And neither am I. West can learn to build a little trust. After all, she’s already stolen a decent slice of my heart.
The rest is waiting right here for her to come and claim.
My shirt sticks to a patch of sweat forming on my back as I haul a rope over the last load of the day for Dallas and slap the side of the truck with my gloved hand. “You’re good to go.”
Dallas waves at me from the driver’s seat. “I’ll see you next week. Stayin’ in Valiant Peak. Keep outta trouble until this thing is over, all right?” he calls over the truck’s engine noise.
I frown, casting West a quick look as he manages Tripp and a few of the rowdier boys for the afternoon jobs. His eyes narrow, but he just shrugs. We’ve barely spoken in the last few hours. I suspect that when Lanie arrives on Coyote Falls land, he’ll be uncomfortable. But then, he has his own demons to battle.
I jog up to the truck’s cab, ignoring West’s glare at my salt- and dirt-encrusted back. “You’re not staying here this week? Have we been that rough on you?” I joke lightly.
Dallas scratches his salt-and-pepper head. “Nah. I met a pretty thing in town. Thought I might stay with her before you lot make ahash of things once everyone starts to arrive and really fucks with my peace, you know?”
I grin at him. “Seriously? I thought you were a lone wolf forever.” I hold out my hand.
Dallas clasps it in a rough shake. “Take care of yourself, Cord. Make sure the boys behave. Don’t let them run over you.” His eyes hold a warning he doesn’t say.
“I’ve got West for that.”
He throws me a hard look. “I’m talking about West, son.” Shaking his head and muttering about overindulged ranchers while I laugh at him, he backs the truck out of the yard and heads toward the road.
I watch him leave, studying the load tied to the back. I made the decision to shift half of the rodeo setup away from Coyote Falls in the event West’s gut is right. What I know is right. The problem is that I don’t know how to fix what I can’t prove but only suspect for now…and thewhois the part that’s missing in my partial theory.
A soft footfall that belies his bulk announces the other man I need, but then, I don’t think he’s trying to hide, exactly.
“You gonna be okay with Lanie being here?” I ask West without looking at him. The mountains behind the house blend with the fading light until they’re indistinguishable from the dusky sky.
He steps up beside me, slugging water from a bottle. Grit coats his face and half his neck. Hell, I probably don’t look much better.
“You seem sure about her.” He rolls a shoulder, capping the bottle, and tosses it onto the back of an ancient farm pickup beside me. “I’m not here to judge.”
I let out a snort. “You’ve done a fucking stellar job of that.”
He folds his arms, staring out at the grasslands. The odd cow still bears an occasional paint splotch from paintball Sally’s mishits during out previous round with Billy. “I want a good girl for you, man. Quit the bunny habit.”
“What, you want full rein with them?” I laugh outright. Easing the pressure between us feels good.
West doesn’t shift, keeping his same stoic facade. “You know I won’t touch those girls. You know that.”
His attention rides heavy on me as I turn back to watch Dallas’s speck of a truck head away from Coyote Falls.
“Because of money.” I let the brief words that define me fall between us, brittle and staid.
West, as usual, won’t have a bar of my attitude. “Because of money. Do you even count it anymore?”
“I’m gifting it all to you. You can have my worries.”
He holds his hands up, retreating. “Hell, no. I’ve seen what it’s done to you. Out here, I’ve got it good. Let me work. Wake up, eat, shit, and sweat. Maybe shower. Do it over again tomorrow. That’s all I want out of life. All I had before. You, Rand? You’re built different. You pretend your money created this place, but it was you, and me, and a hell of a lot of hard work.”
“And bruises.” I rub the back of my neck, remembering. “I could barely hammer straight.”
“Yeah, you were a regular Lightning Jack back then. But we learned. Did it together.”
“I helped, assholes.” Levi arrives, bearing a tray of still-warm cookies and pastries. “You can’t replace me with a new ranch wife.”
“No one will ever replace you, Levi. If she wants to stay, it’s because she works with all of us.” The words slip out before I think to check my surroundings.
“You’re not breaking up the band, then?” Tripp pipes up from behind me.
