“Sterling?”
I wanted to go back and rub away the frown lines between her eyes. The two little lines puckered her brows. My feet refused to move. Probably because I knew if I touched her, I’d never leave.
“Yeah, I’m going to see my dad. I have an early morning flight from Montrose to Denver.”
“I thought that was where you were today.” Tally cleared her throat. “Not that I was stalking you or anything.”
“I was going to, but I didn’t realize I’d need preapproval. And,” I sighed heavily, “I kind of need to talk to my brothers.”
Tally’s head lifted sharply. “You haven’t told them yet?”
“Nope.” I lifted my shoulder in a shrug. “I was too chicken.”
She gave me a soft smile. “You don’t strike me as a scaredy-cat, Wilder.” The glint in her eye told me she liked the brave, ballsy side of me. Another reason why I was surprised she’d ended up with the tiny guy. I was all man and Brownie loved it.
“I’m not, which is why I’m going to talk to them tonight. And, well, it may take a while.”
The quiet giggle made her tits bounce and my eyes were instantly drawn to them. I had to get out of there before I decided to fuck her on my brother’s desk. I didn’t have time for it. I needed to talk to my brothers and organize with the guys what needed doing on the ranch tomorrow.
“How are you feeling about seeing your Dad?”
My chest squeezed. My stomach somersaulted. Petrified wasn’t even the word. “I need answers, you know.” I needed her too, and that terrified me more than my father’s lies ever could.
She nodded. “I do. And for the record I think your brothers will understand your need to see him.”
“I hope so.” The concern was brief because I had two incredible brothers. Even if they had no desire to see him, they wouldn’t stop me, but that didn’t make it any easier to be the one who walked through that door.
There was one thing I could always count on my brothers for: support. Even when they didn’t like my choices, they stood behind me. When I insisted that I didn’t want to go to business college, they didn’t like it, but they supported me. When I had a scare with my high school girlfriend, they supported me. When I took Dad’s car without his permission and scratched all down one side, they supported me.
Now, sitting at the dining table, with them both staring at me expectantly, I was nervous as hell. Gunner was smirking, tapping his fingers. Nash on the other was frowning, concern dripping from him.
“What’s going on?” he asked, placing his forearms on the table.
“Do we have a repeat of the high school sex scandal?” Gunner chuckled.
“I was fifteen, drunk on beer, and I didn’t know I hadn’t even put it in.”That was my big scare, convinced Morgan was pregnant because I got off on her thigh. Gunner had never let me forget it.
Nash rubbed a hand over his face. “Can we just get down to why you’re sitting in front of us looking like you’re in the school Principal’s office.”
“Or like you need us to explain sex to you,again.”
Nash hit Gunner around the back of the head. “Shut up and let him tell us what we’re here for.”
“Okay, okay.” He rubbed the back of his head. “What do you want to talk to us about?”
I wasn’t scared of their anger. Not really. I was scared of what it was that saying it out loud might confirm; that some part of me still wanted something from the man who broke us. That I wasn’t done hoping for a version of him that never existed.
Smoothing my hands over the table, I took a reassuring breath. “I’m flying to Denver in the morning.”
“Right.” Nash nodded, two deep lines between his eyes. “For some ranch business we don’t know about?”
“You’re not going to work for someone else are you?” Gunner’s grinsuddenly disappeared.
“No. I’m not going on ranch business, or to work for someone else.” Pulling my shoulders back I looked each of them in the eye. “I’m going to see Dad. In prison.”
The silence fell with a thud. Like a concrete block dropped from a great height. It fell and cracked the atmosphere with a bolt of lightning sparking at the edges. A spark that would either light up the sky with flames of anger or die out into a lazy ember of disquiet.
“Well?” I prompted.
