“Nice to meet you, too.”
“Chase. I’ll uh…call you tomorrow or something.”
He climbed to his feet, stuffing the crutches under his arms as he hobbled toward her, prepared to walk her to the door. Once they were out of earshot of his brother, he took her hand in his.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“It’s fine Chase, really. I’m just kind of shocked, that’s all.”
Not to mention how embarrassed I am. How could I let him fuck me? Shit! I hardly know the man!
“I can imagine.”
She shrugged. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Be careful going home, okay?”
“Of course.”
He leaned closer and brushed his lips lightly against hers before he stepped back. She pulled open the door and slipped out, pulling it closed behind her.
* * * *
Chase turned back toward his brother when he heard the truck start and pull out of the driveway.
“So.” Cole gave him an all-knowing smile.
“What?”
“I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”
“I’m not—not really.”
“Didn’t look that way to me. She’s beautiful, Chase, I’ll give you that.”
“Smart, funny…” He shook his head.
“Oh man, you’ve got it bad already.” Cole chuckled.
“…and very much still in love with her husband.”
“I saw the wedding ring. What happened?”
Chase wearily slipped down onto the couch cushion. “He died in the attacks on the towers in New York.”
“Damn!”
“Yeah. He was a firefighter.” Chase raked his fingers through his hair.
“I thought I caught a hint of a northern accent.”
“Plus, she’s also dating Chris Bridges.”
Shock rippled across Cole’s face. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Nope. They went out last night, in fact.”
Cole smiled and shook his head. “Now, wait, she went out with Chris last night yet she was sitting here with you playing strip poker?”
Chase’s mouth opened and closed. He couldn’t believe Cole had guessed at least partially what he and Abby were up to.
A warm chuckle spilled from Cole’s mouth. “Come on, Chase, the cards are on the table, I walked in and you had no shirt on and no socks or shoes. She stood there almost naked with not much left to the imagination I must say.”
He grinned as he replied, “Yeah.”
“I sure can’t picture her playing poker with Chris, much less strip poker.”
He joined Cole’s chuckle and they laughed together at the thought. “No, somehow I don’t think that’s come up in their conversations.”
“Well then, what’s between the two of you?”
“That’s just it, I don’t have a clue. I’m attracted to her, but.”
“But what?”
“Hell, I don’t know, Cole. She isn’t ready to move on. She’s said as much.”
“What about you? Are you ready to move on without Krista?”
Chase looked at his brother across the room and a frown pulled down the corners of his mouth when the question ripped through his heart.
Am I ready?
“Don’t give me that look, Chase. You’ve been burying yourself in this ranch since she died hoping it will take away the pain. Now you’ve been handed a beautiful woman who you obviously care about already, if the exchange earlier was any indication.”
“I do care about her.”
“Well then, what’s the problem?”
He shrugged, not wanting to put what was zinging across his heart into words, not yet.
“I’ll tell you what. If you aren’t going to go for it, I will.”
Chase snarled, “Like hell you will.”
Cole laughed. “Me thinks you protest too much for someone who isn’t interested in the lady.”
“I never said I wasn’t interested.”
“You haven’t slept together, have you?”
His eyes narrowed into slits. He couldn’t tell his brother what he almost interrupted. If Cole had shown up ten minutes earlier, he would have seen exactly what happened between them, right there on the kitchen table. “No, not yet.” The picture next to him on the table rattled slightly.
Cole leaned back, lacing his fingers over his chest. “Well then, I guess that means she’s fair game.”
“Leave her alone, Cole.”
“Why, Chase? Why should I leave her alone?”
He didn’t answer right away, he couldn’t. He closed his eyes, and pictures of Abby flashed across his mind, especially the smidgen of a glimpse of the seductress she could be when she wanted to. When he finally opened them again, he growled, “Because she’s mine.”
Both men were startled when the picture on the end table flew across the room. The glass inside the frame shattering against the wall as it fell to the floor.
“What the hell?”
Chase shook his head and said, “Must have been the wind.”
“There isn’t any wind in here.” Cole’s startled gaze met his.
“That’s just too weird.”
“You could say that, bro.”
* * * *
Abby crawled between the clean sheets on her bed, sighing when the warmth wrapped itself around her. She hadn’t realized until she got home and got ready for bed that she’d left her bra at Chase’s.
Great! Cole probably thinks…what? That Chase and I are sleeping together?
“That’s great, just perfect,” she grumbled.
Cole. What the hell? Why does he have to look just like Josh?
It was like looking into her husband’s eyes when she saw him. “He’s not Joshua. Josh is gone,” she whispered to the darkness around her.
Her heavy sigh filled the darkness.
Mom will never believe this one.
“She probably will. I’m surprised she didn’t call before I even got home.”
Grumbling, she rolled over, plumped the pillow beneath her head and shut her eyes. She was determined to go to sleep even though thoughts of both men on the neighboring ranch zipped across her mind. Only one sent her heart racing in her chest with nothing more than a smile.
The sun crested the hill when she pulled the truck into the yard the next morning and headed for the barn. Today would be the last day she would be needed over here to feed the horses. Actually, she wasn’t really required to today, she figured, since Cole had arrived, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself.
She walked into the barn, surprised to hear whistling coming from one of the stalls. Following the sound, she found Cole with a wheelbarrow and shovel cleaning out one of the nine-by-nine enclosures.
“Well, good morning.”
He spun around and her heart took a dive to her toes. A smile rippled across his face and dimples exactly like Chase’s peeked out of his cheeks.
One more difference between him and Josh, Joshua didn’t have dimples, but man! It was unnerving how much they looked alike.
“Mornin’. I’m surprised to see you.”
“Why?”
“It’s mighty early for a city girl, isn’t it?”
She laughed. “Not for me. I’m always up early. Besides, feeding the horses every day has forced me to be up before the chickens.”
“You don’t have to do that anymore. I’ll take care of them until Chase can get up and around.”
Her gaze dropped to the dirt floor and she shrugged. “I’m sure you will.”
He walked to her side, propping the shovel against the wall. “What’s wrong, Abby?”
“Sorry. It just gave me something to do for awhile, that’s all.”
“You can certainly still come over if you wish. I’m sure Chase doesn’t mind, and I know I don’t.” Her eyes met his and she watched when his gaze moved to her lips. He placed his hand on the wall next to her head, bringing his body that much closer to hers. She could feel the whisper of his breath on her mouth when he asked, “What’s between you and Chase?”
Before she could answer, the door of the barn creaked open behind her, and she turned to see Chase making his way up the aisle toward them with a frown on his face.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing, why?” Cole stepped back. “I was cleaning out some stalls when Abby came in.”
“You don’t have to feed the horses anymore, Abby. I can do it now,” Chase grumbled.
He was dismissing her. She could see it in his eyes. “Fine,” she whispered, hurt lacing her words before she could stop them. She turned to leave before she remembered she drove his truck. “Cole, can I ask you a favor?”
“Of course.”
“Can you take me home?”
“No problem. Let me just grab my keys in the house.” He shot Chase a look she didn’t want to try to interrupt before he slammed the barn door behind him, leaving the two of them alone.
A heavy sigh slipped from between her lips as reached into her coat pocket and pulled out Chase’s keys, handing them to him without a word. He didn’t say anything when she turned away and walked to the door, but when she pushed it open, she heard, “Abby.”
Looking over her shoulder, she said, “Let it be, Chase. It doesn’t matter.”
* * * *
Chase watched her walk out before he tipped his head back on his shoulders and sighed, as the desire to punch something whipped through him. He raised his hand to hit the stall board, but stopped before he did, knowing if he tried it, he’d probably break his hand, too. The rattle of Cole’s truck pulling out of the driveway just pissed him off more. A moment later, he headed for the storage room to feed the horses.
When Cole returned an hour later, Chase watched from the porch with a scowl. “What the hell took you so long?”
Cole cocked an eyebrow at his brother as a slow smile spread across his face. “I didn’t realize I had a curfew, Dad.”
Anger, protectiveness, jealousy … is that what this is? I’m jealous of Cole?
They had always competed to some degree over women during their teenage years and even into adulthood, but usually their tastes were very opposite. He preferred dark haired, dark eyed women, and Cole preferred blonde, blue eyed. So why did they both seem attracted to Abby?
“It’s not far to the Miller place. It shouldn’t have taken you this long,” he grumbled.
Cole’s smile grew. “It’s not the Miller place anymore, Chase, it’s Abby’s. She showed me around the house and the changes she’s made since she’s been there. The place looks a lot better than I remembered. She had some contractors take out the wall between the master bedroom and Gary’s room. Her bedroom is huge now.”
His head snapped around and his eyes narrowed. “She showed you her bedroom?”
“Sure, why not?”
“Nothin’,” Chase growled and then swung around, doing his best to stomp back into the house as he heard his brother’s rolling laughter from the yard.
She hasn’t even shown me her bedroom, but she’s shown Cole? Damn it!
He raked his fingers through his hair before he headed for his bathroom to take a cold shower. He was going to need it to take away the steam rising off his skin at the thought of Cole holding Abby. Rage zipped through him when thoughts of his brother kissing her, caressing her back, and fucking her like he did last night, settled in his brain.
Stripping off his clothes, Chase wrapped his leg with a plastic bag to keep the cast dry, slid onto the seat, grabbed the hand held showerhead and turned it on. The needles of ice-cold water hit his chest, making him gasp. Bending his head, he let the water cascade over it and down his chest, sluicing in rivulets between his legs.
Before he had a chance to stop it, his thoughts drifted to his sexy-as-sin neighbor. The soft taste of her lips under his drove him nuts. Her smile melted the iceberg around his heart the moment their eyes met outside the ambulance window. Her sassy teasing when they played strip poker last night had heat pooling between his legs, making his cock rock hard and pulsing with need.
He wanted nothing more than to take her to his bed and bury it in her warmth until neither of them could breathe anymore without the other. The tryst on the kitchen table had done nothing except whet his appetite for more.
Chase frowned when the scene from the barn flashed across his mind. The proximity of Abby and Cole when he walked in was too close for comfort, his comfort. Cole looked like he’d just kissed her or was about to, and that just made his bad mood worse.
She said she’d call today, but he wasn’t surprised when he’d heard his truck pull into the driveway first thing this morning. Now, because of his macho attitude, he’d pushed her away. Her visits here would probably be non-existent after today. She had no reason to come to his home anymore, except to see Cole.
Pain zip across his heart at the thought.
Would she want to be with Cole because he resembled her dead husband so much?
There was some resemblance between the brothers, but their features were very different, too. They both had blue eyes, but Cole’s were more of a sky blue, lighter in color than his own. His could only be called blue sometimes, like when he was laughing and having a good time. Most of the time, they were closer to grey in color. Cole’s hair was lighter, too, more of a darker blonde where his was dark, almost black.