Page 12 of Second Chances with my Billionaire Bosses

Shep clapped me on the back and pushed me forward.

“Come on. Maybe we’ll see her at the ranch.”

We were quiet on the drive over, each of us lost in our own thoughts. When I drove under the Hellstone Ranch sign I thought of the dozens of times I’d driven under it before. We’d been in our early thirties when we visited before. Fresh out of the service, we’d wanted to be home in Texas but it was a little too much to be at home with family all the time. Hellstone Ranch had become an escape, a place we could escape to. We’d kept our eyes and hands to ourselves until that one night with Maxie.

It was wrong. I knew it the first time I looked around the pasture and saw Mills’ little sister riding up on her massive horse. She was too fucking young. I didn’t want to look at her and see anything other than my friends’ kid sister but when she looked up at me with her big green eyes and her wide smile, I was fucked. Still, I knew better. Eighteen might’ve made her legal but it didn’t make it right. I never had any intention of acting on the attraction I felt for her. Until I did.

“There’s Mills.” Arlo broke me from my thoughts and brought me back to the present.

I parked next to our old friend’s truck and got out just as he was coming down the porch steps. Trying to pretend like I wasn’t there hoping to see his little sister, I smiled at him and shook his hand when he got closer.

“Hey, man. Weird seeing you two days in a row.”

He nodded. “Not sure I like it. You fuckers used to get me so drunk I couldn’t see straight for days. I’m too old for that shit now.”

Arlo slapped his hand away and hugged him instead.

“If you’re too old, I’m too old, asshole, and I’m not too old.”

“Where’s Tate and West? Figured you three would be connected at the hip still.” Shep slapped him on the back and then pushed him aside when Tate came out of the house. “There’s my favorite Hellstone brother.”

Mills crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head as Shep and Tate fist bumped.

“Y’all tired of ranching already?”

I snorted.

“Haven’t started yet. That house is in such bad shape that we have to focus on it first. We didn’t even have a place to sit down and plan with Maxie today.”

“What’s there to plan?” Mills gestured to the barn and I fell into step beside him, leaving Arlo and Shep to chat with Tate.

“Everything? You know how long it’s been since I’ve done anything on a ranch? Maxie’s going to have her hands full with us. She was talking about the fence needing repair and some other stuff this morning, but like I said, the house needs a little work so we all have a base. We couldn’t even eat in it this morning. We ate outside and Maxie’s horse decided to help himself to the food.”

He growled under his breath. “That horse is a fucking asshole.”

The barn was in better shape than I remembered. It was perfectly maintained and I could see everything expertly organized on the walls.

“Damn. This isn’t the barn I remember. Last time we were here we had to search for shit to ride. This is downright easy.”

“Maxie.” Shaking his head, Mills led me through to an office at the back of the barn. It was also perfectly clean and organized. He sat behind the massive oak desk and reached behind him to rub his back.

I knew all about old injuries still giving you pain. I’d taken a bullet to the stomach while we were overseas and it’d done enough damage that I still woke up hurting a few times a week.

“Heard from any of the others lately?”

“Shit. You don’t know? I can’t believe you didn’t see them yesterday. Those fuckers, Dean, Lennon, and Reed, married Vera. She’s pregnant. Looks like she’s going to pop any second.”

“No shit.” I laughed. It seemed like we weren’t the only old friends of his that were sniffing around his sisters after all. Not that I was going to tell him that. “I can’t believe you didn’t mention that yesterday.”

“I’ve accepted it but that doesn’t mean I love it and want to brag about it.” He sighed. “First Vera and now Nellie. Gray, Owen, and Keaton got married a couple of years ago. They have triplets now. With Nellie’s girl, this place is going to be full ofkids if we ever have a reunion. I’m just waiting on the news that Kyle, Jamison, and TJ have eloped or knocked someone up.”

I couldn’t help myself. “And Maxie?”

He didn’t blink twice and it almost made me feel like shit that he didn’t think twice about us going after her.

“Maxie is Maxie. She’s a good girl but I think she’s going to be one of those old cat ladies.”

“The fuck?” I sat forward, unable to contain my annoyance. “Why would you say that?”

---