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Chapter Eight

Ryder

Wyatt passed me a piece of wire I had prepared for the last section of fence. We were currently working on repairing this section, before going onto moving the cows to a new paddock. “Thanks, brother,” I murmured, just as Savannah’s car drove past on the gravel driveway below us. But instead of seeing my bubbly blonde-haired sister on her way to Logan’s mechanic shop, this time a raven-haired woman was behind the wheel.

Shaking my head, I laughed softly to myself as I noticed she was driving a lot slower than she had been yesterday when she passed me in that Beetle with the music turned up loud. “I’m guessing from that laugh, it was the city girl you rescued yesterday in Van’s car?” he asked me.

“For future reference, since you’re bound to run into each other, her name is Sienna-Grace,” I told him, holding my hand out for the tool I knew he had waiting for me. I felt the metal touch my palm and kept going as another part of his query stirred a memory from yesterday. “Don’t let her hear you say that I rescued her.”

He fired back a response immediately. “Why’s that?”

Gritting my teeth, I pulled hard on the wire, and as it finally curled tightly in place, I answered his query. “She’s big on the whole independence thing. Made damn sure to tell me she wasn’t a damsel in distress when I offered my assistance.”

“Doesn’t surprise me.” I turned my gaze to catch sight of my brother, just as he scratched at his whiskers.

“Really? How do you suppose that?” Tilting my head slightly to the side. “You haven’t even met her and you already have something you want to say?”

“She sticks out like a sore thumb, huh?”

I guessed that was one way of putting it. I wouldn’t exactly call myself someone who kept up to date with the latest fashions, at least not in the way that Kenzie did. But when I came across her yesterday, it looked as though she was wearing an outfit straight off the fashion pages my sister loved to look at. That was nothing compared to how excited Dolly got when she saw her luggage. It had a name for Christ’s sake. Only expensive luggage had names. Louis-something, wasn’t it?

Shaking my head free from expensive bags, I realized I hadn’t answered Wyatt’s musings. I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, you got that right.”

I took my hat off and wiped the sweat from my forehead, before settling back on my haunches. I looked beside me to where my older brother was still standing, looking out across the rolling hills of our land. Wiping his hands on his jeans, he continued, “What do you suppose a girl like her is in town for, anyway?”

I hadn’t even let it cross my mind, but his question prompted me to. I didn’t want my brother worrying though, not with everything he already had on his plate, so I threw out something completely plausible. I chuckled lightly. “Probably looking for a horse for her pony club.”

His response filled the space between us a moment later. “So, I’m guessing that means she’s met Colton then?”

Heat flared along the back of my neck at the memory of our other brother flirting with her this morning. Didn’t he realize she was off-limits? “Yes,” I ground out, “she met him.”

“Ah.” Wyatt laughed, squatting down as the dogs came running towards us from wherever they had taken off to the moment we got here. He patted Oz on the head and threw the stick that was dropped at his feet, and Milo chased after it. “So, I gather that means he was his usual charming self?”

The sound of a horse snort made me look up. Colton sat atop his new horse, Diablo, leaning casually on the pommel of the saddle. “I’m always charming, brother.” He smiled at me, and the dimples the girls went crazy over made an appearance.

I barely managed to keep the annoyance out of my voice. “Yeah, right.”

“You know I am. The ladies love me after all. It just ain’t for my good looks.” Diablo snorted as though in agreement. It took everything in me not to roll my eyes.

Wyatt laughed. “From what Logan was telling me, though, she was wearing your shirt when she got to the house. Maybe you made your own impression, huh, Ry?”

“Come on—” I started, but got cut off as my younger brother continued.

“Yeah, I heard that too. What’s the go, bro? Did you get some action out on the road before you came home?”

Heat flared along the full length of my spine at his insinuation. “Fuck off, Colton. You know damn well I’m not like that.”

“Wearing your shirt already. C’mon, Ry, if that’s not just shy of pissing on her to mark your territory, I don’t know what is.” Wyatt raised his eyebrows at me.

Not used to my brother taking Colton’s side, I burred up. “It’s not like that.” I threw the fencing strainer into the tray of my truck along with my faded yellow leather gloves and grabbed the bottle of water from earlier. Taking a swig, I added, “She was practically in her underwear. I wasn’t going to leave her like that.”

“Ah, nice. What kind?” Colton interrupted.

The glare I shot my brother could have made paint peel. “Careful.” I warned him.

No longer holding the reins, he held his hands out before him and nodded. “The more appropriate question would be, did it match?”

“What?” I choked on the water as I took another sip. Coughing a few times, I pounded my chest before it settled and I managed to keep going. “What the heck do you mean?” Even though I had a bit of an idea of what he was referring to, I wanted more time to get my head on straight.