Page 3 of The Hardest Part

“Emily?”

Billy pulled away with a groan.

Fuck.

“Yeah,” she answered as he helped her up.

Holding her hand, Billy led her back to the house. Her mom sat at the kitchen table, ledgers open, papers spread out, and her laptop in front of her. She kept the books for the ranch.

“Miss Kim.” Cheeks flushed, Billy tipped his hat.

“I’d ask what you two have been up to, but goin’ by the odd bits stuck in your hair, I think I already know.”

“Mama.” Side-eyeing Billy, Emily ran her fingers through it and plucked out a twig.

“Uncle Matty just called. Wants us up at the house for supper at six.”

Same as every Sunday, but…

“Isn’t he in Denver?”

“Got back last night,” her mom said, scribbling away in the ledger. “Says he’s got some big news for us.”

“What do you think it could be?”

“Don’t rightly know.” And with a shrug of her shoulders, she put her pencil down and turned to Billy. “He wants you and your brother to come, too.”

Jake drove.

The distance to the main house wasn’t all that far—just a few miles up the stream. An easy ride on horseback, and she’d done it often enough. Holding her hand on his lap, Billy stared out the window. Emily glanced up at Jake. His arm bent over thesteering wheel, he hummed along to a tune playing on the radio. Long hair flying with the breeze coming in through the window he had cracked open, she reached out and touched it. His face turned to hers and he smiled. Taking her hand from his hair, he lowered it to his thigh and gently squeezed.

“Have you spoken to Kellan or Tanner?” she asked him.

He answered with a nod, “I have.”

“So, what’s this big news?”

Did Uncle Matty score a prize Limousin bull or a sought-after Wagyu? He went to Denver on business all the time. Emily wasn’t exactly sure what he did there, but he’d been going a lot more often lately.

“I didn’t ask, and they didn’t say.”

Course not.

“Could be a wedding,” Billy offered, rolling his head away from the window.

Emily burst into a fit of giggles. “Whose?”

“I saw Tanner talkin’ all friendly to Samantha Quigley in town a few weeks ago.” He shrugged. “I know they’re hellbent on waitin’ for their dream girl to appear, but my dude’s turnin’ twenty-two. How long do you expect him to wait?”

Looking down at her, Jake winked. “As long as it takes.”

“It’s not that,” Emily said with a tsk.At least it better not be.The butcher’s daughter was nice, but far too docile for Kellan. Her cousin needed someone who’d challenge him, someone who’d bring out the loving man she knew he could be. Samantha was not that girl. “Tanner is friendly with everybody.”

“Well, I ain’t got a clue, then.” Jake pulled in behind her mother’s truck and Billy put his hat back on his head. “It’s prob’ly a whole lot a nothin’.”

Billy might be right about that, but as Jake helped her down from the truck, she felt it—a distinct energy to the air. Something was about to change. Something big.

“Hey, Ems.” Tanner was waiting at the door with his arms open, ready to wrap her up in a giant bear hug. He was good at those. “How’s my favorite cousin?”

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