God, I’d been an idiot back then. I knew better, and yet I still allowed it to happen, and he’d forgotten.
Seeing him again is the last thing I thought I would do tonight. He looked good. So good. Amazing. He filled out so much. With his head shaved and sporting a beard, Tyler all but screamed rough around the edges.
My body reacted immediately to the sound of his voice, as it had all those years ago.
I used to have the hugest crush on him. I honestly thought myself in love with him.
Just as the thought pops in my head, I shake it off. I’d come to the bar tonight to get away from the house and the tension filling it. Maddox and I had different opinions about everything. Honestly, he’s pissed about the Will and how Cornbread Granddaddy left the ranch to both of us and not just him.
I haven’t told him that I quit my job. No matter how sporadic I did it. I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I left behind my empty apartment to come back here, and I don’t intend on going back. There’s nothing for me there. This land, though, fills my heart in ways I haven’t felt in years.
After the reading of Granddaddy’s Will and everyone had left the house, Maddox and I got into it. It’d been bad, the most god-awful argument the two of us have ever had. Well, it probably could have been worse, only it hasn’t escalated any further than it already has.
There’s so much my big brother doesn’t know about me. About what I’ve been doing. There is obviously a lot I don’t know about him. We’re strangers to one another, and maybe that’s my fault.
Then again, he always seemed to be so focused on everything else that he never actually got to know me over the years. Even to him, I’d become invisible. Not worth spending time with.
The thought hurts, but it is what it is. I’m not invisible anymore. I’m not an ugly duckling. I’m not a plain Jane. I’m me. Della Meadows. A strong, independent woman. At least that’s what I keep telling myself. It’s who I want to be.
I need to figure out what it is I want to do with my life now that I’ve left my stuck-in-the-mud life to come home.
I should tell Maddox this. Maybe then he’ll understand why I don’t want to sell him my half of the ranch.
In Granddaddy’s Will, he left the ranch to both of us, shocking me when I’d been for sure he’d have left it solely to Maddox. Fifty-fifty. I have just as much say when it comes to the land as Maddox, and I think that might be what really ticks him off the most.
The ranch has a lot of potential, not just with cattle. However, getting Maddox to listen to me will not be easy.
Shaking the thoughts away, I turn onto the lane leading to the house without wrecking or hitting anything on the way. This time of night, deer are always out. Growing up, I’d seen my share of them and even black bears darting across the road.
I let out a sigh as I drive, my mind consumed with thoughts of everything that’s been happening. It doesn’t help seeing Tyler again.
I want to shake the thoughts completely away, but they keep wanting to swim to the surface all over again.
The main house comes into view, and I let out a heavy breath, seeing the lights are still on. Great, it’s nearly two in the morning, and someone has to be awake. Typically, my brother is asleep way before now.
I hope he’s asleep and that it’s Judy or that maybe Maddox left the light on by accident. I highly doubt that’s the case, though. We were taught a long time ago to turn off the lights when leaving a room, and we learned if you didn’t, you got your ass popped for it.
“No reason to waste electricity when no one is in the room. You don’t pay the bills around here, so turn the damn lights off. I’m not made out of money.” Cornbread Granddaddy used to say that any time he had to fuss at one of us for not listening.
With another heavy sigh, I park, turn the car off, and get out, making sure not to slam the car door shut. The last thing I want is to wake Maddox if he’s indeed asleep.
I keep quiet, walk up the porch steps, and get into the house. The door makes a slight squeak, but not loud enough to wake anyone. It simply needs to be oiled to keep it from doing it, but that’s just something that happens in all houses. Hardware needs to be oiled, repaired, or replaced over time.
Once inside and the house is locked up, I slip off my booted heels and tiptoe toward the stairs. The last thing I want is the heels of my boots making a racket against the wooden stairs. It’s bad enough with the creaking the old wood makes.
“Della.”
I close my eyes at the sound of Maddox’s voice coming from the frame of the kitchen door. So, it was him up and waiting.
Great.
“I’m going upstairs to bed,” I call out quietly and keep moving. There’s no way in hell I want to deal with Maddox right now. Not after the fight we had. Not after seeing Tyler King again. Not after . . . not after any of what’s happened in the last few days since the funeral. I need a break from it all.
“We need to talk, Della.” This time closer.
As much as it pains me, I ignore my brother and continue up the stairs until I get to the top of the landing, then cross a few feet to my room. There’s no way I can talk to him right now. I need to think.
Once behind the safety of my door, I lean against it, with my eyes closed, head pressing into the solid oak, holding me up.
