Maxie glared at me.
“Arlo!”
“Are you serious? Maxie…” Mills rubbed his face, suddenly looking twenty years older. He gently took his sister’s shoulders and leaned down so they were eye to eye. “I’m still coming to terms with what our mom did to you but even still, I know you’ll be a hundred times the mother she ever was. You’re a natural caretaker, Maxie.”
She swallowed and looked away.
“I can’t risk it.”
“Then don’t have kids. These men care about you and they’ve protected you more in a few weeks than I have in all my years. Be with them.”
“They want kids!” Maxie pulled away from him and walked over to Bob, swinging her body up and onto his back with little effort. Bob knew the score. He didn’t wait for her command to take off.
Shep held up his hands.
“We’d take Maxie without kids, you have to know that. This whole idea that she’d be a bad mother is ridiculous, though. She wants kids. She wants a family. She’s just being hardheaded. We’re not letting her go, so she’ll come around eventually.”
Mills rubbed his hands over his head and gripped the back of his neck. Sighing heavily, he watched Maxie riding away with emotion burning behind his eyes.
“I feel like I keep getting sucker punched.”
I snorted.
“Really?”
He blew out a harsh breath.
“Yeah, sorry about that. I’m so fucking high strung these days that I’ve already had two ranch hands quit. Jolene has threatened to murder me a dozen times. I just don’t know what to do. All this shit happened under my nose and my sisters suffered while I treated them like they were just a pain in the ass. Or like they were a servant. Maxie… I don’t know how to make it right. I can barely look at her without fucking hating myself.”
Shep looked at me and then at Rhett.
“You need to let go of some of that shit, man. If you can’t do it on your own, I might have an idea.”
Rhett grunted.
“Black Canyon?”
Shep nodded.
“We visited a place about thirty minutes outside of town a few times back in the day. It’s a club.”
“You’re telling me about a club?” Mills frowned. “Do I look like someone who goes to clubs?”
I shook my head.
“Not that kind of club. It’s a private club, a place for rich assholes to play.”
“Are you talking about a sex club?” Mills looked like he wanted to hit me again.
“You could call it that. The only reason we know about it still existing is that we got an invitation from one of the owners. He heard we were back in town. I’m going to send it to you.” Shep tapped at his phone and then slid it back into his pocket. “It’s for an event that’s coming up this weekend. I suggest you go and work out some of your feelings before coming back here and facing everything.”
“You’re telling me to go to a sex club.” Mills pulled his own phone out and his eyebrows climbed higher. “An auction? Are you serious?”
“Man, you need to live a little. Take your brothers and try to remember what fun is. It’s for charity so you can even bid on our dime.” Shep shrugged. “Go or don’t go. Your choice. Just figure something out before you have a stroke.”
“I came here to yell at the three of you.”
I pointed to my mouth.