Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 101778 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101778 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
I bit down on my lip to keep my threatening grin at bay.
As we stepped inside, Brock turned on the lights and illuminated the cutest little one-room cabin. There was a bed on one side, a sofa on the other, and a table and two chairs in the middle.
Doing a quick spin, I took it all in. It was small, so it didn’t take long to scope it all out. “How cute is this place?” I said.
“Yeah, I can’t tell you how many times we got drunk in here or fu—uh . . . or had fun in here.”
I lifted a brow. “Uh-huh. I hardly think that was what you were going to say, Brock Shaw.”
His face blushed, and it was sinfully sexy. “I brought you up here so we could talk, Lincoln. I want to explain a couple of things to you about why I’ve been acting like I have the last few days.”
I sat on the sofa as Brock pulled out a chair. He spun it around and then sat, straddling it. He turned his baseball cap backward and took a long drink of his beer.
My tongue ran over my lips while I tried to remember how to swallow. There was no denying that I was sexually attracted to Brock. No denying it at all.
“I wasn’t a part of selling the house you bought because, honestly, I wasn’t ready to face saying goodbye to that part of my life just yet.”
“Ty said you hadn’t lived there in years.”
He nodded. “That’s true. Kaci, Blayze’s mother, died, and I never went back in the house after that.”
My hand came up to my mouth as I gasped. “I’m so sorry, Brock.”
He didn’t respond and kept staring at the ground before finally speaking. “I guess, as much as I wanted to sell the place, knowing you bought it and were already making changes to it . . . well, it pissed me off. I don’t know any other way to say it but to tell you the truth. It was shitty of me to treat you the way I did that first day we met. I’m sorry.”
“It’s already forgotten and forgiven.”
Brock smirked. I was quickly beginning to love that smirk of his. Taking off his hat, he ran his hand through his hair. Did the man have any idea how sexy he was? Every little thing he did sent my libido off the charts.
Okay, it could be the fact that not even my vibrator has seen any action lately.
“Tonight, about the whole Dirk thing . . . I was jealous.”
With a scoff, I replied, “Why on earth were you jealous? Brock, he asked me to dance; that was all.”
“Were you jealous when you saw me dancing with my cousin?” he asked, the left side of his mouth slightly turned up.
“No,” I lied.
“Liar. Your eyes don’t let you lie, Lincoln.”
My gaze dropped to the floor.
“There’s a history between the two of us. Dirk and I both loved Kaci. She knew it, and we told her she had to pick one of us.”
Snapping my eyes back up to him, I was pretty sure my mouth also dropped open at the same time. “You made her pick between y’all?”
With a nod, he replied, “Yes. I fought hard for her because the idea of losing to Dirk . . . well, let’s just say, I don’t like to lose. What I probably should have done was stepped aside and let them be together. They should have been together. Not me and her.”
“Why do you say that?”
He shrugged. “I made her miserable. I couldn’t see it at the time—or hell, maybe I did see it and didn’t want to admit it. But I put bull riding before her. I hadn’t done it on purpose, though. I knew Dirk loved her enough to walk away from bull riding, and I couldn’t. She had begged me to stop riding, and sometimes I resented her for it. We fought a lot, and then Kaci thought maybe we should try for a baby. We had hoped it would bring us closer, and a part of me thinks she thought it would pull me off the road. Hell, maybe it would have. I don’t know.”
“Oh, Brock.”
His eyes filled with tears. “I don’t think I made her happy. She believed rumors I was cheating, no matter how many times I told her they weren’t true. I should have stopped riding and been with her. Showed her how much I loved her. But I didn’t. I picked bull riding over her. When Kaci picked me, I could see the distance Dirk put between us. He wouldn’t come around a whole lot, and when he did, it was hard for him not to look at my wife like she hung the moon.”
“Is that why you were angry he asked me to dance? Because of the past the two of you share with Kaci?”