Page 89 of The Holiday Heartbreaker

She was unlike any woman he had ever known. Unlike any person he had ever known, and he was just sure that her dickhead husband had never had a clue what he had. He was stuck on the fact that he had a broken family. That things didn’t look normal. Probably in the same way that he was stuck on Elizabeth being from an unconventional background, not realizing that it had made her who she was.

“Oh, I don’t need to...”

“It doesn’t all have to be about need. Sometimes, it can be about want.”

He reached out his hand, and she had to stare at him for a moment before she took it slowly. Lachlan cast a glance at him as he led Elizabeth out to the dance floor.

Mind your own business.

He mouthed that back to his brother.

Who looked away and busied himself weeding through the selection of women who were vying for his attention. Lachlan should be thrilled. Brody taking himself out of the equation for the night meant the bar was his oyster.

He noticed Denver, Justice and Landry King in the corner. Daughtry wasn’t here, but he was the only brother with a job off the ranch. A State Trooper, Daughtry was more straight and narrow than his brothers. The brothers? Not at all. And when they separated from the wall, Lachlan’s competition was engaged.

There were suddenly half a dozen women headed their direction.

He shook his head.

“Well, it’s good for Lachlan to have a little bit of a challenge.”

“Oh?”

“The Kings.”

He directed her gaze toward the door.

“Right. They are... Something.”

He suspected she meant handsome. They weren’t really Brody’s type, but women definitely seemed to like them.

“Yeah. Well. Don’t even think about it. Those guys are trouble.”

“Again. Pirate cowboy. How are you not trouble?”

“Oh, me too. But I’m trouble you’ve already gotten in.” She laughed, and he pulled her up against his body, moving her in time with the music. “You could’ve done better, quite frankly,” he said, his voice husky.

“Really?”

“Yeah. There’s some nice guys around here. Sadly, I’m not one of them.”

“You say things like that, and yet you always seem pretty nice to me.”

“Don’t let that fool you.”

“You mean don’t let your actions fool me? My experience is that when a man tells you he’s nice repeatedly, that’s the real red flag.”

“Damn. I didn’t think you had dated all that much.”

“I haven’t. But I do live in the world. So I’ve observed a few things here and there.”

“I actually think it’s pretty amazing, everything that you’ve been through. And how... Not cynical you are.”

“I’m cynical,” she said. “Not all the way through. The thing is, I have to believe that there’s goodness in the world, because I’m raising a child that’s going to grow up in it. I have to hope that there are good things out there for him. Better things. I can’t write off the entirety of humanity, because my son has to go out and live among it. It’s kept me from drowning in my own hard feelings too much.”

“Makes sense.”

Maybe it was more than that. Maybe it had to do with the fact that she had someone else to live for.

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