“You’re no smarter than me, then, cowboy,” he drawled back, getting one final dig in. Tanner grunted and looked away, giving in. Jake let him go and stood up, dusting his hands.
“This is utterly stupid. Why the fuck are you so worked up about Liz? What is it to you that she and I—”
“Stay away from her,” Tanner yelled, interrupting him, stabbing a finger at Jake as he hauled himself up from the ground. “It’s bad enough you have to be here, but don’t fuck around with her. You’ll hurt her and no one fucks with my family, asshole.”
“Says who?” Liz shouted as she strode toward them. She threw an ice pack at Tanner’s feet, and stood there, hands on her hips just like her mother, glaring between the two of them. Jake slid his aching hands into his pockets, all his knuckles popping, and waited for her to continue, thankful for her intrusion.
“I am so sick and fucking tired of men telling me what I can and can’t fucking do! So what if I kissed him, Tan? So what? Not your call who I decide to be with. Stop being a controlling asshole.”
Jake let out a chuckle but then silenced it as she rounded, her eyes narrowing as she lasered in on him.Uh-oh. He sat back and waited for the explosion.
“As for you, stop pushing his goddamned buttons. He just lost his father, his ranch, and now he’s gotta reconcile to a new brother who can be a smarmy, citified, arrogant prick. Cut. Him. Some. Slack!” she shouted, jabbing her finger at him with each word, walking toward him. He caught her hand just before she jabbed it square into his chest.
“Message received,” he said, ducking to look into her eyes, and let her hand go when she met them. She was right, about all of it. She blinked, expecting him to argue with her, he assumed. Her nostrils flared, and he braced for her to let loose another tongue-lashing because he was taking it.
“Lizzie, he’s no good,” Tanner growled and stepped over to them, hand on her arm again. “You’re not—”
“Fuck. You,” she hissed at Tanner and shook his hand off her. She turned, grabbed Jake by the fabric of his shirt, pulled him in, and kissed him.
Jake grabbed for her before she pulled him off-balance and sent them both tumbling, and once his feet were planted, kissed her back, all the sense in his head sliding south. Sure, his blood was up from being a big damned idiot and fist fighting in the driveway, but Liz did something to him that blew his normal composure to smithereens. It was arousing as hell, so he went with it.
Her lips were soft, and he bent her over slightly in his arms while she tugged on his shirt more, twisting it in her fists as he tightened his grip on her. Except for the sting from his split lip, which he ignored, it was as fiery as their kiss in the office.
But this was not a kiss from being turned on. She was mad and trying to prove a point. He knew that but wasn’t about to stop her. That might get him slapped, and he’d had enough of that for one evening.
He half heard Tanner mutter something and stalk away, and Liz released him, a satisfied smirk on her face as she ran a thumb along her lower lip, pleased with herself. The smirk slid away as they watched Tanner climb into his truck, gun the engine, and take off down the driveway in a spray of gravel.
“A bit much, maybe?” Jake said quietly as they watched Tanner’s taillights disappear around the corner. “He’s pretty upset, Liz.”
“Well, so am I,” she retorted, and stalked back to the house, leaving just as quickly as Tanner had.
“Oh my god, this family,” Jake said into the evening air, and winced as he lowered himself to the bottom step of the veranda. Brady, standing off to the side, retrieved the ice pack and handed it to him as he sat down beside him. Jake placed it on his jaw and groaned.
“Fuck,” he added, for good measure. “Now what?”
“Give him a bit. He’s protective of Liz. Has been since she showed up here with her mom all those years ago. She’s not blood, but she’s part of our family, you get?” Brady said quietly. “He’ll come back with his steam all let out and then we’re all gonna get along.”
Jake nodded at that and grunted his agreement, making Brady chuckle and lean forward on his legs, looking out into the darkening evening. Jake caught him smiling, but his eyes were serious, scanning the horizon for something, maybe working out what to say next. He let the quiet settle him back down, his heartbeat slowing while he shifted the ice pack around on his face.
Brady glanced at him. “Look. I know we aren’t perfect, New York. Tanner’s got a chip on his shoulder a mile wide, and we’re all trying to reconcile how our dad fucked us over, Tan more than anyone else, maybe. But, in the middle of all that, we’ve gotta get along out here. When we fight, shit gets complicated, and that can be a big problem.”
Brady patted Jake on the shoulder and stood up, sighing. “You’re making things difficult by poking the bear with Liz, so tread careful. If she wants to do, well, whatever that was, with you, then I’m not going to get in your way. But I’m not going to get between you and Tan either. Not again, at least.”
“I’m sorry, Brady,” Jake mumbled, slumping. “For all of this.”
“Not entirely your fault, New York. But don’t make it your fault by stirring it up, yeah? Besides, I like your cookin’. Would hate to see those hands too hurt,” Brady added, a hint of humor in his voice, as he vaulted back up the steps.
Jake waved him off, and sat, watching the sunset dip behind the trees. It dawned on him as he moved the ice pack to his knuckles, that for the first time in his life, he’d just had a dustup with someone other than a random dude in a boxing ring, or at whatever bar he was bouncing for as a twenty-something idiot.
He’d been fighting with his brother.Family. Something he’d never experienced before. Growing up, all his friends with brothers would constantly fight, and he used to get jealous of that, the idea that there was somebody in life you could argue with who would still be there for you no matter what. That despite pounding on each other, all would be right the next day.
He leaned over on his knees, letting out a big breath, the only other sound some crickets in the flower bushes.
Even though he was positive Tanner hated him six ways to breakfast, Tanner was his brother, and that counted for something. He’d been mad as hell when Tanner had burst in, but it had given way to something else when they had finally come to blows. For the first time since arriving, sitting on the front step of what was the West homestead, nursing his wounds, he realized he cared about that son of a bitch, and what happened to him. He cared about all of them.
They had a legacy in this sprawling piece of land in the middle of nowhere. A legacy he was responsible for keeping, for his family.
Odd and awkward, and maybe not exactly accepting, but it was, he realized,hisfamily. Family didn’t give up or let go when it was important. They fought for one another and stood up to each other. Which had happened tonight. Each one of them, including Peony with her damned pot.
