Zach arched a brow, humor curving his lips upward. “What about the time you tried to give yourself a haircut?”
“I was three! I didn’t know any better, and I really wanted bangs.”
To this day, my mom loved pulling out photos from those months and showing people the hack job I’d done on my hair.
“True, but you weren’t three when you tried riding a horse bareback after being told not to and ended up breaking your arm.”
“I would have been fine if Serendipity hadn’t gotten spooked.”
Zach’s gaze turned challenging. “Or when Grandpa told you to stay out of that old, dilapidated pole barn ’cause there were rattlesnakes?”
“I heard it was haunted and wanted to see a ghost.”
“What about when you climbed that half rotted tree and nearly killed yourself fallin’ out of it?”
I lifted my chin and folded my arms over my chest. “Billy Gibbons bet me five dollars I couldn’t get to the top. Proved that little shit wrong, didn’t I?”
“Is that the same Billy Gibbons I caught you makin’ out with in the hay loft?”
At Zach’s question, my father proceeded to choke on the swig of beer he’d just taken. “What?” her sputtered hoarsely.
“I was sixteen!” I jabbed an accusing finger in my brother’s direction. “And don’t act like you didn’t do the same damn thing. At least we were just kissing. More than one ranch hand has been unfortunate enough to have seen your naked ass when they caught you up there.”
Rae tried to stifle her giggle just then, but failed. “Connor busted us up there just last week. Ran off screaming about going blind.”
“See?” I waved my hand in her direction. “I wasn’t the only one who caused trouble around here.”
Mom came over to me and squished my cheeks together again. “True. But you’re the only one who made an art out of it.”
I wanted to argue, but she wasn’t exactly wrong. As much as I wanted to deny it, I came by the nickname Raylan gave me honestly. I caused more than a little chaos growing up.
Grandpa started laughing then. Big, boisterous belly laughs exploded through the room and silenced the rest of us. After a handful of seconds, Grandma joined him, the two of them cracking up while the rest of us stared on in confusion.
Mom slammed her hands down on her hips as her eyes darted between the two of them. “What’s so funny?”
Grandma gave her a loving smile. “Just the pot calling the kettle black, honey bunch.”
“All the wild in our girl here came straight from you,” Grandpa said on a chuckle. “You forget the time you beat those preppy assholes at the bar to hell with nothin’ more than a broom handle? Bent that sucker clean in half.”
Zach and I both laughed. We’d heard that story more than once, and never got tired of it. My mom was a badass.
“Just how the women in this family are. Wild mustangs,” Grandpa continued. “And just like what happened with you, she’ll find herself a man one day who’ll see all that wild as the beauty it is.”
I didn’t miss the wink my father gave my mom. He never once hid the fact that he loved her particular brand of crazy.
There was a part of me that was moved by my grandfather’s words, that wanted so badly for them to be true. But the other part was worried that I might not turn out as lucky as my grandmother and mother had.
Chapter Eight
Raylan
Something was seriously wrong with my head, because despite knowing nothing could ever happen between us, I couldn’t seem to keep myself away from Lennix. With her in the room, I felt like a smoker trying to quit cold turkey while a pack of cigarettes sat on the table in front of me, taunting me.
She tried being discreet every time she attempted to move her chair away, but that space between us grated on my nerves something fierce. Every time I looked down at those inches of empty air, my teeth ground together, like that space had personally offended me. Before I could think better of it or tell myself to stop, I was pulling her back. Pressing my leg against hers beneath the table or draping my arm over the back of her chair. Anything for some sort of contact, no matter how small. I got a hit just from the soft sweep of her silky hair against my fingers every time she turned her head.
Through the rest of dinner, she’d done her best to act like I didn’t exist, and damn if I didn’t find myself getting off on the little game we were playing, unbeknownst to anyone else. If Zachhad even an inkling of some of the thoughts going through my head regarding his little sister, he wouldn’t have hesitated to put his fist through my face right there in front of his entire family.
That wasn’t enough to stop me, though. Hell, even hearing Zach claim that shithead she’d been dating was too old for her hadn’t been enough to cool the fire that lit in my blood every time she was near. And sitting at that table for an hour and a half, so close I could smell that sweet, warm star anise scent on her skin, just about did me in.
