Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
“You’re kidding, right? You want me to hug you a second time when you smell like that?”
Rand moved the collar of his shirt over his nose and then looked at Stef. “Is it bad?”
“Yeah,” Stef assured him, gesturing at Zach. “Both of you.”
“I’m thinking if either of you is contemplating food, you need to hit the showers,” I suggested. “It’s time to wash the cow shit and drive dirt off you.”
“Oh God, I’m dying for a shower,” Rand said, already on his way to the door. “Zach, you need to shower too; and, Glenn, if you go with Mac, don’t leave the ranch without telling me, all right?”
I squinted at him.
“I mean—you know what I mean. You don’t need permission. I just wanna know where you are, is all.”
I smiled at him. “Yessir.”
He threw up his hands in defeat and left the room as Wyatt offered me a goldfish. I took it from him, and Zach happily accepted the next one before Bella got hers.
“Are you leaving?” Stef asked him.
“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled, and was almost to the kitchen door when he turned around. “Hey, Glenn, I wanted to tell you that Josie Barnes’s daddy ain’t about to give you no more trouble.”
“No,” I groaned. “That was a dead issue. What’d you do?”
He scoffed. “Me? Not me. I was driving cattle until just a bit ago.”
“Yeah, you all were, so what?”
“Not all of us,” he said innocently.
The guys who’d come home with me—Dusty, Rebel, Pierce, Chase, and Tom—had been back as long as I had.
I shook my head. “Rand didn’t need to—”
“I suspect Dusty did the talking,” he said cheerfully before he left the kitchen.
Once I heard the screen door shut, I turned to Stef. “What the hell?”
He shrugged. “You can’t go around this town threatening people who live and work on the Red Diamond. And you most certainly can’t pull a gun on a member of Rand Holloway’s family and expect not to hear from the man himself.”
After Mac, Dusty had to be the scariest man on the Red. If I were Mr. Barnes, I would consider moving.
“It’s Rand’s town,” he said softly. “Which means fairness and justice for all.”
“You’re startin’ to sound scary, just like him.”
“If you can, you have to keep everyone safe, Glenn. It’s the responsibility of the strong to care for the weak.”
“Except I ain’t weak,” I assured him.
“No. No you’re not. But you are the man’s brother, and really, what did you expect?”
It was true. Once I told him, I couldn’t take it back.
“Can you imagine,” Stef said, smiling almost sinisterly. “You open the door to find men from the Red on your porch?” One of his golden eyebrows arched. “That must have been terrifying.”
“You have an overinflated sense of evil,” I assured him.
“Evil,” Wyatt seconded, and passed me another goldfish.
Like father, like son.
I was sitting on the porch when Mac came down the drive in his pickup, parked beside my truck that had been sitting there since last Wednesday, and then started toward me, looking as beautiful and like home as the last time I saw him.
“Hey,” I breathed out when he climbed the steps to the porch but stopped there, at the edge, just staring at me.
Mac’s mouth was set in a hard line as he stood there fiddling with his hat. He was nervous, it was all over him, and I would have been worried, but I suspected that since I was the cause, I could be the fix as well.
“I’m so glad to see you,” I confessed, and he exhaled a deep breath and closed the space between us fast, standing over me a moment before sinking down onto the coffee table in front of me.
“I’m happy to see you as well.”
I smiled at him. “Rand spoiled your surprise, I think.”
“Oh yeah?”
“He told me you’re taking the day off tomorrow to spend time with me.”
“I am.”
Reaching for him, I slid my hand over his cheek. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he murmured, turning his head to kiss my palm. “I just want to take you home with me.”
“And you thought what, that I changed my mind?”
“No, sir,” he said, smiling at me. “Just nice to find you out here waitin’ on me, is all.”
I nodded.
“And I always thought, yanno…damn, that Glenn Holloway is a beautiful man,” he said, taking a breath. “But now you’re somethin’ even more, and I felt it all up in my chest a second ago.”
“And what was that? What more am I?”
His brows furrowed. “Well, now you’re mine.”
I chuckled. “Yes, I am.”
Long exhale before he nodded, as if he’d been worried I would say something different, include a caveat or disagree.
“I’m all ready to go, Maclain.”
His grin was warm and wicked for a moment. “I won’t lie. I’m excited for you to come see my house that I never brought anyone else home to ever.”