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She worked quietly, talking calmly and gently so she didn’t spook the heifer. “Alright, we’re making some progress, girl. Just keep pushing with me. She’s having contractions every other minute and I’m going to use this next one to pull with more force. Get ready to catch.”

My jaw dropped as I watched her pull the calf out a couple of minutes later. Jolene caught it before it hit the ground and then Reagan quickly moved around to untie the heifer so she could turn around and see to her calf.

“The vet can help make sure she delivers the placenta since it probably won’t come for another hour or so.” Reagan let out a watery laugh and then sniffed. “I’m not crying.”

West picked her up and set her down on top of the fence. “You’re amazing. You made that look easy.”

Tate pushed West out of the way so he could stand between Reagan’s thighs and hug her, birthing mess and all.

“I never knew birthing a calf could be sexy until now.”

Reagan glanced over at me and our gazes locked. There was my chance. Tell her Melanie was a liar and take her back to the house to fuck away the adrenaline I was sure was coursing through her body. I frowned and looked away.

I heard Tate grunt and didn’t need to look back at them to know she’d pushed him away. The sound of her feet eating up the dirt as she high tailed it back to the house made it clear.

“Jesus.” Tate groaned. “She’s going to be the death of me.”

Jolene spoke from behind him.

“I’ll be the death of you if you run that woman off. I like her.”

That was the problem, I knew. Everyone liked her. Adding Jolene to the list of people who liked Reagan just topped the cake, though, because Jolene was hard to win over. Since she’d arrived in Devil’s Den, Reagan had been invited out with our family more times than we had.

And that was another reason to keep our dicks in our pants. Messing with her just spelled trouble. None of us were serious about settling down with a woman, so fucking her would be just that, fucking. If she got her feelings hurt and cried to half the town about it, life would just be harder. Plus, it wasn’t like we were going to start some weird ass relationship with her, where we all three dated her. We didn’t do that. She’d have to pick one of us and that spelled out a whole other load of shit. We just had to stay away from her. With our dicks, anyway.

CHAPTER 25

Reagan

“Sunday dinner at the diner with the family! I love this!” Vera stood up at the packed table and grinned. “To it becoming a tradition!”

I cheered along with everyone else and laughed when Lucky screeched along happily. I was sitting next to Maxie so Lucky and Hank could see each other and the two boys were in heaven staring at each other. Everyone but the oldest Hellstone brothers were there. I figured they were just coming late. Or that they’d been grouchy and refused to come. That wouldn’t have surprised me at all. They’d been extra grouchy lately. Especially Mills. We had had one decent night and then he’d gone back to asshole Mills.

Vera’s husbands sat next to her with their daughter sitting on Reed’s lap. Nellie’s husbands were busy trying to wrangle Waylan. Waylan wasn’t interested in being wrangled, though. She was more interested in challenging the boy across the diner to arm wrestle her. Her stepdads were all cops but I worried Waylan was going to grow up and become an outlaw. The girl was wild. Maxie’s men sat on her other side, the three of them cranky they weren’t holding their son. It was a full table with so much life and happiness that I couldn’t help grinning.

“How are things at the ranch?” Maxie had to raise her voice to be heard over the rest of the table. I was pretty sure the diner had never been so loud.

“Um…Good? I helped birth a calf. That was fun. I’ve been working more with Jolene. I really like her.” I shrugged. “Other than that, it’s fine.”

She raised her eyebrows but before she could say anything, she looked behind me and I saw her cheeks go pink. I turned to look at what she’d spotted and smiled. The guys had made it after all. Only they didn’t smile back.

They stomped over, the three of them moving in one big unhappy unit. Mills, as always, took the lead.

“Well, this looks cozy.”

Vera swore from the other side of the table.

“Shit.”

I looked back and forth between the siblings and realization dawned on me. No one had invited them. They’d been left out of their own family dinner while I’d been invited. Guilt instantly ate at me and I looked around for another table so we could make them fit.

“This is really nice. You invite a practical stranger over your own brothers.” West sounded hurt and I hated it.

“We didn’t think you’d want to come…” The excuse sounded weak coming from Nellie. It seemed to just add salt to the wound.

“Fuck it. If you don’t want us involved in family events then—”

I jumped in before Mills could finish his thought and say something he’d regret later.