by Elle Thorpe
Ugh. I was such a sucker. I shook my head. “Call me gullible, but I believe you.”
Relief flooded his face, and he reached his arms out as if to hug me but then dropped them by his sides, settling for a “Thanks,” instead.
I gave a curt nod and then turned to walk away.
“Wait, Summer?”
I swiveled on my heel. “Yeah?”
“Can I see Dom? I wanted to try to explain…fix things between us…maybe.” He was like a little kid, asking his parent for a chocolate and praying they’d say yes.
“He’s not here.”
“I can wait.”
I shook my head. “His dad got sick. He’s gone back to Wyoming.”
“Oh. Shit. I’m sorry to hear that.”
I swallowed hard, fighting down a wave of emotion. “Yeah, me, too.”
Felix headed for his truck, but something inside forced me to call out to him. “Did you mean any of it? The excitement over being Dom’s brother, I mean?”
Felix leaned back on the side of his truck and focused serious eyes on me. “Every word.”
Well, that was something. “What are you going to do now?”
Felix chuckled. “Honestly? I’ve no idea. I’ve got no job. No home. Everything I own is in the back of my truck. I haven’t even thought past coming to apologize to you and Dom.”
Dammit. I couldn’t just let him walk away. “We probably have a spare cabin, if you need a bed. For a little bit.”
But he shook his head. “Thank you, but no. I think this is something I kind of need a bit of time to work out. I need to work out what I really want.”
He tossed his keys in the air and caught them easily. “See you around, huh?”
“See you around.”
I watched him leave, wondering if that was the last time I’d see Dom’s brother.
34
DOMINIC
The next week ticked by agonizingly slowly. Each day blended into the next as I went through the motions. Dad was allowed visitors two days after I arrived, and once that happened, we did a lot of traveling back and forth to the hospital. When I was at the ranch, though, I was working my ass off, trying to help Spencer and Theo get it back into working order.
They were right. There really was too much work for the two of them alone. The more tasks I completed, the more I found extra things that needed doing. I didn’t think anyone had touched the paperwork since I’d left. I trawled through my father’s office, frowning at the ridiculous price of feed, and vowed to find a new supplier. A quick check of his calendar showed a meeting with the bank about a loan for that very afternoon. “Shit,” I muttered. “Theo! Did you know about this bank meeting?”
Theo stuck his head around the doorjamb. “What bank meeting?”
I slumped my head down on the nearest pile of paperwork. “I’ve no idea. But it’s in an hour. So I guess I’ll find out.”
“Good luck with that.”
“Thanks. Super helpful.”
He and Spencer had reverted right back to their annoying younger brother statuses now that I was here to run the place. But I’d also watched Spencer spend an entire afternoon studying for an exam, and every night Theo idly flipped through a job listing site when he thought I wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t really think either of them was going anywhere in the short term, but they were both clearly relieved to be free of the responsibility of running this place.
More and more, I realized that this was why my dad had wanted to pass this place down to me and not one of his biological sons.
Neither of them was here for the long run.
But I didn’t think I was either.
I wanted to go back to Georgia. Summer filled my thoughts night and day, and FaceTiming or talking on the phone weren’t even close to satisfying the need I had to hold her. I’d watched her fall asleep on my phone screen last night, and all I’d felt was frustration that I wasn’t there to brush the hair back off her face or kiss her goodnight.
The two sides of me warred night and day. One side, the side that was the dutiful son, tugged me to stay in Wyoming. While the other side, the one that was so stupidly in love with the girl, yelled to get my ass back on a plane before she realized she could do better.
“You’re gonna miss that meeting,” Theo said, sticking his head in again. “Better get moving.”
I threw a pen at him, but then I dragged my ass out of my father’s chair, went back to my cabin for some clean clothes, and the drove myself into town. I made it to the bank with two minutes to spare, and after giving my name to a woman behind the desk, I sat in the waiting area.
I didn’t mind the delay. It gave me time to daydream about Summer and what we could be doing right now, if only we weren’t in different states.
“Dominic West,” a woman called a few minutes later, startling me out of my trance.
She smiled patiently while I gathered the handful of papers I’d thrown together that I thought might be needed, and I followed her down a hall of offices. At the end, she rapped her knuckles across an open glass door and stuck her head inside. “Maria? Your next appointment is here.”
The woman walked away, leaving me face-to-face with my biological mother.
Her eyes widened as she recognized me from the single other time we’d met. She glanced down at her paperwork, shuffling through it frantically, mumbling my name like perhaps I’d gotten the wrong office.
I swallowed hard. “You know what? Never mind. I think I’ve changed my mind.”
I strode down the hall, back in the direction I’d come. Fucking hell. This was the last thing I needed. I’d only just put my birth mother’s rejection behind me, and now I had to have it shoved in my face again?
“Dominic, wait.”
I froze at the sound of her voice saying my name. I didn’t want to turn around. I wanted to walk away, just like she had. I wanted her to feel even an ounce of what it had felt like when she’d walked away from me.
But that wasn’t who I was.
I turned around and waited for her to say something.
Her fingers trembled, still clutched around the paperwork. The pages shook like a summertime breeze had just rolled through the building. “Could you… Would you come back, please? I’d like to speak with you.”
“If it’s about the loan, forget it. We’ll go somewhere else.”
She dropped her hands to her side. “No, not about the loan. I can set you up with another loan officer. I…I can’t be involved in your loan process now, since we’re…”
I laughed, but it was cold and bitter-sounding. “Related? We might share genetics, but we aren’t family.”
She motioned to her office. “Please. Will you come inside?”
I moved stiffly toward her, and she stepped out of the way, giving me a wide berth like I was a stray dog that might suddenly snap at her. I ignored it and went inside her office, taking one of the chairs across the desk from hers.
To my surprise, when she walked in, she didn’t take the spot behind the computer. Instead she took the seat next to me, the one intended for her clients.
I let out a slow breath, and my gaze wandered over her face. There were similarities in coloring, but I was more like Felix than I was her. “We don’t look alike,” I said bluntly.
A tiny smile lifted the corner of her mouth. “You’re like your uncle. My brother. He died, not long before you were born, but there’s definitely a resemblance. Felix does, too. So maybe the two of you are a bit like me.”
“What about our father?”
Maria’s eyes dropped. “He’s not a man you’d want to know. I don’t know where he is anymore. But I can give you his name if you want to find out for yourself. Though I don’t recommend it. I know you’re a grown man, but he’ll bring you nothing but pain.”
I had enough manners not to say that she’d brought me nothing but pain as well.
She bit her bottom lip. “I’m sorry about how I reacted the day you came to my house. You c
aught me off guard, and I had to think about my family.”
“It’s fine, I get it. Felix and I are your dirty little secrets.”
She shook her head. “It’s not you that I’m ashamed of. It’s me.” She clasped her hands together, her fingernails digging into her skin. “I’m not the same woman I was. I’ve thought of you often. Felix has been easy to check in on. But you…you were always something that I couldn’t quite grasp. All I knew was that you’d been adopted by a local family. Did you…have they treated you well?”
That at least, was easy to answer. “They’re amazing.”
The tilt of her lips bloomed into a full-fledged smile. “Good, good. I’m very relieved to hear that. I wish now that I’d been able to give that sort of life to Felix. If I hadn’t left him with my mother, things might have been different.”
I didn’t comment. I really had nothing to say and wondered if I should just get up and leave. Absolving her of her guilt wasn’t my job.
But Maria seemed to notice my gaze flicking to the door and rushed to fill the silence. “Felix is back, you know? Staying at my mother’s place again.” She frowned at that. “She told me what happened. With you and him.”
“It is what it is.”
She deflated a little. “He’s not a bad person, Dominic. You’re lucky. You were raised by good people, who obviously cared about you. I researched the property your family owns, in preparation for this meeting. I should have realized who it was, but West is such a common name, it didn’t even trigger. But the point is, you’ve grown up with a privilege that Felix never had. My mother was no more a mother to Felix than she was to me. And look what happened there. At least Felix didn’t abandon two babies before he turned twenty.”
“No, instead he turned into a thief.”
“I don’t believe that,” Maria said softly. “The sheriff let him go.”
“I know.” I was well aware of everything that had happened. Summer had filled me in on her conversation with my brother.
“I can’t offer either of you a family, Dominic. My husband is religious, and he would never understand. He thinks Felix is my younger brother.”
“I have a family,” I assured her. “I don’t need one that includes you. That wasn’t why I sought you out.”
She smiled stiffly. “I know you do. But Felix doesn’t.”
I stood stiffly. “I think it’s probably time for me to leave.”
Maria nodded, staring up at me as I moved toward the door. I didn’t say goodbye, but I’d heard her words. They churned over and over in my brain on my drive home, chipping away at the armor I’d built up ever since Felix’s betrayal. And by the time I got home, I knew what I had to do.
35
SUMMER
“Nervous?” Dom’s eyes twinkled with amusement even via the video linkup.
Nerves tossed around my gut like a cement mixer, but I shook my head, putting on a brave face. “Nope. I’m fine. Ready to crush it.”
“Hell yeah, you are.” He squinted at the screen. “Where are you?”
I panned my phone around to show him the completely empty locker room. “Just hanging out here with all my friends.” I tried to laugh, but the nerves were getting to me. This was the worst part of being the only female rider at most competitions. The guys would all be in their locker room right now, talking about their rides, and cracking jokes, and giving each other a hard time. There was a sense of camaraderie between them that I was always on the outside of.
Locker rooms were lonely when you were all alone, with too much time to think. It gave the nerves the chance to get the better of you, and that was the last thing I needed tonight. Tonight was my first chance to show everybody I was back. That I still had it. I didn’t have to get a big score to continue on with the qualifying rounds, but I wanted to. I wanted to start the season with a ride that knocked the judges’ socks off.
I wanted my name at the top of the leaderboard. And I wanted it to still be there in the last round when the top competitors would get to move on to the WBRA tour. Chills danced over my skin at the very thought.
I wanted it so bad I could almost taste it. It was delicious after ignoring it for so long.
I squinted at the screen again. “Where are you? You going to be watching on YouTube? Or I can give Hallie my phone, and you can watch it live.”
Dom’s mouth lifted at the corners, showing just a hint of the dimple in his cheek. He had the cameras so close to his face that he completely filled the screen. “I’ll be watching—”
The video disappeared, reverting back to my home screen. “Dammit.” I tapped at the button again, trying to reconnect the call.
A phone rang behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see who had come into the women’s locker room and dropped my phone right out of my hand. It cracked on the cement floor.
Dom folded his arms across his chest and leaned on the cinderblock wall. “Lucky I’m here because I think you just smashed your phone. Ain’t nobody going to be watching anything on that screen.”
Smashed phone screen forgotten, I launched myself at him with a yell of delight echoing in the quiet room. I threw myself into his arms, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms behind his neck. “You’re here! You said you couldn’t come!”
He held me up, his hands beneath my ass, making a seat for me. “And you believed me? You really think I’m going to miss my girl’s first rodeo back?”
My heart thumped erratically, and tears pricked the backs of my eyes, but I wasn’t going to let them spill over. I ran my fingers through the short lengths of his hair, staring into the eyes I’d missed so much. I hadn’t dared to tell him how much I wanted him here. How much I needed him in my corner tonight. I’d played it down during every phone call, knowing his family needed him more than I did. “I didn’t want to ask. I was trying not to be selfish.”
He brushed a kiss over my lips. “That’s not a word I’d use to describe you, Summer Hunt. Smart. Beautiful. Brilliant. Competitive. The love of my life… They’re the words I’d use.”
A lump clogged my throat, and I tugged him closer. “I love you so much. Thank you.”
“Right back at ya. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
His lips found mine as my feet slowly slid back to the floor, and I pulled his face down, kissing him until all my nerves disappeared. All that was left was the confidence that even if everything went to shit tonight, I had him. Always. Even though we were living apart right now, we were still together.
When we finally stepped apart, though, I frowned. “How’s your dad?”
“He wasn’t allowed to fly here for your rodeo, much to his disgust, but he’s getting there. At least he’s out of the hospital now, so it’s not as much work for Mom, going back and forth.”
“That’s great. How long are you here for? Please tell me you aren’t jumping straight back on a flight?” I cringed. “I’m getting legless drunk after this, either in a victory celebration, or as a way of commiserating my epic failure. Would be nice to have my boyfriend to buy me drinks at the bar once I get cut off.”
He chuckled, brushing a stray hair back off my face. “I’d be honored to be the one who gets to hold your hair back while you puke. I’m here for the night—”
I brushed my lips over his again. “Only one night? Maybe I won’t get drunk after all. There’s other things I’d rather do with you if I only get you for twenty-four hours.”
He kissed me back, but a smile kept curving his lips, making it hard to kiss him properly. Eventually, I gave up and pulled back. “What?”
“You cut me off. What I was going to say was, I’m here for the night. And every night.”
My heart stopped. “What?”
“I’m back. For good.”
“How, though? Your dad…”
“Is doing well. And I’ll definitely be flying home for visits while he’s recuperating, or he’ll drive my mother insane. But this is my home now. I don’t want to be apart from you,
Summer.”
There was no stopping the tears this time. Happiness burst through me like fireworks, and I wrapped my arms around him again.
He pressed his lips to my forehead and hugged me back.
But niggling doubt and worry crept in. “What about all the work that needs to be done at the ranch, though?” I sucked in a deep breath, already in disbelief at what I knew I was going to say. God dammit. I wanted to be selfish and keep him, but I just couldn’t. “I can wait,” I promised him. “I can wait for you, as long as you need. I’ll do my thing here, and you’ll do yours there, and we’ll see each other when we can. Maybe when your dad is stronger.”
He shut me up by putting his finger to my lips. “I love you for saying that. I know you’d wait. But I already waited years for you. I don’t want to wait anymore. Dad will get back on his feet slowly. And Theo and Spencer still want their jobs, at least for now. They just don’t want to run the place. But I found someone who does.”
“You hired a manager? How did your dad feel about that? You’ve only ever had family work there.”
He brushed a stray tear off my cheek. “Family still is the only ones working there. I hired Felix.”
My eyes widened. “No way?”
He nodded. “He was back in Wyoming, staying with his grandmother while he tried to work out what to do. I ran into someone who kind of gave me the idea that Felix needs family even more than I do. I think that’s why he stayed working for Frank, you know, even though he knew the man was dodgy. He was just looking for any sort of bond.”
I picked up Dom’s hand and squeezed it. “So you offered him a job?”
Dom grinned. “Yeah. But I also offered him my cabin. So this thing between you and me?” He gestured back and forth between us. “It better work out, or I’ll be the one who’s homeless.”
Happiness like I’d never known wrapped itself around my heart. I lifted up on my toes and kissed the man I loved once more. “We work, Dom. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”