its own tail, not Hope’s.
Chase? Fuck. Noah had caught it. And he’d fucked it. James had stood there listening as his brother had screwed Hope against the wall of that tiny, piece-of-shit apartment. Hope’s skirt had been tossed up, and those shapely legs of hers had been wrapped around Noah’s waist as his brother pumped into her.
His first thought had been to tell Noah to hurry the fuck up so he could have a turn.
His second had been to kill his brother.
Well, it was done now. She’d made her choice.
How had things gone to shit in a day? And what the hell was he going to do about it?
He thought about going into the house and doing the paperwork sitting on his desk, but he couldn’t stand the thought of being cooped up. His eyes trailed to the corral. Trev stood there talking to two unfamiliar men.
Damn it. He’d forgotten about the interviews. Late last night, he’d gotten a call about a couple of hands looking for work. He still needed three or four more men, but the thought of conducting an interview right now made his stomach churn. He could only think of the questions he would ask.
Do you intend to waltz in and throw my girl up against a wall and fuck her?
Do you intend to stay on for a couple of years, let me rely on you, and then head off the first time something shiny catches your eye?
He had problems, and they all came back to his brother.
What he needed was some seriously rough work. He had a few hours before he needed to pick up Hope, and by then he had to decide if he was going to force his brother to walk back to the G. He had no doubt Noah would have made his way to Hope’s side by then.
“Hey! James, this is Brad and Jay.” Trev tipped his hat toward the two newcomers. “They’re answering the ad we put out last week.”
Brad was a solidly built guy, but something about the other one was off. Jay was awfully skinny for someone who worked with cattle. Even a lean cowboy had a lot of muscle. And his jeans looked brand new and pressed. James didn’t know a single cowboy who pressed his damn jeans before he went to work, but maybe the kid was nervous.
And it wasn’t like there was a lot of choice. The ad had run for a week, and this was the first time anyone had answered.
“Good. Nice to meet you.” He jerked his head a bit to indicate he’d like to talk to Trev alone.
Trev asked the men to wait on the porch, and they ambled off toward the house. “If I weren’t so desperate, I would send both of them packing. I don’t know why, but something’s off with those boys. They said they’re best friends, but they don’t fit to me. I don’t know.”
James waved him off. He was mired in his own misery. “Give ’em a shot. We can always fire them later. We have to move the herd in before first snowfall. You have no idea what a winter here is like. We’re going to need them since you’re going to want to spend time with Beth.”
Trev’s face fell. “I’m not going to let you down. Bo and I can take turns watching out for her. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” He wasn’t going to force his new partner into a heart-to-heart, huggy damn discussion about the fucked-up state of his life.
Was Noah planning on running off with Hope?
“I was asking because I heard about what happened with Hope.”
James turned. “God, what now?” His hands were in his pockets reaching for his keys when Trev responded.
“Uhm, you know, the stuff with Noah in her apartment. Lucy called the house and talked to Beth because she wanted to talk to Hope, but Beth grew up in a small town, too. She knows the sound of a woman with gossip to tell. She got the story out of Lucy who heard it from the fry cook at Stella’s.”
Goddamn grapevine. A man couldn’t take a crap without someone in this town commenting on it. “I’m fine. Hope wants to screw Noah, more power to her.”
“Really? I thought you were interested in her.” Trev put a booted foot on the railing.
“I was just doing a favor for a friend.” No point in talking about it now. He hadn’t really wanted Hope. He hadn’t dreamed about her last night. He hadn’t liked taking care of her this morning. He hadn’t enjoyed looking at her across the breakfast table and talking about stuff. No. He liked being the odd man out b
ecause it meant he was free.
Freedom sucked ass.
“Well, that’s good then,” Trev said with a sigh. “I would think you would be happy for your brother. Maybe this will settle him down. If things work out with Hope, he could really find his place back here. A family settles a man. I should know. I know I’m odd, but I like the responsibility. Damn, I can’t wait to see that kid. You know what else? I can’t wait to see how Bo and Beth handle it. And if your brother works as fast as I think he will, we might have a whole bunch of kids running around the ranch.”
A red mist swam in front of James’s face, and then his hand throbbed.
Trev shook his head. “Damn. We’re going to have fix that.”
He’d put his fist through the railing. Right through. He was damn lucky he hadn’t broken his hand. The very thought of Hope pregnant with his brother’s baby had made him insane.
He’d had a vision of her pregnant, his and Noah’s hands on her belly as she lay between them.
But she’d made her damn choice. And Noah had made his.
“So, not so happy about that,” Trev commented.
Trev McNamara was a manipulative bastard who had known exactly what putting that image into his head would do to him. “It’s none of your business.”
“Oh, partner, you’ll find one of my great flaws is sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong. I can’t drink anymore, and I swore off strippers, so giving advice is really my pastime now.”
James shook his fist out. Trev was also a great guy in addition to being a nosy asshole. “Fine. What’s your amazing advice?”
“Well, the way I see it, you have two choices, the first one being infinitely preferable to the second. You can make up with your brother. You can convince him to share Hope with you.”
“Hope might have something to say about that.”
“I doubt it. I saw the way she looked at both of you. Let me tell you, there aren’t many women who will turn down a chance to be in the middle of two men they want. They might say it’s only for a night or two but soon enough if the men are smart and talented, she’s got two rings on her finger and a baby in her belly and she’s all—‘what happened, where did all this laundry come from?’”
James chuckled at the idea of Hope surrounded by dirty laundry. Most likely, he would end up doing hers. But he wasn’t ready to try option number one. “I don’t want to talk to him. I don’t know if I can even be in the same room with him.”
“Then you move to option two. Tell her to choose again.”
“What?”
Trev shrugged. “You think your brother stole her? Steal her back, man. The way I understand it, I don’t know that Hope really understood there was a choice to be made.”
He was never going to hear the end of this. “I asked her out.”
“That might have been your mistake,” Trev said. “Noah didn’t ask her out. Not really. He went at her on a desk or something.”
Ah, the flaws in the gossip mill. “It was a wall.”
Trev frowned, shaking his head in a disapproving fashion. “Sounds uncomfortable. And quick. You could do better. And that girl’s a sub if I ever saw one. If I were in your shoes and I couldn’t stomach sharing with my brother, I would tie that pretty girl up, smack her ass ’til it was a nice shade of pink, and show her who’s really boss. A couple of hours of that and she might change her mind.”
Not the worst idea in the world.
“But seriously, the first option is best,” Trev insisted. “I think in the end you’re going to want to have a relationship with your brother.”
He couldn’t stand the thought of a heart-to-heart with Noah right now. “My fist would like to have a relationship with his gut.”
Trev seemed to give in to the inevitable. “Or you could be a stubborn ass. That’s a way to go. You know, you could always just suck it up and step back. I didn’t offer that as an option because I see the way you look at that girl. You’ve waited a long time for her.”
“I didn’t have anything to offer her before. I don’t know how much I have to offer her now. I fucking don’t know. Goddamn Noah has to come back and fuck everything up. Now I have some timetable, and I don’t like that.”
Trev laughed out loud. “You and Bo should get together some time.” He sobered up. “Thank your brother. Bo thanks me every day. If I hadn’t come along, he and Beth would both be alone. Sometimes we need that third part to get the machine moving. But you try it your way. I think it will all work out in the end. Are you going to kick his ass to the curb or are you going to make him watch?”
James had the definite feeling that Trev was, once again, butting in. He’d thought about not allowing Noah back on the ranch. But Trev just put that idea in his head. Probably because he thought proximity would bring him and Noah closer.
But James just wanted a little revenge.
“Can I use your playroom?” James had known that they would get along when the first thing Trev had set up in the guesthouse had been a playroom complete with everything a Dom needed to torture a little sub.
“Of course.” Trev pushed off the fence. “I’ll go get our two new hands set up.”
“I’m going to have a little session with Red.” Getting his ass kicked by a mean old horse just might take the edge off. He wanted to let Hope know he could handle her, not scare the crap out of her.
“Your funeral, man.” But Trev was smiling as he walked away. He looked like a man who had done everything he had planned.
Trev was going to be damn disappointed because he wasn’t making up with his brother.
He wasn’t.
Chapter Ten
By the time James drove up, Hope knew more about Sasquatch than any woman should know. The “squatchers” were nice enough, if utterly obsessed.
“You know from a biological standpoint, it’s really hard to believe that there’s a whole species of superpredator out there and the only real evidence we have is a video filmed in the sixties and some prints.”
Hope slapped at Noah’s arm. “Stop baiting them.”
Noah’s green eyes rolled. “Well, I do have a doctorate. Do they have doctorates?”
“Look, Doc, I dropped out of college to squatch. I am an expert on the big guy. He’s real, and just because you don’t believe in him doesn’t mean he won’t take your head off one day,” Trey, the leader of this intrepid group of squatchers, said. He was a thin man who obviously didn’t believe in a razor. Unfortunately, unlike his favored mythical beast, Trey didn’t grow a beard well. It was kind of in patches across his face.
“I have a master’s in philosophy,” a bright-eyed girl who couldn’t be more than twenty-two said. Like her brethren, she could be mistaken for a really sweet-looking homeless person.
“I graduated with a degree in English,” another young man admitted. “It was this or work at fast food. I don’t really like hydrogenated oils.”
“And you, Dr. Bennett, need to keep an open mind,” Nell said, giving him a little frown. She was in her element, holding court in front of her little tent. She’d invited the Bigfoot hunters to give her bread a try and then plied them all with her organic apple cider. They had been sitting around for an hour talking about mythical creatures. Noah had sat on the ground beside Hope, a mug of cider in his hand. It hadn’t been too long until he’d managed to get his head in her lap, an arm wrapped possessively around her legs.
It occurred to Hope that this whole festival thing was like a temporary commune for supernatural geeks. She bet a whole bunch of these people had Star Trek costumes somewhere in their closets.
“And you’re all wrong. Sasquatch isn’t from this plane. He probably wandered in from another plane. My own mother fell through a door from her plane. She was a faery, but she really liked it here.” Nell sat back in her chair, knitting as she spoke.
Henry merely looked on indulgently as his wife explained her native origins.
Trey leaned over, his voice low. “That lady is crazy, but sh
e makes really good bread.”
James honked his horn.
Hope stood, forcing Noah to stand as well. They said good-bye and started to walk toward the truck.
“At least he doesn’t have a gun.” Noah walked beside her. He tried to reach down and hold her hand.
That seemed like waving a red flag in front of a bull. She took a step away. “Noah, we should talk. When we get back, I think we need to talk about what’s going on between us.”
And she would have to decide just how much to tell them about her past. In the hours she’d spent with Nell and Henry and Rachel, she’d decided that she would have to tell them about her problem with alcohol. It wasn’t fair to hide it from them if she was going to have even a short, meaningless relationship with one of them.
“Damn straight we’re going to talk. I told you I wasn’t going to hide this.” Noah kept walking beside her. She could see the tight line of his jaw.
James got out and walked around the truck, opening the passenger side door for her.
“Are you going to make me walk back to the ranch?” Noah asked.
James simply closed the door behind Hope and walked right past his brother to the driver’s side.
“James, you can’t make him walk. This is ridiculous.” Hope started to open the door, but the lock clicked into place. “Damn it, James.”
James gunned the engine. “He knows what to do.”
There was a thump, and when Hope looked back, Noah was in the truck bed. He tapped on the glass. Hope reached back and slid the small window open.
Noah pressed his face in. “Jamie, I swear to god, if you kill me, I will haunt your ass for the rest of time.”
James grinned as he took off, proving his truck had a serious engine.
“Asshole!” Noah screamed, his hand clutching the window, his body sliding as the truck moved.
“You’re trying to hurt him,” Hope accused.
“Nah, he’s had worse. He was the worst truck surfer in the county. Max really did damn near kill him that time he stopped because there was a bunny in the road. Saved the bunny, nearly decapitated Noah.”