Page 17 of A Lot Like Love
Ryder swung around to face her, all bravado long gone and replaced with what looked a lot like panic.
“Don’t say anything, Chloe. I meant it when I said they couldn’t find out. Not a word.”
And there was the real man again, the one behind the confident smile and lazy winks.
“He’s probably just coming over to say hi,” she said, placing a hand on Ryder’s arm to calm him. “I waved at both your brothers on my way in. Won’t they just be curious who you’re in here with?”
“Yeah,” he mumbled. “You’re right. We’ll just play it cool.”
Chloe let go of him and slid onto one of the bar stools at the counter, trying to look relaxed, seconds before Chase walked into the room.
“Hey,” Chase said, looking at her instead of his brother.
“Hey,” Chloe said back.
Unlike Ryder, Chase had dark eyes, like liquid pools of chocolate that warmed when he smiled. He was obviously older, but every bit as gorgeous as his little brother. It was insane how one family could have three boys so different yet all so… She held his gaze. Magnetic. Charming. Hell, she didn’t know what they were except damn fine.
“You going to introduce us, brother? Or are you keeping this beautiful woman hidden away from the rest of the world on purpose?”
Chloe bit down on her lower lip to stop herself from laughing. Ryder looked like he was about to rip his brother’s head off.
“Chase, this is Chloe. Chloe, Chase,” he said, pushing past his brother to come stand beside her. He placed a possessive hand on her thigh and she fought the urge to push it off. His big hand over her jeans sent a lick of anticipation through her.
“Pleased to meet you, Chloe,” Chase said, leaning on the doorjamb as he spoke, his smile friendly. “Ryder never lets anyone drive his Range Rover, so I figured I’d better come see who’d managed to get behind the wheel.”
“Really?” She tilted her head back to look up at Ryder, noticed how tight his jaw was, body rigid. “He didn’t protest one bit when I took his keys off him last night.”
Chase crossed the room and helped himself to a drink. “You look familiar. Have we met?”
Ryder’s hand closed around her thigh a little too firmly and she gave him a nudge with her elbow. Talk about going all alpha with his brother around!
“I work at Joe’s,” she said. “I think I’ve served you a couple of times.”
“Ahh,” he said, hooking a thumb into his jeans and draining a can of cola. “It explains where I’ve met you, but not why you’d take pity on this drunken charmer.”
She put her hand over Ryder’s, trying to settle him like she would a dog itching for a fight.
“Easy boys,” she said, leaning back into Ryder, his chest to her back. “It just so happens we met at the rodeo the other day, and he justhappenedto swing past the bar last night.”
Ryder cleared his throat. “Chloe was watching my bull ride.”
“Please don’t tell me you find this idiot on the back of a bull sexy,” Chase said, not even bothering to glance at his brother. “We’ve been trying to tell him for years that he needs a new job.”
“And I keep telling you I’m perfectly happy with the one I’ve got,” Ryder growled out.
“Heroic and stupid at the same time,” she joked. “But to be honest, I feel more sorry for the bulls than the riders. And if you’d heard me tell this guy what I thought of his fall the other day?” Chloe laughed. “I think you’d have been impressed.”
Chase laughed and Ryder pushed his body in closer to her, his arms wrapping around her shoulders. Her shoulders went stiff until she forced them to relax, softening into him, knowing that they were supposed to look like lovers, like they’d just spent a night hot and heavy beneath the covers. His brothers probably thought she’d just slipped out to get breakfast early, that she’d spent the entire evening with him.
“So tell me,brother, how is it you have this gorgeous girl in your house this morning when she never spent the night? You must be losing your touch.”
Chloe hid her smile with her hand.No fooling this one.
“Too far, Chase. Way too goddamn far,” Ryder mumbled, letting go of her and stalking toward his brother.
Chloe just shook her head, watching the two of them behave like they were about to start sparring.
“Hey, just calling it how I saw it,” Chase said, dropping his soda can on the counter and backing away, hands in the air. “I’ll leave you two lovebirds to it. You know, because some of us have real work to do today.”
