Page 27 of Rope Me In

I point an angry finger at him. “I don’t understand you, Gav. I don’t understand any of you. You want me to talk. You want me to tell you how I’m doing. Then when I’m honest, I’m the one who gets looked down on. I’m the one you get angry at.”

“You know that’s not why we’re upset with you.”

“At least you admitted you’re upset with me instead of just trying to disguise it with concern.”

“Kade, we only want to help,” Gavin says.

“Help me with what?”

“Dealing with what happened.”

“Maybe y’all need to deal with it. I’m dealing with it just fine.” My esophagus burns with acid, and my mouth feels heavy with my lie. But I’m sick of this conversation, sick of being looked at like I’m the problem. I’m not the goddamn problem.

My family just wants me to talk about my feelings, to apologize and say that I’m the one who causes all the issues so they can feel better about all their sins. Then I’m supposed to smile and be happy, to keep my mouth shut and act like I’m okay with everything. Not just the lies and deceit, but everything that’s happened since.

They want me to just accept that our family’s ranch is being turned into a tourist attraction to save it, to accept that the only reason that’s happening is because we got a loan from Blake to dig us out of a hole. But I’m not going to. And I’m not going to play nice anymore or hide my true feelings. I don’t care if they don’t like it.

“Kade.” Gavin sighs. “Stop pushing us away. We’re your family. We care about you—”

“If you cared about me, you would’ve given me the land like Dad wanted. You would’ve listened to me months ago.”

“Young man,” Momma says, stepping up next to a now silent Gavin. “You know that’s not Gavin’s fault. He didn’t know—”

“He didn’t know then, but he knows now.” I glare at my brother, and his eyes are dark, his jaw set in a hard line. He needs to know how I feel, that I still think it’s all bullshit.

“I thought we settled this,” Gavin says. “I thought you’d moved on.”

“You thought wrong.”

“Then you should’ve talked to us about it. Instead, you’re taking your anger out on Momma and me, and you’re drinking yourself silly.”

There are a million things I could say right now. Many of them I have, but he never gets it. He thinks because Blake found a solution by turning our place into a dude ranch and paying off our debt that suddenly I don’t care about him getting the land. He thinks that since we’re working as a family, as a team, to save the Montgomery family name, that I feel like the land is also mine.

But that’s all horseshit, because it’s not mine. It’s never been mine. But Gavin’s too dense to see that, to understand what that feels like on my end. To have nothing and nobody who understands you. To have lost the only person you thought understood you only to then find out you were the one to not understand them. To not know them.

I step back from Gavin and Momma, grabbing my hat from the table. “I’ve got work to do.”

“We’re talking here,” Momma says, her voice desperate.

If I were a better man, I would stop and try to talk. But maybe she’s right. Maybe I am more like Daddy than I ever thought.

“I’m done.” I turn and step toward the doorway, truly meaning my words.

“Don’t walk out that door, Kade,” Gavin says in a warning tone. “Don’t do this to us again.”

To us. Fuck, that hurts. What about what they’re doing to me, what they’ve already done to me?

With a sad chuckle, I continue to the front door. “I’ll do whatever the fuck I want, big brother,” I say over my shoulder, “just like you do.”

He calls after me as I walk away, but I don’t turn back. I have work to do and, most likely, people to piss off. Just another fucking day in my life.

At least now I can stop holding myself back.

Chapter 10

Presley

Gravel spits out fromthe wheels of my car as I drive the long road to the Montgomery ranch. I have my minimal stuff in the trunk, so if Blake doesn’t end up hiring me, I guess I’m sleeping at the tiny motel I saw when I first drove into town. It gave me Alfred Hitchcock’sPsychovibes, though, so I’d rather not.