We’d been too old and too big for our father to keep us at the ranch.
It had taken a while after our father’s murder for the rumors to start about us killing our father.
Luckily, we’d been a lot closer to getting the hell out of Crystal Fork by the time the really vicious gossip had started.
Years ago, The Mug And Jug had been a morning hangout place that served coffee and cinnamon rolls in the mornings as well as being the local bar at night.
“Everything is exactly the same there,” Lauren told me with a sigh. “Joy’s bakery is still making those cinnamon rolls for Silas. The only thing that’s different is his coffee maker. He’s gotten quite fancy. He makes all kinds of gourmet coffees now. He wanted to keep up with the coffee trends.”
I smirked. “Has anything really changed in Crystal Fork?”
She shook her head. “No. It amazed me that I had been gone for over a decade, and almost nothing was different when I got back. Honestly, there’s something about the sameness of this town that’s actually comforting. I like visiting the same stores that I went to as a kid. I know that the gossip sucks and that a lack of change isn’t always good, but there are a lot of things Ilove about this town. More than a decade in the city was enough for me. If I want a few more amenities, we’re close enough to Billings. What about you? Do you miss living in Austin?”
I thought about telling her that Billings wasn’t exactly the big city, but she was right. It did have a lot more amenities than Crystal Fork, and it was the biggest city in Montana.
“The only thing I really miss is the variety of different restaurants I had there,” I told her honestly. “I don’t miss the crowds, the noise, or the traffic. Being surrounded by people all of the time gets old when you were raised in a small town. Maybe it suits some people, but not me.”
I’d pushed up the sleeves of my sweatshirt earlier, and Lauren was lightly tracing the outline of the tattoo on my forearm.
“What does this mean?” she asked softly.
“How do you know that it means anything?” I questioned. “Maybe I just like the design.”
She shot me one of her I-know-you’re-full-of-shit looks before she said, “It means something. I don’t see you getting a tattoo if it didn’t mean anything to you. As far as I know, it’s the only one you have.”
“Freedom,” I replied honestly. “Asher has one, too. We got them after we moved to Austin. We didn’t have a lot of money, but we didn’t skimp on the tattoos. The symbolism meant something to us. I went with the soaring hawk, and Asher got the wolf. Once we got the tattoos, we never looked back.”
“It must have been hard for you two at first,” she said in an empathetic voice. “You were both so young, and you were raised in a small town.”
“We adjusted,” I explained. “Asher easily got a job as a welder, and he got me into a less skilled job at the same place. We both enrolled in college soon after we got there. My brother had already taken some classes in Billings, but I was startingfrom scratch. It wasn’t easy finagling work and school, but it all worked out. We started our tech company from nothing. It was a small business until it turned into a whole lot more. Our timing was good.”
“It wasn’t all about the timing,” she admonished. “Your ambition was legendary. You and Asher made sure that you filled a need that wasn’t there in the tech world at the time. It took you both years of hard work to build that monster company. I wish you’d stop downplaying all your accomplishments.”
I chuckled. “If I don’t, I’m sure you’ll be the first one to remind me of everything I’ve accomplished.”
It never ceased to amaze me how Lauren never missed a chance to tell me that she thought I was a great guy.
She pointed out all of my accomplishments and my strengths.
I couldn’t say that I didn’t like that kind of admiration from her, but I wasn’t always sure I deserved it.
She shifted positions and swung her leg over me, straddling me with her hands on my biceps before she looked down at me and met my gaze. “Is it really so bad that I’m really proud of everything you’ve done and the man you’ve become?” she asked. “It’s not exactly a secret that you give a lot of your money away to charities. You came from the worst possible background, yet you still want to make the world a better place. I’d say that’s pretty remarkable.”
I gripped her ass and grinned up at her. “Every filthy rich person donates to charities. Tax advantages, angel.”
She rolled her eyes adorably.
“What am I going to do with you?” she asked in an exasperated voice.
“Kiss me,” I suggested hopefully.
The sensual smile that formed on her lips with just a hint of those dimples had my cock as hard as a pike in an instant.
“You’re impossible to resist, Cole Remington,” she said as she lowered her head.
I reached up and buried my fingers in her silky hair. “I don’t want you to be able to resist,” I replied right before I pulled her mouth down to mine.
Christ!I wanted this woman in a way I’d never wanted another female.
