Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Emmett

J ude and I are coming back from planting corn when Ben follows me into the barn.

"To what do I owe this visit?" I ask.

He runs his hand through his hair and looks at Jude. "How's the training going?"

"Fuck off. I've been planting corn for half my life." Nothing grates on me more than my brothers acting as though I'm an idiot.

"And he should be able to do it all by himself next year." Jude pats me on the shoulder.

"Or I'll be running the dude ranch," I say, staring at Ben. "How's that going anyway?"

Jude looks from me to Ben and back to me. "What am I missing?"

Ben blows out a breath and shoots Jude a look like he shouldn't ask.

"Ben and Gillian think I can't keep my dick in my pants." I cross my arms.

"And?" Jude asks, eyeing Ben.

"He wanted insurance so that I had an incentive not to touch Briar."

"And?" Jude's tone is one of exhaustion, which I do love bringing him to.

"Before we get to that, the horseshoe fitting video I did got more views than your gender reveal. I'm starting to get followers?—"

"Jesus." Jude rocks his head back, stuffing his hands in his pockets and sending Ben a pleading look to save him.

"I told him I'd help him get the votes," Ben says.

"Votes?" Jude asks, eyes narrowing on Ben.

"For the dude farm," Ben says in the same exhausted voice as Jude.

"Fuck, you heard Dad." Jude's voice gets louder. "We have shit we need to get done around here. You need to learn my job."

"Which I would've known already if you'd taught me before you knocked up your best friend." I'm so sick of Jude acting as though it's my fault he hasn't let me take on more up to this point.

Jude charges me, but Ben gets in the middle, a hand on both of our chests.

"It's the truth," I say. "You've held back all the responsibilities as if I can't handle it."

"You can't!" Jude snaps.

I laugh—not a real one, a forced one that sounds almost sad because it's what I knew he thought the whole time. "Fuck off, Jude."

I walk out of the barn.

"Emmett," Jude calls.

I put my hand in the air, ready to leave them and disappear from this ranch, but anger overtakes me, and I spin around. "You don't even know me. You think so low of me? Fuck, I'm your brother."

"I just meant you don't take anything seriously. You?—"

"Save it. I'm glad you both are so put together, so fucking perfect, and I'm the screw-up, right? The dumb one. The one who can't be responsible. Well, you guys don't know shit about me. The only thing you know about me is what I let you."

Neither of them says anything, and I spin back around.

"Emmett," Ben says, "that's not it. Just listen?—"

"Yeah, I'm done listening." I walk toward my house, leaving my truck behind. I need to cool off before I get behind the wheel.

Taking my time on my walk, I take off my cowboy hat and hold it, purposely going out of my way to avoid walking by Jude and Sadie's. If she's home, she'll see I'm upset and try to fix it. There's no fixing that my brothers don't take me seriously or that anything I want doesn't matter as long as they're living their dreams.

I walk into my house, smelling garlic, and see Briar in my kitchen. She's wearing an apron that's too fucking cute, with her hair braided to the side of her head. There's music playing, and she's swinging her hips to the beat. The screen door shuts, giving me away, and she turns.

"Don't worry. When I get close to the stove, I put this on." She takes a blow-up inner tube off the counter and shimmies it over her head until it's around her waist.

Damn, I needed that laugh right now. It's as if she knew I just had a fight with my brothers.

"And I promise I'm not going to burn the garlic bread this time either."

I walk into the kitchen and wash my hands in the sink, looking at the garlic bread that's about to go in the oven. "Your famous garlic bread," I say, leaning along the counter, watching her as I dry my hands.

"Well, my mom's actually. It was about the only thing either of us could cook." She opens the oven door and slides the tray into the oven.

I shrug. "It's something."

She smiles at me and nods. "Yeah, it is."

"What can I help with?" I toss the paper towel in the trash and wait for instructions.

"Nothing. This is my way of saying thanks for listening to me the other day. And also, for letting me stay here."

"I was brought up to help." I look at the stove and find a pot of boiling water.

She nudges me, pushing me away. "Go and sit. This is my meal to make."

"Hard bargain." I get a beer from the fridge, unscrew the top, and drop the cap in the trash before sitting on a stool.

"Enjoy that for me." She pours the pasta into the boiling water.

I take a long pull of my beer. "That one was for you."

She glances over her shoulder, and a feeling I've never felt washes over me. I'm watching a woman in my kitchen, preparing me dinner after I've had a grueling day on the ranch. It's not anything I've experienced before, and as crazy as it is, I don't hate it.

"So, what was your drink of choice?" I ask.

She stirs a wooden spoon through the water and rests it on top of the pot before walking over to the counter and leaning on it. "I love margaritas. Not frozen, on the rocks. Other than that, I'm a specials girl."

I sip my beer. "Specials girl?"

"The fruity drinks that are only available for the night, or for the week, or maybe the season. Those are my thing."

"Ahh… girly drinks."

She tilts her head and raises her eyebrows. "Specials."

I hold up my hands, not wanting to get into an argument with someone else today. I'm still stewing over the fight with Jude and Ben. I'm not a confrontational person, which is probably how the whole situation blew up in the first place. I've let my feelings fester.

Briar pushes off the counter and goes to the stove, checking on the garlic bread. Contrary to most, I love surprises—the good kind obviously.

"How was your day at work? What do you do at the ranch? Chase and rope the cows?"

I chuckle. "Okay, tell me what you think happens on the ranch?"

She clues in on my sarcasm and pretend pouts. "You're making fun of me."

"Let's just say it was a shitty day, and I want to laugh."

She turns fully around, the wooden spoon in her hand, and stares at me for a moment. "I do need to pay you back for making me laugh."

"You don't want me calling the laugh police."

She stares at me blank-faced for a second.

"Okay, not my best line."

"No." She giggles. "All right. Well, I picture you on a horse every day, and you and Jude galloping around doing… I don't know."

I laugh.

"Maybe you're trying to keep the herd together, or you're in one of the rings, lassoing them by the head. Which looks painful by the way."

"Anything else?"

She stirs the pasta and eyes the timer. "You said something about planting, so are you in a tractor making those straight lines in the dirt?"

"I think a field trip to the farm is in order."

The timer goes off. With the hot pads, she takes the pot to the sink and pours the noodles into the strainer. "Do I have to wear my innertube?"

I laugh. "Most definitely, although that's going to give your secret away."

"Maybe they'll think I'm looking for a pool."

"There's always the lake." I nod toward the body of water I've swum in plenty, but I wonder if she'd ever entertain it. She doesn't seem the type.

"I might freeze the baby." She gives me that smile she always does as if I can't figure out that she's joking.

"Making fun of me for being protective?"

She opens the oven and pulls out a dish I didn't even know I had. There're a lot of vegetables in it and an entire bulb of garlic. The stool scrapes the floor as I rise to watch her work.

She takes the garlic, squeezing the now-soft cloves into the mixture. "This is a dish I perfected in Chicago because eating for one isn't all that enjoyable. This is just a bigger batch."

I admire her thin fingers, and the smell of her perfume overrides the smell of the garlic and oil and whatever herbs she has in there. I step closer, my chest hitting her upper arm, but she doesn't step away. This is dangerous territory, but I'm probably the only one thinking that because right now, I'd do about anything to take her upstairs and sink into her, forgetting all the shit with the farm and my brothers. Losing myself in sweet moments with her sounds like bliss right now.

"Oh, the garlic bread!" She steps away from me. "Do you mind getting the tray out while I grab the pasta?"

Did she feel the electricity between us too? Or maybe she just felt the start of my dick growing in my jeans. She's got more sense than me, stepping away because she doesn't need another complication in her life.

I pull out the garlic bread that's done to perfection, and she pours the pasta in the dish from the oven, stirring it around with tongs.

"I got into a fight with my brothers today." I figure talking about what's pissing me off might help cool my libido.

She twirls the pasta in the sauce she made. "Okay, what happened?"

"They always undermine me. Think I can't do anything for myself. The thread on my patience finally broke."

She says nothing, rising on her tiptoes to grab two plates from the cupboard, which I take from her hands and dish out the food she made.

"Thing is, I have this social media account where I've been posting things I've filmed on the farm. I did Jude and Sadie's gender reveal."

"I saw that." She follows me outside to the patio with the basket of garlic bread and our drinks. "Gillian showed it to me. It's amazing what you can do with a horse."

"I'm going to leave that line right there. But thank you."

She laughs, sitting down. With the sun still up, I crank up the umbrella to give us some shade.

"I got a ton of views, so I filmed other content. People started making comments about wanting to come to the ranch. So I pitched the idea of a dude ranch to my brothers and Dad before taking it to the rest of the family."

Why is she so easy to talk to? I never would've thought I could open up to anyone, especially her. But here I am, spilling my guts. If she's surprised, she doesn't show it.

"Those are super popular. I've had clients who have done them."

"See, and most of your clients are wealthy, right?"

She hems and haws. "My private ones were, yeah."

"Well, with Sadie pregnant, Jude wants me to take over more on the ranch, so he won't even consider it. Even though until he was going to become a father, he never thought me worthy or capable of taking on more." I refrain from telling her about the deal I made with Ben. I'm not sure how she'd feel about it.

"Is this what you're working on at night and stuff?"

I twirl my pasta around my fork and bring it to my mouth. My taste buds explode in happiness. "This is so good."

"You're dodging the question," she says.

"No, I just didn't want to forget to compliment you. To answer your question, yeah. I want to carve out my own place on the ranch, and it's not running the day-to-day operations. That's Jude's thing, and he loves it, but I like people. I want to work with people."

She looks up from her plate and smiles. "Tell me more."

And so, for the next hour while we sit on the patio, I tell her everything about what I envision. She listens and asks follow-up questions, and when we call it a night, it's like another jolt of excitement has hit my veins.

Screw my brothers. I'm going to do this. Somehow, I'm going to make this happen.