Page 19 of A Reckless Memory

He studied me for a moment but didn’t inquire more about what happened in Kansas. “And she still hired you?”

“What can I say? My reputation precedes me.” I was doing it again. Talking around a subject. I pushed a hand through my hair, wishing I’d grabbed my hat from my pickup before we left Aggie’s place. “It’s her form of revenge. She learned the trouble I got in and realized she could hire me for dirt cheap. I’ll do right by the animals.”

“You always did. What the hell happened at your old job?”

His unfailing confidence in my morals was humbling. We used to be close when we were kids, and I hadn’t felt that sense of comradery with him in a long time until now. I let out another hard breath and rested my hand on the top of the tailgate. “Pissed off the wrong guy—and his daughter.”

“You never did your best thinking with your dick.”

“Do any of us?”

His warm gaze landed on his wife. “Sometimes it works out.”

Irritation or envy bloomed in my gut—I couldn’t tell which. “I should get going. It’s my first day in town, and I obviously haven’t made the best second impression.”

I tapped my fingers on the cool metal. So far, the meet and greet with my brother wasn’t like the few times when we’d met up after he left home. He wasn’t spewing corporate jargon or the amounts of annual revenue he brought in. He looked at me like he was ready to listen, and he joked with me like we were back on the ranch, wasting the days doing jobs kids our age shouldn’t have been responsible for.

The speed of finger tapping increased. If I’d been more responsive to his attempts to repair our relationship, I might’ve saved myself the special hell I’d been living in. “We should talk sometime.” I held my breath. This was worse than asking a girl on a date. A refusal served me right.

“I’d say we’re about due,” he said easily, chasing away the nerves I had from asking. “What’s your schedule?”

I let out a scornful breath. “Whatever she says it is.”

Archer lifted his ball cap and ran a hand through his dark hair. A few strands of gray hugged his temples, and my throat worked. The last time I’d seen Archer, we’d been in our twenties. He was almost forty. I’d missed over a decade of his life. “The sooner you realize it’s better that way, the easier it is.”

“I’m not like that.”

He glanced at Aggie in the pickup, watching us in the rearview mirror and then at the feed I hauled out. “Sure about that?” He chuckled and smacked me on the arm. “I owe Delaney a girls’ night, but we could meet up the weekend after. I’ll let you tell me when.”

He was walking back to his wife, and I pivoted on a heel to face him. “Hey, Archer.” I waited until he turned. “Dad doesn’t know I’m here. Let me tell him.”

“And the rest of our family?”

“What family?” I shook my head. Right. All the Barrons but Dad lived in Coal Haven. I’d worry about my immediate relatives first. “Never mind.”

“They’re good people. And there’s a shit ton of ’em. I know it’s not what we’re used to, but... it turns normal pretty damn quick.”

Tension crept along my shoulders. Multiple family members wanting to get into my business. Finding out the rumors spread about me. Or worse, the straight-up facts. “Let me get settled first. Then I’ll talk to Dad.” I owed him that.

“It’s good to see you.”

The sincerity in his words stuck with me as I crawled into the cab. I buckled myself in. Aggie methodically backed up and calmly maneuvered onto the highway to return to Crocus Valley.

“Spill it,” I said. “I know you’re dyin’ to chew into me.”

“I can’t imagine what you’re talking about.” Her hand tightened on the wheel, but my mind kept wanting to replay how she threw around fifty pounds like it was nothing, and she did it all fancied up in her riding coat and dress boots. Suddenly, nothing was sexier. “You mean how your brother didn’t recognize my name when you told me that he was working and couldn’t come to the wedding? That he and your dad couldn’t get time off or risk their jobs? And I was so incensed for them! But in reality, you didn’t tell them about me.”

“It was better not to.” I slouched in the seat and let my legs take up all the space on the passenger side. Her gaze touched my thighs, then back to my face, and her lips flattened. “If you found out before we got married that your daddy was paying me, the backlash would’ve been epic—”

“It was.”

“—and if it worked out, I would’ve told them like Archer told us—with a message.”

“But you knew Archer eloped.”

“Like three years after. They were separated for a while in between. We never met her, though. He didn’t bring her to see Dad and the dirt pasture he lives in until they reconciled.”

She shook her head, her attention on the road. “I can’t believe that was your first time meeting your brother’s family.”

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