Her Cowboy Billionaire Best Friend_A Whittaker Brothers Novel

by Liz Isaacson

  But Graham wasn’t using the lodge for its intended purposes. Though the rooms didn’t have an ounce of dust in them, they also had a general feel of disuse. Emptiness. Abandonment.

  All the sheets were clean, and every room had beds that were made up. She wondered if Graham had seen to that or hired someone. If she was a betting woman, Laney had her money on the housekeeper.

  Bailey moaned, and Laney decided that was a great time to wake her and go get something to eat. She couldn’t stay asleep much longer anyway, or she wouldn’t go to bed that night.

  “Bay.” Laney swept her fingers across her daughter’s forehead, smiling when her blue eyes opened sleepily. “Are you hungry? Want to go eat something?”

  “Yeah.” Bailey yawned and Laney helped her up.

  “Let’s brush your hair out first.” Laney turned to find Bailey’s backpack and found all three dogs curled up together at the foot of the bed. She chuckled, pulled out Bailey’s brush, and ran it through her daughter’s hair. “All right. Let’s go see what this cowboy bachelor eats.”

  They held hands on the way down, and Laney counted eighteen steps from the second floor to the first. Everything about the lodge seemed super-sized, including the man who sat at the dining room table with a strawberry blonde at least a decade younger than him. Annie Pruitt. She cleaned a lot of places around town, as her family owned the only residential maid service in Coral Canyon.

  “Hey.” Laney passed in the lane between the dining room and the kitchen, glancing to her right where they ate, and then left, where a huge kitchen waited. She’d seriously never seen so many cupboards before. An island ran down the middle of it, and her heart squeezed with jealousy when she saw the double ovens.

  “Beef roast.” Graham touched her lower back, which made Laney jump. She hadn’t even heard him get up. “Right there.” He guided her over to the food as if she couldn’t see the big, black pot of meat, the tray of foil-wrapped baked potatoes, and the bowl of salad the size of Rhode Island.

  How many people was he expecting?

  “Hey, Bailey,” he said. “Want me to help you?” He glanced at Laney, but not nearly long enough to make true eye contact, and picked up a plate. The little girl tucked her hair shyly and looked at Laney.

  “Go on.”

  Bailey was used to having Laney or her grandmother help her, but she fell easily into bossing Graham around, and demanding more croutons, and saying she didn’t want ranch on her potato.

  Laney kept her smile to herself as she made her loaded baked potato and took more beef roast than she probably should’ve. But she loved a good roast, and it had been far too long since she’d had one. She took a seat across from Graham, which was probably a bad move, since she’d have to look at that gorgeous face during dinner.

  “Mm,” she moaned as she took her first bite, with the au jus practically dripping down her chin. “Where did you get this?”

  “It’s one of yours,” Annie said, flashing a smile in Laney’s direction.

  Pride flashed through Laney, but she shrugged one shoulder as if it didn’t matter if the beef had come from her biggest rival. “Oh, well, it’s delicious.” She took another bite and watched Graham as he practically inhaled the food on his plate. He had very little salad and quite a lot of meat, and Laney supposed he needed to protein to keep all those muscles in such good shape.

  Embarrassed by the course of her thoughts, she ducked her head and filled her mouth with more food. Graham wasn’t particularly loquacious, but Laney wasn’t either. So the scraping of silverware against china became the only sounds.

  “Where are you living now?” Laney finally asked Annie.

  “I’m on Blackberry.” She took a long drink of her water. “I live with my sister.” She flicked her eyes toward Graham. “She thinks I’m the luckiest woman on the planet.”

  “Why’s that?” Laney watched Graham, and though he didn’t look up or react, he was definitely listening to the conversation.

  Annie cocked her head toward Graham. “You know.”

  Oh, Laney knew, but she wanted Annie to say it out loud. “She thinks Graham is…handsome?”

  That brought his head up and his eyes to hers for the first time that evening. He did have exquisite eyes, and Laney had lost herself to them many times.

  Annie twittered and nodded before collecting her plate and standing up. She moved into the kitchen, and still Laney and Graham stared at one another. Annie said something, but Laney didn’t know what.

  Graham seemed to have his faculties about him, because he nodded and said, “Sure, thanks, Annie,” without removing his eyes from Laney’s.

  Heat started to fill her from top to bottom, making her skin sear.

  “Mom?”

  She finally tore her gaze from Graham’s, feeling a bit light-headed and definitely like she’d just confessed her teenage crush on him, and the one she’d been entertaining since his return to Coral Canyon.

  “Hmm? Yeah?”

  “I was wondering if I could feed the dogs and play with them.” Bailey looked at her, and Laney examined her daughter’s plate.

  “You didn’t eat a whole lot.”

  “I’m not that hungry.”

  “The dogs can eat it,” Graham said.

  Laney automatically didn’t want Bailey to feed the table scraps to the dogs, though they fed their blue heelers leftovers all the time. There was just something about how he said things like they were law and all would follow his directions, no matter what.

  In the end, she nodded to Bailey, who took her plate into the kitchen and set it near the dog bowls on the far side of the room. Annie worked in the kitchen, putting away the leftover food, and they seemed far away from the bubble around Laney and Graham.

  “Hey,” he said, drawing her attention back to him. Something about him had softened, and Laney felt her whole body turning into a warm marshmallow. It had been such a long time that a man had made her feel this way, she had no defense and no way to keep herself from swooning over him.

  “What are you going to do tonight?” he asked.

  Her eyebrows went up. “I don’t know.” She rarely had any time to herself, and even when she did, there was work to be done around the house. Dishes. Laundry. Bills. Dogs. Bailey. If she was lucky, she got in twenty minutes of reading while she lay in bed. Most of the time, she fell asleep with the e-reader on her chest and woke sometime in the middle of the night when Barry started snoring.

  “Maybe you’d like to watch a movie.” He cut a glance toward the kitchen, but Annie kept her focus on the chores.

  Surprise pulled through Laney. “I can’t remember the last time I watched a movie.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she wanted to suck them back in. “I mean—”

  “I know exactly what you mean.” His hand moved across the table and touched hers. Almost in the same instant, he pulled it back almost like he’d been shocked.

  Laney certainly had been, physically and mentally. She blinked at him, willing him to explain himself.

  Instead, he picked up his cowboy hat and stuffed it on his head. “We work too much.” He stood, leaving his plate on the table like a servant would come around and clean up after him. In fact, that was exactly what Annie did, swooping in to take the dish and go back into the kitchen.

  Graham had gone through the arched doorway that led into the foyer, but his bootsteps now moved down the hall to the south side of the house, fading until Laney couldn’t hear them anymore.

  What on earth had just happened?

  We work too much. We work too much. We work too much.

  The words reverberated around inside her head long after she’d helped Annie get all the food put away. She sat on a plush couch in a comfortable living room with Annie down on the other end while Bailey played with the dogs on the floor. Annie put something on the TV that was entertaining enough, not that Laney had been able to focus on it.

  Oh, no. All she could think about was Graham, where he’d gone, and when
he might return. Was he working?

  “Does he work all the time?” she asked Annie, who swiveled her head toward Laney.

  “What?”

  “Graham. Does he work all the time?”

  Annie shrugged. “Most of the time, yeah. He won’t let me in that office of his, and whew.” She waved her hand in front of her nose. “I wouldn’t go in there even if he did.”

  Laney had the sudden urge to see Graham’s office. She couldn’t imagine it being anything but straight-laced and orderly, but Annie’s assessment was clearly different.

  A half an hour passed, and Laney was about to suggest bed to Bailey, when Graham appeared. “We could put something on in the theater room,” he said, his voice much softer than any previous Laney had heard him use.

  Annie switched off the TV with an exaggerated yawn. “Oh, I’m tired. I’m going to head to bed.”

  “Bailey needs to get to bed too.” Laney met her daughter’s eyes, already prepared for the fight. “It’s already twenty minutes past your bedtime, and the dogs can sleep with you.” She cocked her head in Graham’s direction without looking at him. “Well, our dogs can. I don’t know about Bear.”

  “If he can get on the bed, he can sleep with you. He’s got bad hips.”

  “How old is he?” Bailey asked.

  “Just turned ten.” Graham sounded like he’d gargled with sandpaper, his voice rough and low.

  “I’ll take her up, if you want,” Annie said, a pure smile on her face. Laney couldn’t help wondering if the woman had gotten some sort of weird idea about her and Graham.

  Bailey got up and put her hand in Annie’s, much to Laney’s surprise.

  Fighting exhaustion and thinking of those eighteen steps, Laney said, “Be sure to brush your teeth, Bay.”

  The little girl gave Laney a kiss and said, “Come on, dogs,” before going with Annie. All three dogs jumped to their feet and followed, making Laney smile in appreciation for the canines.

  “You love dogs,” Graham said.

  Laney let out the sigh she’d been holding in. “I do.” She looked at Graham fully again, hoping they wouldn’t get locked in that strange stare-fest again. “What about you? Have you had Bear for his whole life?”

  “He was my father’s dog.” The lines around his eyes tightened for a breath, and then he relaxed. “We really can go down to the theater room. It’s much more comfortable.”

  Laney had no doubt about that, and it was with more than a little bit of uncertainty that she said, “All right,” and stood to follow him to a set of steps off the dining room that led into basement. Or would it be a dungeon?

  The beast and his lair, she thought with an internal chuckle as she descended the steps behind his broad shoulders.

  Chapter 6

  Graham had no idea what he was doing. He only knew he couldn’t stand to be confined to his bedroom or his office. And in a house as large as the lodge, he shouldn’t have to. It was a rare bit of luck—or maybe God had truly answered his prayer—that he’d been able to get Laney alone without making a big deal of it or turning it into something awkward.

  He hadn’t exactly been on top of the dating game lately, and he wasn’t even sure what movies he owned.

  “What do you like?” he asked.

  “I’m sorry?”

  Just the sound of Laney’s voice sent goose bumps across his skin. Blast Bonnie, he thought, not for the first time. But he couldn’t really blame her, and he knew it. Maybe she’d just awakened the dormant feelings he had for Laney, made them come into the light, forced him to recognize them.

  Problem was, he didn’t know what to do about them. Dating in Seattle hadn’t been this hard. He could meet someone for coffee or catch them on the coding floor. But here, going to town was a national event for him. He did it rarely except for church, and no one there had even remotely interested him.

  Probably because someone has already caught your eye, he thought as he picked up the remote control and turned on the projector mounted in the ceiling. “Movies,” he clarified. “What kind of movies do you like? What do you want to watch?”

  “Oh, I don’t care. You choose.”

  He faced her, the beauty in her face stunning him for a moment though he’d seen her hundreds of times. Had she always been this pretty?

  “I’ll probably just fall asleep,” he said with a smile.

  She laughed. “Me too.”

  “So maybe we don’t want to watch a movie.” The blue screen bloomed to life, casting eerie shadows on them in the dark theater room. He pressed another button on the remote and the lights brightened in slow degrees until the bulbs were at about half power.

  Laney tucked her feet underneath her as she snuggled into one of the recliners. She looked up him, an edge in her eye he could only classify as flirtatious. He frowned. That couldn’t be it. maybe she didn’t feel well after eating all that salad. Or something.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah.” He set the remote down and sat in the recliner next to hers. “Yeah.” He ran both hands down his face. “Just tired. It’s been a busy day.”

  “Do you ever take time off?”

  “Not usually,” he said. “I try to work as little as possible on the Sabbath. Sometimes things come up.”

  “I always have ranch work on the Sabbath.”

  “But you go to church every week.”

  Her eyebrows flinched upward for only half a breath. “Yes. It’s important to me that Bailey go. Plus, I like…I like going to church.” She watched him, somehow taking more than he wanted to give her. “Do you like church?”

  “Well enough. It makes my mother happy, and it forces me to slow down.” Graham couldn’t believe he’d revealed so much about himself. What he really wanted to tell her was that running this company was going to kill him.

  He’d wanted to learn everything he could about Springside Energy, so he’d taken control of everything. The general manager, Dwight Rogers, pushed him on everything, and Graham was tired of fighting with the man.

  Tired of looking at data. Tired of working in a stale office that smelled like last week’s pizza. He missed the vibrancy of creating new programs, of experimenting with exciting technology, of the younger crowd who worked on his floor and brought in their strange clothing trends, their thick-framed glasses, and their innovative ideas.

  His job in Seattle had kept him young, and here, he felt old. He felt like his father.

  Laney’s fingers landed on the back of his hand, branding him. A shock sparked between them and turned into slow heat the longer she kept her hand there.

  Slowly, he lifted his eyes to hers. She had to feel the same thing he did. Didn’t she? No way this jolt, this fire between them, could be one-sided.

  “I lost you,” she said. “I asked you how your brothers were doing.”

  “Oh.” He shook his head. “They’re doing fine. Great. You’ll get to see them all in a few days.”

  She looked at him with fondness in her gaze. “Remember when we all piled in that two-seater of your dad’s? Six people for two seat belts.” She chuckled, and Graham’s memories streamed through his mind.

  “I know I kept getting kneed in the back.” He laughed too. “And that Sheriff Barnaby knew we were up to no good, even if he didn’t pull us over.”

  “Great fishing that day, though.” Laney smiled, and it held so much happiness. Happiness from easier times, lazier days, a more charmed life. “I remember you caught a rainbow trout and acted like it was the white whale.”

  Graham tipped his head back and laughed, a full belly laugh that sent endorphins and joy straight through his blood. “The white whale.” He shook his head as he finished chuckling. “I don’t remember you catching anything.”

  “That’s because someone wouldn’t help me bait the hook.” She swatted at his hand, another touch that made him feel drunk with pleasure.

  “And that’s because someone who’s seventeen years old should be able to bait their ow
n hook.” He grinned at her, relieved this flirty conversation was so easy.

  Laney lifted her chin a fraction of an inch. “Fishing never was my thing.”

  “Obviously.” He watched her for a moment, wondering if he could flip his hand over and hold hers. “But ranching is. You were born for that. Remember how you used to tell me that?”

  Turn your hand over, he coached himself. She was obviously holding hers in place against the back of his. And yet, he couldn’t make himself do it.

  “I remember.” Her eyes glittered like emerald stars, and Graham employed all his bravery and slowly turned his hand over, his knuckles bumping against her fingertips. Still, she didn’t pull her hand away.

  It seemed like ages had passed before he lined his fingers up with hers and laced their hands together. He met her eyes and found acceptance there, with an edge of heat that definitely testified that she wanted to hold his hand as much as he wanted to hold hers.

  “All right, then,” he murmured, and she ducked her head to hide a smile curving her lips. He caught it though, and a thrill shot all the way down to his toes.

  “Tell me about what you have planned for Christmas,” she said, and Graham groaned.

  “Can’t we just sit here and hold hands and take a nap?” he asked.

  “It’s almost nine o’clock.” She giggled. “If you’re tired, you should go to bed.”

  He leaned back in the recliner, closed his eyes, and squeezed her hand. “Too early. Just a little nap….” He opened one eye and gave her a wicked grin. “You can tell me more memories from our teen years.”

  “Oh, I can’t do that.”

  He looked at her fully now. “Why not?”

  She looked uncomfortable and lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “I don’t know. I just can’t.”

  “Tell me about your ex, then.”

  “Hard pass.”

  So there was a history there. Of course there was. She’d married someone and had a kid with them.

  “Why did you come to Coral Canyon?” she asked.