Cowboy Love on Hold [Love: The Cowboy Way 1] (3 page)

Wade reached for her, grabbing her hand and pulling her forward to sit on the arm of his chair. “Just reminiscing about old times. I forgot what a pain in the ass we were as kids.”

Kimber kissed him on the forehead. “I’ve got news for you—you still are a pain in the ass.” She yelped and scooted out of his reach as Wade tried to pull her down on his lap. “Dinner’s ready. Brandon, if you want to wash up, there’s a bathroom in the den.”

He watched her leave and turned to Wade, worried that his friend would catch him staring at her, only to find that Wade seemed as bewitched by her as he was. Wade got up and followed Kimber, checking that Brandon remembered where the den was as he left the room.

But Brandon couldn’t move, not straight away, not with envy eating at his insides and their love for each other taunting him. The only thing that hurt as much as seeing how much Kimber adored Wade was seeing how much Wade worshipped her.

Chapter 3

The guys cleared their plates, practically wolfing down the food. If they were trying to make her feel good, it worked. Brandon had lost none of the appetite she remembered. In fact, the only man she knew who ate more than he did was Wade.

“That was great. Thanks so much.”

Brandon’s easy smile told her he was a little more relaxed than when they’d all sat down to eat. He’d walked into the dining room with such a haunted expression on his face that she wondered if he was about to have a breakdown over the loss of his mother. But the moment had passed quickly, and now, no sign of his earlier torment showed, on the outside at least. His hawkish eyes were no less intense, but now they glittered with warmth beneath the dark, straight slashes of his eyebrows. Brandon had been blessed with a shock of unruly blond hair, moss green eyes, and long, dark eyelashes—a mesmerizing combination that could have been a little too pretty if not for the hard set of his jaw and his strong, wide face.

“Kimber? Honey?” She dragged her gaze away from Brandon, mortified that Wade had caught her staring at the man for the second time that day. “I asked if you want me to get you a glass of wine. I’m gonna grab a couple more beers from the cooler.”

She got to her feet, scraping the chair across the wooden floor in her haste. A couple of minutes in the kitchen to gather her thoughts was just what she needed right now. “I’ll get it. You guys want to head into the den?”

Kimber loitered in the kitchen until she heard them leave the dining room, wiping the granite countertops over and over again and refusing to think about why she might be hiding in her own home. When the dishwasher was loaded and there wasn’t a scrap of dirt anywhere left to distract her, she grabbed a six-pack of beer and went to find Brandon and Wade. Crossing the hall, she heard the blare of the TV and realized, with a sigh of relief, that Wade had found a game to watch. She hated football, so it wouldn’t distract her at all, but at least she wouldn’t have to worry about Wade noticing her acting all weird around Brandon. But when she joined them in the den, Wade was the one acting weird.

Pointing the remote at the TV, he turned off the sound. “I just told old Brandon here to ask you why you won’t marry me.”

“Whoa…give a girl a chance to catch her breath, won’t ya?” Kimber tried to laugh the question off, but both Wade and Brandon were staring at her, waiting for an answer. “I don’t know. I just never felt we needed it, I guess.”

Wade turned back to the TV, his jaw rigid. “She always says that.”

Kimber handed him a beer, ruffling his silky brown hair in a gesture of apology. The issue of whether they should get married was an old and contentious one, and she had no intention of revisiting it in front of their guest. “What about you Brandon. Are you married? Any kids?”

“No, he never got married either,” Wade said, answering for his friend. Kimber stared at him in amazement, but his gaze stayed glued to the screen. She looked over at Brandon to find him raising his shoulders in a confused shrug and shaking his head as if telling her not to push Wade on it.

“You seen the Wildcats game yet?” Wade said to Brandon, changing the subject and raising the volume on the TV again.

Lucky for Brandon, he was football mad, too, but she guessed Wade knew that already. Watching the game was a great idea, although Kimber thought her head might split if the TV or the guys got any louder. Sitting beside Wade on the sofa was a mistake she never usually made, given as he was to alternate between shouting at the screen and raising his voice to make himself heard over it, but with Brandon in the only other chair, she had no choice. When Wade erupted in celebration of an impossible field goal, Kimber actually had to put her fingers in her ears. Laughing at the delight on his face, she turned to find Brandon staring at her again, his smile slipping away to be replaced by an intensity she remembered all too well. When Brandon wanted something, it showed, and right at that very second, he wanted her.

Kimber turned away, flustered and scared by her reaction, her face burning as she tried to ignore the insistent pulse in her groin. She bit her lip and dug her nails into her palm, desperate to focus her attention on something—anything—else but the way her body called out to Brandon. She sat frozen, afraid to move for fear of intensifying her arousal, and afraid to look up and find he might still be watching her. When another loud shout in protest at a decision told her his attention was back on the screen, she got up, grabbed the empty cans, and headed out into the kitchen for more beer.

Two hours later, after a few more beers and a rerun of a Lobos game that she knew for sure Wade had watched the first time, Kimber cast a glance at Brandon to find him asleep in the chair. Gratified to know she wasn’t the only one exhausted by Wade’s enthusiasm for everything, Kimber nudged Wade and gestured silently towards their friend.

“He’ll have to spend the night. I’m too wasted to drive him home,” Wade said in a stage whisper loud enough to wake the dead. Or at least, wake Brandon.

“It’s okay, I can walk.” Brandon mumbled the words as he lurched to his feet, only to sit back down again with a silly smile on his face. “I think.”

Kimber groaned under her breath. He couldn’t stay. He just couldn’t. The thought of him naked and laying in wait somewhere in her house would kill her, but she couldn’t say that out loud, so she said, “You can’t walk home in that condition. I’ll make you up a bed down here.”

Brandon shook his head then winced and held on to it. “Can’t stay…got family coming down first thing in the morning.”

Kimber looked at Wade and shrugged. “I didn’t drink anything. I can drive him home.”

“You sure? I’ll come with you. I don’t want you driving on your own at this time of night.”

“I’ll jog back to the ranch. You two don’t need to put yourselves out.”

She laughed, raising her hands to silence them. “Oh, my God. Shut up, the pair of you. It’s barely eight o’clock, and we had to go out tonight anyway, Brandon. I think Wade forgot that he told our neighbor that he’d go check on that calf for him?”

“Shit!” Wade scrambled to his feet and grabbed his hat. “You’re right. It’s just as well you’re here to keep my ass in check.”

Kimber grabbed the keys off him. “Okay, here’s the plan. I’ll drop you at the barn, take Brandon home, and swing round and pick you up on the way back.”

Brandon tried again to insist he could run the five miles home, but Wade raised his hand, a rueful smile on his face. “Spare yourself the grief. Once Kimber sets her mind on doing something, there’s no talking her out of it. Just do what I do—keep your mouth shut and enjoy the ride.”

Ten minutes later, Kimber pulled up in front of the Reed Ranch house and kept the engine running as she waited for Brandon to get out, but he didn’t.

“Thanks for dinner. It was great seeing you two again.”

“No problem. I’m happy to do it for you. I’m sure you probably haven’t been taking care of yourself at the moment with so much going on.”

Brandon placed a hand on her shoulder, and Kimber could feel the warmth of it through the thin cotton of her blouse. “Don’t worry, I can take care of myself. The army, my mother, and my wife trained me well.”

“Wife? But Wade said—”

“Yeah, he did, didn’t he? He just assumed I never got married.” Brandon dropped her gaze and looked out of the window.

“Why isn’t she here helping you out? Your wife, I mean.”

“Because she’s helping out her new husband I guess.”

“So, you’re divorced?”

He nodded but still didn’t turn around to face her. “I guess she got sick of waiting for me to love her the way she needed to be loved.”

“She left you?”

Kimber heard Brandon’s snort of derision. “Yeah, in an ass backwards sort of way. She hooked up with this guy from my squad, and started seeing him behind my back.”

“Oh God, Brandon! I’m so sorry.”

“Not as sorry as he was.” He fell silent and Kimber didn’t like the dangerous undercurrent she’d heard in his voice. The hand resting on his thigh clenched into a fist for a second then relaxed, and when he turned to face her, she could see the emotional storm had passed

“I almost got myself court-martialed for kicking his ass all over the squad room, but the really stupid part is that deep down, I knew the only thing hurt was my pride. When I heard she was seeing someone else, the fact it was a member of my team bugged me more than her betrayal. That’s when I knew it was over.”

Questions she had no business asking sprang to mind, but Brandon’s next words made her forget all about them. “So what about you? What’s the real deal on why you haven’t married Wade yet?”

It was her turn to look away, but she felt the weight of his stare and knew she had to come up with something. The truth seemed as good an answer as any. “I don’t know. I love him, I really do, but there just always seems to be something holding me back.” Kimber smiled and brushed her hair behind her ear, conscious of the way Brandon leaned closer to listen to her. “I…I can’t really explain it.”

“Sometimes it makes sense to listen to your gut.”

Kimber turned to Brandon, determined to make sure he wasn’t reading anything into her answer. “I adore Wade, and I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like without him.”

“So are you still teaching?”

“I haven’t done that in a very long time. When Wade took over the ranch, he needed all the help he could get.”

“And how do you feel about that—I mean, giving up something you wanted to do since you were fifteen years old?”

His words caught her off guard. Brandon knew her so well, maybe even better than Wade, but he had no right to question her decisions. “I told you, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for Wade.”

“He’s a very lucky man.”

Kimber smiled and thought of Wade, out in the dark somewhere right now, helping out a neighbor. “I’m the lucky one.”

Brandon seemed to weigh her words, his gaze roaming over her face, landing finally on her mouth. His eyelids narrowed, and she couldn’t see what he was looking at in the dark interior of the truck, but she could feel his stare. She tried to hold still, afraid to move a muscle unless she betrayed how desperately she wanted him to close the gap between them and kiss her. When she could hold her breath no longer, she parted her lips and sucked in a ragged gasp of air. Brandon groaned and slid closer, his gaze fixed on her mouth.

“N…no,” Kimber whispered, barely able to force the word out.

Brandon blinked and backed away from her, as if her voice had broken some kind of spell, and jumped from the pickup without saying another word. He slammed the door and took a few steps away before he turned and waved goodbye.

Kimber put her foot on the gas and tore away from the property, unsure just what she was running from but feeling as if she should. She turned the radio on full blast, filling the vehicle with sound and singing along tunelessly to songs she didn’t recognize. By the time she got to Wade, he was waiting at the end of the dirt track leading to the barn.