Entering the ring with him might be something that happens sooner than later. Once he finds out what I’ve been up to, he’s going to lose his shit. He depends on me. I’m the steady, the constant, the brother who has been here at the Hayden Cattle Company his whole life. I didn’t serve in the military like Wes, or fuck off like Wyatt. I was the de facto head of the next generation until Wes returned. I was happy to relinquish my role to the firstborn, and it still surprises me that nobody asked one simple question:why?
Nobody in their right mind would think a man could step away from the role I’d occupied for years, unless of course he didn’t want it in the first place.
I love the ranch, don’t get me wrong. I love her beauty, her curves, the way it takes a whole crew of men to handle her. She is brutal and unforgiving, but generous.
I love her, but there is more out there for me. And when Wes finds out, we may come to blows. It wouldn’t be the first time. It probably won’t be the last.
But that is for another day. Right now, all I need is a fresh cup of coffee and then I’ll get on with the morning’s chores.
My eyebrows shoot up in surprise when I find Wes in the kitchen. “Late start this morning?” I ask him, but I don’t for one second think that’s the case. The man couldn’t sleep in if he tried.
He shakes his head. “Refueling,” he says, lifting his mug into the air.
I flash him a wicked grin. “Up late last night?”
He gives me a hard look, not one muscle in his face twitching. He doesn’t tolerate any mention of Dakota in a sexual capacity, be it joke or innuendo. I had a lot of fun with that before he admitted he liked her. Wes makes it too easy for me to push his buttons.
“I remember those early days of marriage.” I sidestep him and reach for the carafe of hot coffee. “It’s like being drugged. You can’t keep your hands off each other. Even better than when you started dating, because somehow her being yourwifemakes her even sexier.”
Wes grunts in either agreement or acknowledgment, which is as good as I’m going to get, and I’m fine with that. He sips his coffee and stares at me. “You seem chipper for someone who’s been a dickhead since I got married.”
“Don’t sugarcoat it, asshole,” I mutter, a twinge of resentment curling in my stomach. Anna served me divorce papers right before Wes and Dakota’s wedding. I was less-than-pleasant to be around that weekend, and not-so-great since.
I lean back against the kitchen counter and glance out the kitchen window. The morning sun bathes everything in a soft, creamy gold. As it climbs higher, it will grow in intensity. I used to arrive on the ranch earlier than this, but that was back before Anna left. We had a house in town, and I drove out here for work every day. Now the kids are with me most of the time and we live in the big cabin a half mile from here. My workday begins after I take them to school and drive back out here.
“Things felt different the last time I saw Anna,” I tell Wes, turning my gaze away from my family’s land. “When we took Charlie to the hospital for those stitches, it was…” I search for the right word, but it evades me, so I shrug. “Different. It felt like we were on the same side again.” I’ll see her tomorrow morning when I take the kids to her parents for her weekend, and I’m praying it’ll be the good experience we had last time. Minus the stitches.
Wes’s lips purse, and I know he’s exercising extreme control right now. He was furious when she left me and the kids. His opinion of Anna is very low, and I can see why. But if he knew the truth about why she left, he wouldn’t be so upset. I can’t be mad at him for judging her harshly. She knew it was going to happen, and so did I, but she made me promise to keep her secret. And as much as I hated it, as much as I didn’t agree with her, it wasn’t my place. So I went along with her lie, and two years later, I’m still going along with it.
“Is that what you want, Warner? To have Anna back, after she left you and the kids tofind herself?” The last two words are so soaked with disdain, they’re dripping.
I drag a hand over the back of my neck, rubbing at the tense muscle. “You wouldn’t understand, Wes. You’ve never loved a woman for nearly two decades and made a family with her.” Turning away from all that seems plain wrong.
Wes’s lips straighten into a harsh line. I shouldn’t have said that. Wes didn’t do those things because he was off serving our country, and then when he got out, he was battling the leftover wounds.
Wes sighs. He opens his mouth to speak but our dad walks in. He’s a big man, tall and broad-shouldered, physical characteristics he passed down to his three sons. He is soft around the middle now, and his face is deeply lined. He had a heart attack almost a year ago, and I spent the twenty-four hours that followed remembering every important thing the man taught me.
Dad holds up his cell phone, nods his head at it, and hits a button. “You’re on speaker, Mayor.”
“Thanks, Beau.” Mayor Cruz’s deep voice fills the kitchen. “Wes, you there?”
Wes glances with uncertainty at our dad, then says, “I’m here, Mayor. What can I do for you?”
“Cary Lindstrom fell off his horse and broke his pelvis. He had signed up to teach that actress about ranching before the movie starts shooting, and I need to replace him.”
“Why you?” Wes asks. “Don’t they have people for that?” He gestures flippantly in the air with his hands at the word ‘people.’
“I’m sure they do,” the Mayor says, his tone clipped. “But I know people with experience and knowledge. A local from Sierra Grande makes for better publicity.”
“Maybe they can forget shooting the movie here altogether and go torture another town,” I mutter. I was late getting Charlie and Peyton to school this morning because of the increased traffic. They’re everywhere, they don’t know where to go, and they don’t pay attention while they’re doing it.
“That you, Warner?” Mayor Cruz asks.
“It’s me, Mayor.”
“We need the movie almost as much as the movie needs our scenery. I’m sure I don’t have to remind any of the Hayden men about the bad press our town has had in the past year.” He lets it hang out in the air, the reminder of the meth lab that exploded just off our property last summer.
“That wasn’t on our land, Mayor.” Wes’s tone is even, but he sends a middle finger to the phone. One side of my dad’s mouth lifts in a smile.
