Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
I decided to leave that shit right the fuck there. “Where’re the saddles?”
Sia exhaled, clearly relieved that I’d turned the conversation around. She brought the bridles and saddles from a back room and got the horses ready. She jumped on the mare and smiled down at me. “You still remember how? Or can you only ride something with an engine these days?” she teased.
I jumped on Triumph, the stallion, and quickly found my seat. Triumph danced on the spot, nose flaring. “Let’s see, shall we?” I said and kicked him into a gallop out of the barn and across the open field. I heard Sia’s peal of laughter behind me. I turned with the edge of the field and saw Sia coming after me. After a sprint around the field, I drew Triumph to a walk. Sia pulled up beside me, eyes bright. “Well?” I asked.
“You’re all right,” she reluctantly admitted, then laughed. “No . . . you’re pretty fucking good, and you”—she pointed at me—“you smug bastard, know you are.”
I sat back in my saddle and sighed. “Yeah, but it feels so fucking good to be constantly told so.”
Sia punched my arm. I threw her a wink.
An engine roared in the background. We looked over to see Hush slowly tracing the perimeter of the far field. In a second my damn mood switched from happy to frustrated.
“Did I do something to offend him?” Sia’s question pulled my attention from my best friend to her still-flushed face. “At Styx’s and Ky’s weddings he seemed so good with me.” She sighed. “I know you and I did most of the talking, but he chatted some too. Now . . . nothing. Nothing but anger and cold stares.” She glanced over at my brother fading away into the distance. “I thought he liked me.”
“He does.” A few moments of quiet went by before I explained, “Look, cher, he’s a quiet guy. Always has been. But . . .” I closed my eyes and tipped my head back. “I ain’t gonna go into all the reasons, because I wouldn’t disrespect Hush like that.” I could feel her watching me. “He’s shutting you out.”
Sia’s brow was wrinkled in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“If he shuts you out, it’s because he likes you. He’s shutting you out because it’s how he protects himself.”
“From what?” she whispered.
“Getting hurt again.”
“Again?”
Leaning over to where she rode beside me, I said, “You ain’t the only one who’s had trouble in their past, cher. I don’t know fully what happened with you and this Garcia dick, but I get it was bad and you wanna move on from it.”
“Hush is the same,” she replied knowingly.
“He’s got his own past too. He’s shutting you out because he knows you could make him want you.” I shook my head. “No. The stubborn asshole already does. Therefore, he’s ignoring you. It’s his failsafe.” I sighed. “Brother has more layers than a damn onion.”
Sia seemed to stop breathing. I looked into her shocked eyes. She licked along her lips, and asked, “He wants me?”
“Have you seen you?”
That made her smile. Before the smile dropped and she said, “And . . . you?”
A slow grin spread on my lips. “Me what?”
She narrowed her eyes at me, knowing exactly what I was doing. “You want me,” she said, as ballsy as I loved her for being.
“Fuck yeah,” I confirmed and watched her blush.
Sia stared in the direction of where Hush had just been. “And it doesn’t cause issues between you? That you might both like the same woman?”
My dick started to harden as that question passed her lips. Because the fucking image it painted in my head, I wanted to come real fucking true. “We don’t work like that, cher.” I saw the confusion on her face. So I explained, “The jealousy thing? Doesn’t really happen between me and Hush.” I let her sit with that awhile.
After about ten minutes of silence, Sia leaned forward and kissed the neck of her mare. Noticing me watching, she said, “They’re my emotional therapy.” She barely met my eyes before looking away and patting her mare’s neck. “My horses. I’ve always loved them. I’ve always been into barrel racing. But after . . . when I came back . . .” She took a deep breath. “They became my emotional crutch. They held me up when I thought I might crumble.” Her eyes drifted off to stare blankly at the trees to our left. “It’s why I couldn’t stay at the club. Every day got worse for me without them . . . I . . .”
I reached over and took her hand. It was shaking. Anger that I wasn’t used to feeling built in me at how fucking scared she was. And when I held her hand, she didn’t push me away; the bitch gripped on tight.