Page 15 of Ash on the Range
“My wife isn’t well tonight. Though I'd give her some peace and come up, make sure everything else ran smoothly. Heard some of the rodeo crew arrived, and that you might need company while Will got them settled in out back.” Gage took a large swig from what had to be a warm beer without wincing.
Relief swamped me. So Will hadn't abandoned me after all. He would be back, like he promised. I just had to survive however long with Austin. But that didn’t mean I had to stay with my brother, especially if he was in this mood. Maybe he and Gage could become good friends. It looked like the older man was up for the challenge, and I was feeling sassy.
Taking a leaf out of Brit’s book, I smiled sweetly. “Austin, why don't you tell everyone about that time the bull threw you less than a second into your ride?” I excused myself while my brother was still spluttering at the table.
Gage gave me a broad wink as I walked away, heading around the kitchen bench in search of Eve. I found her counting out inventory and making a list on her phone.
“Want some help?” I offered.
“I’m good.” Eve frowned at her phone. A moment later she tapped the offending device with a frustrated huff and stowed it in her pocket, offering me a broad, fake grin that didn’t hide her worry lines. “I think we still have dessert to serve, don’t we?”
“Dessert, right.” I watched her open cupboard doors and haul out stacks of bowls half her own height before I joined her, grabbing spoons. Bowls that I swore wouldn’t actually first inside the fridge emerged filled with perfectly set dark chocolatemousse. “Wait, when did you get time to do this?” I stared at the bowl and gave it a taster poke.
Nothing so much as moved.
“Four this morning?” Eve sent me a guilty glance. “Archer gets up early and I don’t get to speak to him all that often.”
I blinked. “You call your boyfriend by his last name?”
Eve’s laugh seemed more strained than ever. “Everyone else does. And it was a habit from the last time he was here.” Her incessant spooning and bowl passing halted.
Plopping a spoon in a bowl, I turned and looked at her. “And when was that?”
She swallowed and looked at me. “Last Christmas?”
“But you’ve seen him since then, right?" I’d just met Will. Okay, not just met him, but the weeks we’d been together had flown by already, and I couldn’t' t imagine being away from him for that long. “You’ve spent more time together than just on the phone, wherever he is?”
She hesitated. “I went to Texas to see him a few months back. It… was good. Great, even.” One hand rose to touch the pendant at her neck. It looked like diamonds spread out in an abstract shape, like stars. “I— we ran into some trouble. But he’s coming back,” she whispered. “He always said he would.” The hand dropped, and she returned to spooning.
And didn't talk again.
I rolled my lips inward. Whoever Archer was, I was already prepared to have words with him. I was sure he had a good reason for not being here, but surely he knew Eve was hurting if he had spoken to her just this morning. And before the sun rose? Who was this guy?
I grabbed some bowls and turned around, running straight into Jude.
“He’s a better man than you think. Saved her life more than once."
I bristled at being blindsided by the stocky foreman. “That doesn’t mean she owes him,” I snapped, then lowered my head. “Sorry. I just— She’s not okay.”
He nodded. “I know. But she loves him.”
And apparently, that was enough. He liberated the bowls in my hands, and walked away. I stared after him, but there was nothing left to say to anyone. My mind whirled. I wanted to rant and rave on her behalf but maybe it wasn’t my business. There was obviously a history here I knew absolutely nothing about, and I hadn’t been around Red Hart long enough to pry, despite working side by side with Eve most days.
On others, I worked alone in Travis’s luxury appointed study. It was quiet there, but it still felt like I invaded his space even though I worked inside it with his permission.
I stared after Jude where he retreated across the open space to the table bearing bowls of mousse, and counted in my head. It didn’t take more than a handful of seconds before the mass of ranch hands figured out there was more food on offer. They swamped the kitchen—bearing their best manners, of course, for Eve under Travis's watchful and somewhat grumpy eye. I didn’t think I was alone in noticing her mood, but her twin seemed to have everything under control for now.
Stepping back, I bumped into a warm body. Hands clasped my hips as a smile spread over my face and my heart lurched.Will.
CHAPTER SEVEN
CASS
Hope warmed my cheeks as I glanced back, only to be assailed by a gust of beer breath. Panic slapped me in the face as I realized another man had his hands on me, and not the one I wanted to hit on me.
Reggie, one of the hands who I thought worked with Will, grinned down at me. One palm rested on my hip as he reached around me for a bowl. “Why don’ t you sit with us, darlin’?” he purred, putting on an accent I swore he stole straight from Gage.“I’m sure we could use some company from someone as pretty as you.”
A sidestep got me out of it, but I swore I’d feel his touch until I scrubbed my skin with hot water and maybe bleach. Pursing my lips into something akin to a smile even though it was fake as hell, I glanced over his shoulder and spotted?—
