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“I see you’re walking normally,” Cooper says. “That means you didn’t put in enough effort last night. After a dry spell like yours, you shouldn’t be able to stand.”

I turn to face him, exhaustion weighing down my shoulders. “Are you sure you’ve had sex before?”

A wide grin splits his mouth, but I cut him off before he can say something that will make me even more grumpy.

“Never mind. I don’t want to hear whatever you were going to say to that.”

“Namely, that I have a child,” he says, leaning against one of the stall doors in the stables where I came as soon as Elsie asked me to leave.

I didn’t even bother to head back to my shitty cabin on my parents’ property first. I needed to work , to drown myself in it so I could forget last night and the look on her face this morning.

Who am I kidding? A lobotomy couldn’t make me forget last night.

I look back at my twin, trying to scrub thoughts of Elsie from my head. “I’m still not convinced Ruby is yours. She’s way too smart.”

He shrugs. “She got that from Willow. She got her good looks from me.”

“Her humility too.”

“Why the hell would I want my daughter to be humble? She’s smart, funny, kind, and beautiful. She should act like it.”

He’s right, I guess. I’d never want my niece to downplay anything about herself. I want her to be just as confident at sixteen and twenty-six as she is now at six.

I turn to face him. “Maybe she does get some of her brains from you,” I concede.

His smile widens. “Do you think you could say that again? I want to record it. Cheyenne will never believe me.”

Cheyenne is our younger sister, which means she’s seen the worst sides of us our entire lives.

When I was a teenager, I used to worry she would grow up to be as crass and combative as Cooper and as stubborn and emotionally reserved as me.

I shouldn’t have worried. She became all those things but somehow made them charming.

I shove his shoulder. “Leave me alone, Cooper. I need to work.”

“Right, those horses won’t ride themselves.”

I fix him with an annoyed glare. “They literally won’t.”

“Why are you so grumpy?” he asks, tone losing some of its playfulness.

When I chance a look in his direction, concern is in the fine lines of his face.

To most, he’d still look carefree and unbothered, but I know him better than that, and he knows me much too well.

He knows I’d be acting very differently if things hadn’t gone the way they went with Elsie this morning.

I let out a sigh and push my hands through my hair. It’s messy from my hands and Elsie’s, and I didn’t bother trying to fix it before heading for the ranch this morning.

“Elsie told me she wasn’t ready for me to come home yet.”

Cooper raises his brows, but I see the faint tick of his jaw that gives him away. “So, what, you’re just sleeping together now?”

I swallow past the lump in my throat. “No, last night was a mistake.”

“And who was the one to say that?” he asks, voice holding a hint of hardness that wasn’t there before.

I don’t want to tell him because I don’t want him to resent Elsie.

No one else in our family does. They still love her like she’s their own.

They’ve been like that since the day I brought her home when we were sixteen.

And the first time I came home without her two months ago, they welcomed me with open arms and said they would do the same with Elsie when she was ready.

Everyone has been patient and understanding.

Except Cooper. He loves Elsie like a sister, I know that, but he’s also been a little angry that no one seems to be putting me first in this situation.

His words, not mine. He thinks someone needs to be looking out for me, and he’s taken that job upon himself.

I’m grateful, really, because I’ve needed the distractions he’s been offering, but I won’t allow him to speak badly about Elsie, no matter what she does to me.

He thinks he’s the only one protecting me, but I know I’m the only one protecting her.

“It doesn’t matter,” I tell him, but, of course, that answers his question.

“How long are you going to let her treat you like this?” he asks.

I understand his anger. Truly, I do. But he doesn’t know the full story. He’s never lost everything that was important to him. He’s never grieved losing his life while simultaneously grieving the one growing inside of him.

He will never understand. I won’t either, really. But it’s not my job to understand her pain. It’s my job to support her through it in whatever way she needs. And if that means staying away, I’ll do it every single time.

“You need to learn to ask for what you want, Beau.” Cooper sighs, sounding frustrated. “Why is she the only one to get to process this the way she needs?”

His words pierce through me. They’re echoes of things I’ve asked myself when I’m alone and weak in my cramped double bed in the cabin on the ranch.

“Hey, kids,” our dad says, walking into the stables. “What’re you doing?” He’s got a cup of coffee in his hand, the steam from it billowing in the chilly air. It’ll be a brew strong enough to put hair on your chest, and yet I choke it down every morning, needing the warmth and caffeine it provides.

Cooper and I catch each other’s glance, wordlessly agreeing to drop the conversation about Elsie.

I told my parents the basics of what happened when I asked them if I could move into one of the spare cabins on the property usually reserved for ranch hands or travelers looking for a rustic getaway.

Neither of them asked questions, and for that, I was grateful.

I’ve shared bits and pieces of the situation with Cooper, but I don’t want to talk about my failing marriage with my father.

We won’t say anything more about it now, but I know we’re not done with this conversation.

Dad looks between us, dark eyes no doubt reading everything on our faces, but he doesn’t press. I’ve always admired that quality about him. Clint Jennings is steady and as immovable as the mountains.

“I’m about to exercise the horses,” I say.

Cooper says, “I’m annoying Beau.”

Dad loudly sips his coffee. He’s drunk out of the same mug every day for as long as I can remember, and he only ever rinses it out with water, hours after the last dregs have dried to the bottom.

It’s disgusting. One time in high school, Cooper and I washed it as a prank, and he made us shovel horseshit for a week.

The ranch hands were happy as clams. We were not.

“Sounds about right,” Dad says. He then fixes his gaze on Cooper. “You planning to do any actual work today?”

When Elsie and I moved to Utah, I found a job as a horse trainer, which I loved more than I ever expected to.

When we moved back to Larkspur, I took it over at the ranch.

Cooper, however, has worked as a ranch hand since he quit his career as a bull rider and moved back home when Ruby was born.

None of us ever thought we’d see the day he was working on the ranch, but he’s settled into the role easily.

He likes the variability of his days as a ranch hand, and neither of us has any desire to take over running the business portion of the ranch.

It’s just as well, because the honorary member of our family, Morgan Riggs, a local who is a few years older than us and who has worked on the ranch since he was in his teens, is the perfect fit.

He didn’t have any ranch experience to speak of when he came looking for a job at sixteen, but Dad knew he had a rough home life and decided to take him under his wing. He’s been around ever since.

Beside me, Cooper shrugs. “Might get around to it.”

Dad laughs into his coffee, the lines surrounding his eyes and mouth deepening. He’s spent his entire life in the sun, and he looks like it. Weathered and sun worn.

“Well, we got a heifer ready to give birth, so you might have to get your pretty hands dirty today, son.”

“This early?”

Calving season is usually in February and March, and this year, I’m looking forward to the hectic distraction of it. It’s one of our busiest times, and I plan to lose myself in it.

Dad nods. “Jade’s on the way.”

Cooper rolls his eyes, but my heart stops.

Jade Dawson is the ranch vet. She’s also Cooper’s worst nightmare, but Elsie’s best friend.

I have no doubt Elsie has confided in her about last night, and while I can take questions from my brother, I can’t from Jade.

She’s been a part of our lives since long before Elsie.

Our parents have been friends forever, which tends to mean she has no filter with us. No question is too personal.

And I’m not in the mood to discuss my marriage with anyone but my wife.

“You need my help?” I ask Dad, silently begging him to say no.

He shakes his head, and I practically sag with relief.

“Okay, I’ve got some horses to exercise, then.”

I turn on my heel and disappear before either of them can ask any more questions. And damn Cooper, because my thighs are a little sore.