Page 3 of Hothead

He ignored the hammering of his heart at her declaration. His body couldn’t be trusted.

“And why would he want you to stick around?”

“Are you going to take the letter?”

“You always answer questions with questions?”

Luke felt her breath warm his skin and found himself wishing away his stubble. He wanted to feel her sink into every inch of him.

Yeah. That’s normal.

“Is this the proximity you conduct all your conversations?” was her reply.

It looked like he’d met a fellow smartass. The first one to drag a smile out of him.

This chick is something else.

“I’ll tell you what, angel”—his grin only grew as her eyebrow raised—“you tell me exactly what Marco told you about me, and I’ll take the letter. Then you can go on your merry way back to wherever you came from.”

“You got a spare few hours?”

What a stupid question. He made sure his face conveyed as much. “You know I don’t. In case you haven’t noticed, darlin’, I’m at work.”

“I guess I’ll be sticking around then. Until you have time.” With that, she abruptly turned, leaving his body begging for more as her hand met the door handle. “I’m staying at the Evans ranch—come find me when you’re ready to talk.”

The Evans ranch? For fuck’s sake.

***

Luke’s friend Zachgave him a wide berth for the rest of his shift, clearly picking up on Luke’s “I don’t want to talk about it” vibes. While Hunter left without saying a word. It was only Benny who dared to approach Luke, the youngest of their little friendship group.

The default grin that was normally on his friend’s face was replaced with something sullener. Serious.

Here we go.

“So ... is it true? Do you have a brother?” Benny decided then to lean against the fire truck. Against the exact spot Luke had just finished cleaning.

This day just gets better and better.

“I really don’t wanna talk about it.” He puffed, continuing to clean, putting a bit too much weight behind the steel spot he was drying.

“Come on, don’t be like that, man. Put yourself in my shoes. You really think that if the roles were reversed and some chick came in and announced I had a brother—a dead one at that—you wouldn’t be all over me?”

“Actually,Zachwould be all over you,” Luke corrected. “Iwould mind my own business.”

And it was true. Zach was the one always wanting to talk about crap. Hunter was the strong, silent type. And Luke, well, he wasn’t interested in talking either. Unless, of course, there was a sarcastic comment to be made or a man to wind up.

“Bullshit,” Benny spat. “My long-lost brother turns up dead and you’re seriously telling me you wouldn’t have shit to say?”

This was one of the problems with having friends. They liked to insert themselves into your business. Whether you liked it or not.

Luke realized then he would need to throw his friend a bone if he had any hope of being left alone. Not too much information. Just enough to get him off his back.

Taking a break from drying, Luke pushed against the truck with both hands, his head dropping between his outstretched arms.

“Fine. Technically, yes, I have a brother. Orhadone. But I didn’t know him. Didn’t grow up with him. I met the guy a couple of times. Like twenty years ago. My dad put it about, okay? He had a bad habit of making kids he had no business having. You happy?”

There. He’d done it. Short and to the point. The only way he knew how to be. Not that he did talking about his past very often. In fact, right there was probably the most he’d ever shared out loud before. Taking him to his maximum sharing limit for the day. Quite possibly the year.

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