Page 21 of Trails of Temptation

I gripped the wire too hard, not wearing gloves like I knew to do, and the wire sliced right into the meat of my hand just below my thumb.

I cursed, hissing out my breath as I examined the wound.

“Looks great, George,” Grant said as he approached. I tensed, tucking my bloodied hand behind my back. “Need a hand?”

“The guys are just finishing up,” I replied as I straightened up to face him. Grant must have read the expression on my face clear as day because he took a step closer, one dark brow lifted.

“Are you all right?”

“No,” I answered, and it was the most honest I think I’d ever been. I set down my tools and whistled loudly. Daisy raised her head, sensing my urgency. She trotted over, shaking out her mane as I walked away from my work for the day.

“I expect you at dinner tonight,” Grant said sternly enough that it gave me pause. I turned to look at him before climbing on Daisy’s back and speeding off.

I couldn’t just spend my day doing nothing, though. I went back to the stables and wrapped a bandage around my hand, then mucked every single stall until the place looked brand new. I cleaned and polished the saddles and repaired equipment. I went to the cow barns, all of them empty because the herd spent most of their days out in the pasture during the summer, and cleaned it from top to bottom.

I even went out to the pasture to check in on the herd and spent nearly an hour letting the calves do their best to fight with me, pushing them around by their tiny horns until their mothers had enough of the roughhousing and threatened to intervene.

I didn’t go back to my house until late afternoon. I worked harder today than I ever had. I immediately grabbed the bottle of tequila collecting dust in the cabinet over the stove and drank deeply, relishing the burn. I brought the bottle into the shower with me, drinking until the feeling of Keely’s hands on mine started to fade away.

It would have been so much easier if she had said this was just sex between us, right? I would’ve been okay with that… Wouldn’t I?

No, I wouldn’t have. I slammed my fist into the tile and grunted, stifling a frustrated scream. By the time I got out of the shower it was nearly seven o’clock. Dinnertime at Moira and Grant’s house.

I drank from the bottle again. I was feeling the effects of it. Overconfidence. Invincibility. I also felt like having Keely in my bed again, but in order for that happen, I’d have to lay everything out on the table and let it be up to her to decide.

She’d have to choose between me and Pete in the end, and that was my biggest hesitation.

If she chose Pete, I could go about my life with a hole in my heart the size of Montana.

If she chose me, well, we’d have to fight every goddamn day to be together, and if we didn’t work out… She’d be alone.

I couldn’t live with that.

My phone buzzed. It was a text from Grant, reminding me that I was expected to come sit at his dinner table.

Keely would be there. I wondered what she told them. Moira likely knew. For whatever reason, the thought of Grant and Moira being fully aware of what was happening spurred me into action. I dressed in clean jeans and a nice button-down shirt. I settled my favorite cowboy hat on top of my head, smiling wryly at myself in the mirror.

Keely wanted me to open up to her so badly. She might not like what she saw when I did.

* * *

I stalked toward Grant’s house, my body thrumming with enough tequila to numb how my injured hand was throbbing. The back porch light was on, and fireflies danced through the hedges growing along the foundation of the back of the house.

Music was playing inside. I was sure everyone was in a swell mood.Well, just wait.Here comes the storm cloud ready to rain on everyone’s bright, sunny day.

“What was up with you today?” Grant asked and I froze. He was leaning against the railing of paddock, the heel of his boot resting on one of the slats.

I ran my tongue along my lower lip, wondering what I could possibly say to him other than the truth. I turned to him, crossing my arms over my chest and flashing the bandage roped around my hand.

“Cut it on the fence,” I admitted.

“Yet, you still did the work of five men today in a little under five hours,” he added, looking me up and down. “This is about Keely.”

“Of course, it is,” I spat. In my right mind, I would have never taken this tone with him. Grant was my friend, but also my fucking boss. I wasn’t in my right mind now, however.

“What’s going on between you two?”

“I love her,” I admit, hating the way the words burned on my tongue. “And I can’t fucking touch her because Pete will have a fucking stroke, Grant.”

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