Page 13 of Ash on the Range
I smiled at him. Looked like it wasn’t my fight to be had after all. “I mean, I’d tell you, but that would spoil the fun.” I stepped back as Gage strode between us, gripped Reggie’s arm and hauled him toward the barn to a symphony of the younger man’s protests. A moment later they disappeared and the protests turned to muted thumps and groans with only us and the shadows as witnesses.
Letting what they didn’t see sink in, I lifted my head after a minute. “Keep your words and thoughts respectful toward Cassie and Miss Eve while you’re here and you’ll have work next year. If not… you won’t be here next week when the truck headsback into White Cap, and your day is gonna be real shit come tomorrow. Understood?” My voice cracked across the yard, soft but clear and I knew it wasn’t just the boys before me who heard them.
The thumps from the barn stopped as Gage reappeared.
“What about Brit?” Luke asked in a muted voice, sneaking a sideways glance at the other blonde bombshell in the yard who glowed at the older cowboy as he walked straight at her and claimed a deep kiss.
I stared at Luke in exasperation.For fuck’s sake. “Did you want to shorten your lifespan by half? Gage’s business is his own. If you want to pick a fight with a veteran, you’re welcome to it. I don’t recommend that course of action.”
Shaking my head at the excess of testosterone, I made a mental note to ensure Jude brought in plenty of buckle bunnies for the boys to play around with for the rodeo. This lot were randier by far than I swore I had ever been.
“Fair enough,” someone, I wasn’t sure who, muttered to my back.
I walked back to the fence post where I left my hat, noting the failing light. Letting out a sigh, I picked up Gage’s tools and stowed them in his bag, hefting it over my shoulder. It occurred belatedly that I hadn’t given instructions to pack up the rest ofmythings, and I turned back expecting to find the yard still in a mess. To my surprise, Noah, Luke and Whalan and a somewhat dusty and bruised looking Reggie stood with my kit completely packed up, the drenching equipment nowhere to be seen.
“All stowed away, boss,” Noah said quietly, offering me a nod.
I raised both eyebrows. That was something new.
“Good job. Hit the showers and clean up before you go in for dinner.” I shut my mouth before I said anything else.
The boys filed past me, but their heads didn't hang, and I took that as a decent sign I hadn’t taken my first day on my new job too badly, even if I wasn't sure what the new job was exactly.
All I wanted right now was to clean up, find Cassie. One of those things happened after a lukewarm shower—I was last in line and the hot water didn’t last quite that long.
Sitting in the house yard right beside my rusty pick up, making it look more ancient than ever, was a shiny black truck bigger than anything else around, even Eve’s stunning white and red branded vehicle.
I sighed and took the steps to the big house two at a time and prepared myself for a really bad night, my shoulder twining with every step. Because the owner of that black pick up did the damage to it last time I saw him, and he’d be sitting with Cass, seeing as he was her brother.
Austin the Asshole had arrived.
CHAPTER SIX
CASSIE
I sat beneath my brother’s shadow and tried not to flinch every time his booming laugh overrode the conversation. Jude and Gage watched him with identical expressionless faces, though Travis didn’t bother to hide his dislike. And Will…
Will was nowhere to be seen when I needed him most.
I shrugged out from under the arm that Austin threw around me again the moment I freed myself. Forcing a smile I didn’t feel, I grabbed his mostly finished beer and waggled it in theair, pantomiming getting him another. My brother’s beefy arm finally released me. I staggered slightly under my own weight, bereft of the excess pressure that had held me down through dinner.
Jude rose as I moved away from the table, pausing in the middle of the room for a moment, away from everyone. Here, the chatter wasn’t quite as loud and I could hear myself think. Or, not think.
“Are you okay?” He liberated the beers, gesturing me over to the kitchen, walking around the long end of the bench and dove into the oversized refrigerator.
Everything in the big house was oversized, I swore, just to live up to its name and not just in the interest of storage.
“Yes. No. I—” I sucked in a long breath and caught the briefest scent of leather and soap, tinged with pine that I associated with Will, but when I looked around, I couldn't spot him at the table. Disappointment washed over me as I turned back to face Jude and found him watching me with a far too keen eye. “I’m fine. I just thought I'd have more than a few weeks without my brother turning up on my—your—doorstep, is all,” I corrected myself.
Jude uncapped two fresh beers and placed them in front of me. “It must be nice to get away from your family at college, halfway across the country.”
I stared. “I am— I mean, I’m not—” I closed my mouth and tried again. “What did Will tell you?”
“Nothing I didn't already figure out for myself." Jude started washing plates that Travis brought to him. I held out my hand for the tea towel, prepared to do my bit and wipe up, but the boys both ignored me. “He’s not so different, you know, from my story. Left home at fifteen, haven’t been back or spoken to the parents since. Don't think the door wouldn’t be locked, actually.”he gave a hollow laugh and I didn’t think we were talking about Will any more.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Jude watched me as he cleaned. “I found family here, Cassie. A home, too. Will has friends in lots of places. The rodeo here… he comes back every season. Always welcome. That’s the kind of man he’s grown up to become.” Those gray eyes settled on me, hard but not unkind.
