Page 24 of Sweet Whiskey
Pitching my fingers between my lips, I let out a low whistle, letting the horses know to come back to me. The chilly morning nips at my cheeks as I scour the horizon for the rising sun. Dew feathers the ground, and I can smell a storm coming. We’ve been too busy preparing the ranch to go back into town the past few days, and I’m itching to see Kinsey again. I almost wish I had gone with Dallas to pick up the extra hay bales a few towns over just to put some distance between us.
My attention drifts over to the cattle grazing on the next field over, watching a few of the ranch hands corral them away from the weakeningfence. We’ll have to fix it soon enough. I don’t look up as Maverick saddles up next to me.
“Coop is getting ready to leave for Fort Worth. Who can we spare?”
My eyes raise, glancing at him curiously. It’s unlike him to refer to me, even if I’m the manager of this ranch. He hadn’t needed to be reminded that my brother brought a lot of money into this ranch. “From our boys? Duke. Maybe Brooks, but I’m not sure he’ll want to go. Any of the seasonals.”
Maverick frowns. “Why not?”
“Why not what?”
“Why won’t Brooks want to go? He usually keeps an eye on the ones for roping.”
I stand taller, shuffling my boots on the frozen ground. We don’t have that type of relationship where we share our lives with each other. When Levi hired me at sixteen, Maverick was only nine. Back then, I knew he looked up to me like a brother. But I’d been a right bastard, not looking for a family. Years passed, and I never bothered attempting to repair the tension between us.
Clearing my throat, I blow out a breath. “We’re thinking of courting the new omega from the bar.”
Fury rolls over his face, a growl vibrating in his throat. My shoulders stiffen and I face him fully, narrowing my stare at him.
“Settle down.” The alpha bark in my voice has his hands trembling as he tries to disobey. There’s a reason Levi gave the ranch over to me with a bunch of other alphas working for us, and it’s not one I let out often, preferring to talk it out. Something triggered Maverick’s anger. I could smell his pheromones instantaneously.
He shakes his head, walking a few steps away and leaning over, holding onto his thighs as he takes deep breaths. I wait for him to face me again after a few minutes. The embarrassment in his eyes is the only apology I need.
“I-I don’t know,” Maverick says, but cuts off with a swallow.
“Would it help if I specified it’s the redhead?”
Maverick’s chest caves and his eyessqueeze shut before a laugh escapes his throat. “Fuck. What’s fucking wrong with me?”
A smile quirks at the corner of my mouth. “I think you may be feeling her friend.”
Mavericks grimaces, rubbing at his jaw. “She’s kind of a bitch.”
My eyebrow raises and my grin spreads. “You’ve always liked them a little mean. I think it’s your mommy issues.”
He glares at me before shaking his head with a smile, adjusting his hat and moving back to stand next to me at the truck. “I’m fucked already, aren’t I?”
“Probably,” I mutter, watching the horses as they trot closer. “The real problem is that we feel this way and we have no idea what their business in town is. Them getting jobs means they’re not looking to leave anytime soon.”
“Brooks said the redhead was asking about my dad?” Maverick frowns, clicking his tongue to get one of the younger mares to come closer to him. He reaches down to check her hoof before lettingit drop down and patting her hind to get moving inside the barn.
“Her name is Kinsey, but yeah. Marley didn’t get a chance to tell me why when I tried to ask for more information.”
Maverick stretches his arm out. “Marley probably wouldn’t tell you even if you bribed her anyway.”
We may share a brother, but Marley doesn’t like me any more than the next person. Cooper is the only one who seems to see the softer side of her. What else he sees in her, I’ll never know. Though I never knew what my father saw in her mother either. Never got a chance to learn, considering my mom packed us up and moved us across the county line the minute the affair was exposed. Didn’t even know about Coop until the twelve-year-old came knocking looking for his father, and only found me instead.
“I’m thinking about putting in a bid for that house down the street.”
Maverick slowly raises from the next horse he’d been checking, looking at me with a morecalculated gaze. “You think it’s going to get that serious?”
“It’s better to be prepared,” I say with a shrug, even if I know it will be. Brooks’s reaction the other night is the last confirmation. I’ve never seen Dallas react the way he has. Brooks is a bit of a loose cannon, but out of everyone else on the ranch, he bothers me the least. Even with the acres of land, it’s a small place for a whole lot of alphas.
I know Dallas is the one who left the book near my bedside in the work cabin. None of the other men would be caught dead in the library. Plus, he’s the one who has been pushing the most to make us a pack officially. It doesn’t matter to me; whatever Kinsey wants or needs, she’ll get. The problem is keeping her here. We still haven’t figured out why she’s searching for Levi, but it could jeopardize all our jobs if we make waves with Maverick over it.
Speaking of the devil, he clears his throat, giving me an odd look.
“What?” I grunt.
