Page 14 of Tempted By the Broken Cowboy
It’s weirdly quiet, but I know the whole family is home.
“Can we please keep this between us, at least for now?” I request.
My family doesn’t like Beck at all, so if they learn that the condition of me getting the money is us working together, they will be completely against it. They already don’t like that he’s friends with Landon, so this will send them over the edge. I want to make the decision on my own without their influence.
“Of course. It’s your business.”
“And that’s why you’re my favorite brother,” I grin at him.
“I better be.”
“I need a shower and twenty-four hours of uninterrupted sleep,” I groan as we make our way upstairs.
“Mom will have your head if you miss dinner, especially since you didn’t tell her that you weren’t coming home last night,” he reminds me.
“Argh! Kill me now. It’s not like I intended to spend the night away. Plus, I’m twenty-six years old—I’m old enough to come and go as I please.”
“I dare you to tell her that to her face.”
“Are you crazy?! Do you want me to die?”
He chuckles. “Go take a shower and a quick nap. I’ll see you at dinner,” he says, stopping outside my room.
“Okay,” I nod and watch him walk away.
Recalling something, I call out to him just as he gets to his bedroom door. “Landon.”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you,” I say with a smile.
“You’re welcome. And don’t worry—everything will work out. You’re Quinn Atwood; you always figure it out,” he encourages.
“Thanks.”
We disappear into our individual rooms, and I don’t stop until I’m in the bathroom, under my steaming hot shower, burning off my worries.
As soon as my head hits the pillow, exhaustion takes over, and I pass out like a light, but not before I set an alarm on my phone to wake me in time for dinner. My mother dislikes it when we’re tardy, and I’d hate to get on her bad side, especially when I’m not in the best mood myself.
Just as Landon predicted, she doesn’t spare me.
“Where have you been?” my lovely mother asks before I even get a chance to take a seat at the dinner table.
I’m still in need of more sleep, but I feel better after my nap. I look up to face Mrs. Atwood, who is as prim and proper as always with flawless makeup, blonde hair in a tight bun, her blue blouse crisp and immaculate like she hasn’t moved an inch to avoid creasing it all day.
“Hello to you too, Mother,” I greet as I take a seat across from her, sandwiched between my father, who is at the head of the table, and Landon, who’s to my right.
“You didn’t spend the night here,” she accuses.
“I know. I went on a business trip,” I answer vaguely.
“What kind of business trip has you staying out all night where you couldn’t even call your mother?” she demands.
“The kind where I had to fly out of town,” I reply, then turn to my younger brother Louis, who is seated next to her. “Please pass me the rice,” I request.
I’m the only sister in a family of four. We have Rhett, thirty-five, our oldest, who is my father’s right hand; Landon, thirty, the rebel, a professional bareback racer and Wrangler Creek’s heartthrob, as I’ve been made painfully aware; me, who’s still trying to figure my life out; and Louis, the youngest. He’s twenty, in college, a mama’s boy whose life is already planned out, but at least he doesn’t have to worry about any real responsibilities for a bit longer.
Before Mother can respond to me, Rhett speaks up. “How was Vegas?”
