Page 15

Shoving that thought aside, I shift my weight. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s wrong.”

“I’m just an idiot.” She presses her thumbs into her eye sockets. “I don’t think you can fix that.”

I give her a gentle nudge. “You couldn’t be an idiot if you tried.”

“That’s the thing. I did try. And I totally fell on my face.” Sucking in a breath, she straightens. “You make it look so easy.”

“That’s because I am easy.” My lips twitch.

Sally rolls her eyes. “You know what I mean. Anyone you want, you get.”

“Who do you want?”

“I don’t know.” Sally scoffs. “Anyone. I’ve been thinking about it, and I decided I need to”—she tilts her head one way, then the other—“blow off a little steam while I’m in town.”

I stare at her. “Does that mean what I think it means?”

“Stop looking at me like that. I’m allowed to have needs.”

“You’re allowed to have anything you want. But last I checked, you were into the long-term thing. Boyfriends and shit.”

I’ve never seen Sally troll The Rattler for a hookup before. Granted, she hasn’t spent a ton of time in the dive bar over the past twelve years, but this is still out of character for her.

“Iwasinto the long-term thing. I still am in, like, a big-picture kind of way. But now that I know I’m leaving Hartsville, I obviously can’t start something serious. I figure I’ll just have some meaningless fun while I’m here.”

I feel the words she doesn’t say like a punch to the gut.I don’t want anything serious because I’m leaving for good.

She’s leaving to go live in a cute college town, where she’ll fall for some Yankee dickhead and never come back.

I run a hand over my scruff. Do I tuck tail and run? I don’t want to talk to Sally about who she’d like to fuck.

But some sick, mean part of me is dying to know who—what—she wants.

Some mean part of me wants to be the one to give it to her. Who better toblow off a littlesteamwith than the town heartbreaker?

I don’t take pride in the title. Yes, I have fun. A lot of it. But I also feel like the butt of a joke at this point. I’m thirty years old, for Christ’s sake. I’m also a little…lonely, if I’m being honest, now that I’ve moved out of the bunkhouse and into my own place on Lucky River Ranch.

When Mollie and Cash joined forces, they gifted me the 1920s Victorian farmhouse Mollie’s great-grandfather had built. It’s simple but beautiful, having been meticulously renovated and maintained by Garrett, who preferred the farmhouse to the giant but sterile New House, which he built as a gift for his then-wife Aubrey. It was their main residence on Lucky Ranch for a little while, a six-thousand-square-foot behemoth where they planned to raise their family. But not long after they moved in, their marriage crumbled, and Aubrey took Mollie and moved to Dallas. Garrett moved back to the farmhouse, where he lived until the day he died. Now the New House is a gathering place of sorts for the ranch’s employees, Patsy turning out three meals a day in its massive kitchen.

I’d like to settle down. Find a real partner in life. Seeing Cash and Mollie pair off has only intensified my desire to find my person.

I’ve never seen my brother happier.

I’ve never been more jealous. I try to keep it to myself. Envying what my brother has makes me feel ashamed. Cash has had a hard road, and he deserves to be happy.

Jealousy ain’t my style.

But I’m jealous of my brother. And whoever Sally’s looking to take home tonight…and every night.

I absently tug Mom’s ring across the chain hanging from my neck. “So you wanna hook up with one of these winners?” I eye a nearby ranch hand, who’s already so drunk that he’s pretending to reel a woman in with an invisible fishing pole.

Sally scoffs again. “You can’t be serious.You, of all people, have no right to judge me.”

“I’ll be the first to admit, I’m no saint.” I hold up my hands. “I’m just looking out for you. Don’t want you getting burned.”

“I’m a big girl. Beck Wallace isn’t going to burn me.”

My heart lurches. So she does want Beck. Why him?