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Ten

Have you ever seen a tea kettle start to steam? That’s how women are, too. When you see the steam, you should definitely push them more.

— Posy to a new prospect

POSY

She was angry.

I could tell she was angry.

Her eyes were damn near molten when they met mine for a brief second across the room.

She turned her back on me and grabbed the food out of the window, stacking it expertly on one arm.

“She’s cute,” Silver observed.

“She’s really cute,” Silver’s sister and twin, Aella, agreed. “I like her. She’s feisty.” Aella paused. “Is this the scared Snow White looking woman we’re talking about, or the angry one that keeps sending death glares at Posy every time she looks over here?”

“Death Glare.” Silver snickered. “What did you do to piss her off so bad, Posy?”

I had no idea.

But I knew that anger I could see was directed at me. I just had no idea why.

I didn’t comment.

Mostly because I liked her, too.

I liked her too much.

And she came with a shit load of problems that I didn’t have time for.

It was time to brand cattle, cut off a few balls, and vaccinate. And it was all hands on deck.

Aella, Silver, Chevy, Cutter and his wife, Milena, had all volunteered to help me out today.

We were just waiting for Cutter and Milena to get here, then we’d head back to the farm and get ready.

I’d spent the morning setting up, wishing that Scottie was there to help.

But she’d gone off to college the past weekend, my little helper on her way to bigger and brighter things.

I’d deposited her in the dorm this past Saturday, thankful that she didn’t have a suite mate this semester.

Hopefully I could pull off the impossible again for her next semester.

She deserved her privacy.

Plus, having roommates really fuckin’ sucked.

Angry, stomping footsteps—which seemed impossible when those feet were wearing flip-flops—started toward us, bringing my mind back to the present.

“Who had what again?” she asked as she stood there holding out the sampler.

“That one is mine,” Chevy sounded amused. “Thanks.”

She passed all the food out, leaving mine for last.

She all but tossed it on the table in front of me and stormed off.

“Whoa,” Aella snickered. “Bro. You should apologize.”

“For what?” I asked.

“For whatever you did to make her mad,” Chevy chortled. “Jesus.”

I didn’t know what I’d done to piss her off, which meant I didn’t have any clue what to apologize for.

Then again, what should I have to apologize for? I know I didn’t do anything to make her that mad.

I was just existing over here today.

The doors opened and Milena and Cutter arrived, heading to our table after a quick look around.

Cutter pulled a chair out for Milena, then took the seat next to her and said, “This place is like a little slice of heaven so close to Dallas. There’s not a single ounce of traffic here.”

“Maybe we should move,” Milena teased. “Would Shasha care, do you think, if we moved out of the million-dollar house he built for me?”

Cutter snorted and pointed out, “You’d miss being so close to Midnight Cookies and Cinnaholic.”

Milena nodded, then stared at Chevy’s plate. “Wow, what is that?”

“The sampler,” Aella answered. “But if you want some food, you’re probably gonna have to go up there and order it directly, because if I had to guess, our waitress isn’t coming back. Doc did something to piss her off.”

I rolled my eyes. “I did not do a thing.”

“You think you didn’t do a thing,” Aella and Silver said at the same time. “You totally did something.”

When you looked at Aella and Silver, you wouldn’t think they were twins, but they were.

Kind of, maybe.

Both of them had the same mother, but different fathers.

Aella’s father, Cakes, just found out that she was his, as a matter of fact.

“I feel like I should go order food.” Milena stood up and said, “You want anything, sugar pie?”

Cutter shot his wife a look. “Don’t call me that.”

“Snookums?” She batted her eyelashes.

“No.”

“Toots?” she pushed.

“Milena Clayborne…” he growled.

Milena walked off, giggling.

“She didn’t get your order,” I said around a mouthful of the best sandwich I’d ever tasted in my life.

I had no clue I had a thing for grilled cheeses until I came here.

Now, I couldn’t imagine going a single day without one.

“I feel like, possibly, it was me,” Silver said. “I think we passed her on the road.”

I frowned. “We did?”

“Yeah.” Silver nodded. “When we were riding. Thanks for the ride, by the way. I have to ask Webber if he’ll take a look at my car when he gets back in town.”

I thought about that for a long moment then decided that her being on the back of my bike couldn’t be why she was mad. Hell, there were times I wondered if she even saw me as a man.

I looked up and spotted Milena at the counter with Searcy.

Searcy was writing on a notepad with one hand, and digging at her chest, between her breasts, with the other.

I frowned and watched harder.

Searcy lifted her shirt slightly, and I saw a glint at her navel just before her forearm snaked up the inside of her shirt and started to fidget with her chest again.

She came back out with a round wire.

“What the fuck was that?” I asked.

“What?” everyone asked at once.

“She just pulled some sort of metal contraption out from under her shirt,” I said. “It’s in her hand.”

“That’s an underwire, dummy.” Silver snickered. “Most bras have underwires. Sometimes if you wear the bra a lot, the wires will poke through the fabric and start digging into your skin. She probably pulled it out because it was gouging her.”

“Oh.” I felt kind of stupid.

Logically, I’d known that there was some sort of support in bras, but I hadn’t realized that they were metal.

Jesus.

There was laughter at the counter, and when I looked up, Milena was pulling out her phone and showing Searcy something.

Searcy looked at it, then back at me, then back at the phone again.

I got a worried feeling in my belly.

“What is your wife showing her?” I asked warily.

Cutter looked up from his contemplation of the food on Chevy’s plate, likely trying to decide if he’d lose a hand if he reached for a piece of sausage, and said, “Probably that picture we took of you at our wedding party.”

I groaned.

That’d been the one and only time I’d been well and truly drunk since I’d gotten home from the Navy.

I’d just wanted a damn day off. Was that so much to ask?

But no, these asswipes had to take photos of me on the couch where they’d all decorated my upper body and face with Sharpie.

I knew that it was all in good fun, but fuck.

Was it too hard to just want a day off?

None of those fuckers knew what it was like to put in work, day in and day out, only to find out that you’re barely holding your head above water.

I didn’t even know why I was fighting so hard.

Dad had done it and what had he accomplished?

Dying before the age of sixty.

And he hadn’t gotten to enjoy life.

He hadn’t gotten to go on those vacations he’d always talked about.

He’d lost so much, and I was headed in the same fucking direction.

I scrubbed at my face. “I’m headed back to the ranch to get everything else ready. Cutter, can you show them the way out?”

“Sure will,” he said. “You gonna finish those fries?”

“No.” I pushed the plate toward him.

I got up and headed toward the bar that separated the diners from the back of the building.

Milena patted Searcy on the arm and walked toward me, a smile on her face.

I didn’t return that smile and moved past her while reaching for my wallet.

I pulled out a hundred and fifty bucks and handed it over. “I’m paying for everyone at the table. I don’t know how much it is, but this should cover it.”

Searcy took the money and said, “Was the food bad?”

“The food was fine,” I said. “Thanks.”

She frowned at me, but I didn’t stay to talk.

I headed out the door to my bike.

Taking off, I headed back to the ranch and did what I said I was going to do.

Got ready for a long ass day.

Hours later, when the night was so dark that I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face, I once again questioned my life decisions.

Cutter, Chevy and I had worked all day getting the cows finished up.

The women had helped with the vaccinating and the branding, but they hadn’t wanted to cut any testicles off.

My phone beeped, and I picked it up and glanced at the screen.

Scottie:

How’d today go?

Me:

Questioning my life choices. Are you sure you want this ranch?

It wasn’t a joke, either.

She must’ve realized it, too, because she replied seriously.

Scottie:

Not if you’re going to work yourself to death.

I sighed, wondering how to answer that.

Maybe the issue today was more hands on deck.

Yates had been there, as had Yates’s brother, Bridge.

But a lot of my hands had left for college or headed back to high school, leaving me a fuck of a lot shorthanded.

I had the money.

The ranch was doing good, other than needing a shit ton of work.

Maybe the choice here was to outsource the help.

Scottie:

You’ve already accomplished so much. Sell the cows, then put the place on the market.

She made it sound so damn easy.

Me:

I don’t think I’m going to ever be able to sell this place. I’d feel like I was letting Dad down.

Scottie:

Dad felt the same way. And where did that get him?

She had me there.

Me:

Go to bed. Don’t you have an eight o’clock class in the morning?

Scottie:

Yes, what was I thinking?

Grinning, I sent her a goodnight text, then sat up out of the hay that I’d collapsed in the moment my help went home.

I’d been lying there dozing for hours.

But my stomach reminded me that I seriously needed to get my shit together and grab something to eat, or I’d regret it in the morning.

But when I got into the kitchen to check out my fridge, I realized another problem.

Scottie wasn’t here to do the grocery shopping anymore, meaning my entire fridge was empty sans for a soured jug of milk.

Fuck.