Page 3 of Tempted at Thoroughbred Lake

“Only nice things,” Brennan repeated in a grumble, as if that weren’t just a challenge but would be impossible.

There was a huge reason for his skepticism. Nearly nineteen years ago, when Alice and she had been besties in high school, Ruby had had a serious crush on Brennan. Of course, she’d told Alice all about that crush and the three make-out sessions Ruby had managed to have with Brennan. Ruby had also droned on about how eager she was to ask him to go with her to the town’s annual Valentine’s Day dance.

Alice, who clearly hadn’t embraced that whole bestie status, had obviously had her own crush on Brennan. Ditto for him having the hots for Alice.

And they’d acted on it.

Mercy, had they. When Alice and he had ended up at a party where there’d been some underage drinking as well, booze and hormones had led to them having sex. Alice had gotten pregnant, which, in turn, had prompted Brennan and her to dive into a hasty wedding when they were just eighteen.

Their betrayal had crushed Ruby to the bone, and she’d done her own “in turn” stuff and sought out rebound sex with Carson Dayton. Apparently, that’d been a bad year for the quality of condoms, because she, too, had gotten pregnant. Her daughter, Vivian, had been born just four months after Alice and Brennan’s son, Seth.

Unlike Alice and Brennan, though, there’d been no hasty wedding for Ruby. She hadn’t wanted to do any marital diving since she’d figured it would just end in divorce. Still, Carson and she had lived together for four years, but that had ended with the second wave of betrayal when he’d had an affair with Alice.

So, yes, Alice’s name was mud.

It was still muddy despite the woman having died at the too-young age of thirty-two from cancer. That’d been four years ago, and even though both she and Brennan were divorced at the time, it’d been a hard blow since it meant his son, Seth, had lost his mother when he’d barely been fourteen.

Brennan gave another of those heavy sighs when she continued to struggle with the sign. He went over and took it from her.

And touched her hand in the process.

It was just a touch, but man, oh, man, it could still pack a wallop. She sucked in her breath, taking in his scent in the process. A good scent. One that stirred even more parts of her that shouldn’t be stirred.

She looked up at him, their gazes colliding, and she got another whammy of heat. Apparently, Brennan was well aware of the effect he had on her, because he muttered some of the same profanity she had after she’d drawn Alice’s name.

“Seth will likely want to help you with the research,” Brennan said.

That didn’t cause all the heat to cool down, but it got Ruby’s attention. Brennan’s son would probably enjoy doing the research. Well, he would enjoy having his mother in the spotlight for a little while, anyway.

“Seth’s leaving for Austin in two weeks,” she pointed out. Austin wasn’t far away, only about an hour’s drive, but the boy would probably be busy starting his freshman year of college. Ruby expected it would be the same for her daughter, Vivian.

Brennan managed to make a shrug look plenty appealing. “Seth will want to make sure his mother is painted in the best light possible. What Alice did to you and me doesn’t have anything to do with him.”

Ruby heard the not-so-subtle warning in that. If at all possible, Brennan didn’t want Seth hurt by anything that would come out in the research. Preventing that would take some tiptoeing skills, but if she could convince buyers this house actually lived up to the charming label, then she could candy-coat the details of a research report.

“Agreed,” Ruby said, and when Brennan easily staked in the for-sale sign, she motioned for him to follow her into the house. They could continue this conversation and not risk heatstroke, a sweat bath and deodorant failure.

“I’ll tell Seth,” Brennan explained as she unlocked the door and they stepped inside. Thank heaven, the air-conditioning was on and working just fine. “If he hasn’t heard already, that is.”

Ruby turned to look at him when she heard abutor some kind of hesitation at the end of that.

“Are you okay with this?” he asked.

Since he was that whole “hot cowboy” deal, it took her a moment to switch gears. Brennan wasn’t talking about this heat she still felt for him.

Was he?

No, she assured herself. Brennan had put in a lot of effort to keep her at arm’s length. Maybe because being around her brought back bad memories of their exes cheating with each other. Maybe because he felt as if he could have done more to make sure she hadn’t been screwed over in high school when Alice and he had hooked up at that party. Added to that, when she hadn’t been involved in a relationship, he had been, and vice versa.

But not now.

Her body flung that little reminder at her.

The news certainly would have gotten back to her had Brennan been seeing anyone.

Their gazes connected. Held. Locked. And Ruby tingled—yes, actually tingled—when she saw what she thought might be the spark of attraction. It wasn’t one-sided, either. Nope, and she got confirmation of that when Brennan cursed.

He groaned and cursed some more before he finally said, “Look, I’ve been thinking about you, thinking about asking you out. But you and I both know that’s probably a bad idea.”

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