by Zoey Marcel
“It’s all right,” Stetson said.
“Does it ever get better?” Ivy asked gravely.
He sighed. “In time it will, if you meet the right person.”
“And what happens if the person that hurt you is the one you were meant to be with?” she asked glumly.
He glanced at her while he drove. “You can’t think like that. It’ll eat you up inside. You didn’t lose your soul mate, Miss Covington. You lost a damned good counterfeit of what you were always meant to have. Someday you’ll meet the one you were meant to be with, and he’ll blow your fucking little mind away.”
Ivy wrinkled her nose. “He?”
Stetson gave her a half smile. “Fine. She. Is that better?”
She smiled. “Much better.”
“I can drive you to the airport in Tucson if you like.”
“That’s okay. Could you just drop me off at the Ivy Hearts Cafe, please?”
“Sure. That’s right over there.” He stopped the truck so she could get out. “Do you know the area?”
Ivy climbed down out of the truck with her suitcase. “No, but someone told me about this place once before, and I always wanted to come here. Thanks again for the ride.”
He nodded. “You bet. Do you have a ride back to California?”
“I have someone I can call, but thanks anyway.”
“You’re welcome. You take care of yourself.”
She smiled weakly. “Thanks. You, too. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
“Same to you, Miss Covington.” Stetson watched her enter the cafe in the dark to be sure she made it in safely, and then he drove home.
* * * *
Ivy Covington sat at a booth alone at the Ivy Hearts Cafe. According to the familiar story her mother had told her on numerous occasions, Ivy’s mother, Piper Covington, had once exchanged letters with a man who was twenty years older than her. They later agreed to meet for the first time in Winchester, Arizona, at this cafe. Apparently they hit it off rather well, and Piper gave him her virginity that night.
Ivy had said, “Ew, Mom! That’s disgusting!” the first time she heard it, but every time after that, she found the story charming and romantic. She knew the tale by heart now, but once in a while she still asked her mother about her passionate night with the handsome virtual stranger she fell in love with.
Piper never saw him again after that night. For some unknown reason, the man quit communicating with her shortly after their night together. She always wondered why but finally wrote it off as mere physical attraction on his part and that he hadn’t fallen for her the way she had him.
Ivy didn’t buy it, though. Who could not love her mom? Maybe there was another reason for the cowboy’s abrupt break off of their communication. Would he have stuck around if Piper had told him he’d gotten her pregnant?
Now here Ivy sat, possibly in the same booth they exchanged their first words face-to-face in.
She noticed a handsome, young man who was probably somewhere in his mid or late twenties walk into the place. He singled her out and approached.
Oh, lord. What am I supposed to tell the poor guy? That I’m a lesbian? Am I? Or did I just fall in love with a woman? What the hell am I?
The guy stood near her now and extended his hand to her. “Orlando Dark.”
She smiled and shook his hand, surprised when he kissed it. “Ivy.”
Nothing. I feel nothing. I must be a lesbian.
“No last name, huh?” he teased.
She pulled her hand away and gave him a stubborn smile. “None that I want to share with a stranger.”
He grinned. “Well, we can fix that. You see, there’s this place down the road called Swifty’s Britches. I think you’d like it real well.”
He made a face and a tiny mew of pain when an older man she assumed was his father came up and grabbed him by the ear. “Get your head out of your pants, Orlando, and leave the poor woman alone.” He let go of Orlando’s ear. “Now off with you.”
Orlando groaned in frustration and sauntered off. “See you around, pretty lady.”
“Like hell you will,” his father retorted.
Ivy smiled. “Thanks, but he wasn’t bothering me.”
The man shook his head with an annoyed expression. “Do yourself a favor. If you ever have kids, just have one or two. And for God’s sake, don’t have four sons.”
“Oh, wow.” Ivy giggled. “Four sons, huh? Your poor wife.”
He gave her a little half grin. “Well, they came out of two different women, but still. A handful, let me tell you.”
The server came over. “What can I get for you, miss?”
“Maybe just a beer.”
“Can I see your ID?”
Ivy froze. “Oh, crap. I don’t have my wallet.”
The man stepped forward and pulled out his wallet. “Just order something else. I’ve got it, Bev.”
The server, Bev, nodded. “What would you like, hon?”
“Oh, I couldn’t let you pay for it,” Ivy said, shifting in the booth.
“It’s not a problem. We all have times when we’re down on our luck or lose our wallet,” he said, plunking a few bills down on the table. “Or when one of our sons gets it into his head to play discus with his dad’s wallet and hurls it into a corral of cow manure.”
Ivy grinned. “I’ll have a strawberry milkshake, please.”
“You got it, hon.” Bev went to get it.
Ivy turned to the man, who looked to be close to sixty. “Did this happen, recently, Mr. Dark?”
He shook his head with an amused half grin. “No, thank God. My sons are idiots, but they’re not that stupid.”
“You can sit down if you like.”
“That’s okay. I wouldn’t want people to get the wrong impression. Old creep yakking some poor kid’s ear off. Besides, I got to go keep an eye on my youngest. He gets extra horny whenever there’s a full moon.” He rolled his eyes. “Lord knows why. Here’s some extra cash in case you need a place to stay the night.”
“That’s generous, but—”
“I insist. I don’t like the idea of a nice girl being stranded alone in a small town of horny, young men, half of which seem to always turn out to be my sons, hitting on all the poor women. God, I wish they’d just settle down already and make me some grandbabies.”
“Well, hopefully they will.” Ivy extended her hand to him. “Thank you for everything, Mr. Dark.”
“Not a problem. Good luck to you.” He started to walk away.
“Dark,” she muttered under her breath with a sudden thought. Ivy whirled around in her booth. “What’s your first name?”
He turned to face her. “It’s Harrison. Harrison Dark.”
Her heart pounded in her throat. “Oh.”
“Why do you ask?”
She shrugged. “I just wanted to get to know the man beneath the Stetson. I’m Ivy Covington.”
A sense of familiarity passed through his brown eyes. “Covington. It’s been a while since I’ve heard that name.” He seemed as though he reflected on something for a moment before it passed. He tipped his hat to her and walked out. “Good luck to you, Ivy.”
“Good luck to you, too,” she called after him, and then through a deep exhale, she breathed, “Dad.”
Chapter Fifteen
Jade contemplated her tattoos. The initials I.C. were inked on her right ass cheek. Ivy Covington, perhaps? She had a ring of ivy tattooed around her forearm. Coincidence? Had they been lovers? Ivy said she had a secret crush on her and never told her, but what was that business about when she said, “You’re straight now. I get it.”
Had she been a lesbian previously, or bisexual? Jade presented her theory to Doc, Sawyer, and Kellan.
“Missy, you don’t have to apologize for nothing. I think it’s hot that you had a little fling with a woman.” Sawyer winked at her. “Just as long as you’re straight now, or at least bi.”
“I think it’s disgusting,” Stetson r
emarked as he closed the front door behind him once he came in.
Sawyer rolled his eyes. “Oh, good, Eeyore’s come to cheer us all up.”
Stetson threw an icy look over at Jade. “You ripped that poor girl’s fucking heart out, didn’t you?”
Jade gaped at him. “What are you talking about?”
“I think you know damned well what I’m talking about. She told me all about you. How the two of you were lovers—”
“Hot damn,” Sawyer exclaimed.
“Shut up!” Stetson growled before glaring back at Jade. “About how you chatted online with a man behind her back and then left her for him.”
“Bane,” she breathed in astonishment. “She told you all of that?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Do you have something against commitment, Jade? Did you get cold feet with Bane and then feign amnesia to get out of marrying him? How are you going to get out of this thing with Kellan? Claim to be a lesbian again?”
Her jaw dropped in outrage. “Excuse me?”
“Hey! She likes me,” Kellan insisted. “Don’t you, baby? That’s why she claimed me.”
“I didn’t fake amnesia,” Jade ground out, wanting to hit Stetson in the face. “If you have a problem with me being here, then I can leave.”
“Maybe you should, and stop throwing your pussy around with my brothers,” Stetson retorted.
“No!” Kellan protested. “I like her pussy. We all do. I don’t want her to go. Jade, don’t go.”
Jade jumped up and glowered at the oldest Brooks brother. “How dare you!”
Sawyer rolled his eyes. “Now what in the hell kind of complaint is that, you sour eunuch? If Jade wants to get frisky with us, then what do you care? Hell, you could join in if you like. Anything goes in Swifty’s Britches.”
Stetson threw him a deadly look. “If you ever suggest anything so fucking vile again, I’ll throw your bastard ass out onto the street.”
Sawyer whistled. “Well, all right then, Sergeant Crab Cakes. Whatever you say.”
Doc’s lips parted, and Jade thought he looked sad over what Stetson said for some reason. Why? Would he miss Sawyer? Did he secretly wish Stetson would join in their ménages?
Kellan folded his arms, acting as though he endeavored to look tough to his older brother. “If Jade goes, I go.”
Stetson shot him a reproachful look. “She’s engaged, you idiot, or does the commitment between a man and a woman no longer mean anything to you?”
“Well, yeah, when it’s mine,” Kellan replied. “Jade’s my mate. She bit me.”
“It’s the goddamned hormones talking,” Stetson told him. He glared at Jade again. “Thanks for coming along and fucking with my little brother’s head. Didn’t have enough broken hearts to your name already, did you?”
“That’s it. I’m leaving.” Jade started to walk out.
“Jade, no!” Kellan hurried after her. “Damn it, Stetson! You shithead! Did it ever occur to you that maybe I like this one?”
“You like every woman,” Stetson retorted.
Doc put his hand on Stetson’s back. “You’re tired. You should get some sleep.”
* * * *
Doc walked Stetson to his room and closed the door. Twenty years he’d lived here with only a brief window in time where he’d moved away to Phoenix before moving back in with his closest friends.
Doc hailed from Georgia originally. He never knew his father. His mother had been into drugs and alcohol. When he was fifteen, she said they should take a vacation together. It was a nice trip until they pulled into some random driveway of a ranch just outside of a small Arizona town called Winchester.
“We’ve been friends a long time,” his mother had said while seated in the driver’s seat. “Go knock on the door to get their attention.”
Doc had gotten out of the car, and just before he knocked, he heard a loud screech. He’d turned just in time to see his suitcase on the ground as his mother peeled out of the driveway and sped away. She abandoned him.
Stetson Brooks had answered the door. He’d been seventeen then. Apparently none of the Brooks had ever heard of Doc or his mother. They were complete strangers. His mother lied to him and left him to fend for himself. Had she been cracked out at the time? He didn’t know. Back then he’d resented her for it.
But now years later he was grateful that it gave him the chance to have a real family and get to know the men who became like brothers to him. Well, except for one of them.
Kellan had always looked up to him since he was several years younger, so Doc sometimes thought of him as a younger brother.
Doc and Sawyer were the same age and had a lot in common. He was like a cross between a close friend and a brother.
But Stetson was different. Doc had never viewed him as a brother. They’d been best friends almost since the beginning, and Stetson was the one Brooks who never referred to him as a sibling. At first that had bothered Doc and made him feel like an outsider, but over the years he began to appreciate that distinction.
They were unrelated best friends and that put a little less of a barrier between them than it would have had Stetson actually thought of him as a brother.
He confided in Doc and treated him with respect. Both things he never gave to his actual brothers.
Stetson had been there as a listening ear for Doc when his mother abandoned him, and Doc returned the favor after the tragedy involving Stetson’s parents.
When Stetson’s marriage fell apart, Doc helped him through it, and when Doc’s engagement ended years ago, Stetson let him move back to the Brookses’ ranch.
Doc blamed himself for his failed engagement. He hadn’t asked the woman to marry him out of love. He’d done it hoping to erase the feelings he had for his best friend, but it hadn’t worked. She must have sensed that his heart wasn’t in it, and she ended it. She was happily married now, though, and he wished her well.
Now Doc stood in Stetson’s room, hoping to calm him down after the dispute with Jade.
Stetson took his shirt off, still steaming over the situation.
Doc’s chest constricted, and this time it had nothing to do with his health issues. Stetson was ripped and mesmerizing with his demigod physique and his sensual brown eyes.
Why couldn’t he share like his brothers did? Doc didn’t think of them in the same way that he did Stetson, and he sure as hell wasn’t saying anything to anybody about it. Stetson would probably say something along the lines of what he often used on Sawyer. “You can walk right out that door, and don’t let it hit your ass on the way out.”
Yeah, that was what Doc wanted to hear.
“Stupid slut,” Stetson muttered as he shucked his jeans, standing in only his boxers.
Doc swallowed and made himself look up at Stetson’s eyes. “She seems like a nice young woman to me.”
“That’s what she wants you to think. And then she’ll bone you and run off with your heart and another man in the process.” Stetson tossed his clothes into the hamper. He was much neater than Sawyer and Kellan were. Jade would be proud of him if she really got to know him.
“Maybe you should get to know her,” Doc suggested.
“I don’t want to get to know her.” Stetson set his alarm. “I’ve seen her kind before. I swear, you try to raise your youngest brother right, and then what happens? Some heartless bitch comes along and wants to fuck with him. I’ve never seen Kellan so smitten before. He would fall for some heartbreaker.”
“If she means so much to him, then maybe you were a bit hasty in your decision to send Jade away,” Doc suggested, unable to believe how tight and appetizing the ass being covered by those boxers looked.
Stetson obviously wasn’t listening. “You know whose fault this is, don’t you? The son of a bitch who’s been sharing women with him.”
Doc gulped. Damn, he knew. “Stetson, I—”
“Damn Sawyer,” Stetson growled as he turned down the covers. “I’m going to kill him for corrupting Kellan. It’s fuc
ked up—two brothers sleeping with the same woman. Can you think of anything more disgusting?”
“No, nothing.” Doc tried to conceal his disappointment as he watched Stetson take a drink of water. Even the way the man swallowed enthralled him.
He would be the happiest man alive if Stetson ever agreed to share Jade with him. Of course Stetson and Jade didn’t even like each other, despite the attraction Doc knew they harbored for one another, so there went that little fantasy.
“I should have thrown that pervert out years ago.” Stetson climbed into bed, pulling the covers just over his lower body.
“You did the right thing keeping Sawyer around. He’s a better person for having known you.” Doc toyed with his next words. “I know I am.”
“Thanks. You’re the only one I know who hasn’t lost my respect.”
His heart moved at Stetson’s words. “I don’t intend to. You all right?”
“Yeah, I’m just a little stiff in the shoulder. It’s not a big deal.”
“I’ll rub it for you.” Doc massaged his shoulders, marveling at the smoothness of his skin and the definition in his back. Why did Stetson have to be straight?
He seemed tense and uncertain. “That feels good. Thanks.”
Doc’s cock hardened, and he reminded himself to breathe. “I think Kellan is in love with Jade. You should let her stay.”
“Why? So she can break his heart when she decides to marry Bane after all?”
“You don’t know that she’ll do that.”
“It’s either that or she’ll leave Bane for Kellan, and then Bane will get hurt.”
Doc ran his thumbs down the sides of Stetson’s spine and used his palms and fingers to knead the muscle around his lower back and tailbone to the edge of his boxers. He couldn’t go any lower, but oh how he wanted to.
“Isn’t it better if he resents her for hurting him in the end than for him to hate you for throwing away his chance with the woman he loves?” he asked.
Stetson was quiet for a moment before sighing. “Maybe you’re right. Tell the bitch she can stay.”