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“Why don’t you call me in the morning. You can decide which one whenever. We’ll be around.”

“Thanks, Shane.” She took a step toward him, sort of half reaching out her hand before she pulled it back and stepped away from him and toward her car. “Thanks for tonight. We had a really great time. I’ll call tomorrow.”

Shane tipped his hat and waited for Micah and her to get in the car and get buckled. They pulled away before Shane turned and walked back toward his brothers.

When they started making kissing noises and falsettowoo-oos, he flipped them both off.

“Man, I haven’t seen you this hung up on somebody since Mattie York,” Boone offered.

Luckily Shane was halfway through moving into the driver’s seat, so the immediate tension that went through his body was offset by forward motion.

Boone was mostly clueless about everything that had happened with Mattie as far as Shane knew, but Gavin was aware of bits and pieces. Shane had tried to hide it, but some things couldn’t be hidden when you were family and in business together.

Shane considered briefly Cora’s words about being honest with people. Giving them pieces of yourself to better understand the situation, or maybe better understand theirs. Shane rejected the advice for this particular moment. His brothers didn’t need to know about the mistakes he’d made. Not on this. But he could focus on one truth that he wasn’t embarrassed of. “Yeah, I’m hung up on Cora. Why wouldn’t I be? She’s great.”

“She’s hot,” Boone offered from the back, clearly wanting to get a rise out of Shane. “Don’t know why you’d mess around with a woman with a kid, though. Haven’t you had enough responsibility in your life?”

“I don’t mind responsibility. Besides, I like the kid.”

“Hard worker,” Gavin added. “Good touch with the horses.”

“Yeah, he’s a funny kid. But you really want to play daddy to a kid who’s already half grown?”

“He tried to play daddy to me, and we’re only two years apart. I don’t see why this would be any different,” Gavin offered. He grinned at Shane. “Especially if you’re getting sex out of the deal.”

“Youaregetting sex out of the deal, aren’t you?” Boone asked as Shane pulled out of the pizza place’s parking lot.

“What’s it to you?”

“Well, we know Gavin isn’t since he spends every free moment fluttering over Lou.”

“I don’t flutter, asshole.”

“And I can barely walk these days without wanting to saw my damn leg off. Molly’s worked up about the divorce, and if Lindsay is sleeping with anyone I’ll personally saw his balls off. So . . .” Boone trailed off, and Shane had the unfortunate, horrible, scarring realization that their mother was the only member of the Tyler family currently getting regular sex.

Due to the uncomfortable silence that descended, Shane had the feeling they’d all come to that horrifying conclusion.

“Let’s go drinking,” Boone offered.

Shane snorted, but Gavin elbowed him and gave him a meaningful look. “We could go to Branded Man’s.Just for an hour or so. I’ll text Moll she’s in charge at the ranch tonight. She won’t care.”

Shane caught on. They hadn’t really welcomed Boone home as they might have normally done if Mom hadn’t been so pissed at him. The injuries, and the fact he hadn’t told them about the injuries had only stoked her anger with him higher.

It’d be a good thing to take him out, just the three of them. In an environment Boone could relax in.

“Yeah, sounds good.” Shane made a U-turn and headed back toward the other side of town. Branded Man’s was no Main Street tourist stop. It was mostly a glorified shack on the north side of Gracely. It wasn’t much frequented by anyone who didn’t work land somewhere around Gracely.

The parking lot was little more than a postage stamp of dirt people arranged their trucks in whichever way they could. Blocking someone in would ensure a fistfight before you were allowed to leave. Shane carefully parked his car.

“I haven’t been here in something like ten years.”

“I’m surprised you’ve ever been here,” Boone offered, clapping him on the shoulder from behind before he slid out of the truck.

Shane sighed, but he followed his brother toward the sound of Merle Haggard singing about drinking. Inside, the room was filled with smoke. Since the owner didn’t employ anyone and acted as bartender himself, he didn’t have to follow any of the state’s smoking regulations.

Shane coughed a little as they made their way toward the long, worn bar. Boone laughed at him and ordered three beers from Peach, a name all locals knew better than to make fun of him for, who slapped three bottles onto the bar in rapid succession. He shook his head when Boone pulled out his wallet.

“On the house. Saw that tramplin’ you got while back.”