Page 52 of The Holiday Heartbreaker

He didn’t want to hurt her.

He really didn’t.

“The town hall is tomorrow,” he said, doing what he could to redirect the conversation. “You should come. You and Benny. All the kids go, and they play games. The grown-ups get drunk and dance around the fire, but you don’t need to do either of those things.”

“That sounds like a sacred ritual.”

“I promise you it’s not. Unless you know of any sacred rituals involving red Solo cups.”

“I don’t,” she said, suppressing a smile.

“Great. Well. I’ll see you there, then. I mean, maybe I’ll see you before then.” And he wasn’t leaving now. What the hell was happening?

He was tripping over his words while talking to a woman. Which was not something that he could ever recall happening before in his life.

“Yeah. I’ll look forward to that. Seeing how the ranch runs. I mean, in the broader sense.”

“Good. Of course, it’s going to be cold. But... There’s the bonfire.”

“Right.”

“Am I done yet?” Benny called.

“I better help him,” Brody said, moving into action and grabbing a whole pile out of the back of the truck and bringing it up to the front of the house. “There. That should keep you warm.”

And he felt like she heard it, even though he didn’t say it. That he would like to keep her warm.

After he had gotten her hot.

He needed to get a grip.

“Right. Thank you. I’ll probably see you tomorrow.”

“I’m sure you will.”

And he turned and walked away from her, walked away from Benny, and got back into that rusted-out old truck, and played back scenes from his life through his mind. A reminder of who he was. A reminder that this was some kind of weird aberration that had nothing to do with anything he’d been before, anything he’d been through. That it was some strange part of him, some primal, testosterone-driven part of him that didn’t remember that he was fucked-up beyond all reason. That part of him thought it was just fine that he was attracted to a super sexy single mother.

She had proven that she could reproduce. Yes. That was the issue. He was having some kind of biological crisis. It couldn’t only be women who had biological-clock nonsense. It stood to reason. Propagation of the species and whatever bullshit.

But that was biology. And he was a man who very much knew who he was. He just had to stop forgetting.

CHAPTER NINE

ODDLY, SHE HADN’T seen Brody the following day, and now she was incredibly wound up about seeing him at the town hall meeting that evening. The town hall meeting—she had discovered—was something that all of the McClouds took very seriously. It was their chance to give an update on what was going on with the equine therapy, their chance to talk about any resources they might need, and their chance to give input on the other ventures happening at Four Corners.

They were an interesting bunch, the McClouds. Varying degrees of hard and occasionally difficult, but always well-meaning. Gus was gruff, but incredibly sweet with his wife, and he clearly cared about the people at the ranch more than just about anything.

Tag was a little bit more reserved, Hunter a charmer. Lachlan was very much the same.

And by all accounts, Brody was that same kind of charming flirt. And he had charmed her, against her will.

It was just... He didn’t treat her the way that Lachlan did. Lachlan was always happy to give her a wink and a nod. The way that Lachlan talked to her felt generic. Like he could be speaking to anyone at any time, probably in a bar.

But that wasn’t how Brody talked to her. And most notably, Brody included Benny. Her heart had jumped up into her throat when she had seen Benny sitting in the back of that pickup truck, but he had been fine. She had wanted to scold Brody for it. But... The way he had been with him...

He was firm. Kind of strict. Probably more than her and Carter ever were. But then, she and Carter were always trying to compete for who might be the real good guy in the scenario. The one that Benny actually wanted to spend time with.

Brody wasn’t doing that.

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