Page 215 of Steamy Ever After

“Why not?”

There were so many reasons. First and foremost, her boys. It had taken months before she was comfortable enough to invite Kade to spend time with them. They weren’t ready for her to bring another man into their family mix. Neither was she.

Jamison had been three, and Finn one when Lang Becker told her that having kids really wasn’t his “thing,” after all, and he was leaving her for another woman who didn’t have any. He’d dropped out of their sons’ lives then, and never returned.

And Kade, well, their relationship had been complicated, and now that he was gone, she didn’t have it in her to try again only to have the next guy leave her and her boys behind.

Plus, Peter lived in Santa Barbara, a two-hour drive without traffic, and there usually was. They’d rarely see each other. Why start something that had nowhere to go? She had two other fellas in her life whose company she enjoyed immensely, and she didn’t have enough time with Jamison and Finn as it was.

“I told you before I wasn’t interested,” she said when she realized Alex was waiting for a response.

“Peyton, come on.”

“No. If there ever comes a time when I’m ready to date, you’ll be the first to know. Until then, subject closed.”

“At least we’ll get another meal out of him.”

“I’ll concede Peter is a great chef. That doesn’t mean I want to go out with him.”

While Alex nodded, Peyton doubted her friend intended to let the subject drop. The woman was like a metaphorical dog with a bone.

BRODIE

After his morning run-in with Peyton at the beach, Brodie didn’t feel like returning to the ranch. Instead, he drove down to Morro Bay and had lunch. After that, he hiked around Whale Rock Reservoir, managing to kill enough time that it was almost dark when he drove home. Through it all, he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Closing his eyes, he remembered everything about how she’d looked this morning. Brodie was surprised by how tall she was, five feet seven or eight, he’d guess. Her long blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail and away from her face, and her pale-green eyes reminded him of the sage that grew wild on the hills of Butler Ranch. She had on a heavy, gray sweater that stopped short of the black belt that looped through the worn jeans she had tucked into knee-high, black riding boots.

Right after Kade died, he’d found photos of her with his brother, on hikes with her boys, and kayaking. There was even a shot of her holding a surfboard, wearing a full-body, neoprene pink-and-gray wetsuit that covered every inch of her yet left nothing about her body to the imagination.

From those photos, he knew she was pretty, but in person, she was beautiful. Beautiful and badass. It was no wonder Kade fell in love with her. Any guy would.

Brodie pulled up to the ranch gates and waited while they creaked open. His father had them programmed to close each night at sundown and not open again until sunrise. Their phones could control them as well. Sometimes, he thought his father had missed his calling. The guy was as tech-savvy as anyone Brodie had known when he worked in Silicon Valley.

He parked his truck in front of the main ranch house, where he, his three brothers, and two sisters grew up.

Years ago, their father had added three Scottish-style stone cottages that were two-storied replications of the main house. Maddox lived in one, Naughton in another, and when Brodie returned to the ranch, following Kade’s death, he moved into the third.

His sister Skye, who was two years younger than Brodie, lived in Paso Robles with her husband. Ainsley, the youngest Butler sibling, was completing her doctorate at Stanford.

When Brodie climbed out of the truck, he saw his mother and father sitting on the front porch swing.

“Is that my Brodie?” his mother asked in her thick Scottish brogue. Even in her late sixties, his mother, who had fiery red hair, was still a beauty. He and his siblings all shared her deep blue eyes that their father said reminded him of the sea.

The story was that she’d met Laird Butler when he was traveling around Scotland right after he graduated from college. They’d started dating at the beginning of his trip and were married three months later. Kade had once suggested their history was vastly different, and Brodie wished now that he’d asked what he meant.

“Yeah, it’s me, Ma.”

“Did you find Peyton, then?” she asked.

Brodie didn’t want to tell her that he had and she’d refused to take the box, but his mother would know he was lying if he said otherwise.

“What’s this?” his father asked.

“Nothing to worry about, Laird. Brodie was delivering something we found of hers.”

Well, if his mother was going to lie to his father, maybe his lying to her wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“Sorcha, you best not be meddling.”

---