Page 102 of The Rough Rider

“Hey,” Alaina said happily, skipping ahead of him, and he walked slowly to the proceedings.

Fia took the baskets off his arm and set them on the table. “How’s it going, Angus?” she asked. She looked at him speculatively.

“Going good, thanks.”

Fia was much closer in age to him than Alaina, and consequently, he had known her in a different context for longer. Particularly when they had taken up the charge to reform the ranches. And she was as skeptical of him as it came, he could see.

Alaina was happily chatting to her other sisters, Rory, who was bookish and difficult to know, and pint-size Quinn, who always wore flirty, feminine dresses, but seemed ready to punch someone in the face if need be at the drop of a hat.

They all had different shades of red hair. And all of them were pretty.

But Alaina was the only one that had ever made him feel sucker punched. She was the only one that had ever gotten to him like that.

But then, she was the only woman in all the world that had ever gotten to him like that, and as inconvenient as it was, he couldn’t deny it was the truth.

“I trust you’re treating my sister well.”

“I like to think so.”

“She seems happy,” Fia said. “Thank you. And I’m sorry that I was mean to you when all of this first went down.”

“Hey, I might’ve been mean to you too.”

“No, really, Gus. Rory and Quinn and I were not... It’s not fair. I’m sorry. You don’t deserve any of the rumors that go around about you. I mean, I know you let them off, but it isn’t fair. You never once acted like your dad...”

“Hey,” he said, his chest turning to granite. “Don’t go absolving me of everything, Fia. I’m not a nice guy. I let everybody talk about me because I don’t give a damn. But I do give a damn about your sister. So.”

“As declarations go, that’s not terribly romantic.”

“Yeah, she tells me I’m not romantic. And I’m not. But I won’t hurt her.” Fia deserved that truth. He liked her, respected her, always had.

“I know you won’t,” Fia said. And she looked like she was thinking about whether or not to say something, and he could see the moment she decided to go ahead with it. “You care about her, don’t you? I think that’s what I didn’t realize. That you care about her. A lot.”

“I do,” he said. “I sure as hell do.”

“She’s been hurt so badly. By our parents...” And she looked at him even harder. “But you know that too.”

“Yeah. I do.”

“Good then. Don’t hurt her.”

“I just told you I wouldn’t.”

“I meant herheart, Gus.”

And it was on the tip of his tongue to say he didn’t think Alaina’s heart was tangled up in him like that. But for some reason he decided not to. Maybe because he didn’t want to expose them. Because what was happening between them was private. Because it felt sacred, which was a damn strange thing to think about the best, dirtiest sex he’d ever had. But, it was a fact.

“Are you grilling my husband?” Alaina asked, crossing the space and moving over to grab his arm, then his hand.

And everything in him lit up like a power grid. She held his hand. Just casually, standing beside him like she belonged there.

“Yeah,” Fia said. “I am. But he’s a big guy. He can handle it.” Then Fia patted him on the shoulder, and he felt... buffeted. By all these women.

Just a lot of women all of a sudden.

“I want to take my sisters into Copper Ridge to go to the thrift stores.” She looked up at him.

“Oh. Okay. What does that have to do with me?”

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