Though there was something about Julián, something that whispered to the back of his mind that he couldn’t put his finger on, Brian was all for giving the man a two-month trial. His honesty about his past and his connection to Mick earned him their initial trust, and a shot.
Brian wondered how he’d react to the suggestion of a trial period.
“Tell you what”—Julián nodded as if he’d come to a decision—“how about we have a two-month trial period? That should tell us all if we’re a good fit, or not. If I move on at the end of the two months, at least you’ll have your stock and a whole lot more information than you do now. You’d be on your way.”
Beside him, Chase exhaled.
Looks as if we’re all on the same page
.
“Sounds good,” Chase said. “Maybe you could give those friends of yours—the Martinezes over at Divine Creek Ranch—a call. See if they wouldn’t mind seeing an old friend and a couple of greenhorns.”
“I will. But don’t go calling yourselves greenhorns. No one will believe you.”
Brian figured that was a fine, if backhanded, compliment. He said, “If you need a place to stay, we’ve room in the house. We don’t have a bunkhouse yet—haven’t decided if we’re going to need one, or not.”
“Obliged. I’ve got my stuff in the truck. Why don’t I drop it all in whichever room you want me to have, and then you can show me where you’re at with your planning.”
“Sounds good,” Brian said. He extended his hand. “Welcome aboard, Julián.”
“Thanks.” Julián shook his hand, binding the deal. Then he said, “I’ll just grab my stuff.” Julián turned and headed toward the back of his truck.
“By the way, Julián, I do have one more question,” Chase said. “Do you have a last name?”
Julián had reached into the truck bed. He turned and faced them, and Brian wondered if the man didn’t just gird his loins.
“Yeah. It’s Alvarez.”
“Huh.” Brian knew Alvarez wasn’t an uncommon name, especially in Central Texas. “You wouldn’t happen to be any relation to Peter Alvarez, would you?”
“Actually that’s Peter Alvarez-Kendall,” Chase corrected him. “They all changed their names when he, Tracy, and Jordan got married.” Then he looked at Julián. “They’re our cousins.”
Julián grabbed first one bag, and then the other out of his truck, and turned. Both hands full, he gave them a level look, and Brian wondered at the slight surprise he saw in the man’s eyes.
“You could say we’re related,” Julián said. “Peter’s my younger brother.”
* * * *
Carrie eyed the burly blond man who’d just opened the back of the moving truck. “Should you be lifting that furniture?”
She’d just pulled in herself, and hadn’t even had time to go inside to see if those two cowboys were here or out doing whatever it was they did when they mounted up and rode off. She hadn’t known that Grant and Andrew Jessop were going to be delivering the furniture she’d picked out at the warehouse. It seemed a strange, temporary occupation for a couple of professional firefighters.
Andrew, who’d driven the rig, snickered as Grant Jessop raised one eyebrow. “Not you, too? Is there
anyone
in this entire town who isn’t going to act as if I’m some sort of wounded dove?”
Carrie laughed. “Dove isn’t the noun I would choose for you, pal. Bear is more like it, the way you’ve been growling at anyone who’s tried to treat you with compassion. And since you’re one of the first people I met when I came to Lusty, I’ve taken a personal interest in your well-being. You were a sorry sight, let me tell you, left arm in a sling, walking with a cane in your right hand because your leg was healing from a nasty break. That was only a couple of months ago, I’ll remind you.”
“I’ve tried to tell him that he could be making headway with hot women if he’d only groan just a little bit,” Andrew Jessop said. “But
no
, he has to be all surly and macho and scare all the women off.”
Carrie scoffed. “Well, you didn’t scare
me
off.”
Grant grunted then nodded toward the house. “Yeah, but no offense, you don’t count. We don’t move on other men’s claims, and I reckon those two cowboys there claimed you about two seconds after they set eyes on you.”
Andrew grinned. “They must be afraid of us, though, because today they have backup.”
Carrie didn’t hear anyone come out onto the porch. She turned and grinned at Chase and Brian. Her gaze landed on the man with them. She’d never met him before, but there was something about that smirk, and the way he leaned against one of the porch columns that seemed familiar, somehow.
“Hey there,” she greeted the brothers Benedict. “I just got here. I didn’t know if you’d be here, or out riding.”
“I’d say that was good planning on our part.” Chase looked at his brother and then back at their cousins. “Did someone put in a call for firemen? I don’t see smoke anywhere, do you, Brian?”
Grant snickered. “If you ain’t seeing smoke, maybe we ought to reconsider our no-poaching philosophy.”
“You’re welcome to try, cousin.” Brian’s hands were in his pockets and he rocked back on his heels.
“Well now,” Andrew said.
“Indeed,” Chase agreed.
Carrie wondered why she wasn’t choking on all the testosterone floating through the air.
The stranger on the porch said, “Seems to me if there’s going to be bloodshed, I ought to see the lady to safety.” Then he looked directly at her, tipped his hat, and said, “Ma’am.”
Chase clearly was fighting his grin. “Carrie, this is Julián. Julián, this is our woman, Carrie.”
Carrie just shook her head. She couldn’t say that she’d ever noticed before how men could be like kids fighting over a toy at times.
Or dogs fighting over a bone but eeew, I don’t like that analogy, because apparently, I’m the bone
.
“It’s nice to meet you, Julián.” Then, since she preferred the “boy and toy” analogy, she looked from the cowboys to the firefighters and said, “If you can’t play nice, you’re all going to get a time-out.”
“Well, hell.” Andrew kicked at the dirt. “I
hate
time-out.”
Clearly that had been a dire threat. The other three would-be combatants sighed heavily and looked totally dejected.
Carrie chuckled and shook her head as she headed into the house.
What the hell, I can tease with the best of them.
“Please don’t make your poor, injured first-responder cousin lift the heavy stuff.”
“I’m not so injured anymore,” Grant called out to her.
“So then you’ve got medical clearance to get back to work?” she heard Brian ask.
“Of course not. Every doctor in the whole damn town is either my father or my brother. They’re as coddling as the rest of you.”
“We weren’t coddling you,” Chase said. “We were really gonna pound you for hanging around our woman.”
“I know, damn it. Would have been the most fun I’d had since I came home.”
Carrie thought that just maybe thinking of the men as “boys” wasn’t that far off from the truth, after all.
“You’ve only just come to Lusty yourself, so it can’t be in the genes only, then.”
Carrie turned at Julián’s words.
“What can’t?”
He looked a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry, that was rude.”
Carrie shook her head. “No, I understand. It took me a bit to get used to the idea of the ménage relationship.” She shrugged. “The important thing you need to know about Lusty is that no one judges you, period. That extends beyond whether you have one lover or more. It’s everything.”
Yes, it was everything, and maybe she shouldn’t be so timid about opening up to the brothers Benedict.
“I can see the draw of that,” Julián said. He nodded, as if he’d decided something for himself. “I guess I should go out and lend a hand. It sounds as if they’ve finished arguing over which piece of furniture comes off the truck, first.”
Carrie wondered about that entire conversation even as she tried to put her finger on why the man looked so familiar to her.
She didn’t have any time to worry about it, however, for just then Brian and Chase came in on either end of a love seat.
“You just tell us where, darlin’,” Brian said.
For the next hour she did just that, setting not only the furniture in the parlor, but also the dining room. The décor in that room had been more ostentatious than the cowboys—or herself for that matter—had been comfortable with.
The warehouse had certainly been a treasure trove of furnishings, linens, dishes—damn near anything anyone would need to furnish a home.
There, she’d discovered a lovely oak dining room set, a rectangular table with eight chairs, a china cabinet and sideboard with a hutch. The color of the wood—a nice, warm brown—combined with the clean lines looked as if it had been made for the house. She’d repainted the walls a soft butter shade with white trim. The multipaned windows, two of them inset into the wall side by side, completely opened the room once the previous deep green paint had been eradicated.
The men generally ate in the kitchen, but she’d wanted to give them the option to seat family. Of course if their entire family showed up for a meal it would have to be sawhorses and four-by-eight sheets of wood outside.
While the men were hefting furniture, she nipped out to the kitchen to pull the casserole she’d made the day before out of the fridge. She’d brought fresh rolls to complement the hearty spicy beef and rice meal she’d prepared.
She stood back as the men brought in the last items, the dining room chairs. She noticed that they were all looking at her as if she’d done something strange.
Who knew how these men’s minds worked?
Ignoring their odd behavior was likely her best bet. “If you’re hungry, there’s food. Just give me five minutes to set the table.”
“Wait a minute,” Andrew said. Apparently he’d been elected to speak. “Are you going to feed us first before we finish?”
Carrie didn’t quite understand the question. “Is there more furniture on the truck?”
“No, ma’am,” Grant said. “We were just wondering.”
“We unloaded and you pointed where to put everything, and…that’s where it all still is,” Andrew said. “Don’t you want to rearrange things a few times? Try out different looks?”
The way all five of the men were looking at her told her that the Jessops had been elected spokesmen.
Carrie gave them the sweetest smile she knew how to give. She could explain that she had a computer program that would allow her to configure a room six ways from Sunday. She could tell them that she’d spent probably eight hours, all told, doing just that with the room dimensions and the pieces of furniture she’d selected.
She could, but she didn’t. Instead, she just said, “Nope, we’re done. Now, who’s hungry?”
Carrie enjoyed the view from the porch of the ranch house, which now included a pretty glider she’d nabbed from the warehouse.
Most gliders she’d ever seen would fit two comfortably, but this one had room for four.
She grinned. A lot of the furniture in that warehouse had been larger than average. It was nearly five in the evening, and she supposed she should think about making dinner for the guys.
Butterflies had taken up residence in her stomach. Carrie told herself she was being silly. She didn’t have anything to be ashamed of, after all. Yet, she’d never told anyone what her life had been like when she’d gone into “the system.”
She understood that the way she was—cautious, untrusting, and tending to keep people at arm’s length—had to do with things that had happened after that dreadful April when she’d been eleven.
Nerves nearly got the better of her and Carrie shook her head. Why was she putting herself through this, anyway?
And then Chase and Brian walked out of the barn, heading toward her, and she had her answer.
Was she in love with them? She didn’t know, not one hundred percent sure, anyway. But she wanted to find out. She wanted to get completely involved in a relationship with them, a relationship that wasn’t casual.
They’d both made it very clear that they expected her to share more than just her body with them.
Julián, whom they’d told her was their new lead hand, had emerged from the barn with them. They stood and chatted for a moment, and then the man headed toward his truck. He sent a wave her way, and she waved back.
She wished she knew why he seemed so familiar to her.
“Well hello there, sugar. Were you waiting for us?” Chase bent down, kissed her lips lightly, then sat on her left.
“As a matter of fact, I was.”
“Good. Thanks for your hard work today, darlin’.” Brian kissed her just as chastely as his brother had, and then sat on her right.
Both men slid in close, so she was bracketed by them, surrounded by their heat.
“The weather forecast is for the possibility of severe thunderstorms. We’ve battened down the hatches as best we can.” Chase slid his right arm around her, then took her left hand in his and just held it gently.