Brothers of Miller Ranch Box Set

by Natalie Dean

  At that, his kind expression crumpled and a melancholy look entered his eyes.

  “I have to be honest with you, Dani, that’s a real sad way to look at the world.”

  Now it was her turn to shrug. “It’s just what I’ve observed in my twenty-odd years of life. I know we may have walked different paths, but even you’ve gotta know how terrible people are.”

  “What do you mean, even me.”

  She could tell his tone was shifting toward playful, trying to break the tension that had built up between them.

  “You know exactly what I mean,” Dani countered, feeling herself grin ever so slightly.

  “I assure you, I definitely don’t. Care to elaborate?”

  She gently chucked her empty water glass to him in response, and he caught it, looking much more relaxed now that she wasn’t asking him questions. But it wasn’t her fault that he was turning her understanding of everything on its head. She wasn’t sure if it was some sort of weird trick—like the time Dillon had pretended to ask her out freshman year, or the time Suzi had pretended to be her friend and invited her to sit with her crew at the lunch table—or if he was just as out of his mind as she was.

  Now that she thought of it, didn’t one of the Miller boys have something a bit wrong with his head after he came back from the war? Maybe they all were a little screwy.

  Dani frowned at that. That wasn’t a nice thing to think, especially considering how prolific PTSD was among veterans and other trauma survivors. Even if no one could hear her thoughts, it would do her better to think more respectfully of the man.

  “You okay there?” Benji asked, noticing her frown before she could tuck it away.

  She nodded quickly. “Yeah, but I think my bladder is trying to get back at me for being in bed so long. You can clear out if you like. I’ll handle myself from here.”

  The handsome man hesitated, whether it was because he wanted to say more or if he just didn’t want to leave, she didn’t know.

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah. I’m fine now. Thanks for helping my family. I mean it.”

  “T’wasn’t nothing. Just being neighborly.”

  “Oh, is that all? I wasn’t aware driving directly into a forest fire was considered proper etiquette.”

  He actually blushed at that, and if that wasn’t the most adorable thing she ever saw, she didn’t know what was. Geez, this guy was a charmer. If she didn’t know better and have a chip on her shoulder the size of Mount Everest, she could see herself getting swoony over the insanely rich bachelor.

  Because that definitely wasn’t actually happening. She was much too smart for that.

  “Well, I guess I may have improvised that part, but I’m glad I was there. I overheard the firefighters telling your folks that our fire break did actually help stop the spread of it. You know, along with all of their work.”

  Dani smiled at that, feeling herself ease. “I’m real happy to hear that.”

  “Me too.”

  He continued to head out but stopped by the door and turned around. When he looked at her, his gaze was almost too intense. What was he thinking? She found herself wanting to know.

  She didn’t have to wait long.

  “Actually, considering the most recent events, I’d like to ask you a favor,” he said.

  Here it was. Finally. The reason for all the sweetness and sugar. She leaned back, feeling much more centered now that she knew he wanted something. That computed in her rules of the world.

  “What’s that?” she asked, trying to ignore the disappointment in her gut.

  “You try to be safe out there, okay?”

  Wait… what?

  But before she could ask anything else, he was out the door, and she could hear him going down the stairs.

  That brief moment of confidence where she thought she knew what was going on faded with his footsteps. She thought she had him all figured out, but he wasn’t acting anything like he was supposed to. Did that mean something, or did fires just throw everything out of whack?

  She didn’t know, but she felt her curiosity piquing like it hadn’t in a long time. Sliding out of bed, she headed to her bathroom so she could wash up and deal with the repercussions of her actions. And, potentially, ponder a certain snobby rich guy who wasn’t acting like a snob.

  Not lasciviously, of course. Her cheeks burned at the very thought. It was just that she did a lot of good thinking in the shower. It wasn’t like she’d be imagining him—

  Dani stopped and shook her head. It was clear that she still wasn’t thinking like herself.

  It had to be the sleeping pill.

  …right?

  12

  Danielle

  Dani stood in her kitchen, watching out the window as Benji and his team started to rebuild the barn. He’d spent the past two weeks clearing the charred remains. They had already dug out the ground for the foundation—bigger and deeper than before—and they were progressing at a rapid pace.

  There was a lot of them there today, Miller people, that is. She counted seven in total. Normally she would be out there, either working with the rest of them or doing other tasks around the farm where she wouldn’t be in their way, but she was maybe, sorta, kinda avoiding Benji.

  It’d been two days since the forest fire drama, and she was still pretty embarrassed by her actions. And also confused. And also, far too curious about him for her own good.

  It wasn’t her fault! Although her memories were fuzzy, she could recall how he looked that night, all heroic and kind as he helped her haul those sandbags to the fire.

  He could have told her she was being crazy. He could have told her that she was being ridiculous. But he hadn’t. He had backed her up even when her parents thought she was cuckoo.

  He didn’t have to do that, and she couldn’t figure out why he did, so she settled on watching him until she could puzzle it out.

  He clambered out of one of the heavy pieces of machinery they had driven over from the Miller Ranch and walked over to the water truck. She tried to catch his mouth movement as he talked to what she guessed was his foreman for the day. She was terrible at reading lips though.

  She sipped at her water, sure that he was going to get right back into the equipment, but instead he hopped over to the pretty horse he brought around every so often. With an ease that could only come from years of riding, he swung his long, lanky legs onto the horse and took off at a gentle trot.

  He quickly passed beyond her vision, around toward the front of the house. For a moment she heaved a sigh, telling herself to stop being some creepy McStalker just because someone was acting weird, but then she decided the front garden could do to be watered.

  Different from their vegetable garden, which was a joint project between her and her mother, the front yard was almost all Mrs. Touhey. There were flowers upon flowers upon flowers, all different kinds, all different colors, and punctuated by beautiful morning glory vines crawling up the sunny side of their house. Ma made sure to carefully groom them on trellises around the windows, so all in all, it made quite the pretty sight.

  When she was younger, Dani had outright refused to have anything to do with the flower garden, mistakenly believing it would ruin her tomboy image and that girly things were stupid. Thankfully, she’d learned quite a bit since then.

  She grabbed the hose from the front of the house—Pa had been sure to set up multiple spigots around the house to make sure any greenery would always be within range of water. Apparently, back before Dani was born, her Mom would patiently take bucket after bucket from the well until all of her plants were properly hydrated.

  Dani couldn’t imagine that. The garden sprawled all the way out to their drive, spanning nearly half of their house in length and just as wide.

  After grabbing the hose and starting in the farthest corner, she could still see Benji out of the corner of her eye. He was taking a walk around the entire perimeter of things on his horse, for all the world looking like something
out of a spaghetti western.

  Dani could see it now; he’d be quite the leading man. All crooked smile and charming words. Looking at her in the morning light like—

  She shook her head.

  She was not thinking nice and crush-like things about Benji Miller. How cliché would that be? The high school fat girl and social reject having a crush on the popular boy.

  Except… Benji wasn’t acting like how popular boys were supposed to act. He was acting like a decent human being, and that was throwing her off. Could it be that she was wrong about him?

  She spent an extra-long time making sure the garden was really watered, but eventually it got conspicuous. Besides, it was about lunchtime and she could see all the workers beginning to take a break for lunch, which meant they sat in the shade of the one weeping willow they had on the property and ate the boxed lunches that looked far too delicious and well-made to be actual boxed lunches.

  Well, she was sure there would be nothing quite like a delicious glass of cool lemonade to go with their meal.

  She didn’t question herself as she wound the hose back up and went to the kitchen, pulling out their juicer to grind some lemons. But first, she placed them in the microwave for about ten seconds. Most people didn’t know it but heating up citrus first gets a whole lot more liquid out of it.

  It didn’t take her long to then cut the lemons in half and drain all the juice from them. Then it was just some added sugar and a little tiny splash of grapefruit juice. She didn’t add water, instead choosing to add two entire trays’ worth of ice cubes. They would melt in the warm liquid and cool it down at the same time.

  Stirring it all up, she checked to make sure there was enough water in it. Sometimes the ice didn’t melt nearly as much as she wanted.

  Yeah, still a little too tart. She added a tiny bit more water then tasted it again.

  There. Tangy but sweet. Perfect.

  She knew that it was silly for her to care so much about a silly summer drink, but she couldn’t help it. Ever since that morning, waking up with Benji looking at her after a night of basically putting up with her being almost insane, she couldn’t get him out of her head.

  It was like back when one of the church girls had gotten her a ten-thousand-piece puzzle of a rainbow as a joke. It was meant to be unenjoyable, but she’d gotten obsessed with it, working at it every night until she solved the entire thing.

  Granted, it had taken three weeks, but she had done it, and definitely had a fun time. Not to mention the satisfaction when the whole thing was laid out in front of her, all sparkling and perfect.

  She’d been so proud, in fact, that she’d lacquered it and hung it up in her room, where it still hung framed over her door.

  Grabbing an entire sleeve of plastic cups that they used whenever it was their turn to pitch in at the church’s after-service bagel spread, she hoisted the pitcher with her free hand and headed out.

  She strode across the lawn and right up to the men, trying to act like this was something she would normally do. Considering they all stopped and stared at her in surprise, she guessed that she wasn’t too successful.

  Then again, it could just be that she was directly addressing them. In all the days they had been there, she’d always tried to avoid them at all costs.

  “Oh, hey there, Dani,” Benji said, getting to his feet. His eyes went right to the pitcher in her arms, condensation drizzling down it. “That for us?”

  “Yeah. Thought you guys might be thirsty.”

  “We might be,” he said, looking down at the ground and then up through his lashes. Goodness, that was a killer look if she had ever seen one.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” he said.

  “It’s just lemonade,” she rebuffed automatically, mentally kicking herself as she did. If she wanted to figure this guy out, then she needed to not have all her walls and weapons right out at first bat.

  That was so hard. He was tied to a whole lot of bad memories, even if it was kinda indirectly.

  “Well still, that’s mighty sweet of you.”

  “Actually, it’s a bit sour.”

  It took a lot of willpower not to chuckle at her especially terrible pun, keeping a straight face as he looked her over in surprise.

  “Did you just tell a joke?”

  “Maybe,” she said with a shrug. “So, you guys gonna take this, or you gonna make me stand here and hold it forever…”

  That seemed to jolt the men and they quickly stood, one taking the pitcher from her and another taking the cups to hand out. Soon everyone had a drink in their hand and a chorus of appreciative sounds issued around her.

  She watched Benji perhaps a little too intently as he gulped the drink down. He’d already had her lemonade before, but not fresh, and it was quite satisfying to see his eyes widen in appreciation.

  “Man, that’s good,” he said when his glass was empty.

  Wow, he really had liked it. He had downed the entire thing in one go.

  “You’re welcome,” she said with a grin. “Make sure y’all recycle the cups over in the bin, okay?” And with that she headed off, hands in her pockets.

  “Wait, aren’t you gonna have some?”

  Dani shook her head. “I actually don’t like much but water and the occasional coffee.”

  “But you—”

  She shrugged. “Hey, I’ve got to have some sort of skill to make up for all the spikes in my personality.”

  And with that she walked off. Sure, she wanted to figure this Benji guy out more, but she didn’t want him to know that’s what she was doing.

  Granted, as soon as she was inside, she went back to the kitchen and resumed her watching.

  Goodness, she really was being a creeper.

  She didn’t even want to know how long she stood there, but thankfully she heard her mom coming in before the matriarch could catch her mooning out the kitchen window at the man who was helping her family so much.

  “Oh hey, Ma, what’cha got there?”

  Her mother was carrying several bags. Nothing too heavy, but in Dani’s opinion, her mother had done enough hard work already in her life and shouldn’t have to break a sweat for anything but her flowers.

  “Apparently, that lovely Mrs. Miller organized a charity drive in town since we’re waiting on the insurance money a bit longer than we thought we would have to. She completely surprised Pa and me with it when we went into town for groceries.”

  “Huh, those Millers really don’t quit, do they?” Dani said, shaking her head. “Just please tell me it isn’t more casseroles.”

  They had tried their hardest not to waste a single drop of food given to them after the first fire, even freezing whatever they could, but in the end, their fridge stuffed with casseroles had been too much for them, and they’d had to throw away several dishes. If Dani’s brothers were around, they would have been able to clean it out no problem.

  But if Dani’s brothers were around, then they wouldn’t need all the charity, would they?

  That thought rankled her, and she pushed it out of her mind as her mother responded.

  “No, no casserole. But there’s plenty of toilet paper, soap, and fresh vegetables, and even gift cards. She really went above and beyond.” Mom set the bags on the table and gave Dani an earnest look. “You know, I’m very well aware that we haven’t had the best relationship with them in the past, but I don’t know what we’d be doing without them right now.”

  Tears prickled at the corner of her mom’s eyes and Dani pulled her into a hug.

  “Oh, hey there. It’s okay. They really have done a lot for us.”

  “It’s just… I’m so grateful. And I don’t know what to do about that. It’s like there’s so much bad in our lives right now that sometimes it feels like they’re the one beacon of good. Like I can trust them. I haven’t felt like that about anyone outside of this family for a long time.”

  “I know what you mean, Mom.” Emotions welled up in her stomach. “They really
have made a difference, haven’t they?”

  She nodded, then pulled away, wiping at her eyes. “Do you want to go help your father with the rest of the bags? It’s quite a lot. I think even between the two of you it’ll take a couple trips.”

  Dani was all ready to say yes, but then something stopped her. Looking back out the window, she felt another flood of strange emotions as she saw Benji walking back toward his equipment.

  “Actually, give me like five minutes. I gotta do something first.”

  “Oh?” Mom asked. “And what’s that?”

  “You’ll see,” she said, giving her mom a sly smile. “I think I’m about to do something crazy.”

  Before her mom could ask her anything else, she was out the door and crossing the grounds yet again. She reached Benji right as he was about to start up whatever machine he was using, and she waved to catch his attention before she lost her nerve.

  He took his safety glasses off, and then earplugs, giving her a surprised look. “Uh, what’s up? More lemonade?”

  “No,” Dani answered before taking a deep breath. A very deep breath. Possibly the deepest breath she could have ever taken. “Actually, I wanted to ask you out.”

  It didn’t seem possible, but his big and dreamy eyes went wider.

  “You what?”

  Oh goodness. She hadn’t misread things, had she? Had she suddenly made things weird with a guy who was just trying to help her family?

  But she had to finish what she started. She was stubborn like that.

  “I wanted to know if you wanted to go out with me. Like to dinner. Or a movie. Or something. As a thank-you,” she added on with only the tiniest bit of a wince.

  She had never really been known for her smoothness, but she was really botching things.

  He was still looking at her like she was a three-headed monster from outer space. “You… want to go… out with me?”

  “Yeah.” Geez, she could feel her cheeks burning. “Unless you don’t want to. And don’t feel pressured. I just wanna show you, uh, my gratitude. For, you know, everything that you and your family have done for us.”