Page 7 of Long Hard Road

Evan had turned to look at Lily and the pure adoration on his face was a little hard to see. I had once looked at someone that way and I was certain I’d never be able to again.

“Sweetheart, Nate isn’t going to date some woman just because you’re tired of hanging out with only men on the ranch,” Evan said.

“Really? You wouldn’t do that for me?” Lily batted her eyes at me. “Please?”

“Smooth.” I laughed and reached for the drill. “Nice try, Lily, but you don’t have me whipped like my brother.”

“Fine.” She sighed elaborately and hopped to her feet. “Stay single and lonely.”

“I’m not lonely.” That was mostly true. I was a loner at heart, much preferring to spend the majority of my time alone or with my family rather than being surrounded by people with whom I had superficial connections. But that didn’t mean I was lonely.

“If you don’t want to date Madison, maybe you could set her up with Chase?” Evan suggested with a conspiratorial wink at his girlfriend.

“Do not pull me into your games,” Chase said. “I don’t need any help finding a willing bed partner.”

“Ew. Gross.” Lily shuddered. “And you wonder why I wish there were more women I could spend my time with.”

Evan grabbed her arm and pulled her against his side, holding her there with one arm. “You’d rather spend your time with some random woman than me? You sure about that?” His hand slid over her ass and she yelped as he squeezed.

“Remember when that guy was a monk? I miss those days.” Chase rolled his eyes at me. He hefted a hammer and glared at them. “Unless you’re planning to grab a hammer for your banging, maybe you could take that to your bedroom?”

“Good idea.” Evan had Lily thrown over his shoulder before she could get away. He slapped her ass on the way out of the barn. “Time for riding lessons, city girl.”

“Giddy up, cowboy,” she said around a loud giggle.

Chase’s low groan filled the barn. “Are they getting worse? It feels like they are.”

“Nah, they’ve always been that disgusting.” I checked my watch and frowned. “Shit. I’m running late.”

“Hot date with Madison?” Chase joked.

“I promised Harper that I would help out with some stuff at the bookstore. We can pick this up tomorrow.” One nice thing about winter on the ranch was that we had some free time to work on extra projects like giant swings.

“Aren’t we working on the floors at your place tomorrow?” Chase freed the pencil he’d tucked behind his ear and began to mark measurements on a piece of wood.

“Oh right. I’ll see you at the house.”

Several years ago our father had gifted all his kids with a plot of land on the ranch. The hope was that we would each decide to build our home just down the way from the main house. Evan had built his years ago after the twins were born and Chase built his when he turned thirty and decided it probably wasn’t cool to keep living in his childhood home.

Brent would likely never use his land since he had no desire to live back in Crestwood and Noah was never in town long enough to need a permanent residence. He was always content to crash at the main house or with one of his siblings. Harper didn’t plan to build a house until she was married because she wanted her future husband to have input. Or she wanted him to do the work.

I had finally broken ground on my house last spring. The land surrounded the largest pond on the ranch and was secluded enough that I didn’t have to interact with my family if I wasn’t in the mood. That was key because as much as I tried not to be a grumpy bastard, sometimes my demons forced their way out.

Dad was thrilled that I was finally committing to living on the ranch. I had lived with him since leaving the army and he had been dropping a lot of hints about how much he loved having three of his sons living on the ranch. I had been hesitant to commit to anything because building my house would mean that I was back in Crestwood permanently. But I couldn’t stay with Dad forever, so I’d finally decided to start building.

Chase and Evan were thrilled to have me staying so close and I was starting to warm up to the idea, too, now that my house had a foundation and exterior walls. I’d even had some guys from town out to set up the plumbing and electricity. The rest of the work was all stuff that I could do myself with the help of my brothers. Harper would swoop in at the end to handle paint colors and tile selections.

I wouldn’t be moving into the house for at least another two months and in the meantime, I had rented one of Maggie Holden’s cabins. It had only made sense given that I would be running the bar every night for the next month and it would be risky to drive out to the ranch in the middle of winter when snowstorms could be sudden and frequent. It was nice to be able to walk home each night in less than five minutes after closing. Even nicer now that I had a pretty neighbor to occupy my thoughts.

Despite what I had so adamantly told Lily, I had been completely smitten with Madison the second she’d crashed into me in the café. Her grass-green eyes had gone wide, plump pink lips opening in surprise. When she walked into the Nest last night, it was hard not to believe that the universe was testing me. I meant what I had told her. She was too young and innocent for a guy like me. I would only tarnish her beautiful shine.

It was a fifteen-minute drive downtown from the ranch and that was almost enough time for me to stop thinking about my new neighbor. The second I stepped into the bookstore, Harper put me right to work. She had a stuck drawer under her register, some loose floorboards, and new blinds to hang in the window facing the alley.

“What would I do without you?” she asked after I had returned her step stool to the utility room. She clapped her hands in excitement as she looked at the newly hung blinds. “Seriously, Nate. You’re going to make some woman very happy one day once you stop being so afraid of commitment.”

“I’m not afraid of commitment.” I wasn’t against the idea of being in a relationship. I just didn’t think I would ever find a woman who would want to commit to me. Not with all the trauma I kept buried beneath layers of carefully crafted disengagement.

“What about the girl you flirted with in Amelia’s café?” She hoisted herself onto the counter next to the register. “Amelia said she wasn’t a local.”

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