Page 136 of Colt

Lainey comes over for dinner every night. Last night, she and Dean went through her notebook together again and spent an hour drawing in the pages using her fancy set of colored pencils. I’m still not over how talented she is—I totally underestimated her. He helped her draw some cowboy boots, and she showed him how to spell Double U.

Then we put him to bed and I took her to my bed. Despite the fact that we had to keep it quiet, the sex was incredible. The kind I wanted to have again in the middle of the night and again first thing in the morning.

We can’t, of course, because Lainey had to leave. But God, I miss morning sex. I gotta figure out a way to make that happen without Dean finding out. Last thing I wanna do is confuse him or break his heart. He’s already half in love with Lainey. I can only imagine how hard he’d fall if she were around all the time.

If she weren’t leaving, I’d ask her to be exclusive. But I don’t know what her plans are when her contract is up, so I don’t talk about the future and neither does she. I’d like to think it’s not so much us avoiding the subject as it is us enjoying the present.

But yeah, every once in a while, I’ll think about what life will be like when she leaves. The idea of going back to business as usual, back to how it was before she came barreling into town⁠—

Fuck.

I don’t got a choice, though. It’s not like I’m gonna give up everything I’ve helped build here to follow a twenty-four-year old to some sprawling Texas suburb. And Lainey may be many things, but a country girl ain’t one of ’em. Even if she is becoming a decent rider. And all our ranch hands know her name now because she’s always asking to help them out.

Still, Lainey and I are different. But if there’s one thing we do agree on, it’s honesty. Authenticity.

That’s what makes me think I shouldn’t be so scared to open myself up, because not everyone is going to lie to my face.

Not everyone is going to betray me.

“Penny for your thoughts.”

I blink against the ardent morning sunshine that slants across my face as Beck and I ride out to fix a fence in the northwest pasture. “Pardon?”

My brother smiles, giving his reins a gentle tug to slow Stilton, his five-year-old palomino. Only my foodie brother would name his horse after a stinky cheese from England.

“She fucked your brains right out of your head, didn’t she?”

I bite back a smile. “I don’t kiss and tell.”

I gotta kiss that girl at least once before she goes.

“You like her. A lot.”

My first impulse is to throw up my walls again. Deny, deny, deny. It’s nobody’s business how I feel about Lainey.

But she’s teaching me how good it feels to air shit out. I say I like people who aren’t bullshitty, but I hadn’t realized how bullshitty I’ve been until recently. Lies by omission.

I’m done keeping it all inside. The anger and the pain.

The joys and the wins.

“I didn’t think we’d hit it off like this.” I squint into the distance, clocking the trampled fence that needs mending. “Shocked the shit out of me.”

Beck nods, his Stetson casting a long shadow over his face. “I know all about shock. Guess who showed up at the restaurant?”

“Who?”

“Posey Adkins.”

My eyes bulge. “No shit! I always wondered where she ended up. That summer she was here, you all but disappeared.”

Beck gives me a look. “Can you blame me? She was gorgeous. And off-limits. Of course I disappeared with her.”

I let out a low whistle. “The way her daddy hated you.”

Posey is the daughter of Byron Jones, a legendary Texas billionaire whose family spent that summer at the sprawling ranch they own nearby. She was a boarding school princess, and Beck…well, he was hell on wheels back in high school.

“To be fair, I had a less-than-stellar reputation,” he says, echoing my thoughts.