Page 98 of Wrangled Love

“A guy can’t stop by to share a beer with his best friend?”

Heath smirks, one brow raised. “Let’s not pretend you didn’t steal that from my playbook.”

Growing up, he always had a knack for getting what he wanted with a well-placed bribe. For Julie, it was flowers and butterscotch candies. With Samuel, a fresh bag of jerky did the trick.And for Walker, Heath would take on the chores he hated most when he needed to get on his good side.

“You feel buttered up yet?” I ask, taking my hat off and placing it on the railing beside me.

“Hard to say when there’s no beer in my hand.”

I hook the lip of one bottle under the cap of the other and give it a twist. Once it pops off, I use it to pry open the second bottle.

Heath grunts a thank-you when I lean over to give him one.

I cross one boot over the other, glancing over my shoulder at the endless fields. At night, the ranch carries the hum of cicadas and the golden glow of the sunset stretching across the horizon.

“You’ve gone and fallen for Briar, haven’t you?”

Heath’s question makes me whip my head around to look at him, my eyebrows shooting up in surprise. “Why do you say that?”

He rolls his eyes. “It’s obvious. You’ve been inseparable lately, and you get all googly-eyed when she’s around.” He pauses to take a sip of beer. “You have it bad.”

Briar and I haven’t exactly done much to hide things from anyone except Caleb. In my defense, it’s damn near impossible to keep my distance when all I want is to have her close. Evenings have become my favorite part of the day, starting with reading to Caleb before tucking him in, then curling up with Briar on the front porch while sipping spiked hot chocolate out of chipped mugs. Most nights end with us in bed, limbs tangled up in her worn cotton sheets, whispering praises and talking till dawn.

“I do have it bad,” I admit.

Heath shoots me a confused look. “Then what’s with the long face? My sister’s a damn catch.”

She’s that and so much more.

The way I handled things earlier weighs heavy on my mind, especially thinking about how she must’ve felt at the end of it.

“I found out earlier today that my custody hearing has beenmoved up to next week, and Briar asked if Caleb and I were coming back to Bluebell afterward,” I blurt out.

“That’s quite the dilemma,” Heath observes, rubbing his chin as he studies me. “I’m guessing you haven’t decided?”

I hesitantly shake my head.

“Can I be frank?” he questions.

I chuckle. “When have you ever held back?”

He shrugs. “Never, and I won’t be startin’ now. You’ve spent most of your life running. First from your parents, then from everything that reminded you of them. I’ve only ever seen you truly happy in the past couple of months, and that’s because of Caleb and Briar.” He rests his beer on the ground beside his chair. “I think it’s time you stopped running, Jensen. Sure, you have a high-powered job and a big-city life waiting for you, but is that what you really want? When you’re old and gray—or should I say grayer,” he adds with a wink, “is the size of your bank account or where you live going to matter, or is it the people beside you?”

My fingers tighten around the bottle in my hand. When I picture my future, many years from now, the first thing I see is Briar beside me on the porch swing, her head resting on my shoulder, our fingers intertwined. We look out across the yard as Caleb approaches, coming back from a long day of work on the ranch, wiping sweat from his brow as he joins us. Then another image surfaces of me, old and gray, in my penthouse, and all I see is silence and empty space. That vision isn’t much different than it’s always been.

The truth is, I was isolated in the city. I had my business and employees, but little support outside of work. Like Heath asked, is that what I want in the end? To be alone, surrounded by fancy things, with my son cut off from the people who love us most? Or to have them in our lives, and the privilege of falling asleep each night with the woman of my dreams in my arms, while Caleb is happy in the place where he belongs?

If hindsight is twenty-twenty, then mine is crystal clear. Before Caleb and Briar, I was going through the motions. Each day blended into the next, colorless and dull. Then they came along, transforming my life into Technicolor, and paved the way for me to find pieces of myself that I thought were lost forever.

I take my last swing of beer. “Since when are you so wise?”

“Somewhere between mucking stalls and mending fences,” Heath jokes.

I pull out a hundred-dollar bill and hold it out to him.

He scrunches his nose, staring at it in confusion. “What’s this for?”

“Betting that I’d meet a nice country gal before the summer’s over. You were spot-on, and she’s one of the best damn things that’s ever happened to me.”

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