1. Trey

ONE

TREY

Present Day

“Hey, Amos,” I say, stomping off my feet before taking the steps up the front porch of his and Sienna’s place. I’ve kept my hands, mouth, and eyes to myself where his sister is concerned. That doesn’t mean I don’t watch her every chance I get, especially when a towel drops, and I’m rewarded with a view I haven’t seen in a long-as-fuck time. I’m not going there, my cock will harden and try explaining that to your best friend this early in the morning. The shit he’d throw my way, I’d need a hell of a lot more coffee to handle Amos.

“Trey, you’re here earlier than normal,” Amos replies, sitting in a rocking chair, a new addition that has Sienna written all over it. Her touches are everywhere these days. Amos may be pissed she’s back home and not leaving, but we all know, him included, that this is where she belongs.

“Got shit to do in town.” The two of us put our heads together, deciding to go in on a new business venture of sorts. What we are is fucking crazy. Amos needs more work like he needs a hole in his head. I do whatever needs to be done at the family ranch, each of us pulling our weight whenever necessary. Still, I felt like there was something I could be doing more of. I came over when the idea took hold to talk to Amos first before bringing it up to my family. This idea hit, and the main thing I needed was a friend to use as a sounding board. Amos being Amos jumped in with both feet. We figured paperwork out, went to town to talk to the same attorney Ryland used for Case, and formed a partnership. The rest, well, we’re hammering it out.

“You and Sienna both. I swear she’s there every damn day lately and won’t tell me where or what is going on.” Amos shakes his head and places his lead rope he was working with on top of the side table, another new addition from Sienna. I cock my eyebrow at his statement. “I’m being for fucking real. Sienna gets up, has coffee, bitches about it being too hot and too strong, does whatever needs to be done around here, and then she leaves. It’s giving me a damn complex.”

“She okay?” There isn’t much in town—a couple of stores, a doctor’s office, Tully’s veterinarian clinic, the police station, and a gas station.

“I reckon. Not like my sister would say a fucking word. I’m about ready to follow her ass.” He grumbles, “Not like she’ll keep her damn location turned on. It used to be her who'd track me like a mother hen. I swear ever since she left for college, any and all sense left Sienna’s head, then she comes home and it’s worse than ever.” This version of Amos is the brother and protector. She’s all he has, and he’s all she has when it comes to family. A precarious situation when it comes to the relationship between Sienna and me. Who the fuck am I kidding? We don’t have one, probably never will after the push-and-pull shit I did to her years ago. Looking back, I could have handled it a fuck of a lot differently, though in the end, it was for the better. For Sienna. As for me, well, that’s an entirely different story.

“There’s two ways to look at it—if you don’t track her, she can’t track you.” I run my hand along my jaw, body tightening with worry, and while I’m preaching, he shouldn’t do something dumb like I’m about to do. The need to get in my truck and figure out where she’s going and who she’s with, “I’d do away with following her. She’s liable to kick you in the nuts.”

“Again,” Amos grunts, more than likely reliving the last time Sienna got pissed off and kicked him in the family jewels. I’m pretty sure her intent was his shin, but he bobbed instead of weaved, and the next thing you know, Amos was doubled over in pain. “I hope you have a daughter one day.” My head turns on a swivel, balking at Amos’ statement.

“Why the fuck would you say that? Take it back right now.” Jesus, he has no idea what he’s asking for because the only person who will ever have my children is his sister, and I know without a shadow of a doubt Amos will lose his ever-loving mind. “What the hell did I do to deserve that statement?”

“You threatened my balls, I’ll threaten you with a daughter any day of the week. Plus, you can get a taste of the hell Sienna has put me through. The hair on my damn head says it all.” He points to his head covered by a white Stetson. Amos is going gray fast, a hell of a lot faster than me, and we’re the same age. He goes on grumbling about something or other, but my mind stops on the word taste . Amos doesn’t need to know I’m thinking about the last time Sienna and I had a conversation. The towel slipping from around her body, giving me an unobscured view of his sister. Jesus, I’m doing everything in my power to hold back a groan of my own. My cock doesn’t seem to understand the nature of such a delicate matter. Amos could easily put two and two together, talking about his sister with my hard-on being visible. Yeah, I’d be the one doubled over in pain this time around. Still, it doesn’t stop me from thinking about the moment Sienna’s towel dropped a couple of months ago. All these years later and seeing her bare attempting to clutch the small white cloth, and it didn’t do a damn thing to conceal the natural curves of her body.

A body I’ve had my hands and mouth on more times than I damn well should have. Don’t get me wrong, my eyes didn’t so much as skate below her neck when she was younger. Things changed one night after she turned eighteen. The sway of her body and the lingering looks she gave me at a bonfire flipped a switch. When Sienna walked through the tree line, tossing a look over her shoulder, it didn’t take me more than a few seconds to disengage from the conversation with JW. I tossed my empty beer bottle in the trash can and went after the woman who had me following her every move. My brother didn’t miss a beat, told me to be careful with that one, referring to the reckless idea of me going after Sienna. But JW couldn’t have stopped me if he tried.

Sienna Ellison is as spirited as a wild horse. Trying to rope her would be like trying to rope the moon. Except I got a taste, more than once, and the only reason my ass didn’t follow her to college is because I let her sway my opinion to pack up and go with her. She pushed me away, and every time I’d try to pull her back, all it did was tear her up. Eventually, I quit trying, and when she tried to keep us together, well, my mind was already made up, leaving us a damn mess. Sienna was so pissed at me by then, she took to ignoring me and the whole situation. We were young, her much more so than me. I’m pretty sure my maturity wasn’t the best even while being older than the woman I love. Sienna, though, she was more mature than me, and I had a lot to learn by losing her. I did the only thing I could do—let her go. And she’s been pissed at me ever since.

“Are you even listening to me, dickhead?” Amos barks out. My time down memory lane is over, probably for the better. A few more moments, and I’d have been reliving the moment I took Sienna for the first time only to be screwed further.

“Yeah, yeah. I hear you loud and clear.” He’s got the lead ropes in his hand, probably getting ready to ride the fence line to check for any breaks.

“Then what did I say?”

“That you’re an idiot, should have never let Sienna come back. The same song and dance you say on a weekly basis since she’s dug her heels in the ground and told you what she will and won’t be doing because of what you said.” I put Amos in his place. My mind might have wondered to his sister being naked, but I can damn sure multitask.

“Asshole, you always could do that shit.” Amos shakes his head in disgust. I don’t say anything, instead cock my head to the side a bite and arch my eyebrow. “Yeah, I know. Medicine helps.” I’ll likely be on it my whole damn life, and the days I don’t take medicine for my attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is when I never sit down, which is why I try not to ever forget it. But there are times when my metabolism runs through the medicine faster and usually then I’m not near as focused. “Alright, let me hear what you have to say, then you go your way, and I’ll go mine. I still hope you'll have a daughter.”

“Payback's a bitch, Amos, don’t you forget it either.”

“Don’t I know it,” he replies. We get down to this new business venture and what we’re going to do about the new herd I’ll be picking up today. And if I happen upon a certain dark-haired beauty, well, my day will be more than made.