THE CORBIN BROTHERS: The Complete 5-Books Series

by Lexie Ray

  “I said, it’s because you don’t have a mom, isn’t it?” he demanded, towering over her.

  “What is?” she asked, looking up at him, defiant even though all of us knew she didn’t have so much as a single chance at beating him in a fair fight, and Joe didn’t ever fight fair.

  “That you’re a nasty little flat-chested dyke,” he said. “Because you hang around boys too much and you want to be like us. I bet you’re even working on growing yourself a dick, doing exercises every night.”

  This made a bunch of us witnessing this debacle raise our eyebrows. Unless I’d missed a very formative lesson during science class, I was pretty sure you couldn’t just will a dick into existence if you wanted one badly enough. Nor was I convinced Paisley wanted one.

  “I do too have a mom,” she said. “She just doesn’t live here, is all.”

  “I bet it’s because she wanted a little girl and you’re just a terrible little dyke,” Joe taunted.

  I don’t know what made me spring into action. All in all, I had a pretty good grasp on what was right and what was wrong. That didn’t mean that I was obsessed with helping the downtrodden or enforcing rules when I saw them being broken. I was much more focused on keeping my head down and avoiding trouble.

  Looking back on it, I think it was the fact that our class bully had brought Paisley’s mother into it. If he had simply stayed above the belt — so to speak — on terrorizing Paisley, I might not have ever stepped in. I would’ve turned away, refocused my attention on my friends and whatever inanities we were talking about, and my relationship with Paisley, to this day, probably would’ve been a lot different.

  Instead, having recently lost my own parents, I got inextricably involved.

  “Why don’t you leave her alone?” I suggested to Joe, making all chatter in the immediate area cease.

  The bully might have been wider than me, but we shared the same height. I was tall like all the Corbins, and my growth spurt had already found me. Joe looked at me like he was sizing me up, wondering just what I was willing to sacrifice to back up my words.

  “What do you care, Corbin?” he demanded, belligerent. “Don’t tell me this little bitch is your girlfriend.”

  I opened my mouth to respond, but then I surprised myself by cold cocking him right in the face. That hadn’t been what I’d meant to do in coming to Paisley’s aid. I was just tired of seeing her lose out, tired of Joe picking on her, unable to stomach the idea that anyone would use anyone else’s parents to get to someone.

  “I really think you should leave her alone,” I said, holding my throbbing fist just as gingerly as Joe was holding his nose, which was gusting blood. Kids around us tittered and hollered, some of them running into the building to find a teacher. I was going to get into trouble, but something about this felt right to me.

  “You love her,” Joe taunted, even through the blood. He didn’t know when to roll over and say uncle. “Too bad for you — she only likes girls. That’s why her mother left, and that’s why you’ll leave her, too.”

  And with that, unable to understand why I was doing it and even less capable of accepting the reality that my own parents had left me and the rest of my brothers forever, I started raining punches on Joe. I was so furious that he was unable to defend himself, the initial sucker punch to the nose more than enough to debilitate him greatly.

  Teachers dragged me away after what seemed like an eternity, but one last image stayed burned on my retinas — Paisley, her skinned knee, and her wide, hazel eyes following me.

  She never stopped following me after that day — well, after I served my time for the crime in a week’s suspension. That was a confusing time, too, Chance meeting with a couple of people in suits and ties in spite of the Texas heat, a conversation downstairs rising to shouts that floated up to me in my upstairs bedroom, ice packs on my split knuckles, statements like “grieving period” and “suffered a great loss” and “selfishly keeping him from finding closure and peace” bouncing around in my head. I knew that I’d caused Chance a lot of trouble, especially since he was only eighteen and the courts were stalking him like circling sharks regarding us younger Corbins’ welfare.

  But once I was back at school, I had a reputation as something cross between a hero and a danger to myself and everyone around me. Joe — and his broken nose — gave me wide berth, as did a number of people. The moment she caught sight of me in the hallway, though, Paisley more or less attached herself to my leg and did her very best to stay there for the remainder of our academic careers.

  “I didn’t get a chance to thank you,” she said, dirty and scuffed up even though it was the beginning of the school day.

  “For what?” I asked, genuinely confused at this tiny creature. If she kept hanging on to me like this, people really were going to think she was my girlfriend or whatever, that everything Joe had said was true. I didn’t want her as my girlfriend. I had only wanted Joe to leave her alone.

  “You know for what,” she said, pushing at my shoulder playfully. “Anyway, whatever you need, you let me know.”

  I had to laugh at that. “What are you going to ever be able to do for me?”

  “I’ll get you out of a scrape someday,” she said, nodding more to herself than to me. “I promise.”

  Paisley blossomed through high school, trying on varieties of identities before settling on pretty in pink, but I could never shake that image of her as a dirty little girl with skinned knees and wild hair. It made me wonder if she’d chosen her princess persona because it was as far away from tomboy as she could get. Sometimes, I wished I were attracted to her, but it just wasn’t possible for me, especially with the way she hung around me all the time. She tried to be one of the boys, but it just wasn’t easy to accept someone who dressed in miniskirts, flaunting the school’s semi-conservative dress code.

  “What are you doing this weekend, Avery?” she’d ask, leaning at such an angle against my locker that I was sure her ass was simply going to drop out from underneath that tiny skirt.

  “Same thing I do every weekend,” I grumbled at her as my friends ogled her. “Work the ranch.”

  “That’s too bad,” she said. “Homecoming’s this weekend.”

  “Obviously.” The school had been having events all this week leading up to it. You’d have to be deaf, blind, and just plain dumb to have missed it.

  “So you should take me to the dance,” she said, coy. I could’ve throttled her for the guffaws and elbows to the ribcage that my buddies were giving me.

  “I don’t think so,” I replied coolly. “I probably won’t even go to the dance.”

  But I did, and she was there, and it was impossible to shake her the entire night.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” Paisley said, still naked and splayed out in front of me. Christ. It was so hard to accept her like this right now without seeing the girl who’d needed my help all those years ago.

  “I’m thinking I really need to get going,” I said, shaken.

  “Well, I know you have to be hungover. You wouldn’t stop hitting the whiskey I brought.”

  “I’m hungover, sure.”

  “I know a great cure,” she said, and then my eyes nearly bulged out of my head as she touched herself right there in front of me as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “Give me ten minutes and I’ll get rid of that headache for you.”

  “I … really don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said hesitantly. “You said it yourself. I’m late as it is.”

  “What’s the problem, Avery?” she asked, showing a little impatience as she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. “Tell me you didn’t have a good time with me last night.”

  I fumbled around in my head for evidence of that. “Paisley, I don’t even really remember last night. I was drinking to forget, and you inserted yourself right in the middle of all that.”

  “Then let’s make some new memories,” she said, reaching for me. I backed away, shaking my head.


  “What happened last night probably shouldn’t have happened,” I said slowly. It was a shame, and it made me feel a little bad — those words were all it took to deflate Paisley’s ego and make her reach for a wrinkled sheet to cover her nakedness.

  “That’s ridiculous,” she said. “You were singing a different tune last night.”

  “Last night I was drunk out of my mind. You knew that. You took me home.”

  “I thought we were both into it,” she said. “You, especially.”

  “You’re a … beautiful young woman,” I began, and her raucous laughter made me stop. “What? What the hell’s so funny about that?”

  “You’re such an idiot,” she said. “We’re the same age, you and me. You can’t pull that shit on me. We fucked, I’d like to fuck you again, and maybe we can have something beyond that. We’re both adults.”

  But I’d already pressed my palms to my ears, trying to ward off that filthy language. Why did she have to be naked right now? Why couldn’t I stop seeing her as that wide-eyed tomboy? Why did I have to run into her last night of all nights, a night of supreme weakness, and give in to my other head, the one that always got me into trouble?

  “We’d be good together,” Paisley said. “I’ve always known it, and I think you do, too.”

  “We grew up together. That’s all,” I said. “I’m sorry that you’re reading so much more into it, but you’ve always kind of done that.”

  “You don’t understand what I’m trying to tell you,” she said. “I’m saying we’d be good together. Corbin and Summers? We’d be unstoppable.”

  “Just because we had a little drunken chemistry last night doesn’t mean that we —”

  “You’re not listening to me.” She leaned forward, and it was hard to keep my eyes trained on hers instead of trailing down to follow the smooth curve of her bare back. “I can help you.”

  And there was that little girl again, the one with the skinned knee she wore like a badge of honor in scruffy skirts and shorts until it faded into a scar. It had to be long gone by now, concealed by time and other wounds. I hadn’t thought to check last night, and I couldn’t see now. She had promised that she’d repay me someday for fending off a bully, and she’d returned to me a woman to settle that debt.

  “I don’t need help, Paisley,” I said.

  “You haven’t even heard what kind of help I’m offering,” she said, raising her eyebrows at me. “This is help you’re going to want. I just know it.”

  What would it even be? Did she think I was a drunk? In need of psychological support? A makeover for my trailer? What in the world did Paisley Summers think she had to offer me? A manicure?

  “I have no idea what you think I need from you,” I said. “And it’s not a girlfriend, so don’t even go there.”

  Sure, I was jealous from time to time of the closeness Hunter and Hadley shared, but I didn’t think I had enough energy to put into an actual relationship. It was better to love them and leave them — or leave the relationship end of commitments up to my hand. We were pretty committed.

  Paisley narrowed her eyes at me. “I know why you were drinking so hard last night.”

  I frowned at her. “Why do you think I was?”

  “I didn’t say think. I said know.”

  “Okay, give it a guess.”

  “The bank’s trying to take the Corbin Ranch.”

  I tried to swallow, but my mouth was too dry. “How … how do you know that? I didn’t say anything about it to anyone, did I?”

  “Avery, every single person at that bar knew why you were drinking so hard. You didn’t have to say anything. It’s a small town. Even people who weren’t in the bar last night know.”

  She had one thing right. Gossip in this place was a real bitch.

  “That’s nobody’s business but us Corbins,” I informed her. “Stay out of it, and if you overhear anyone in town dishing about it, you can tell them I said to stay the fuck out of it.”

  “Pretty defensive,” Paisley said. “That tells me your family’s in pretty deep.”

  “Just stop.”

  “Why? Why would you want me to stop talking about it if I have a solution?”

  “Solution?” I scoffed. “What the hell do you think you’re going to do to solve this?”

  “Only money will solve this,” Paisley said. “And that’s what I’m offering.”

  I forgot to breathe for a moment, my mind whirling. Was she really serious? It didn’t help that she was still naked — albeit holding a sheet in front of her — as she proposed this.

  “It’s a lot of money, Paisley. I don’t think you can offer me something like that.”

  “Bullshit I can’t,” she said, jutting her chin out at me, making me blink away yet another image of her as a defiant little girl. “I know it’s a lot of money — I don’t know how much, exactly — but guess what? I have a lot of money.”

  “Your father has a lot of money,” I corrected her.

  “It’s the same thing.”

  “I don’t think any of my brothers will go for you loaning the ranch the money,” I said. “If you say you know what’s going on, then you’ll know the bank is trying to take the ranch because we can’t repay the loan right now. What makes you think we’ll be good for it?”

  Paisley smiled. “I didn’t say anything about loaning you the money.”

  “Then what are you even talking about?” I didn’t know if it was my poor, hungover head that was this fuzzy, or if Paisley was playing coy on purpose. It was probably a little of both. I had no idea what was going on.

  “I’m telling you I’d give you the money …”

  “No. No way. The loan idea was bad enough. Not one of us — not even me — would accept the money with no intention of paying your father back. That’s just not happening, Paisley. It’s unrealistic. What would even be in it for your father?”

  “You mean, what would be in it for me,” she corrected.

  “What would be in it for anyone giving away tens of thousands of dollars for no good reason?” I asked, throwing my hands up in the air.

  “I’d tell you if you just let me finish.”

  “By all means.” At this point, I was genuinely curious as to what insane thing was going to pop out of Paisley’s mouth next. It was almost as good as television.

  “What I’m proposing is a merger, of sorts, on a couple different levels,” she said. “I recognize that your family’s ranch has fallen on hard times, but I’ve always respected that you Corbins have kept doing things the traditional way. That’s how the Summers Ranch is being run, too, and there are too many big players in the game now. Little ranches — and even medium-sized ones like ours — are getting edged out by all the wrong people. Merging our ranches will give your family’s ranch a shot at surviving.”

  “But what will it give the Summers Ranch?”

  She still had that strange little smile on her face. “More land. More cattle. More resources. And a husband for me.”

  I was certain I’d misheard that last part. “Pardon?”

  “The merger, Avery. It all makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? What better way to consolidate our strengths and eliminate our weaknesses than by getting married and merging the ranches?”

  Whatever was making so much sense to Paisley was creating a dull roar in my ears.

  “So what do you think?”

  I shook my head slowly, trying to rid myself of the roaring noise.

  “Oh, don’t be a baby, Avery. People get married for all the wrong reasons all the time. This reason is right. You and I have a good thing here. And this would make us one of the biggest ranches in the state — even with the huge operations.”

  “We’re not going to get married.” This had to be some kind of a bad dream that I had yet to wake up from. Please, God. “This is a ridiculous idea.”

  Paisley’s smile only faded a little bit. “I’ll give you some time to think about it,” she said. “I know this is all kind of s
udden. But the thing is, you’re going to have to move fast. The bank isn’t going to dally around about taking your family’s ranch. If you wait too long, even marrying me isn’t going to save this place.”

  She let the sheet drop once more, and my eyes were treated to the sight that was the woman Paisley had become.

  “It’s not as if marrying me would be pulling teeth, Avery,” she said, running her hands over her breasts, not taking her eyes from mine, enjoying the effect her little show was having on me. She rose gracefully from her sitting position and crossed the distance between us in two lithe strides. “I think you’d like being married to me.” She pressed her front to mine, my cock jumping helplessly at the contact, and kissed me long and hard. She’d just woken up, but her mouth tasted fresh, as if she’d chewed mint or somehow managed to brush her teeth while I’d been passed out.

  Then, as suddenly as she’d kissed me, she backed away again and pulled her clothes on as if we were a married couple already, not taking care to cover herself up whatsoever. I remembered that she’d neglected to wear panties underneath that denim skirt last night, wondered if it was comfortable.

  “Let me know, Avery, but make it sooner than later,” she said, giving me a last searing stare before leaving me dumbfounded and alone in my trailer.

  Her truck roared to life just outside, gravel skittering beneath the tires as she drove away.

  How in the world was I going to wake up from this dream — and was it actually a nightmare?

  Chapter 3

  There was one good thing I had to say about the ranch. When I was really invested in the work, it numbed my mind to all other things.

  I grabbed the clipboard of cattle log papers — Chance must’ve put everything back in order when he returned to the ranch yesterday evening — saddled my horse, and took off. He was concerned that there were cattle missing, and I was concerned that Paisley Summers had finally ensnared me in a trap she’d been constructing for years.