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“Of course not. Just ’cause you’re twins, it doesn’t mean you have to be glued at the hip your entire lives. And I think Benji wants you to be happy, whatever you decide to do.”

“Yeah. I know. I think.”

“Is this about Izzy?”

“No. Well, kinda, but not really. But, I guess, yeah.”

That was painfully vague, but it didn’t take much momaging to know he wasn’t ready to go into details. “I won’t push, Micah, but when you’re ready to talk, I’m here. Okay?”

“Okay. But you’re doin’ good? How’s the shop?”

What a question, and my answer was loaded with all kinds of land mines. “The store’s fine.” No need to worry him. “Same as usual. Oh, I saw the new Thor movie.”

“There’s no new Thor movie.”

“Right. It was the other guy. You know, his best friend? The space guy. But Thor was in it.”

Micah snorted in my ear. “Which is the only reason you went, right?”

“Guilty.”

“You’re so predictable, Ma.”

And wasn’t that the sad truth?

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

RYE

Aubrey had inspired me.

The way she let me take her last night, and how she’d taken me too. Like sagebrush, once her protecting walls had begun to tumble away, I didn’t think anything could hold the woman back.

She’d pushed me down on her couch and sucked my cock so thoroughly, I’d practically passed out. Her living room curtains stayed open. She said she didn’t care if anyone saw us, that it would help our dating ruse if anyone got nosy, but I thought maybe it had more to do with her wanting to live free. To see and finally be seen.

I saw her. She was on full display for me, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

And it wasn’t a goddamn ruse. I hadn’t been secretive with my feelings for her, but maybe in further attempts to protect her heart, calling it fake was what she needed, even between the two of us.

Or maybe I was completely delusional, and this thing between us would fizzle out and fade away once we both got what we wanted from the deal.

The problem was, I wanted a fuck of a lot more than what she’d agreed to.

I wanted forever.

I’d left her house, after one last go with my mouth between her legs and her fingernails digging into my scalp, and we talked as I drove home. I made it almost all the way back to the ranch, but then turned around and drove back to Bax’s place after Aubrey started falling asleep on me.

It was my birthday and a Sunday. My parents would head to church, but I never went. There was too much to do usually, and it hadn’t ever been something I made time for.

For me, religion was in the mountains and the trees, the dirt beneath my feet and the air above me. I communed with my higher power all the time. Sitting in some too-hot, dusty church in a shirt and tie that made me feel like I was suffocating didn’t make God love me any more or any less than anybody else.

And as always, Presley was at the ranch. Since he stayed in our bunkhouse and managed the seasonal cowboys, he started work early every day to beat the heat of the sun, sometimes before I’d even climbed out of bed, so that meant I could be late to work today, but I shot him a text to let him know.

I knew Bax would be up early, too, so when I knocked on his front door and asked him to show me the land he wanted to sell, he stepped into his boots, grabbed his coffee, and I followed him out there in my truck.

Maybe he could tell I had some contemplating to do, andhismama wasn’t so forgiving if he missed church, so he left me there alone, sitting on my open tailgate, watching the sunrise and dreaming of something I’d been too chicken shit to even think about before.

Going it on my own.