“Easier than roping a steer,” he announces. “Let me get the water cut off first. I think your side of the building was the one where we started installing turn-offs. It’s common practice now, but it wouldn’t have been when the place was built. Dalton and I have been working on getting it done.”
“I never even realized,” I mutter. I know Dalton is a gardener who works here. He’s good friends with Bronco and more than that, he’s married to Bree who also works here as the nurse practitioner. She’s my best friend. I caught the bouquet at her recent wedding.
“Let me get that water off then I’ll be back,” he says. It only takes him a few minutes to return. This time, he’s carrying a toolbox and whistling a soft tune under his breath. It’s oddly comforting to hear him whistling. If this man who has seen war and combat can whistle in the middle of the night, then my water problem must not be all that bad.
He settles on his knees in front of the wall and gestures for me to join him. I do, making sure to smooth down my skirt. It’s the middle of the night, and I’m still dressed. I haven’t been sleeping, and I hate crawling into bed only to stare up into the darkness as my thoughts spiral.
Lately, I’ve taken to organizing things to help clear my head. So far, I have perfectly alphabetized my kitchen pantry and deep cleaned my stove so pristinely a doctor could perform surgery in my oven. Not sure why a doctor would perform surgery there, unless he was tiny, and I’m getting off track. I blame the exhaustion.
“I’ll get it going with a gator bite tonight. That’s this piece here,” he holds it up to show me. “It’ll clamp on both ends of the pipe. It’ll be enough that I can restore the water. Then tomorrow, while you’re working, I’ll go through and cut out the leaking pipe and replace it.”
“Sure, just let me know what I owe you,” I answer. He does a lot of work around the community center, and I’ve never once seen him accept anything from my aunt. Bronco is the type that helps out just because he can.
He scoffs before saying in the deep, rumbly voice of his, “Don’t want a damn thing from you.”
My eyes tear up again, and my chin wobbles. There aren’t many good people left in this world and sitting right next to me is one of the best. He always has time for everyone else even though I’m sure he’s fighting his own demons.
“Hey…this isn’t a big deal. Really. It takes a couple of days at the most to fix. I’ll make sure the drywall is replaced and hell, I’ll color match the paint myself. By the time I’m done, you’ll never even remember there was a leak here.”
I take a deep breath and force myself to hold it together. I can cry all I want once Bronco is gone. Though in truth, I probably won’t cry. It’s just that having him around makes me feel a little less alone, and I haven’t felt that way in a while. “Tell me what to do.”
He studies me, his gaze on my face. But I keep my attention focused firmly on the wet drywall, not on the handsome cowboy who’s peering at me with far too much concern. After a lengthy silence, he says, “First, we’re going to get the wet drywall removed.”
He pushes through it with his hand, showing me the mushy wall. “It crumbles easily.”
We work together in silence for over an hour, and it’s soothing to have Bronco’s presence beside me. It’s less soothing to realize we had to remove half the wall due to water damage.
“This must have been leaking for a bit,” I remark as he shines his flashlight along the pipes.
“Yep, it’s usually those little leaks that lead to something bigger,” he casts me a long sideways glance as he says the words.
I wonder if it would help to get it out. Aunt Elaine and I swore each other to secrecy, but if anyone can be trusted to take a secret to his grave, it’s definitely Bronco. As it is, he barely does more than grunt with anyone else. “You can’t fix this.”
“I’d rope the moon if it meant giving you back that pretty little smile of yours,” he says the words with so much sincerity that my heart melts right there in my chest. As if I needed another reason to fall deeper in love with my brother’s best friend.
Chapter 2
Bronco
“I’m dumb,” she says and sniffs softly.
“No, you’re not,” I respond without even having to think about it. Lauren is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. I’ve watched her in action with the residents day after day. She knows how to handle every crisis that the retirement home throws her way, and she always does it while calmly reassuring everyone.
There’s not a day I don’t show up here that I’m not a little more in awe and a lot more in love with her. But those aren’t the right feelings to have toward your best friend’s little sister. So even though she’s the one person I can never stop thinking about, I do what I’ve always forced myself to do.
I push away the emotions. The only time I allow myself to feel anything at all for Lauren is in my dreams at night. Sometimes, they’re steamy dreams of us wrapped in the sheets together, her panting and breathless beneath me. I wake up aching and horny.
But sometimes, the dreams are sweet ones of us raising a family and growing old together. I wake up aching in a different way, an ache that lingers deep in my bones and never quite leaves.
“Now, tell me what happened,” I say to her. She stares down at her nails, painted a pretty, cherry red that matches her dress.
That’s another thing that bothers me about tonight. She’s all dressed up like she never quite went to bed. No one looks this put together at two in the morning, which means she’s not sleeping.
But it’s more than just the way she looks so nice. It’s the bags underneath her eyes, the exhaustion that seems to weigh down her shoulders, and the fact that I’m damn certain she’s lost at least twenty pounds in the last month.
There’s something more going on. Some big problem she’s been keeping from me, and I don’t like it at all. I’ve tried to be patient. I’ve tried to wait her out and let her come to me on her own timetable but at the rate we’re going, it doesn’t look like she has any plans to bring me her problems.
“Tell me,” I repeat when the silence between us has stretched for well over fifteen minutes. I’ll sit here all night if that’s what it takes to convince her that I’m here, ready and willing to carry all of her burdens.
