Page 5 of Tough Love

“Huddy, how are the girls?”

“Good, Ma. All settled in.”

“See your father? He wanted to take a look at that colt.”

“Yup. Done that, too.”

Dusting off her hands, she plucks a couple of freshly baked cookies from a cooling rack and pours a cup of coffee before rounding the counter and dropping both in front of me on the table. Leaning against the table, she folds her arms over her chest. “Your brother was out again last night. You should have gone along, too.”

“Not interested. Reed’s the ladies’ man, Ma.”

She shakes her head at me and sighs. “Only want you to be happy. Next weekend, tag along. You don’t have to stay as long as Reed, but go out, hang with your friends, meet some new people.”

“Bynew people, you mean women.”

She raises both hands, palms up, with the most innocent ‘I don’t know’ face.Nice try, Ma.“Did I say that? Come on, Hudson, thirty-four is well and truly the age to be settled. I’m not getting any younger, and this old lady wants grandbabies, you hear me?”

I roll my eyes at her and sip the coffee. Sharp, bitter and hot. The way I like it. “You should have this conversation with the ladies’ man instead, then.”

As if summoned by Lucifer himself, Reed walks around the corner, hand running through his blond bedhead, bare-chested in boxers. “What did I do this time?”

“Nothing yet, little brother.”

Pushing out of the chair, I pluck a cookie from the plate and shove it into my mouth, heading for the door. Fences don’t build themselves, and the day is only going to get hotter. “Working on the northern fence line today. See you out there in an hour, Reed.”

He grunts and sinks into a dining chair.

“I’m serious, lover boy. Or I’ll send Charlie back for you.”

“Alright, I’ll be there, tyrant. Don’t send that cranky mutt anywhere near me.”

“Thanks for the coffee, Ma,” I say.

“Anytime, my love. Think about what I said, will you?”

I grumble a half-answer and walk through the back door. I’ll think about it—maybe for ten seconds. Hudson Rawlins and women is a bad idea. It will end the same way it did with Jemma. Her wanting something I can’t give. Me with a broken heart.

I snatch my phone from my pocket and check the battery life.

I’m not anticipating anything to go sideways, but fencing can be a sneaky trade. One wrong move on taut wire can have it slip and fling back to slice you open. I still have the scar on my wrist from back when I was seventeen to prove it. I try not to make that mistake too often, but you can never be too careful. Jumping into my banged-up old Chevy, I head to the barn.

Hooking up the fencing trailer, I toss in more wire and the post rammer. I’ll give Reed that job; he needs the practice more than I do. I chuckle to myself as I pluck up two sets of heavy-duty gloves and jump back in the truck. At my whistle, Charlie bounds up and into the back of the truck. An hour later, I am at the northernmost end of the ranch.

I pull up and shift the stick before turning off the truck. Mountains stud the horizon on all sides now. Yellow wildflowers cover the sunny patches between the trees. The hilly paddock is large enough that the rest of the boundary is out of sight. The old fence is all but laying over, the cattle milling around the few clumps of old trees down one side of the hill.

Charlie jumps down and heads straight under the dilapidated fence, heading for the cattle. He trots around, sniffing the ground, as if too scared to interact with the cattle, tail between his legs. Wimp. Reed drives up along the side of the fence as I start unloading the gear. He shuts off his truck and wanders to the trailer. “Surprised Harry hasn’t sent us up here before now.”

He has always called the old man Harry. Beats me how he gets away with it. I sure as hell won’t be trying it. “I’ll dismantle the old fence. You start laying out the new posts.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Don’t call me that, Reed.”

“Why not? You’re gonna be the boss around here in less than a year, aren’t ya?”

I grunt.God willing.

He rolls his eyes, shrugging as he slides a post from the trailer onto his shoulder. “You know, Huddo, if you don’t want to end up like the old man, you should probably stop acting like him.”

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