Page 14 of Ash on the Range
I tried not to fidget under their weight. “He’s lucky to have found a place,” I whispered, horrified when tears prickled the backs of my eyes and I felt like I couldn’t turn away or hide.
“Home is wherever you need it to be, Cassie." Trav stopped wiping and placed his stack of plates on the counter. “It doesn’t matter if your story is different, or if your brother is the idiot at the table with the loudest voice, telling the stupidest stories. If you fit here, then here is home too.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I clutched my beers and shrank a bit. Travis was huge, and he’d always seemed so kind. Now he was more than intimidating, and I had no idea how to hide or step away. My gaze shifted to Jude, but the foreman who rarely smiled didn’t offer me an out. Suddenly I was desperate for Eve's company, but I hadn’t seen her for hours, either.
The silence stretched on, one of those times when I knew it was my turn and I had to fill the void. “I guess I don’t feel like I’ve been here for long enough to fit in.”Anywhere.“But you’re right. Will does. And I’ll go back to college soon. And that’s a long, long way from here.” We hadn’t talked about me leaving. Every time the topic started to come up, we both avoided the shift.
Travis leaned over the counter, grasping one of my hands in his much larger ones. “Red Hart can feel like a lot, Cassie. I know, and I used to hide from the fact…hell, I was born here, and I used to hide from that. But Will fits, and so do you. Justbecause he's not blood doesn't mean he’s not family." Travis let go of my hand abruptly, standing up as warmth hit my back in a wave.
Two hands braced the counter either side of me. I let out a little squeak and inhaled a sharp breath.
Soap, leather and fresh pine.
“Will,” I breathed as the other boys went back to whatever they’d been doing before. I swore my mind filled with fog whenever Will was around, and ceased all its usual function.
“Are these boys looking after you?” His presence was strong and taut against my back, pressing me against the bench.
I swallowed hard at the tension radiating from him. Jude watched us unflinchingly, while Travis just kept wiping dishes, ignoring the interaction at his side.
“I’m fine,” I whispered, my cheeks burning at hosting this conversation anywhere near other people. “It’s my brother I was —” I closed my mouth, wishing I hadn't said anything. The last thing I wanted to do was restart the vitriolic rivalry between Will and Austin.
“I saw.” Will leaned down, resting his lips against my hair and inhaled. “Damn, you smell good, honey.”
“Oh.” Nothing else coherent came out for a moment. “I can, uh, get you a—” I glanced at the other side of the kitchen. But it was empty. Well, mostly empty. Eve wandered out of the pantry, her expression unfocussed as she stared at her phone in her hand.
Will dropped a hand to my hip, his hand flexing there in an undeniably intimate squeeze. His lips trailed across the shell of my ear, leaving a tingling sensation in their wake. “Enjoy your night, Cassie. I’ll find you later.” He pressed a soft kiss to the sensitive spot behind my ear, then his touch and warmth disappeared leaving me staring at the bare kitchen bench and two beers I didn’t care about at all.
I’ll find you later.
His promise murmured in a low voice settled over me. I shivered, grabbed the beers and deposited them on the table next to my brother, intent on finding Will, but Austin’s arm shot out, grabbing for me again.
“I missed you, sis. The van’s been empty without you in it,” he proclaimed loudly.
Too loudly.
I winced, letting out a huff. “You mean you had to get up and cook your own meals and clean up after yourself,” I snarked back, then wished I hadn’t.
Austin’s face, already red, swelled slightly with the heat that radiated from him as he turned radish colored. Actually, he kind of resembled one, too.
The first sign of his rage, of which both Will and I were intimately acquainted with. The story I hadn't told anyone else was why I picked a university five states away when there was one within an hour’s drive from home.
And it has little to do with parent’s weekend or study choices.
“What did you say?” Austin said in a low voice that rippled along my spine.
One of the young ranch hands let out a laugh. I didn't know if it was at our conversation or someone else’s. I wasn't game to risk diverting my attention from the predator who watched me now. Both Jude and Travis had moved away from the table, and I was left with a group of coyotes I didn’t know at all.
I wrapped my arms around myself, and wished I'd left the beers in the kitchen., stayed with will and ran away for the night.
And never come back.
“I didn’t say anything,” I whispered. “Sorry, Austin.”
“Not that she has anything to be sorry about, Right, Cass?” Gage planted himself right next to me, grabbing the spare beet I’d been torturing that I had absolutely zero intention of driving.“This is for me. Darlin?” he threw me a cocky grin that I managed to return in part.
Austin frowned, looking between us. “Cassie?”
“This is Gage. He’s married to, uh—” I looked about, but Brit wasn’t anywhere in sight. A rarity as she loved the big house dinners and the social aspect of ranch life from what I could tell.
