Page 59 of Tempting Wyatt (Triple Creek Ranch #1)
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
wyatt
“YOU OWE ME A THANK-YOU,” Isaac greets me when I’m halfway down the fence line beside the bull pasture.
I didn’t even hear him drive up.
I stand and wipe the sweat from my eyes and forehead.
I’ve repaired nearly every broken thing on this damn ranch today.
Except me.
“For?”
He smirks at me, the glaring sunset blinding behind him. “For convincing Mom to cut Ivy’s goodbye dinner with the family short tonight, even though it’s her last night in town.”
I return to driving the fence post in the ground. Focus on the burn in my back and shoulders. Block out everything else.
Ivy would make a joke right now. Oh, look, it’s Return of the Robot Rancher, part two.
I hate that she’s the voice in my head now. I’d take Isaac’s asshole voice back any day.
Because even in my mind, hearing her voice fucking destroys me.
I don’t know how she worked her way so deep under my skin, but she did.
“Speaking of,” he breaks in, “shouldn’t you be soaking up all the time you can with your pretty city girl before she leaves? Get a hand to do this shit.”
“I got it,” is all I say. That's all I have the patience to say.
My teeth clench as I lift the post driver over the top of the next post and drive it down with every bit of force I’m capable of.
Isaac watches me, then whistles low. “You even dig a little first? Or you just ramrodding them in there, brother?”
“You want to do it?” Sweat stings my eyes, but I don’t bother wiping it. Just let the shit burn. It’s the least of my problems.
I slam another post into the ground. Thank fuck there’s at least forty more to do.
Isaac makes a sound of understanding in his throat. “Starting to see why you don’t date much. Poor girls.”
I don’t have the time or tolerance for his shit today. I stop, still gripping the driver, and glare at him.
“What do you want, Isaac? Make it quick. I’ve got shit to do.”
He snorts. “If you’re this fucked up over her leaving, maybe ask her to stay. That’s all I’m saying.”
Shows what he knows.
“Really? The fucking poster boy for easy come, easy go is telling me to ask a woman I barely know to stay?” I move a few feet over and place another post.
He moves with me.
Jesus. Of all days for my brother to feel like chatting.
“I said, ask her to stay, not pledge your eternal love. See if she could spend another week or two out here, so you two can get to know each other some more. Anyone can see this girl got to you. Man up and fucking tell her. It’s not rocket science.”
This time, I don’t stop working. I’ve wasted too much time on this conversation already.
“You don’t know shit, little brother. And it doesn’t matter. You want her to stay, you go ask her. Some of us have actual fucking work to do. You know, trying to save the legacy our family is about to fucking lose.” I turn and return to my post driver. Done with this conversation and done with him.
Isaac is entirely too close to me when he speaks again.
“Hiding from yourself won’t save this ranch.
And working yourself to death won’t do shit for our family’s legacy,” he sneers, shaking his head in disappointment.
“I’d expect this shit from Caleb. But you?
I always thought you were better than this. ”
My breathing is labored. It’s been a decade since I’ve come to blows with any of my brothers.
But I am dangerously close at the moment.
He lifts his head, his eyes glinting beneath his cowboy hat when they meet mine.
“I’ve looked up to you my whole life, Wyatt.” He looks at the fence line like it amuses him. “Maybe even more than I looked up to Dad. But if you let her go, if you don’t at least try, then you’re not the man I always thought you were.”
His words almost reach me through my anger, through the pain seeing the truth caused, and through the steel wall I slammed down to make sure this shit never happens again. Almost.
I tilt my chin up at him. “Guess that’s why they say never meet your heroes.”
I return to my fence posts, thankful for the silence, broken only by my own grunting from the hardest labor I know how to do.
When I break a few minutes later to get more posts from the truck, my brother is driving away from me. And he’s taking the last of the sunlight with him.