Page 67 of Wrangled Up

Christian turned to her. “Go into the house. I’ll be there in a minute.”

She swallowed hard. Things needed to be said between Tucker and Christian, and she wanted to be privy to it. But she also respected that they might hold back if she was present.

With a nod, she started to move toward the house. Christian caught her back, and Tucker wrapped his hand around her arm. They spun her into them, sheltering her, warming her.

Letting her know that despite the insanity of the past few minutes, their feelings hadn’t changed.

Tucker grazed her forehead with his lips. “You need us to go inside and take care of your daddy?”

She shook her head. “Letty and I can handle him. Don’t worry about us.” She shot him a grin and a comical roll of her eyes. Tucker released her with a smile of his own. Christian gave her a parting smooch and sent her off toward the house with a pat on the bottom.

By the time she reached the kitchen, she was ready to take on her daddy as well as Tucker’s overbearing family. He’d come back to them, which counted for everything.

* * * * *

Tucker stared at the pink gems on Boomerang’s ankle cuffs. His eyes blurred. Leaning against the fence until the wood cut into his forearms did nothing to wake him out of his strange dream. A dream where his own relatives had completely turned against him, Claire’s father finally showed up after a year and butted into their business, and where alpacas were suddenly prima donna pets named Boom Boom.

Christian stood beside him, arms on the fence and head dipped in the same pose Tucker chose.

“What the fuck happened to my alpaca?” He scudded his gaze over the silly bow on its head and the way its body had been sheared into fluffy balls like a poodle. From the depths of the shed, he spied the glittering pink of a leash.

His lover gave a snort.Lover.How had it happened?

Easy—he’d set eyes on Christian and allowed his true feelings to emerge with no thought to the fog of pain Heather had left behind. In fact, at this minute, he felt more alive than he had since that fateful night of her accident.

“She’s somethin’,” Christian said.

Tucker shifted, bringing his hip flush against Christian’s simply to feel his heat. “That she is.”

“But you hurt her badly when you left, Langley.” Christian pivoted his head to eye him.

Tucker met his gaze then let it skitter away. He saw too much hurt in Christian’seyes. Hurt he’d put there and deserved to see every day of his life, but dammit, didn’t they understand his reasons for running?

No, they didn’t. He hadn’t spoken to them in weeks or explained himself in any way.

When he didn’t reply, Christian plowed on. “There were a lot of things we didn’t know how to do on the ranch, she and I. But she’s tenacious. If she doesn’t know, she spends hours on the Internet looking it up. Or asking people at the diner. And Letty is a valuable source of information.” Christian swept a hand before him to indicate the land behind Boomerang’s pen. “So we managed to keep this up. For you.”

Tucker ducked his head between his hunched shoulders. “It’s complicated.”

“Always is, man.”

How to tell him about Heather’s family kicking him out forever? Or that he’d had to run from the love he felt for Claire?

“Forward,” Christian said to Boomerang, and she strutted across the pen like a goddamn supermodel. If Tucker’s chest wasn’t so tight, he would have burst into hysterical laughter.

Christian turned to him. “Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”

Tucker cocked a brow. “I’d say you’ve been spending too much time with Letty. You’re talking like an old lady.”

The corner of Christian’s mouth quirked up. “That’s true. We’ve been living here like a cozy family. What do you have to say tothat?”

It hurts like hell that you were able to survive at all without me.

He couldn’t say it. Jealousy was a hot coal in his gut. “I’m thankful that you took care of things.”

“Things meaning Claire.”

“Yeah, and more. She sure deserves someone better than me.”

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