Page 104 of Burn the Wild

“What about Charlie?”

“Ruby and Charlie are acting fishy.Taking long-ass trips to God knows where. Every weekend they’ve been going up to Bozeman.”

Davis laughs. “What? You think Ruby’s a drug mule?” He shakes his head. “They’re buying a flower shop. They’re busy.”

“C’mon, D. He’s the same little shit who ratted you out when you got drunk and threw up in the barn in eighth grade. You don’t buy his bullshit. I know you got a kid, but you got eyes on the ranch, too.”

“Excuse me,” a soft voice says. I look over as a redhead stretches herself over the bar, over me, to grab a napkin. The hem of her shirt slips up, and she gives me a bright smile, then heads to a spot at the end of the bar.

“Buying her a drink?” Davis asks, nodding in the direction of the redhead. “I’ll wait.”

“No.” I shrug. “Not feeling it.”

He raises an eyebrow in question. “That’s a first. You sure?”

I eye my brother. This is Davis’s dickhead way of testing me. Our usual routine was him going back to the motel, and mepicking up a girl. Now that’s the last thing on my mind. Why? My jaw clenches at the reason—because of Reese.

Slowly, she’s taken me apart piece by piece this summer. I don’t know how it happened. Justthat it has.Reese wearing my shirts night after night. Smelling like me. Messing up my apartment. Feeding my cat. We say we’re just friends, but there’s a fucking string in my gut that connects me to her.

But these are not things cowboys say out loud. Feelings only go as far as trucks and beer.

“I knew it.” Davis’s voice breaks my reverie. “You only smile like that when you’re getting laid.”

Irritated, I swing my head in his direction. “You want to say what you fucking want to say?”

“Reese. You’re getting in too deep with her.”

“You’re one to talk. You moved Dakota onto the ranch when she was—”

Davis swings a finger in my direction. “Don’t say it.”

I snap my mouth shut. It would be a low blow. But he knows I’m right. She was pregnant with another man’s baby and Davis still claimed that kid. I would have done the same thing too, but he doesn’t need to know that.

A tense silence falls over the bar top as we glare at each other.

“Look, I didn’t see you tryin’ to rein in Charlie when he was head over boots with Ruby.”

“Is that what you are? Head over boots?”

Fuck.

“No,” I grit out, tugging a hand through my hair. “I’m not.”

Head over boots is for men who are ready to settle down. I’m not that type. Not anymore.

“And Charlie’s different. He needed Ruby. I’m not so sure you need Reese. You’ve seen those articles,” Davis says stubbornly. “She’s a mess. Combustible. Y’all got nothing in common. Shetours all over the world and you’re a fucking rock. You drive a truck and she—”

“That’s what we’re talkin’ about?” I laugh darkly, arching a brow. “Trucks?”

“You know what I’m getting at.”

Yeah, I do. We’re opposites. He thinks I’m making the same mistakes all over again.

I scrape a hand down my face. Anger bubbles under my skin. It takes every last therapy session in me not to put a fist in my twin’s face. “You need to lay off,” I snap.

Davis is a bossy bastard, but he’s taking it to a new low.

On the surface, Reese looks a mess, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. It takes a strong person to give up everything to find what they want and I’m learning that’s Reese. Even if she doesn’t believe that about herself.

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