Page 28 of Call Me Yours (Lodestar Ranch #4)

STEVEN

Nice Chloe was a goddamn problem. I had thought living with a woman who hated me would be miserable, but living with a woman who didn’t hate me was so much worse.

Because nice Chloe still teased me, still made biting, sarcastic remarks, still walked around looking like that , but now it felt like foreplay.

How the fuck was I supposed to keep my hands to myself?

Three weeks of living with her and I was a wreck of a man, a live wire of energy buzzing through my veins with no outlet to provide relief.

I needed to get laid. Something— someone —to take the edge off.

Allow my blood to return to my brain where it was desperately needed.

Because my brain knew that Chloe would cut off my balls if I tried something with her.

She was pregnant with another man’s baby, for fuck’s sake.

But with all that blood flowing south, my brain had gone fucking stupid.

There was only one bar in Aspen Springs, so that Friday night, I sat my ass down on an ancient barstool that had witnessed many a bad decision, so why the hell not add mine to the list. I hadn’t stepped foot in here since the mess with James two years ago.

The original Hale had built the Painted Cat as a brothel during the Colorado gold rush.

It had changed hands a generation ago, but it was still considered their stomping ground.

I half expected one of them to be here tonight.

Hell, maybe I even hoped for it. Fighting could be as cathartic as fucking.

“You shouldn’t be here.” The bartender braced her palms on the scarred pine bar top and glowered at me.

Shit. She was one of Chloe’s friends. I didn’t know she worked here. “Janie. The one who likes sunflowers,” I muttered. Fuck my life.

Her head tilted, a cascade of red hair falling over her shoulder. “How did you know I like sunflowers?”

“Chloe’s shoes. James likes columbine, Essie likes red roses, Hannah likes violets, you like sunflowers.

Chloe likes peonies,” I said. Chloe . I had come here to get her out of my head, but she was proving to be surprisingly stubborn about it.

She was probably home from work by now. The thought made me antsy, like I wanted to jump out of my skin and go find her.

Damn, I needed a drink.

Janie narrowed her eyes. “That’s right.” She studied me for a moment, then shook her head. “No. You still shouldn’t be here.”

I glanced around. I couldn’t blame her for not wanting trouble. “Any of the Hale brothers here tonight?”

“You got a problem with the Hale brothers?” a man two barstools down asked.

Something about his tone made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. He wasn’t anyone I recognized, and I knew most everyone in Aspen Springs by now. “No. The Hale brothers have a problem with me.”

“Why is that?” he asked. He turned on his barstool to look me squarely in the face, as casual as a lion surveying a herd of zebras and debating whether he could go for a little snack.

No, I did not know this man, but I was sure as fuck I didn’t want to fight him.

“A misunderstanding,” I muttered. Janie guffawed loudly. “On my part,” I clarified.

“The Hale brothers are pretty good at judging character,” the man noted.

Like she sensed a sudden change in the wind, Janie’s head whipped toward him. “Just drink your beer, Jack. I’ll handle this.” At his surprised look, she rolled her eyes. “I knew who you were the moment you sat down. Essie has a photo of you on her fireplace mantle.”

“Did you tell her I’m here?” Jack asked, not sounding particularly pleased about it.

Janie’s brow furrowed. “She doesn’t know?”

“I wanted to surprise her.”

“Then it’s a good thing I didn’t tell her, I guess.” Janie turned back to me. “I haven’t decided what to do about you yet, so don’t get too comfortable on that barstool.” She sank a hand on her hip. “Maybe I should follow Chloe’s lead and tell you to get the hell out. That’s what she always did.”

“And now she lives with me, so…” I spread my arms wide. “Seems like a risk on your part. You might actually end up liking me.”

“Doubtful.” Janie pursed her lips. “Still not sure she wasn’t under duress.”

I huffed and rubbed my palms over a crack in the wood. “Chloe could tell me to get the hell out of my own home, and I’d go,” I grumbled. She could have the damn place if she wanted it. It smelled too much like her, anyway. “I’m not forcing her to share space with me.”

I glanced up and found Janie staring at me with wide brown eyes and more than a little pity.

“One beer,” she said. “That’s it.” She didn’t ask me what I wanted, just grabbed a bottle of IPA from the fridge, popped the top, and handed it to me.

Not my favorite, but I wasn’t in a place to complain. “Thanks.”

I sipped the beer and glanced over at Jack.

He’d been awfully quick to jump to the Hales’ defense, and Essie had a photo of him.

What did that make him? He was too young to be her dad, despite the gray at his temples.

Was he her brother? Which would also make him Brax Hale’s brother-in-law.

Probably not a person I wanted to strike up a conversation with.

“You got a favorite flower, Jack?” I asked.

He paused, the brown beer bottle dangling from his hand. “Why do you want to know?”

“The flowers they embroidered on Chloe’s shoes.

Apparently that’s the kind of thing friends know about each other.

” I jerked my head in Janie’s direction.

“I don’t think that’s normal. Hell, I’m not sure I even have a favorite flower.

” Sissy shit , my dad’s voice whispered in my ear.

But then I remembered the way Chloe’s eyes lit up when she looked at her shoes.

Why did he always make me feel like I should be embarrassed by happiness?

Maybe that was the thing that wasn’t normal.

“We’re not friends,” Jack said.

“No, we’re fucking not,” I agreed. Everyone in Aspen Springs had chosen a side even if they didn’t know it, and it wasn’t mine. Janie shot me a warning look as she swiped by with a towel. I swigged my beer. “What are those colorful flowers that look like balls?”

Janie scrunched her face like she was thinking. “Dahlias?” She tugged her phone out of her back pocket and tapped the screen a couple times, then turned it to face me so I could see the picture. “Is this what you mean?”

“Yeah.” I studied the image for a moment. “I like those.”

Jack moved to the barstool next to me and leaned toward Janie’s phone. “Those are nice. My mom grows dahlias.”

A woman down the bar lifted her hand to get Janie’s attention. Janie stuck her phone in her pocket and pushed away from the bar. “Holler if you need something.”

Jack watched her leave, then turned to me. “Why are you at a bar, talking to strangers about fucking flowers, when you want to be home with her?”

I rolled the bottle between my hands. “It’s complicated.”

“Nah, that’s lazy.” Jack shook his head. “It’s pretty simple. If you want to be with her, hooking up with a random woman at a bar is self-sabotage.”

My specialty .

I glanced around the room. A couple girls were here tonight, single by the looks of it. Pretty. One of them met my gaze with a smile and flick of her eyebrow. I waited for a feeling of something , but it never came. Nope, not interested. “You got a better option?”

“My advice?” He tipped his beer to his lips, appraising me over the rim, and took a swallow. “Go home. Take a cold shower.”

Chloe and Amy were in their pajamas by the time I got home. They faced each other from opposite ends of the couch, their backs against the armrests and their fuzzy-socked feet meeting in the middle. Chloe had a stack of notecards in her hands and read out loud from the top card.

“Okay, true or false? A decrease in the unemployment rate will shift an economy’s production possibilities curve outward.” Chloe looked up at Amy expectantly.

I blinked. That sounded like a lot of gobbledygook to me.

Amy’s forehead puckered. “Hm. False? Not directly, anyway.”

“Why?” Chloe prodded.

“Economic growth or technology improvements can shift the curve. Decreased unemployment might lead to the kind of economic growth that can shift the curve, but it might not.”

Chloe nodded. “Excellent.” She slid the card to the bottom of the stack.

“Okay, next—oh, hey, Steven,” she interrupted herself, catching sight of me.

“You’re home.” A faint flush bloomed on her cheeks, and she cleared her throat.

“I wasn’t sure when you’d be back. We had pizza for dinner. Leftovers are in the fridge.”

“Thanks,” I said.

Her eyes darted around, not quite meeting mine.

I wondered if she suspected where I’d gone and why, and that I hadn’t planned on coming home tonight, and figured she probably did.

Why did that make me feel like shit? We weren’t together.

There was no reason for me to live like a monk just because I couldn’t stop thinking about her.

I shoved my hands in the front pockets of my jeans. “What are you two doing?”

“Studying,” Amy piped up. “It turns out that Chloe also had Econ 101 with Professor Garcia when she was a freshman. We made some flashcards from my notes and now she’s quizzing me.”

I glanced at Chloe, who was smiling at my sister like doing Econ flashcards was her idea of a fun Friday night. And that…Hell. I didn’t know what that was.

Maybe Chloe didn’t know what it meant to Amy to have someone pay attention to her like this, but I knew.

Our mom loved us, I was sure of that, but our father was a jealous man, even when it came to his own kids.

Time spent with us was time stolen from him.

Every spare moment she had was spent on pacifying him and ensuring that the house was exactly how he wanted it so that nothing would set him off once the beers hit.

Chloe didn’t know any of that. She took care of people. That was simply who she was. It didn’t surprise me that she had found a way to take care of Amy. But somehow, it felt like she was taking care of me, too. And damn, it felt good.

Feeling my eyes on her, Chloe’s gaze bounced to me and then away again with a little shrug.

“Professor Garcia loves to give really tricky true-or-false questions, the kind that seem like the answer is a little bit of both. The only way to get through his exams is to know the material front, back, and sideways.” Her fingers fidgeted with the cards.

“I could make popcorn,” I offered. “If you’re going to keep going for a while.”

“Yes!” Amy pumped a fist, and I laughed. Popcorn was one of her favorite snacks.

I headed for the kitchen. Behind me, I heard Chloe say, “Okay, true or false…” I glanced back over my shoulder at them and my chest tightened. Maybe this was what family should feel like.

Well, fuck.

Cold showers it was.