Page 2 of The Corner of Heartbreak and Forever
“Shh!” Brindle and Sable said in unison as they pulled Grace down to her knees.
She followed their gazes to the illuminated riding ring below, where the four Jericho brothers, Trace, Justus, aka “JJ,” Shane, and Jeb, and a handful of other shirtless, jeans-clad guys were milling about. They werealwaysshirtless, because what men weren’t when they were proving they were the manliest of the group?
“Trace and I are over,” Brindle whispered. “For real this time.” She and Trace had been in an on-again-off-again relationship forever. They were a hopeless case of rebellious guy and rebellious girl, up for anything risky. Two people who didn’t have a chance of ever settling down but seemed to fill a need in each other’s lives—or at least in their beds.
“That’s not what Morgyn said.” Sable smirked. Morgyn was a year older than Brindle and just as outgoing.
“Why didn’t you drag her out instead of me?” Grace complained.
“I would have, but she wasn’t home,” Brindle explained.
Grace and her sisters had spent many hours as teenagers lying on this same hill when they should have been sleeping, watching the Jericho brothers and other guys ride wild horses or rope cattle. Pepper and Amber had come with them only twice. Pepper had complained the whole time about it being a waste of brain power, and Amber had been more embarrassed than turned on by the shirtless cock-and-bull show.If only I’d been born shy.
She laughed to herself.Shy? Right.She’d blazed a path in a man’s world. There was no room forshyin her repertoire. And there was no room for this nonsense anymore, either. She pushed up onto her knees. “Brindle, maybe at twenty-four this is still fun, but I’m twenty-eight. I’ve got work to do in the morning, and I’m so far past this it’s not even funny.”
“Geez, Grace! You’ve turned into a workaholic ice queen,” Sable whispered as she yanked Grace back down to her stomach. “And I, your very loving sister who feels the need to keep you young, aim to fix that. Startingnow.”
Grace rolled her eyes. “Ice queen?Just because I’ve grown up and don’t find this type of thing fun anymore?” As she said the words the men below walked out of the ring and stood on the outside of the fence, their muscular arms hanging over the top rail.
“Ice queenbecause you think you’re too good for—” Sable swallowed her words as Trace and JJ pushed open the enormous wooden barn doors and a wild horse blasted into the ring with a shirtless man on its back.
Their gazes snapped to the show below. It wasn’t a Jericho on the back of this horse for its first ride, and despite her protests, Grace squinted into the night to get a better look at the virility before her.
“Dang,” Brindle said in a husky voice.
“Holy cow, that’s hot,” Sable whispered. “See, Gracie? Totally worth it.”
Grace took in the arch of the rider’s shoulders as the horse bucked him forward and back, his thick arms holding tightly to the reins. His wavy brown hair and the square set of his chin sent a shudder of recognition through her.
“Ouch! Grace! You’re digging your nails into me.” Sable pried Grace’s fingers off her forearm.
“Is that…?” Grace choked on the angerandarousal warring inside her. She’d recognize Reed Cross anywhere, even at a distance, after all these years of seeing him only in her dreams. She pushed to her feet, unable to make sense of seeing the forbidden lover she’d risked everything to have—and then cast aside—in Oak Falls, with the guys who’d once hated the sight of him. What on earth was he doing here? The last she’d heard, he’d moved to somewhere in the Midwest after high school.
“Reed…?” His name rolled off her tongue too easily, and she stumbled backward. Memories of being in his arms slammed into her, his gruff voice telling her he wanted her, he loved her. She didn’t want to remember what they’d had, and as her sisters reached for her, trying to pull her back down to the grass, she took off running the way they’d come.
“Gracie, wait!” Sable shouted in a harsh whisper as she and Brindle ran after her.
Grace ran fast and hard, trying to outrun the memories, and knew it was a futile effort, which only upset her even more. She spun on her heels, anger and hurt burning through her. “You didn’t think towarnme?”
“I knew you wouldn’t come,” Sable said.
“Darn right I wouldn’t.” She started down the hill again.
“Wait, Grace!” Brindle grabbed her hand and tried to slow her down, but Grace kept going, dragging her sister with her. “Whatis going on?” Brindle pleaded. “Why are you so mad?”
Grace slowed, realizing in that moment that Sable had kept her secret for the past decade. That was something she hadn’t expected. Then again, she hadn’t expected to have a visceral, titillating reaction to seeing Reed again, either. She hadn’t expected to ever see him again.Period.He had been the quarterback at their rival high school. Small-town rivalries weren’t taken lightly back then, and she and Reed had been careful never to be seen together for fear of Grace, a cheerleader, being ostracized by her friends. As graduation neared, they both knew Grace wanted to follow her dreams and write and produce plays in the Big Apple. They might have stayed together if Reed had told her that he would be willing to move away from the small town one day, but he’d been adamant about never leaving his family.
At least he had been until she’d ended their relationship to pursue her dreams.
Then he’d left town for good.
Or so she’d thought.
That still stung, even now, as his deep voice carried in the air, bringing with it memories of the secrets they’d shared and the stolen sensual nights they’d enjoyed.
“I thought you were over him,” Sable accused.
“I am!” Grace huffed. She absently touched her lips, remembering the taste of spearmint and teenage lust mixed into one delicious kiss after another. Kisses that had never failed to leave her body humming with desire.Great.Now she couldn’tstopthinking of him. This was bad. Very, very bad. She never should have allowed her sisters to drag her out and unearth memories she’d rather forget.
