Page 2 of One Lucky Cowboy

“And you can’t make it because…” He gestured with one hand for Bennett to fill in the blank.

With the other, he grabbed a bridle and lead rope with the full intention of saddling up and leaving this conversation for Bennett to have with someone else. But Bennett took the rope from Jax’s hands and hung it back up. Jax’s fingers flexed and clenched again.

“Because I can’t, okay? I—” Bennett started. He bit his bottom lip, and if Jax didn’t know any better, his big brother was on the verge of tears. “I need to ask Maggie before I say anything.”

Jax raised his brows. Why would Steiner be worried if Bennett missed one Friday night dinner? Unless it was something bigger than that. “You guys okay?”

Since the two high-school sweethearts had been reunited last year, kicking their romance back into gear, they’d never left Jax out of the invites to dinner, drinks, or even supplier visits around the state. Jax didn’t really have anyone else, no friends outside the night or two he found company after drinks in Austin. His brother and Maggie were it.

Admit it—you’ll miss them when you’re gone. He would, but he couldn’t do this soul-sucking job anymore just to keep them close.

“Yeah, we’re good. Just got a lot going on.”

“Okay, good. Well, I’d better get moving, then,” Jax said. “I’ve got work to do.”

“Yeah. Sure.” Bennett frowned and rubbed his temple. “You wrapping up? Maybe we could grab a beer, catch up before tomorrow?”

Jax regarded the sun, hanging low over the barn with another hour of life left in it. The day had been long—made longer by the calves that had broken loose and needed to be reined in—but it didn’t end until nature said it did. Those were the ranching rules. Sunup to sundown. No exceptions.

As nice as beer sounded, if he was gonna give up his Friday night for work, he’d like to get a ride in that evening while the weather held.

“I wish. I gotta get this cleaned up and then file the equipment loss statements.” He gestured to the hundred head of cattle that grazed outside the fence line.

“Why isn’t Manny handling the calves?”

There it was again; Jax was only good for paperwork and managerial crap. Never mind the stuff that he loved, the outside work that made his heart thump a little faster.

“I offered to help.” Being outside, working with his hands? Yeah, he’d volunteer for that over meetings and P and L statements any day. “He had another crisis in the west fields he needed to tackle.”

Literally. Manny had to somehow find a way to get a new wild mare either away from their geldings or into a pen.

“Crisis?” Bennett’s cheeks pulled in tightly and his frown lines deepened.

“It’s fine. We’ve got it covered; that’s what you pay us for, you know.”

“Your face looks like you don’t, in fact, have it.”

“Oh, is that right? It doesn’t say, ‘My brother’s a nosy ass and likes to tell me how to live my life even though I’m thirty-two and have saved his backside more times than I can count?’”

Bennett’s face broke into a smile. No matter how they bickered, seeing his brother smile loosened a knot that had been building in Jax’s chest.

“Nope. My thing is right. Definitely my thing.”

Jax laughed, too.

Until Bennett added, “So what is it about Jill that gets your hackles up, anyway?” He grabbed a five-gallon jug and lifted it onto the water cooler they kept in the barn. It gurgled as the water filtered down, the sound punctuating the painful silence as Jax worked up an answer that would get Bennett off his back.

“Nothing. She’s just—” Annoying. Sexy, too, but mostly annoying. “Did you know that she told your wife I sucked at my job?”

That was the public-facing reason he disliked her, anyway.

“Was that before or after you called her a city slicker with red hair dye where a brain should be?”

Oh yeah. He’d forgotten about that little slipup before the wedding. “She left the gate open, and three cows got out. And besides, I didn’t know who she was when I said it.” Jax hated the whine that slipped out. But that hadn’t been the real reason he’d snapped at her. Bennett’s brow raised. “And no, I didn’t know the hair color was real.”

“Jax,” Bennett said. His voice took on the big brother baritone, usually a warning. “She’s Maggie’s best friend and the other half of Steel Born. And since you insulted her, you need to make it right tomorrow.”

“Is that what this dinner is about? Fixing my attitude with the finance woman from Maggie’s company?”

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