Page 13 of The Rancher's Code

Amber pulled Dylan into a tight hug. “If it wasn’t my brother, you know it would’ve been me, right? I definitely would’ve beat up some loser for you.”

“Trust me. I know.” Dylan grinned. “I’m starting to think it runs in the family.”

I let out a light laugh at Dylan’s reference to our earlier conversation, just as pain radiated from my upper jaw. I quickly got the bartender’s attention, asking for some ice in a cloth, and they kindly obliged. As Dylan and Amber went back to wedding planning, Uncle Virgil came to sit beside me at the bar.

“Have you been here this whole time?” I was shocked at his sudden appearance.

“I’m always around, nephew, you know that.” Virgil stared at me, hard. “Did you just get into a fight over the wedding planner?”

“Overthe wedding planner?”

“Now, why would you go and do something like that? Risk jail time for a wedding planner you barely know? If you know him, at all?”

“Just seemed like the right thing to do, I guess.”

“The right thing to do…” Virgil muttered to himself. “You know, some things aren’t about what they’re about.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Some things aren’t about the right thing to do… some things aren’t about winning a bar fight…”

“Whatever you say, Uncle.” I winced at the pain in my cheek, not in the mood for his cryptic words of wisdom.

Virgil just tilted his head to the side, a vague expression on his face as he watched me attempt to nurse my own face back to health.

5

DYLAN

I was tryingmy best to stop yawning, but I was tired, down in my bones.

It was nearly midnight, and I was waiting outside my cabin for Amber to pick me up. She’d mentioned something about seeing what the ranch sky looked like at night, wanting to coordinate her wedding jewelry with it, and wanting to get a second opinion before she committed to the idea. I would’ve had a proper chance to see the night sky earlier if I hadn’t been cooped up with Amber in her wedding planning cabin, going through what felt like cabinets full of various necklaces, bracelets, earrings.

Thankfully, she’d allowed us to have a break for a very late dinner. And now, I was desperately sipping on a coffee, trying to wake my brain back up. This was the last thing scheduled on our to-do list for the day, and I couldn’t wait to be done with it.

My bed was calling my name.

“ Dylan?” A familiar voice called out from a pick-up truck. I looked over and spotted Cole, his hair perfectly windswept, his rough yet gentle hands gripping the steering wheel, his bruisedcheek only serving to remind me of how willing he was to get into a fight for me?—

Nope.

This can’t happen.

I needed to get my shit together. I needed to drink, like, a gallon of coffee or something. My sleep deprived brain was just confused and very, very tired.

“Just waiting on your sister. She said she wanted to take me to one of the cabins on the edge of the ranch to look up at the sky,” I replied. “Because the sky is…different there… or the best there… somehow…”

“Yeah. She’s not going to make it.” Cole shook his head. “Her fiancé surprised her an hour ago. Showed up back from some work trip. She sent me to show you to the cabin instead.”

“Oh.” I took a huge gulp of my coffee as I approached the passenger side of the truck. “In that case, I promise not to get into another fight on the way over there. Gotta keep your other cheek safe, just in case you want to turn it next time.”

Cole lightly chuckled. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

The ride over to the cabin was gorgeous. I stared up at the sky through the window, a smile on my face the entire time. I had no idea how we were going to coordinate Amber’s jewelry with the literal stars in the sky, but she’d been right about the view. In the city, it was rare to see the sky so clearly, only hints of stars making their way through the skyscraper’s lights. It was also rare for me to spend so much time looking up at the sky like this, anyway, so much of my time spent looking down at my phone or my work laptop.

I spared a look over at Cole, his attention fully on the dirt road in front of us. He was beautiful, too, against the backdrop of the night, something about the ranch speeding by his window and the little specks of light flowing through his hair every so often. I felt that chest tightening feeling again, the one I’dmanaged to push way down back at the barn, the same one I’d felt at the bar when he’d taken that punch for me.

The same one I needed to find a way to numb or get rid of before I said or did something extremely stupid.

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