“Sorry,” I whisper breathlessly.
He inhales through his nose, his tongue darts out to wet his lips, and he glances at my mouth before locking eyes with mine.
“Colt?”
He releases my shoulders and clears his throat. “You best get cleaned up before your mama sees the mess you made.”
Why does it feel like he’s no longer talking about Belle’s birth?
I give him a tight smile and nod. “Yeah, I guess so.”
I head out of the stable and step into the cold rain beating down on my clothing, washing me clean. For a long time, I just stand there, letting the water sluice my sins away, wishing it would take what’s left of my ruined heart too.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Colt
I roll over in bed and stare at the clock. I’ve been awake for hours just thinking about her, and it’s likely gonna kill me in the pasture today. I shower and dress, hoping I can get in and out of the main house and avoid seeing Lemon at all. I could do without breakfast, lunch too if needed, but I cannot live without my morning coffee and it’s a well-known fact that Mama Winchester makes the best coffee in three counties.
I slide on my boots, then I place my hat on my head and close the door behind me as I leave. Daisy-Mae runs the bed-and-breakfast and she’s delivering a fresh set of towels to the single female guest in cabin three. She has a real look about her—pinup style with tattoos, perfect makeup, and the kind of vibrant, ruby–red hair that you see in cartoons.
I tip my hat at them both. “Howdy, ma’am. Daisy-Mae.”
“Morning, Colton.” Daisy-Mae gives me a wave and turns back to her guest. “Can I get you anything else, Carla?”
“Yeah, who’s the cowboy?” the redhead whispers loud enough to be heard at the main house.
“Oh, that’s Colton Hayes. He’s one of our ranch hands,” Daisy says conversationally. “But … he don’t date.”
“Figures. I’m always chasing the boys who are never available.”
“Girl, tell me about it. My husband was so unavailable, he had his secretary break up with me before they ran off to Dallas together.”
“Oh God. I’m so sorry.”
“It is what it is. Nothin’ for it now, I suppose.”
“Wait, that’s the infamous Colton?” Carla asks. “No wonder Lemon was sneaking out of his room yesterday at first light.”
“Lemon Winchester Lemon? Are you sure she was sneaking out of his cabin?”
I chuckle as I continue on to my truck and climb in. Carla’s a California girl who’s been eyeing off Cash since she got here, and I’m sure she don’t mean no harm. She’s definitely a looker, and maybe if I were a different man I might even use this opportunity to throw another woman in Lemon’s face. But I’m not a different man, and there’s never been anyone for me but my childhood sweetheart. Shame it ain’t the same for her.
I start the engine and peel out of the drive, taking the main road and then the service path where I pull up in front of the house. The sun is shining and it’s a glorious day. I try to focus on these things as I climb out of my truck and take the stairs two at a time. I don’t bother knocking because this place is more my home than that cabin I rent, but I do wipe my feet because Mama Winchester ain’t real fond of dirty boots on her clean floors.
I head to the kitchen, and I’m surprised to find everyone awake and already seated. “Mornin’,” I say, taking off my hat and hanging it on the hat rack just inside the kitchen.
“You’re late.” Mama points a spatula at me, and I walk over and kiss her cheek even though I’m not late at all. Breakfast is at six. I don’t mention this to Mama, though, because I’m not a crazy person.
Mama hands me a plate and I accept it gratefully and stare at the occupants of the table. A full house. All of the Winchester children are sitting at the table scoffing down pancakes from their plates, all except Lemon. She’s just scowling at me.
“Colt, honey. Why don’t you sit by Lemonade?”
“I’d love to,” I reply, but inside I don’t feel as cocky as I’m making out. I’m supposed to be mending fences with West today, so why then do I feel like Mama Winchester is trying to force the same between me and her daughter?
Lemon scowls but quits leaning on her elbow pushing the food around on her plate and sits up straight, discarding her fork for her coffee cup. She wraps both hands around the ceramic and presses her mouth to the lip. A hundred thousand memories come back to me of kissing that mouth, listening to her sing quietly to me in the dark under a cover of stars as I blanketed her body with my own and kissed every inch of flesh she had to offer.
I shake my head and snap out of it as I sit beside her. I can’t be losing my mind around her like that. When I glance up from my plate, everyone is staring at me. Everyone except Lemon. She looks like she’s trying her best to ignore that I even exist. I guess it’s really not that hard for her and she’s well practiced at that, because she ignored my existence for the last twelve years.
“What?” I say to Cash, whose smile is smug.
“Nothin’.”
“Then quit starin’ at me.”
“Only if you quit starin’ at Lemon.”
“Shut up, Cash,” Lemon and I say at once. I glance briefly at her and then lean across the table in front of her to grab the pepper.
She snatches up her plate and stands. All eyes turn toward hers and her cheeks pink up as she looks at her mama. “Excuse me.”
“You’ve barely touched your plate.”
“I’m not hungry.”
Cash frowns as he stares at me. “Is it just me, or does Lemonade lose her appetite every time you walk into a room?”
It’s not just him, but I don’t say that because he’s being a goddamn asshole. Everyone is pushing and pulling us like weeds, and it only drives Lemon further away. That’s always been the one thing that’s driven her away, and it seems to be the one thing that draws me closer. I guess that’s where we went wrong. I tried to hold onto a woman who didn’t want to be held and she ran so far in the other direction, she got engaged to another man. Though, come to think of it, I haven’t seen a ring on her finger since she got back.
Cash kicks me under the table and I scowl. “I don’t know what the hell you’re playing at, Cash, but if you don’t stop kickin’ my shin with your boots, you and me are gonna have a conversation outside.”
“Y’all sit and eat your breakfast. If you wanna fight, you do it on your own property and your own damn time,” Mama Winchester says.
“Apologies, ma’am.”
“Sorry,” Cash says glancing at Mama. “I don’t mean nothing by it, ma’am. Just givin’ Colt a good ribbin’ because that’s what friends do.”
“Mm-hmm, friend’s also kick one another’s ass if they don’t shut their damn mouths.”
Lemon scrapes her plate clean and sets it in the sink. “Well, as fun as this was, I’ll see y’all later.”
“Where are you off to? Goin’ to town to get your nails done?” Wade says.
Lemon frowns. “No. I was going to town to do some banking, but I can totally give you a play by play of my day, if you’d like?”
“Bankin’? What the hell do you need to do that for?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Wade, probably because I’m trying to keep my gallery afloat.”
“Gallery?” West says.
“Yeah, you know if you guys bothered to read an email or text at some point, you might know that I sent you all an invite to my grand opening. Three years ago.”
“Hey, I showed up,” Wyatt protests.
“You did, and you were the only one.”
West growls. “Some of us couldn’t leave because we had work to do here.”
Lemon sets her hands on her hips. Fuck. West is in for it now. “Chasin’ cattle around the pasture and mending fences? Like you would have any idea what running an actual business is.”
“Alright all of y’all, that’s enough,” Mama says.
�
��A real business?” West’s chuckle is dark and more warning than humorous. “Who the hell do you think has been running this ranch for the last five years? Or did you forget we actually live, work, and breathe this land, unlike those who leave?”
“I lived and breathed this land as a kid just as much as you ever did, so don’t you dare get up on your high horse, West Winchester.”
“Oh, darlin’, I never got off it. I never had time, ’Cause I never left. Which is more than I can say for you.”
“You wanna put me to work?” Fiery tendrils spring free of her loose braid, framing her face as she leans closer to her brother. God must have known Lemon Winchester needed a warning label, it’s why he gave her all that fucking stunning red hair. And it’s always been my weakness. Even now, I want to sink my fingers in those curls and pull her to me, devouring her hot little mouth just to shut her up. “Fine. Put me through my paces and see what I can do when tested, you go right ahead and name the place and the day.”
“You wouldn’t last a second out there.”
“Try me.”
“Not that you ever stuck around anywhere long enough to know what you’re made of,” West bites out.
As much as I’m enjoying seeing Lemon all fired up again, I’m also hating every second of this because I can feel just how deep West’s thoughtless words cut her to the core.
“That’s enough, West,” I say.
West turns his blue gaze on me, so much like his sisters. It’s bittersweet looking at my closest friend, because every day I see those eyes staring back at me, it reminds me of what I lost.
“You’re taking her side now?” He shakes his head. “Alright then. You wanna prove yourself, Lemon? Well, since you and Colt are so damn close these days, why don’t you join him on fence maintenance?”
“Wait,” I say. “What did I do?”
West ignores me and addresses Lemon while he wipes his face on his napkin and rests it on the plate. “There’s a few fence posts that need mending before we can let the cattle back in to feed in that pasture. After that, we need to rope a couple steers who got mixed up with the neighbor’s herd, and then I need you to—”
“Fine. Whatever.”
“You might wanna head upstairs and change out of them fancy clothes, princess,” Wade says.
“Shut the hell up, Wade,” she says and heads upstairs anyway.
“Well, that went well. Why don’t you be a little more of an ass, West?” Wyatt shakes his head and throws his napkin on his empty plate.
“Screw you.”
“Now, you see here, West,” Mama Winchester says handing him his packed lunch. “I just got that girl back, and I’ll be damned if I let you chase her away from her home.”
“Mama—”
“I ain’t done talkin’, boy, and I know your daddy taught you better than to raise your voice to a woman, especially your mama.”
“Sorry, ma’am.”
“You go easy on her today.”
“Pfft. I ain’t going easy on her.”
Mama turns to me as I finish with my plate. She takes it from the table and places it in the sink. “I expect you have some unresolved issues with my daughter.”
“I’m not gonna make her life hell for leaving me, if that’s what you mean?”
Mama Winchester sighs and hands me my own packed lunch. I find it a little strange that she makes us all lunch and sends us off like we’re school children and not grown men who can fend for themselves. But you don’t argue with Mama Winchester, and you definitely don’t turn down her meals. You’d be an idiot if you did.
“You look out for her today.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I take the bag from her hand and place my hat on my head before turning to leave. “Thank you for the meal, and for lunch.”
She waves the gesture away and turns to Wyatt as I walk outside and head for the stables.
It takes eight minutes for me to have Knievel out of the stall and saddled up. That horse doesn’t do anything he doesn’t want to. From the second I saw him in the breaking pen at eighteen, he had murder in his eyes—my daddy called him fuckin’ evil so the name kind of stuck—but wild or not, I knew that horse belonged to me. Everyone else gave up. Not me. I sat for hours with him as a young colt alongside Lemon, and by the end of that summer, Knievel had joined up and that made him all mine.
I lead him outside and climb into the saddle, resting my hands on the horn as I wait with the others. A few moments later, Lemon comes into view, striding from the house in a pair of tight jeans, boots, a straw hat, and a plaid shirt that looks like it fit her as a teen but can no longer accommodate her great fucking tits.
“Holy shit,” Cash says under his breath.
I let out a long, slow sigh and adjust myself in my saddle. I knew I shoulda worn my other jeans. These ones are feeling just a little bit too restrictive.
“Maybe I should work with Lemon today,” Wyatt says. “We don’t want Colt suffering from blue balls.”
“No,” West orders. “If she wants to be part of this family and this ranch, she’s gotta be able to work with any one of us.”
“Oh, I get it.” Wade laughs and slaps his thigh, as if this is all some kind of joke. “You’re making her work with Colt because you think she won’t be able to hack it.”
“Jesus. You really are slow as molasses flowing uphill,” Wyatt says.
“Fuck you.”
Wyatt climbs on the ATV. “It’s clear which Winchester children got all the brains. And which didn’t.”
“Yeah, well, at least one of us got the balls.”
“Enough!” West chimes in.
“You remember how to saddle a horse, darlin’?” Cash calls out.
“I think I got it.” Not two seconds later, Lemon strides out of the barn with Teraway in tow and hoists herself up.
She looks so at home in the saddle. But I suddenly wish I’d bowed out of this one and let Wyatt take my place because Lemon in that shirt and those jeans, with her tits all trussed up and bouncing with every step her horse takes, forces all the blood to drain from my body into my dick.
“Good luck,” Cash says, leaning over to clap me on the shoulder as his horse passes mine.
I roll my eyes and glare at West. “You want us to begin in the east pasture?”
“Yeah. That fence is down near the watering hole. Sheriff Adams called late last night, found some kids parked in their trucks. He reckons they ran right through it.”
I raise my brows, surprised he didn’t mention any of this at breakfast. Then again, he probably didn’t want to pile any more stress onto Mama Winchester’s plate. “You gonna press charges?”
“Nah. I told him to let them go with a warning,” West replies. “We were kids once too, doin’ stupid shit that kids do. Besides, half of our hometown has some real fond memories of that swimming hole. Wouldn’t be fair to take that away from the generations to come.”
I glance at Lemon, her eyes lock with mine and I know she’s remembering the summers we spent there, letting the water wash away the fever heat as we kissed and touched like we may never get the chance again.
“Are you two gonna work, or are you just gonna sit there all day making googly eyes at one another?” West asks, but he’s clearly not waiting on a reply because he nudges Blinkin’ Impressive forward and the horse breaks into a trot.
“Asshole,” Lemon mutters.
“Think you can keep up?” I ask, but she doesn’t bother replying either. She just digs her heels into the sides of her horse and takes off as Wyatt and Wade rev the engines of their ATVs.
I kick Knievel and we head out after Lemon. She’s flying down the dirt road and into the pasture and I give Knievel a little nudge, urging him to break into a canter. She’s riding Teraway though, and there’s nothing that horse loves more than to run. Knievel here, he practically comes to a screeching halt that might’ve thrown me from the saddle if I wasn’t already hanging on.
“What was that you were sayin’ about c
atchin’ up?”
“I forgot that I know better than to bet against Lemon Winchester.”
“Yeah, well. It looks like you’re the only one.”
We slow the horses to a much more manageable pace for everyone, and even though it hurts to glance over at her and see the autumn breeze stirring her wild, red hair under that hat, there’s something so right about it too.
“Don’t mind West. He’s been in a mood since before your daddy had his heart attack. Everyone knew it was coming, that one day William Winchester would be too old to ride and he’d hand the reins to West, but I don’t think anyone was quite ready for it to be so soon. Between you and me, I think your brother’s terrified of letting your folks down.”
“He’s not alone in that.”
“Lettin’ them down? How could you possibly be a disappointment to your parents, Lemon?”
“Well, let’s see. I did run off in the middle of the night without a damn word to anyone. There’s my engagement to a man they’d never met—a man who didn’t ask my daddy for my hand. There was not coming home when Daddy had his first heart attack, and then coming home now and feeling like no one wants me here.”
“That ain’t true.”
She laughs, but there’s no spark to it. “Isn’t it? You didn’t exactly roll out the welcome mat.”
“Even with your daddy passin’, you were the last person I ever expected to see pulling into that drive,” I admit. “You caught me off guard, is all.”
She arches a brow. “And every second we’ve shared a room since?”
“It’s gonna take a little getting used to.”
A slow smile plays on her lips. “Well, would you look at us, finally agreeing on something.”
“We used to agree on everything.”
“We were different people back then.”
“I guess we were.” I let out a bone-weary sigh and decide it’s time to change the subject. “The fence is just up over this rise.”
“I remember.” She flicks the reins and Teraway races off, disappearing from sight.
A beat later, we climb off our horses and get to fixing the fence posts. The sun beats down on us as we work. After more than an hour of manual labor, I take off my hat and wipe my brow. Down the embankment, sunlight shimmers on the surface of the water, taunting us with the promise of a cool dip.
Sweet and Wild (Winchester Wild Book 1) Page 7