Page 8 of Ride Me Cowboy

Everyone laughs.

“Sounds like he’s got you there,” I say, gently.

She glances at me—the only one at this table she doesn’t ever arc up to, like she knows pushing my buttons would be crossing a line or something. “Yeah, well, if you’d seen him…he’s all skin and bones. He’d go after the cows if he stayed hungry like that.”

I nod, not totally oblivious to Mackenzie’s thinking. Two years ago, she was the starving stray, the mutt without a home, whomy dad found and took in. She was the one who was skin and bones, desperate for a decent feed, needing a roof over her head. Just like my mom had been, at fifteen, when she’d sought shelter in one of the barns and my dad—himself only seventeen—had found her and taken care of her. Yeah, he had a soft spot for strays all right, and apparently that’s a legacy he’s passed down to Mackenzie.

“It’s a ranch, Mack, not a dang animal shelter.”

She glares at Austin, but it’s only when I wave a hand in his direction that he shuts his trap.

Beau takes over. “So, did y’all meet our new house guest yet?”

Mackenzie’s face immediately claps with thunderclouds. Wariness. She’s been through too much—not that she’d ever open up and tell you about it—to take kindly to strangers.

“The new Reagan?” Caleb asks. He’s my go-to out here. Beau and Austin each have their own strengths, their own gifts, but Caleb’s just like another brother to me. We’re a lot alike. From our temperament to our values to the fact we neither of us feel like we should use thirty words if three will do. If I go off-ranch, he’s the guy I leave in charge. He’d die before he’d let anything happen to this place. It’s as much in his blood as it is in mine.

I tense a little, wondering for about the millionth time if I’m wrong to be keeping the truth from him. From all of them. The truth of the financial mess we’re in. The trouble. The fact that dad, who we all idolized, and thought could do no wrong, had let his love of mom lead him to throw all of his money into a venture that almost bankrupted him. And the ranch.

I’m going to be picking up the pieces for longer than I can imagine. That’s if I can even manage to dig us out of this hole.

Tension tightens my gut, my spine, my shoulders.

I can’t tell them.

Not without destroying the picture they had of dad. The respect they had for him. He was on a pedestal in life and damned if I’m going to rip it to shreds when he’s not around to defend or explain himself. It’s bad enough that I’m having to get my head around it, no way do I want to put them through that.

“You’re so gross,” Mackenzie says with an eye roll. The time her vitriol is directed at Beau.

“You’re just jealous, honey,” he winks, and Austin laughs.

“You really do think you’re God’s gift, don’t you?”

He tilts his hat. “If the cap fits…” He takes a drink of beer. “I’m just saying, I wouldn’t kick her out of my bed, if you know what I mean.”

“We all know what you mean,” Caleb says, sharply. “Correct me if I’m wrong, hasn’t this woman come to work on the ranch?”

They’re talking about Beth. Something tightens inside of me; a protective instinct I felt flare to life almost the minute I saw her.

“So? Doesn’t mean she can’t get to know me a little better. And have a lot of fun doing it,” he grins.

I drink my beer, letting the cold liquid wash down my throat, but my temper stays right where it is. Hot and fiery, catching me off guard. My brothers talk a lot of shit. It’s part of what we do. But Beth is different. Despite just meeting her, it’s as plain as the day is long that she’s…complicated.

“Listen here.” I place my glass down, arms braced on the chair, pose mirroring a state of relaxation, when my voice shows I’m deadly serious. “Leave that girl alone.”

Austin glances at me, a frown on his face. He’s so like Nash—our brother, his twin—that I almost do a double take.

“I don’t know what her story is, but I reckon there is one. So, let’s just respect the lady’s privacy and let her get on with her work.”

“I wasn’t talkin’ about interfering with her work,” Beau says with a wiggle of his brows. “Last I checked, it’s a free country. If she wants to join me for a meal…”

“She won’t,” I say sharply. “Because you ain’t gonna ask her.”

“What’s the matter, bro? You called dibs?”

It’s just the kind of dumbass comment Beau always makes. He doesn’t mean anything by it. He was raised by the same folks I was, the same manners, the same courtesies, were drummed into him as they were me. He just talks a good game.

“No one is going to ask Beth out. No one is going to flirt with her, look at her a second time, or put a single finger on her. Got it?”

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