by Tia Souders
Rhett frowned, but Silas was oblivious to his displeasure. He was too busy staring with a dumbstruck look on his face.
Clearing his throat, Rhett said, “Can I get another beer?”
But Silas didn’t hear him, and as his green eyes shifted to somewhere behind him, Rhett knew the women had approached them.
“What’s that?” Silas asked, dazed and grinning like an idiot.
“Another beer?”
Silas glanced down. “You’re still good.”
“Maybe I want another anyway. This one’s flat,” Rhett ground out, tilting his half-full glass toward him.
“Danny,” Tess said behind Rhett. “I’d like you to meet another brother of mine, Silas Montgomery. Silas, this is Danny.”
Silas smiled, flashing Danny a hint of his dimples, which irritated Rhett more than it should. “Nice to meet you, Danny. I’ve heard a lot about you, but Rhett, here, didn’t tell me how gorgeous you were.”
Rhett rolled his eyes.
“I’m not surprised,” Danny quipped. “I get the feeling compliments aren’t exactly Rhett’s strong suit.”
Silas roared with laughter, and it took everything in Rhett not to punch him.
“He is a bit prickly, isn’t he?” Silas smiled wider, clearly enjoying this exchange when Colton sidled up beside him with an outstretched hand.
“I don’t think we’ve met,” Colton drawled, but Silas pushed him away.
“He’s just a baby.”
“Hey, I just turned twenty-two,” Colton said, clearly offended.
“Don’t listen to him.”
“How many of you are there?” Danny asked, wide-eyed.
“Five brothers and just me,” Tess said beside her with a loaded expression. “And we have a whole load of cousins to boot. Now you know why I need a drink,” she said, leaning over the counter and filling her own pint with beer.
“You’ll find some of us Montgomery boys are more pleasant than others,” Silas said, darting his gaze toward Rhett with a meaningful look. “And by some of us, I mean all of us.”
Danny laughed. “And no shortage of charm, I see.”
Beside him, Mindy cleared her throat loudly, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Hi,” she said, sticking her hand out. “I’m Mindy, Mindy Beaumont.” She shook Danny’s hand, then leaned in closer to Rhett, pressing her body into his side and trailed an acrylic-tipped nail over Rhett’s forearm. “One of Rhett’s special friends.”
Rhett nearly spit out his beer. Special friend? He hadn’t so much as held Mindy’s hand before, and she was practically carving her name in him like the trunk of a tree.
Danny didn’t respond. Instead, she simply offered a polite smile and glanced back to Silas. “I’ll take a Cosmopolitan, please.”
Silas grinned while Rhett snickered. “Sorry, ma’am. We don’t mix girly drinks here. We’ve just got the basics. All the best men, Jim, Jack, Johnnie, Jamison, Jose, and maybe a few select others that might please your palate, like the Captain.”
“I see sexism runs in the family.”
Silas barked out a laugh. “You’re feisty. How refreshing. I can see why you intimidate Rhett.”
Rhett stiffened. Intimidate him? Ha!
But more unnerving than his brother’s accusation was the gleam in Silas’s eye and the trajectory of their banter, so instead of correcting him, Rhett settled on the age-old art of the death stare.
“I’ve been trying to get this butt head to serve margaritas for years,” Tess chimed in, “and he still won’t. If I may, a Captain and cranberry sounds like you.”
“I’ll take it.” Danny grinned.
Next to him, Mindy narrowed her eyes. “Aren’t you the new ranch hand?” All the attention on Danny mustn’t have sat well with her because her tone was dismissive as she added, “I’d heard Montana Wild got someone new. Silly me, I just assumed it was a man.”
“Nope, it’s me,” Danny said, her smile tight before she turned back to Silas with an arched brow.
Clearly, she wasn’t interested in whatever stand-off Mindy was trying to accomplish by staking her claim.
Silas slid Danny’s drink across the counter a moment later. “As our newest resident, it’s on the house.”
“Thanks.”
While Silas continued to flirt with Danny, Rhett frowned into his beer, ignoring Mindy’s attempts at conversation until, finally, she lost interest.
“Surprised to see you here, brother,” Tess said, wedging herself between him and Danny.
He grunted in response, then craned his neck briefly to get a better view of Danny conversing with Silas when he realized what he was doing and turned back to his now-empty glass and waved at Colton for another. Clearly, Silas was preoccupied.
“Why’d you invite her here?” Rhett hissed, inclining his head toward Danny.
Tess raised a brow. “You know, it’s interesting. I happen to know for a fact several people on the ranch knew we were coming tonight. What a coincidence that you chose tonight of all nights in almost two years to hang around here for more than five minutes.”
Rhett scoffed. “If you’re implying I came because I knew she was coming . . . ”
“Your words, not mine.” Tess grinned, a sparkle in her eye that said she knew him too well. But instead of calling him out on it, she glanced at Danny over her shoulder. “She sure is pretty, isn’t she? Silas seems to like her.”
If this was his sister’s attempt at making him jealous—as if on cue, Danny laughed at something Silas said, while he grinned over the counter like a loon—it was working.
Rhett crushed his cocktail napkin into his fist.
“I heard after you made a fool out of her with the wolf incident that she kicked butt this week, did an amazing job. Noah was even bragging about her, said she might have a special touch with the horses, and if you can get her riding, that maybe someday she could head the trails.”
Rhett cracked a grin as he recalled her running from the cabin, screaming about a wolf. “First off, don’t look at me like that,” he said, tipping his glass at Tess’s look of disapproval. “The wolf thing wasn’t my fault. And I wasn’t the only one that thought it was funny.”
“That’s not what Houston told me. He felt bad ‘ol Bean scared her half to death. Regardless, you should apologize. For that. For everything. She’d been great despite the fact you haven’t exactly been welcoming.”
“She’s done her job, nothing less, nothing more. And if anyone is to blame for my being unfriendly, it’s you.”
“Me?” Tess pointed to her chest.
“You strong-armed me into hiring her.”
“You needed her, Rhett.”
“I don’t need anyone,” he snapped.
Tess closed her mouth, and silence settled over them.
Even he recognized they were no longer just talking about another ranch hand but something else entirely.
“Fine,” she said, then took her drink and stood. “I’ll just leave you be, then.” Without another glance in his direction, she turned and headed toward the dance floor where Noah and his band prepared to play.
An hour later, Rhett had seen just about enough. He stood, ready to leave when Danny finally returned from the dance floor where it seemed every eligible bachelor in Cedar Falls—his brothers included—had asked her to dance.
Slightly out of breath, she waved at Silas from across the bar. “Can I get a water, please?”
He filled a glass, then slid it to her and pointed. “Save me one more dance, you hear?”
“The first two weren’t enough?” Danny grinned.
“Of course not.” Silas winked, then waited on another patron.
The Water Hole was packed tonight as it was most summer nights, which Rhett hoped meant he’d be too busy to deliver on his promise of another dance.
In the silence that followed, Rhett could all but feel Danny’s eyes boring into the side of his face as she sipped her water. From the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the way her
eyes sparkled and her cheeks had turned a soft shade of pink from all the dancing. Even Rhett’s black heart couldn’t deny how beautiful she looked.
“Done flirting with my brother yet?” Rhett asked, his tone dry.
“Does that bother you?”
Rhett gritted his teeth and shrugged.
With a sigh, Danny moved closer, taking the stool beside his. He wished she wouldn’t. With her this close, he could smell the soft scent of her perfume, and it made him antsy.
“Look, Rhett, I don’t know what I did wrong, or what I said to get us off to such a bad start, but I’d like it if we could be friends. Who knows how long I’ll be at the ranch, but I like Cedar Falls, and if I stay here, I’d like more friends in my corner than enemies.”
Rhett crossed his arms over his chest and sighed. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. The first time he saw her bent over Mae Beth’s garden, picking her flowers flashed in his head.
“But I’m not much in the market for friends,” he added.
That much was true, at least. He didn’t have time for friends. He didn’t have time for much of anything. He was too busy pouring himself into the resort and into work. The less free time he had, the less time his thoughts wandered, and the last thing he wanted was for painful memories to start creeping in.
“Okay, then,” Danny muttered, her voice soft. “Well, I tried.”
He watched as her brow creased and a frown replaced her smile. Her eyes darkened, and suddenly, she looked sad.
That was the thing about heartbreak. No matter how you experienced it, it all looked the same, and it wasn’t hard to see that familiar haunted look in another’s eyes when you saw it in your own every morning.
Scrubbing his hand over his face, he felt a pang of regret. “Would you like to dance?” he asked, reaching a hand out.
It was a peace offering. One he had no idea whether she’d take. After all, he couldn’t blame her if she refused when he’d been nothing short of rude to her since she got there.
She stared at his hand as if it were a foreign object, then met his eye. “Sure, I’d like that.”
He led her out to the dancefloor and, whether it was a stroke of dumb luck or orchestrated by Noah himself, the music changed into a slow ballad.
Rhett gripped her hand in his, while his other found her waist.
How long had it been since he’d danced with a woman other than Mae Beth?
He couldn’t remember, probably long before he got married.
They moved slowly to the music, both of them quiet as Rhett picked through his behavior these last two weeks.
“I’m sorry I’ve given you such a hard time,” he said, his voice foreign, even to his own ears.
Danny tried for a shrug like she didn’t care, but he could tell it bothered her, and he wondered how long she’d been a people pleaser.
“I’m sure you had your reasons,” she said.
He did, that much was true, but none of them had to do with her. “Still . . . I was a jerk, and for that, I’m sorry.”
Danny nodded. “Apology accepted.”
Across the dancefloor, Tess caught his eye and covered a smile with her hand.
Rhett ducked his head, unwilling to give her any reason to assume his dancing with Danny was anything other than an attempt at making amends.
“So how are you enjoying Cedar Falls so far?” Rhett asked, his voice strained. It had been so long since he’d tried to make small talk with anyone, it felt awkward, like he’d forgotten how.
“Honestly?”
His eyes slid down to hers as he waited for her answer. Her lips were painted in the softest shade of red, and her long, dark lashes fanned over the tops of her cheeks.
“I love it.”
He exhaled, happy to hear it even though it certainly wasn’t on account of him. It’s not like he had welcomed her with open arms.
“So you’ve been to town, I take it? I hope you didn’t try to see everything in one day,” he teased.
Danny chuckled, and was it his imagination, or did she move in closer?
“The town certainly is small. For a second, I blinked and thought I missed it all.”
Rhett barked out a laugh, surprising even himself with the sound.
“I don’t know,” Danny continued, eyes sparkling. “I’ve never lived in a small town, and I’m sure it has its drawbacks—”
“Like everyone knowing your business?”
“Yes, like that. But,” she lifted a shoulder, “I think maybe it suits me. I like the intimacy of it. I think I can grow used to walking down the street and seeing a familiar face everywhere I go. There’s comfort in that, in knowing you’re surrounded by friends.”
“Or enemies?”
“Are you always this cynical.”
“Just calling it like I see it,” he said, but maybe she was right.
The people of Cedar Falls were his friends. After Mae Beth died, the whole town pitched in to keep the ranch afloat until he got back on his feet. Only, after the dust settled, Rhett pushed everyone away and isolated himself. So much so that he forgot these people surrounding him were his friends. Not all of them were after juicy gossip. Most of them wanted to help, make sure he was okay.
“I suppose though, there’s a certain value in having such a tight-knit community,” he said, ashamed he hadn’t acknowledged it until now.
“Yes, and I can imagine it doesn’t hurt to have a family like yours either.” Danny grinned. “I can’t imagine you ever want for company.”
You’d be surprised, he mused, how alone you can feel even when surrounded by people. “There sure are a lot of us around,” Rhett acknowledged.
“I’m surprised you can even find anyone to date around here if you have as many cousins as Tess said.”
“Good thing I have no interest in dating, then.”
She blushed and glanced away, but Rhett wanted to talk less about himself and know more about her, so he asked, “What about you? What brought you to Montana Wild in the first place?”
“Oh, you know, the old cliché. After giving up everything for my husband—ex-husband,” she corrected, “he cheated on me. With my best friend, no less. So I left him. A couple months later, I stumbled across an advertisement, and here I am.”
Though she said it with a smile on her face, he could feel the pain in her words, and when her gaze caught on something over her shoulder and her eyes brightened, he felt the familiar stab of jealousy at whatever caused her to smile.
So, help him, if it was Silas . . .
He craned his neck to get a look at what captured her attention and frowned when he saw it was a man.
Just how many suitors did Danny have? She’d only been there a few weeks?
But the thought evaporated when the man turned and Rhett got a better look at his face.
Instantly Rhett’s blood ran cold. Though it didn’t look like Bones—at least not the scrubby hobo he was used to seeing, skulking around town with a bottle in his hand—it most certainly was him. He’d recognize him anywhere. Not even a haircut, a neatly trimmed beard, or fresh clothes could disguise him.
And it seemed everyone else at the bar noticed him, too.
Rhett watched as several people clapped him on the back, smiling as they no doubt remarked on his sudden change of appearance. Even Tandy wrapped an arm around his shoulders and squeezed, offering him a smile as he clutched a paper takeout bag to his chest.
He’d probably wash it down with a handle of booze.
Rhett stiffened at the thought and stopped moving to the music, then glanced down at Danny, noting how happy she looked when she waved, impervious to Rhett’s distress.
But not everyone was as clueless. Several people nearby glanced in Rhett’s direction, their gazes nervous, clearly wondering if he might lose it.
Rhett should call the cops. Get him arrested for drinking and driving.
“I know word travels fast, and I didn’t
know if you’d heard,” Danny murmured.
“Heard what exactly?” Rhett tensed. He had no idea what she was talking about, but why did he have a feeling she was the reason behind Bone’s miraculous change of appearance.
“Well, I went shopping this morning and ran into—”
“Get to the point.” Rhett snapped.
Danny flinched. “I gave him a haircut,” she blurted. “Based on everyone’s reactions, I’m sure it won’t be long until you find out, and I don’t know what your history is with him, but I was led to believe you don’t like him very much.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Rhett growled. “Did you bring him into Montana Wild?”
Danny shrunk under his gaze and took a step back. Wringing her hands in front of her chest, she opened and closed her mouth several times, but nothing came out.
It was answer enough.
How dare she bring that man onto his property, right under his nose!
“Did you?” he barked.
Danny dropped her hands and straightened. “It was only at my cabin. I’m renting it, and—”
“It’s my property. My resort.” Rhett pointed to his chest. “And I will not have that lowlife go anywhere near it.”
People started to stare.
“He’s not a lowlife.”
Rhett laughed bitterly. “Oh, really. You’ve been here all of two minutes and think you know everything. Bones is a good guy, and I’m the jerk. Is that right? You’ve got it all figured out.”
He turned away from her without waiting for a response and stalked toward the exit.
“Wait,” Danny called out behind him. “I don’t know why you dislike him, but if you’d just explain, maybe I could—”
“I don’t need to explain,” he said, narrowing his eyes.
“I know he looks rough, or at least he did before, but if you’d just give him a chance, you’d see he’s gentle and kind. He’s a decent guy, if not a little lost.”
The muscle in Rhett’s jaw twitched.
Unbelievable.
“I used to think the same thing, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt,” Rhett spat. “And I paid for it, dearly. Never again.”
He shoved his palm against the door with a thunderous smack, then called over his shoulder, “Bring him on my property again, and you’re fired. You can find somewhere else to stay.”