“So the consensus is you look like shit?”
Stone picked up his coffee mug, arranging his fingers to discreetly flip his brother off.
“Back atcha.” CJ sat back in his seat. “We just tell it like it is, bro, and you, my friend, need a haircut and some…” CJ made a circle with his hand toward Stone’s face. “I don’t know whatthatneeds, but,man.”
A laugh bubbled out of him. He couldn’t help it. CJ had always been like that. Maybe because he was the middle child, the youngest of the boys. Or maybe because he was only a couple of years younger than Stone, so he was old enough that Stone had given him crap growing up. Whatever the reason, CJ hadn’t changed much in the time Stone had been gone. Aside from growing up and making something of himself. He’d done things right somewhere down the line. Too bad all those life lessons hadn’t given him an attitude adjustment.
Stone wished his brother would lay offjusta little. He usually appreciated that his brothers and sisters didn’t pull their punches. But considering he’d been back for three days and the consensus seemed to be his appearance was lacking, Stone wasn’t all that fond of this morning’s ribbing.
“Rough night or what? Not gettin’ much sleep, huh?”
The last thing Stone wanted to think about was rough nights. It was all hecouldthink about these days. And yeah, he was getting plenty of sleep. The problem had nothing to do with his ability to close his eyes and drift off. It was what happened when he did. Nico and Stevie plagued his damn dreams, and it didn’t matter how many hours he clocked horizontally, he continued to wake up hard and unsatisfied.
“Shouldn’t you be winin’ and dinin’ that girlfriend of yours?” Stone asked, trying to change the subject.
As was the case whenever someone mentioned Jamie Collier, the girl CJ’d been mooning over for years, his expression blanked. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
“She could be.”
CJ shook his head and grabbed the bottle of Tabasco, applying a generous amount to his eggs.
“It’s been what? Two years? Why haven’t you sealed the deal yet?”
CJ’s eyes narrowed.
Stone recognized the look. “Fine. I’ll back off.”
“Thank you.”
“Just as soon as you tell me what the hold up is,” Stone added, grinning when his brother rolled his eyes.
“That’s the question of the hour,” CJ replied. “So whatisthe holdup?”
Stone frowned. “With what?”
“You’ve been back three days. Mama said you’ve been holed up in the barn. I thought you’d be makin’ rounds, lookin’ to see who’s willin’ to sell you some land.”
That had been the plan. Right up until he pulled into town. Now that he was back, Stone wasn’t sure his dream of owning a cattle ranch was in the stars anymore. The worst part was, if he wasn’t dreaming of a ranch of his own, he had nothing. It was the only thing he’d wanted for as long as he could remember. Now that he was questioning it, he felt … empty.
CJ tilted his head as though that might help him figure Stone out. “You thinkin’ about ridin’ again?”
Stone chuckled. “Hell no.” That much he knew for a fact.
Bull riding had been a means to an end. A way for him to make money that he could put directly into savings. He’d made a name for himself working on the Double J and spending time on the rodeo circuit. With a few championship buckles under his belt, Stone could probably write his own ticket. But sitting astride a fifteen-hundred-pound beast and riding for eight no longer thrilled him. And not only because the last time he’d ridden—almost seven years ago—resulted in several compound fractures in his back. Those had healed nicely, but he wasn’t getting any younger. Bull riding was a young man’s game. Or a fool’s errand. Take your pick. And Stone was neither young nor a fool.
Between the championship purses he’d won and working at the Double J, he had more money than he needed to buy up a decent parcel of land, a few heifers, and the semen from champion bloodline bulls. It was all he needed to build the legacy he’d always dreamed of building. But would it make him happy? He wasn’t so sure anymore.
“You could always buy the Lassiter farm. They’ve got some chickens and goats. I think a couple of alpacas.”
Stone flipped his brother off again as he sipped his coffee.
“What? I think you’d do fine out there feedin’ oats to goats. Get yourself a rockin’ chair and some Metamucil. Right fine life, if you ask me.”
“No one asked you.”
CJ forked eggs in his mouth and immediately reached for his orange juice.
The bells over the diner’s door chimed, drawing Stone’s attention as it had the last dozen times it opened. This time, he felt something kick hard in his chest when he saw Stevie walk in.
