“How are Boone and Richard doing?”
“They just got home, too. We’re fixing to eat. What are you up to?”
“I just got home. I wanted to…” …tell you I need you.
Kendall waited for a few seconds and then spoke up, his voice laced with concern. “You okay, babydoll?”
Just tell him. Say the words. I need you.
She couldn’t do it. Kendall and his brothers were struggling, trying to get their ranch up and running. They were entrenched in life in Divine, and she was in San Marcos. If she told him that, she knew he’d drop everything and be there inside of three hours. That wasn’t fair to him or his brothers, who were still working full-time at that other ranch. Suck it up, sister. You have decisions to make.
She wouldn’t bother him with her job decisions because she knew it was simply a choice of where to start looking. She’d just tell Kendall about what was going on with Frank. He’d help her see the big picture, and she’d move on. Talking to him could provide a jumpstart of sorts. She’d always been able to rely on him.
* * * *
Kendall Warner sat down with his ice-cold beer and propped his boots up on the coffee table. It had been a long, hot day, but all that was forgotten as he held the cell phone to his ear. He welcomed the sound of Maya Daire’s sexy, whispery voice even though it inspired a hardening erection he couldn’t expect her to do anything about. He didn’t welcome the words he knew were coming.
Don’t say it, babydoll.
“You’re my ‘go-to’ guy, Kendall. I know I can trust you to tell me what I should do.”
If I did, you’d be living here with us. You’d be lying in our bed right now while I made love to you and my brothers watched, waiting their turn.
He pictured her like that and suppressed a groan. He could see her clearly, her long, golden-blonde hair spread across his pillows, her beautiful, curvaceous body naked and resplendent on the sheets. Her blue eyes glittered with desire as she reached for him. His cock punched at his fly, demanding action.
Kendall glanced at his older brother, Boone, who watched him with a knowing look on his face. It was Kendall’s younger brother Richard’s turn to cook supper, and he’d been banging around in the kitchen until Kendall’s phone rang. The kitchen was now quiet, since he’d told them it was Maya calling. In the last couple of months, both his brothers had developed a greater interest in these calls.
“Is everything all right, Maya?” Kendall prepared to have his heart ripped out.
She was calling him for advice about dating again. Or she was calling to tell him she was dating someone new. He was glad she had returned to the land of the living or at least partly living. It had been a year since her husband Morgan’s death, and as a young widow, Maya was trying hard to get back in the swing of things.
“Frank Reeves has been asking for more than just a date. I went out with him last night, and when he brought me home he wanted to stay over.”
The thought of her loving someone new made his chest burn.
“How do you feel about that?” Kendall asked through gritted teeth, trying to sound normal as the Neanderthal inside him beat his chest ineffectually.
Frank Reeves was an aging jock with a superiority complex who had been Morgan’s business partner. Kendall had never liked him, and it didn’t sit well with him that Maya had gone out with the asshole.
Boone propped his boots up on the coffee table and stretched loudly. In answer to Kendall’s question to her, he muttered, “Feel like kicking your pussy ass, Kendall, that’s how I feel.”
Kendall saluted Boone with his middle finger.
It had been Kendall’s intent to give Maya time to mourn before sharing how he’d always felt about her. When had he gotten himself into this role as her love-life advisor?
About eight years ago, when I became a fucking pushover where my best friend’s wife was concerned.
He thought back to the times she’d called on him as her “go-to” guy. He’d given the blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty advice on every subject relating to the human male, with Morgan reaping all the benefits.
He’d had a hand in selecting lingerie colors and styles. She’d e-mailed him with a picture of herself shot from the rear. Along with the picture was the question, “Do these jeans make my ass look enormous?” He had no idea why she thought her sweet little derriere was enormous. It was perfection. He’d e-mailed her back an appropriate reply.
His all-time favorite as the “go-to” guy was her asking him if guys really cared whether a girl swallowed cum after a blow job or not.
Maya had even talked to him about feeling ready to start a family. He’d imagined her beautiful body ripe with his child. He should’ve felt guilty for that, or jealous of Morgan, but that hadn’t been the case at all. He would’ve been happy for both of them if she’d gotten pregnant. Jealousy had never entered the picture, and Morgan had never acted threatened by Maya’s continued closeness to Kendall since becoming friends in college.