Page 81 of A Reckless Memory

Both of them aimed identical glares at Ansen.

“Eliot. Austen,” Ansen greeted. “I just came to support Aggie. I’m not looking to start trouble.”

“You should’ve thought of that before Barns paid you a dime,” Eliot said.

“That was a decade ago,” Ansen said patiently. “Things are different.”

“You’re broke, and Aggie’s about to come into a shitload of money,” Austen said, his voice rougher than usual, like he’d had a late night or an early morning or both.

Ansen straightened, his chin held high. “If I cared about money anymore, I’d already be married. I’m here for your sister, and I only care about what she thinks.”

“Since when do you care about more than yourself?” Eliot countered. “You probably left that other woman when you found out her old man never planned to turn a thing over to you.”

“Knock it off,” I said. Eliot and Austen were worried, but their reactions were signs they didn’t trust me to make my own decisions, and this confrontation lacked respect for me. “You both assume Ansen and I haven’t talked about what people might think or our individual histories when it comes to us. The way you’re both acting is disrespectful to me more than him.”

Cody and Wilder piled through the door, dressed exactly how I’d assumed.

Surprise filled Wilder’s brown eyes, then something I couldn’t identify took over his expression when he looked at me. He glanced toward the door he’d just come through, then back at me. “I found this guy roaming around, lost.”

A third man entered, a few inches shorter than my brothers, and my stomach dropped. What the hell was this morning turning into? “Lawson?”

Seventeen

Ansen

I should’ve been nice and relaxed after my shower with Aggie, but Eliot and Austen’s arrival had wiped away the calm. Now I was facing all of her brothers and this guy. If a stranger entered the house and was told to pick the guy who’d never worked cattle or wore a cowboy hat, it’d be an easy guess. This was the fucker who discarded Aggie once he realized he could never be man enough for her?

Lawson’s hair was neatly styled, rising up in the middle and shining from product. He wore a black suit coat over a pale-green shirt and black slacks with shiny black loafers. He looked like an office manager or whatever position he yanked out from under Aggie.

He was my opposite and didn’t that burn. I drove Aggie to a pompous dickwad like this.

Austen covered his mouth like he was hiding a grin. Aggie had described him once as the mischievous one of the bunch. Wilder was biting the inside of his cheek, probably giddy at the possibility of using his law enforcement skills on his family. Cody was stern as always, and Eliot looked twice as pissed to be dealing with two of Aggie’s exes. Only I was no longer an ex.

“Aggie, hey.” Lawson’s blue gaze scanned the gathering. His face was pink from the wind and from his expression, he was trying not to shrink under the scrutiny of her brothers.

It wasn’t them he had to worry about. I didn’t know him, but I didn’t trust him. Aggie told me enough, and I’d been around enough guys like him. Guys who used people until they reached the next stepping-stone and discarded them.

“Why are you here?” Aggie asked. A simple question, but she managed to sound stunned and irritated.

I wanted to tell him to get the fuck out. I’d gladly help him on his way—if that was what Aggie wanted. She might want to talk to him, and I’d have to eat my hurt and let her. She needed to make her own decision, but I also trusted what was between us more than what she’d had with this dick weasel.

Her brothers’ heads swiveled from me to Lawson. Their own personal tennis match. Lawson was probably the only one of us who’d touched a racket in this room.

“I heard about your dad, and you aren’t answering my texts.” He could stuff that hint of accusation up his ass and shit it out on his way out of town.

“For a reason,” she said bluntly.

That’s my girl.

His lips pursed like he was annoyed she wasn’t falling over herself for him. “I know how hard this can be, even though you two weren’t close and thought...” He shrugged. “I wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

Good damn thing I’d gotten here first. I was upset I hadn’t come earlier, but she needed time with just her brothers. That this asshole thought to do the same thing rankled. What if he was legitimately concerned for her? What if he realized he fucked up the best thing that happened to him and was willing to work to win her back?

Too bad. She was mine now.

Aggie cocked her head like she couldn’t believe Lawson had the audacity. “You’re the one who said I was cold and emotionless.”

Lawson was an idiot. Aggie was warm inside and out, and her emotions ran deep and true.

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