Second Chances (10 page)

Grey was floored. Never once had he considered leaving the ranch or his family. Had he been so fucked up that they thought he would walk away from them? He couldn’t live without his sons, without his family or the ranch. “I’d never leave them,” he choked out, the mere thought of it seizing his chest in a vice.

“You haven’t been here for months, Grey. I figured all that was left was the packing.” Mason walked over and tossed the comb into the tack box. He pushed past Grey a
nd headed toward the stack of fresh hay on the far side of the barn.

“I’ve been here every goddamn day!” Grey pushed the statement through his clenched teeth. It was all he could do not to tackle Mason to the ground and beat the shit out of him for even
thinking about such bullshit, but somewhere deep down he knew Mason was right. Mason had always had a way about him that let him see past the bullshit to what was really going on. He hoped like hell he didn’t see what Grey knew to be the truth.

After pulling off a fresh slice
of hay from an open bale, Mason turned around and stopped dead in his tracks. The look on Grey’s face was staggering, all the pain and the guilt.
Guilt over what?
“What the fuck happened, Grey?” Mason dropped the hay to the floor and stomped toward his brother, shoving him up against the stall. Darza let out a startled snort when Grey crashed against the latched door. “What the fuck could you have possibly done that has you so eaten up inside you can’t even stand the sight of your own sons?” He pushed Grey again when he didn’t answer. “Huh? Answer me!!”

“That’s not true!” Grey bit out
and pushed away from the stall. “I love those boys! I’d never hurt them like that!”

“
Then start acting like it, you stupid fuck! We only get one shot at this and I’ll be damn if I’m going to let you screw it up!” Mason hadn’t wanted to say so much, but now that he had opened his mouth, it was like trying to stop a stampede with a traffic whistle. “You don’t think they can’t see what’s going on with you? That they can’t feel it? You’ve got your head so far up your own ass they can’t help but taste the shit you’re spewing all over them every time you open your fucking mouth.”

Grey watched Mason pace in front of him. He’d never seen him so worked up. He flinched when Mason stopped a breath away from him and glared at him, anger seething from every pore. “Answer my question
!” Mason demanded, standing toe to toe with him.

“What question?” With all the shit Mason had thrown at him he honestly couldn’t remember.

“What—the—fuck—have—you—done?” Mason inched closer, waiting for Grey to either take the first swing or answer his question. When Grey didn’t speak Mason grabbed his shirt collar and curled his fists against Grey’s chest. “What are you so guilty of that has you scared shitless?”

Before Grey could say anything Matt slammed
open the barn door and threw off his Stetson. Mason released Grey and pushed him away. Without a word, Matt stormed down the aisle between the stalls and punched Grey in the face with such force Grey’s feet left the ground before he landed flat on his back two stalls down.

“If I ever see that look on either of my son’s faces again
, I’ll kill you myself. I don’t care if you are my fucking brother.” Matt stood over Grey and pulled him to his feet.

Cupping
his jaw, Grey staggered out of Matt’s grip. “Goddammit, I think you broke my jaw.” He shifted his lower jaw and pain exploded through his eye sockets so sharply that nearly had him puking up his toes.

Matt stepped toward Grey, his fist pulled back to punch him again, but
Grey held out his hand. “You’re right.” Grey groaned through the pain. “I deserved that, but it’s the last free one you’ll get. Understand?” Grey met Matt toe to toe and ducked when Matt threw another punch at his head.

Grey tackled Matt around the waist, should
ering him to the ground. Matt kicked and tried to roll away, but Grey was on top of him before he could move, socking him in the eye with a powerful right hook of his own. As he pulled back to land another, Grey felt himself being lifted off Matt and drug backward toward the door.

“That’s enough,” Mason growled when Grey threw him off.

“Enough, my ass.” He lunged at Matt again, who was just scraping himself off the dirt floor. Turning on his heel Matt twisted out of Grey’s path and swung his elbow back, but instead of hitting Grey, he nailed Mason square in the nose.

Mason stumbled back, clutching his nose. When he looked down and saw the blood running through his fingers he’d had just about all he was going to take. He thought about walking o
ver and grabbing the water hose, cooling them off like their mom used to do, but where was the fun in that?

“What the hell.
” Mason tossed his own Stetson onto the nearby bale of hay and jumped into the fray.

Grey didn’t know how long they spent tearing the hell out of the barn or beating the shit out of each other, but when it was over he found himself slouched on the ground, leaning
against a bale of hay between his brothers.

Each of
them sporting various cuts and bruises, and fighting for their next breath, no one spoke for several long minutes. Finally, Matt pushed himself up to a sitting position and used the hem of his tee shirt to wipe the blood from his left eye. “Fuck, I think that one’s gonna need stitches.”

Mason leaned forward and took a look at the cut above Matt’s eyebrow. “Na, you’re just a big pussy.”

Grey chuckled and cupped the side of his face, trying to wiggle his lower jaw. “I’ll probably get by with not having my jaw wired shut, but it hurts like a son of bitch. We’re getting too old for this shit.”

“Speak for
yourself,” Mason huffed, flexing his right hand. His knuckles were raw and bleeding and he thought he might have sprained his wrist, but he’d never admit it to them.

“Too bad they won’t wire you’re jaw
shut permanently,” Matt barked at Grey as he ripped his shirt over his head and held it to his brow to stem the flow of blood. “Maybe it would keep you from spewing off at the mouth so much.”

Grey huffed and the small grin he managed turned into a wince when it pulled at the cut on his lower lip.
“Probably a good idea. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before.” Anything had to be easier than dealing with this.

“I could hit you again and see if we can’t make that happen.” Matt only half meant it as a joke.

When Gray didn’t respond, they sat quietly to wait him out. Silence surrounded them for so long Grey had almost forgotten what had caused the fight to begin with. He got so lost in his thoughts that he found himself blurting out the first thing he could remember about what he’d been stewing over.

“I can’t remember her eyes.
” Grey’s tortured sigh betrayed his weak attempt to hold back the words.

Matt lowered the blood stained shirt from his face and turned to lo
ok at Grey, the cut on his brow stinging like hell from the sweat that ran from his forehead. “Is that what all this is about? You can’t remember Sarah’s eyes?” He choked out an incredulous huff and shook his head. “Fuck, Grey. We have a million pictures in that house to remind us of what she looked like. I have a dozen of em’ in my room.”

Mason stared blankly at the
stall door across from him, his arms resting over his bent knees. “At least you don’t have to watch our wedding DVD to remember what her laugh sounded like.”

For a moment the pain in Grey’s
jaw subsided as a small wave of shock poured over his face. “You lost her laugh?” He couldn’t imagine he’d ever forget the way her laugh would wrap around him like a warm blanket in the winter. He had also never imagined that his brothers had lost pieces of her, too.

Mason nodded. “About three years ago, I guess.”

“Well, at least now I know where the DVD went.” Matt stretched out his legs and propped his elbows up on the bale of hay behind him, wincing when a stab of pain shot through his shoulder. He jerked his arm back and cupped the tender muscle. “Gaw-dammit, when did you two learn to how ta’ wrestle like that?”

Mason huffed and wiped his bloody hand on his jeans, then dared to touch the swollen lump on his face that used to be his nose. “About the same time as you learned how to punch my lights out.
Fuck
that hurts!”

“Now who’s bein’ a pussy.” Matt tossed Mason’s words back at him.

“Speaking of pussy.” Mason let his words trail off, not sure if he should have brought the subject of his time with Claira up around Grey. They would have to talk about her sooner or later. Mason shrugged. Grey wasn’t running so maybe he could test the waters.

Before he said any more, Grey’s head fell back against the
bale of hay. “I knew I smelled her when I walked in here.”

Mason and Matt shared a shocked glance.
“You fucker!” Matt growled. “You told me to go slow! How the hell is eating her out on the first date going slow?”

Mason couldn’t help but
laugh, a triumphant smirk on his face. “I didn’t
dine
, exactly. I just…tasted. And let me tell you. I have never tasted anything sweeter.” The look on Mason’s face made Matt want to finish the job he’d done on his nose.

With his head still lolled
back as he stared at the ceiling, Grey let out an agonizing groan. “You two are killing me here.”

“
Sorry, bro.” Matt said when Mason shot him a warning glance. Matt ignored him and gave Grey a nudge with his shoulder. “You feel it too, don’t you?”

Grey lifted his head and released an irritated sigh.
Feel it? Hell, he was eat, sleep and drinking it. Didn’t mean it was right, or that he deserved anything Claira had to offer. “Yeah, I feel it.”

“Is that what’s got you all
torn up? That you’re attracted to Claira?” Mason pushed. He knew Matt thought Grey had grieved Sarah, but now he wasn’t so sure. If Grey still hadn’t let her go, then their plans with Claira may be in trouble no matter how right they felt about her. They would push him, but in the end if Grey wasn’t ready, they couldn’t, or wouldn’t move on without him.

When Grey didn’t respond right away, Matt decided to give him one more push. “It’s natural to forget some things, Grey. We all have things we can’t remember about her, but she’d want us to be happy, man.”

Grey sat up with a groan and pushed himself to his feet. “I’m hearing you. I really am.” He raked his hand through his hair as he bent and scooped up his hat. After slapping it on his leg a few times to knock off the dust he flipped it onto his head. “I just don’t think I’m ready for this.”

Matt shook his head and sprang to his feet, tossing his bloody shirt to the waste basket down the r
ow. “You know you feel what we do. You aren’t alone in this, Grey. I’m not sayin’ it’ll be easy. She’s got somethin’ she’s hidin’, somethin’ she’s scared of. Hell, we all have issues, but I’m tellin’ ya she’s worth it, bro. You gotta give her, and yourself, a chance.”

Mason was in awe of his twin at that moment. He couldn’
t have said it better himself, except for one thing. He wrapped his arms around his knees and looked up at Grey. “Just so you understand, Grey. We’re serious about her. We want you to want her, too, but not just to get your rocks off.”

Grey
had no problem with that. He’d been shooting pool with a rope for so long after Sarah’s death that when the urge did finally hit him, he’d made a damn fool out of himself with some cheeky waitress in Billings. Since then he’d stuck to impregnating the shower when the urge got to be unbearable, which wasn’t often…until now. The feelings he had for this woman he barely knew had him running in circles. He didn’t like it and he sure as hell didn’t know what he was going to do about it. Lately he’d been nursing a case of blue balls from sun up to sun down, but he’d never use a woman like Claira just to drain the swamp. Grey pushed the thought away and offered a hand down to Mason. Mason took it and Grey pulled him to his feet, giving him a stern nod. “Duly noted, but I’m not making any promises.”

Mason retrieved his hat and slapped his brothers on the back as they headed for the door. “So, what kind of mess are we facing with the twins?”

Matt shot Grey a mean look and Grey hung his head in apology. “For Con, nothing two puppies won’t fix, I hope, but I think I have a shit load of work cut out for me with Car.”

“
Two puppies?” Mason let out a low whistle as he flipped the barn light off then closed and latched the barn door. “That bad, huh?”

Grey shrugged.
“Considering I wasn’t aware we were even keeping one, I think it’s a damn good compromise.”

“You
’ll give em’ the whole damn litter if that’s what it takes.” Matt swore as he cleared the front steps in two strides.

Grey shook his head and grabbed for the front door handle. “I think you’re right, but let’s not tell them that unless it’
s our last option.”

Sweat be
aded on his skin and trickled down the deep, muscled V in his back. His blood rushed exhilaratingly through his veins, his lungs pumping air through his flared nostrils as he tightened his grip on her hips and pounded her pussy. Over and over, his rhythm increased with each pulse of blood that ran through his cock. Her strangled cries of ecstasy drove him to a place hidden deep within himself. A place where he could smell her light, exotic scent and feel the silkiness of her long, rich mocha hair wrapped around his hand. He could hear her sultry voice and feel her breath on his skin as her angelic cries danced around him like a summer breeze.