Page 137 of Colt

“Still do. You gonna fall for her again?”

Beck cuts me a look. “I thought we were talking about you.”

“You’re the one who brought up Posey.”

“You’re the one falling in love with Lainey.”

My chest seizes. Not because my brother is out of line saying shit like that, even though he is.

But because I think Beck is right. And hearing him say out it loud is…a lot.

The steady sound of the horses’ hooves in the dirt fills the silence that stretches between Beck and me.

“Am I out of my mind to want to make it work?” I ask.

Beck stops a few feet from the fence and dismounts. “Yes. But that’s why you gotta try. You’ve been a Steady Eddy for far too long, brother. Which, fine. That’s safe. But you’re not gonna find what you’re looking for if you don’t put yourself out there. You gotta make shit happen.”

Sighing, I swing my leg over the horse and land on the ground. “She’s changed my mind. About the rebrand. And our future.” And everything else.

Beck smiles as he digs tools out of his saddlebag. “She’s persuasive.”

“Very.”

“Smart.”

“Yes.”

“She keeps it real.”

Putting on my gloves, I grab the shovel I tied behind my saddle and toss it onto my shoulder. “It’s what I like most about her.”

“Then you gotta lock her down.”

Letting out a bark of laughter, I walk over to the fence. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because you’re thinking with your dick.”

“That’s rich, coming from you.”

It’s not lost on me that I’m talking about mending fences with Lainey and my sister and my past while actually mending a fence.

The universe may be one sick son of a bitch, but instead of feeling victimized by it, now I can laugh with it.

That’s progress, right?

“She’s young.” I plunge the shovel into the earth. “Has big dreams for her future. I can’t hold her back.”

“Of course you don’t hold her back. You help her figure out how to leap forward doing something she loves while loving you.”

“I’m not sure she’d be happy here. In Hartsville, I mean.”

“I dunno. She seems awfully happy anytime I see her these days. Keep taking her out on the horses. Really, just keep doing what you’re doing.” He grabs the fence post and centers it in the hole I just dug. “And remember, this is the year of our lord twenty-twenty-something. Airplanes exist. So does the internet. Telephones too. Just because she decides to stay with you doesn’t mean she’s stuck here.”

My heartbeat throbs in my ears. Warm sunshine pours over my shoulders and back, making my scalp prickle with sweat.

Shit, could we actually make this work?

“I haven’t even asked her to stay yet,” I say. I haven’t even kissed her. “After she’s done with the rebrand. She could say no.”