His Sexy Smile Page 15

  “This is dumb,” Cassidy said, throwing his hands in the air. “If you dumb bastards want to fight first thing after seeing each other again, then you both deserve black eyes and bloody noses.” He walked over to the liquor cabinet and pulled out a bottle of whisky and two glasses. I watched him out of the corner of my eye pop open the bottle and pour into the glasses. Then he looked to Leah. “You want one?”

  Leah nodded. “Might as well,” she said, then took the half-full glass and sat back in her chair, watching expectantly. I didn’t know what I thought she would do, but it wasn’t that. Part of me figured she’d either be disgusted and roll out to the truck or try to be like Wade and get between us and diffuse the situation. Instead, she seemed quite content to sit with Cassidy and just watch the whole situation play out in front of her while she sipped whisky.

  I couldn’t say I blamed her.

  Not for the first time, I marveled at the woman and how I could be so lucky as to have her be interested in me. She was not only gorgeous but so damned interesting. Every time I thought I had her figured out, had her pegged, she would do something like that, just sitting back and sipping whisky while I argued with my brother. She was a stranger to everyone but me, but already, she seemed like she and Cassidy were old friends, both weary and worn from too many attempts at calming young stallions.

  My attention went back to Garrett, who was nearly shaking he was so mad. I knew I hit a sore spot when I mentioned Vegas, and it was probably a low blow. He had been back for a little while and had started seeing Sawyer’s best friend. I didn’t know exactly how that all played out for sure, but apparently, they got into a scrap about it once and then it was over and Sawyer just accepted it. Which seemed par for the course for Garrett. People just accepted his behavior. Unlike me.

  “You know, I had my troubles, and I got through them, but you?” He made a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a cough. “You just keep heading back out to the world of rodeos. Like nothing matters.”

  “I might be out at rodeos,” I said, “but at least I’m not gambling away the money our parents left us at a cheap casino.”

  “You wouldn’t last a day on the Strip, much less a night, big brother,” Garrett said.

  “And you wouldn’t last three seconds on the back of a wild horse, little brother,” I said, the venom coming from deep inside my chest. “I know my own shortcomings. You don’t have to tell me what they are.”

  “Good,” Garrett said. “God knows we’ve told you enough times what they were that you should know them by now.”

  “Hey now,” Wade said.

  “Yeah, that’s exactly right,” I said. “I get told every time I come home just how I screw everything and everybody up, don’t I? But you avoided all that by just not coming home for years at a time, didn’t you?”

  “Colt,” Cassidy began, but I held my hand out to him to stop him.

  “I’ll go on the road and travel and win competitions, but then I come home and see the family,” I said. “You? Well, you found a place where you could drink and get laid with no work and you just shacked up there.”

  “You say you know your shortcomings?” Garrett asked. “I know mine. I caught just as much shit as you ever have, golden boy. I caught it all, just like you say you did, and I figured it out. I became a better man than I used to be, and I learned what was actually important in life? Have you?”

  “You sound just like Dad,” I said, shaking my head.

  Garrett laughed. “That’s rich. Real rich. Coming from you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

  There was a mixture of voices as the shouting began in earnest then. My voice was lost in the shuffle as both Garrett and I bucked against Cassidy and Wade trying to keep us apart. But I wasn’t bucking too hard.

  As angry as I was at Garrett, it wasn’t like I really wanted a fight with him. I had walked in the door not a half hour ago. The last thing I wanted was to be on the road and heading out, my brother’s blood on my knuckles, in less time than it took to even get there from the rodeo grounds.

  I could feel the tension so thick in the room that I almost felt like I could touch it, push it away from my face like mosquitoes in summer. Garrett and I were explosive personalities and all it took was one of us to piss off the other and things got that way in a hurry.

  And we both were well versed in how to piss each other off.

  In fact, I had made a habit of it when we were younger. I knew all his buttons, and being two years his senior, I made sure every day to bug him in some form or fashion that left him plotting and scheming to get back at me.

  All through our lives, we had pranked each other, occasionally in a mean-spirited way, or started fights over nothing. I wanted to say it was because we were brothers, but I never treated Clayton that way, or Jesse. It was strictly Garrett who caught that behavior from me.

  Maybe it was because we were both middle children, stuck between the older Wade and Boone and Cassidy and the younger Clayton, Jesse, and Sawyer. We felt lost, and we took it out on each other.

  Or maybe it was because we were both wayward sons, trapped in a system that rewarded the others for sticking to their roots and blending in with the landscape and each other. They had the same routines the same ways of relaxing and cooling off. Garrett and I didn’t.

  We liked the limelight. We liked adventure. Garrett wanted fast cars and faster women, drinking and fighting, putting himself in danger just to prove he could survive. I preferred competition, with rooms packed full of people chanting my name. I wanted the danger of an animal who was wild, and my job was to tame it, all to the tune of a couple thousand people screaming for me and a timer that judged me for my talent and my speed.

  I could fight Garrett right there in the dining room. I could punch him, and he could punch me, and we could wrestle and cuss and spit. We could try to prove our worth against each other right then and there.

  Instead, I stomped away, heading for the back door. Jesse passed me, coming in from the back, just as I was passing through the kitchen. He must have heard the tail end of what was going on and turned to follow me back outside. It was times like that where I almost wished I had picked up smoking. Dad always had a pipe on him, and when things got stressful, he would light it up and calm down. I could do with a little calming at the moment.

  I went to the bannister of the back porch and gripped the railing hard as I looked out over the land. Anger was bubbling up in my chest so much that I could feel it in my throat. It was like acid burning me from the inside out, from the bottom up. I felt like if I spit too hard, I’d breathe fire.

  Jesse came up beside me and put his elbows on the bannister, looking out over the same fields I was. He was a few years younger than me and had played peacekeeper more than once. I respected Jesse, and he knew it. But that didn’t mean I was going to listen.

  “So, I heard some of that,” he said.

  “What did you hear?” I asked.

  “Enough that you and I could take a walk to the barn so you can speak your mind,” he said.

  I nodded and silently walked past him, heading away from the house. Jesse followed closely behind.

  Chapter 26

  Leah

  Colt storming out of the house left a heavy electricity hanging in the air. I was suddenly alone with three of the Montgomery brothers and felt like I was teetering on a narrow edge. I didn’t know these men but wanted to get to know them better. I didn’t know what was happening between Colt and me. It might have just been a crazy, intense fling that would burn itself out.

  It might be much, much more.

  And if it really was more, these men would be a part of my life. There was no way to avoid that. Even if Colt never wanted to see them and didn’t want to step foot on this ranch again, they would still be his brothers. It didn’t just end their link because they couldn’t handle being in the same room together for more than a few minutes.

  In fact, them having such a h
ard time getting along told me they needed more time together, not less. This wasn’t the kind of tension and difficulty that stemmed from people not liking each other. It was obvious how much the brothers loved each other. If they didn’t, it wouldn’t be so hard on them. They wouldn’t struggle so much when they were together.

  They would have just let him go.

  That hung heavily on me. These men were fighting for their brother. They might poke and prod at him. They might push him to the edge. But in the end, they were trying to hang onto him. It hurt them when he was away and they were happy when he showed back up. It wasn’t like that with me.

  It wasn’t that I thought my mother didn’t love me. I knew somewhere in there, in her own way, she did. Just not in the way that would make her fight for me. And not enough that I took precedence over the men in her life.

  Colt had more. He had seven brothers who wanted him around, and I wanted him to know it. I didn’t want him to turn his back on them and walk away because he thought they would all be better off without each other. But I also wanted his brothers to understand what an amazing man he was even if he wasn’t there at the ranch with them.

  “The rodeo is really good for him,” I said.

  “What?” Garrett asked.

  “The rodeo,” I said again. “It’s really good for Colt. It’s not something he should be ashamed of. He’s incredibly talented at what he does. Not everybody can do what he does. And trust me, plenty of people try. It’s just naturally in him. I might not have known him as long as you have, but I have had the opportunity to see the difference between when he hasn’t been in a rodeo in a while and when he has. And I can tell you, the rodeo does good things for him.”

  Garrett didn’t respond. He sulked off to the side, looking like he was trying to seem like none of this was affecting him. I decided not to acknowledge it and instead turned to the other brothers still in the kitchen with me.

  “He’s always been good with animals,” Wade said.

  There was something a bit moody about Wade. Maybe even bordering on surly. But he was strong and steady. I didn’t see him as being prone to reacting to anything the way his brothers had. He had his head on straight. Cassidy had a good head on his shoulders, too, just without the edge and darker attitude of Wade. It got me wondering about the other brothers. So far, I had encountered five of the Montgomery boys, though my encounter with Jesse was brief to say the least.

  That left three more of the brothers for me to meet. I wondered what they were like and on which side of this situation they would have fallen. Colt had given me little bits of information about each of his brothers, but without actually meeting them, it was hard to piece those details together.

  “Is he really doing well in the rodeo?” Cassidy asked.

  I nodded. “He’s doing really well. The audiences go wild for him.”

  Cassidy nodded. “How did the two of you meet? Not to be offensive or anything, but we’ve never heard of you.”

  The expression on his face and the way he said it made me laugh. I felt like I was taking to the brothers well, and they were doing the same with me. At least that was a benefit of that night’s meeting.

  “It’s all right,” I said. “Not much reason for you to have heard of me before now. Colt tells me he doesn’t do too well keeping up with the rest of the family while he’s on the road. And he’s only been traveling with the same rodeo as me for a few weeks.”

  “Is that how the two of you met?” he asked.

  “Yep. Colt didn’t have any intention of joining up with the rodeo again, I don’t think. But while he was traveling around, he happened on one of our stops. It’s not like the big rodeos he’s used to. More of a little traveling thing. Attached to a carnival. But he came and watched and I guess, as they say, the rest is history.”

  “You compete at the rodeo?” Wade asked.

  It was the same words I had heard come from a lot of men when they found out what I did, but without the judgment and surprise. He was genuinely asking, which was refreshing.

  “I do. Barrel racing. I’ve been traveling with the rodeo since I was sixteen.”

  “How is he doing?” Cassidy asked, sounding slightly more serious and even a little concerned. “Like you said, we don’t hear from him very much. Is he doing okay?”

  I nodded. “He’s really enjoying it. He gets to show off and he’s even gotten better than he was.”

  “That’s good. He’s always really enjoyed the animals and they seem to trust him. But what about other than that? You were saying he got sabotaged by some of the other guys. What do you mean by that?”

  I hesitated. It didn’t feel right having this conversation while Colt was outside so upset. It was nice getting along with his brothers, but I didn’t want to feel like I was gossiping about him. At the same time, his brothers deserved to know what was going on with him. It might help them understand why he was reacting the way he was.

  “I’m going to say that some of the guys at the rodeo haven’t responded too kindly to him coming in and getting all the attention,” I said. “Other than that, you should ask him for yourself. I don’t think he would want me talking about him to you while he’s not here.”

  I didn’t know how they would respond to that and it was good to see the little smile that came to Cassidy’s face. He tipped his hat to me.

  “You know him well,” he said.

  I smiled but didn’t get any more into it. I wanted to change the subject so I could keep talking with them but get away from talking about Colt.

  “Tell me more about the ranch,” I asked. “Colt hasn’t told me very much about it.”

  Wade took a long sip of his own drink. “Sixty square miles. We’ve got a herd of three hundred head. Should be adding a few more to that sometime soon. We’re expecting some calves.”

  I couldn’t help but give a little bit of a dreamy smile. “That must be so amazing. Getting to watch brand new lives start like that. The closest thing I’ve ever gotten is the brief time I lived on a farm and one of the barn cats had kittens. That probably wasn’t as impressive as a new calf being born.”

  Cassidy laughed and I could have sworn I even heard Wade let out a hint of a chuckle. Maybe he wasn’t as gruff as he let on.

  I was impressed as the men told me more about the ranch. They described the scale of it, and I was in awe just trying to imagine the expansive space and what it would be like to manage it all. The men were modest when they talked about the success of the ranch, but I got the impression it was far better than they let on.

  That reminded me of Sawyer’s endeavor. “I was wondering about the Dude Ranch Experience I keep hearing about,” I said. “What is that all about?”

  “That would be Sawyer’s brainchild,” Cassidy said. “We’ve always been very aware of the possibility for things to go wrong very fast, and it’s important to us to make sure we’re safe against disaster. We’ve seen ranches around here go under, and a family is left with nothing. Something as simple as disease going through the herd or a bad crop can kill a ranch or farm that hasn’t been shored up.”

  That immediately made me think of the Hayes family, but I didn’t say anything about it. Instead, I just gave a nod and took a sip of my drink. “That’s smart. Always good to have a backup plan. Spoken from someone whose backup plan was running away with the rodeo.”

  “Well, that doesn’t sound as crazy as we were thinking Sawyer was when he first started talking about the Dude Ranch,” Cassidy said. “We were just coming up with ways to make some extra money and he told us about this idea he’d been playing with. We couldn’t really believe anybody would pay to come out here, ride around, do ranch work, and sleep in bunkhouses or outside on bedrolls. Turns out, he knew what he was talking about. People have gone crazy for this thing. It started fairly gradual, but it has gotten to the point where people are calling months in advance and some are booking return trips before they even leave the ranch.”

  “It’s actually kin
d of amazing,” Wade said. “Some of the people who come get really into it.”

  “Like Jane?” I asked, remembering what Cassidy said when we first arrived.

  Both men laughed and nodded.

  “Definitely like Jane. When she first got here, none of us thought she would make it a day. She teetered out of the car in sky-high heels and a mini skirt. Sawyer actually had to call Gia to bring Jane and her sister some jeans just so they would actually be able to get on the back of a horse to ride out.”

  “Gia?” I asked. I knew I’d heard the name, but with the influx of new names and information, I couldn’t quite place it.

  “Clayton’s wife,” Cassidy said. “They live on the property.”

  “That must be really nice, having so much of the family so close together,” I said.

  “Definitely is,” Cassidy said. “It’s good to be around each other. We don’t all get to see each other every day or anything, but every Sunday night, we all get together for a huge family dinner. Jesse and Shannon, Clayton, Gia, and her little girl, Gabby, Sawyer and Jane, Garrett and Annabelle, usually Annabelle’s father. It gets pretty sprawling and loud, but it’s fun. You and Colt have to come this Sunday. He hasn’t been home for Sunday supper in a long time.”

  “I’d really love to, but we have to be with the rodeo on Sunday. That’s a big competition day for us.”

  Cassidy thought for only a second. “How about Thursday? We can change it this week.”

  “I don’t want you having to change all your plans for us,” I said. “That’s a lot of people to rearrange.”

  Cassidy chuckled. “Just about everybody lives on the ranch. And if they don’t live here, they’re here just about every day anyway. It’s no bother to change dinner around.”

  I smiled. My mind drifted to the way Colt talked about the ranch and all the issues he had with this place. Now that I was here, I couldn’t understand what he was talking about. From where I was sitting, the ranch seemed liked a wonderful place to grow up, and having such a big family would be fun.