Slow Burn Cowboy(40)

“That’s hardly noteworthy,” Cain said, coming into view. “Let me know when your inner voice is feeling human again, and maybe we can talk.”

“That might be a while. My human inner voice is on hiatus until it can make its way back to civilization.”

Cain grimaced. “Then I guess I have to get used to the gremlin.”

Lane was almost sure she saw the ghost of a smile playing at the edges of Violet’s mouth. But she couldn’t be totally certain because the girl turned and went back up the stairs.

“I brought dinner. She might want to come back down,” Lane said.

The older Donnelly forced a smile. “Probably not. She might creep down after everybody else is done. That way she can limit the interaction.”

“What’s she doing with her time?”

“Texting her old friends. Basically, throwing herself into the life she had, and ignoring the life we have now.” Cain rubbed the back of his neck. “I thought bringing her here would help with things. But she seems even unhappier than she did back in Texas.”

“She’s bored,” Lane said simply.

“She assures me her cell phone is all she needs for entertainment.”

“Right. But she’s lying. Even if it’s mostly to herself. Take it from me—an exceedingly well-behaved teenager in my day—she needs to stay busy.”

“Unfortunately, I kind of see her point about Copper Ridge. There’s not much to do here.”

Lane smiled. “I guess not. But it was the source of my salvation when I was about seventeen. I came here, got away from my parents, moved in with my brother. And I got my first job.”

“That’s what Violet needs,” Cain said, looking suddenly decisive. “Work.”

“It would at least get her out of the house for a while.”

“Do you know of anyone who’s hiring?”

Lane thought for a moment. “Actually, I probably do. I have a friend who owns a bakery in town, and she was just telling me she’s a little bit short-staffed. But I work on Main Street so I can keep my ear to the ground for all kinds of jobs. The bakery might be really fun, though.”

“It doesn’t really have to be fun,” Cain said. “Because right about now it’s that or military school.”

“Why would you consider military school?” Alex walked up behind Cain. “As you can see, the military did nothing to calm me down.”

“Can I come in?” Lane asked, holding up the massive container of food. “I am laden with carbs.”

“Oh,” Cain said, reaching out and taking the pasta from her hands. “Sorry about that. Usually I’m a little more considerate.”

“He’s not,” Alex said. “But maybe to women.”

“Don’t ask my ex-wife.”

“We can’t,” Alex said, “because she left. Because the problem was clearly her.”

“That might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, Alex,” Cain said, walking ahead of his younger brother and into the kitchen.

“That means you can expect me to be a dick for the rest of the evening.”

“I already did.”

Lane flexed her fingers, curling and uncurling them, nerves making her stomach tighten and her palms sweaty. It was kind of crazy. Feeling nervous to see Finn. A man she had seen nearly every day for the past decade. And yet, she was almost vibrating with tension.

She had underestimated how difficult it would be to see him—for the first time since they’d been naked together—with an audience. An audience that was probably a whole lot more observant than she would like.

She heard footsteps on the stairs and looked up. Her throat went dry, tight, and then everything else tightened after. Her lungs, her chest... Her... Everything.

Finn. Suddenly, the whole world seemed to get quieter, seemed to slow down. He was... Well, he was kind of beautiful. She had always known he was good-looking, but she had never known it quite this way. This way that was coupled with intense, sensual pleasure at knowing exactly what it was like to feel those hands on her skin.

To know what it was to have his lips pressed against her.

He was wearing a cowboy hat, a tight black T-shirt and a pair of jeans that hugged his thighs and other parts of him she was now intimately familiar with.

There was a dusting of golden stubble over his square jaw, just enough to lend a gritty edge to all that male beauty he possessed.

“I’m glad you came,” he said, a small smile tugging the corner of his lips upward.

Her stomach fluttered in response. Honest-to-goodness fluttered.

“Me too,” she responded, her words breathy and completely affected.

She was acting like she was about Violet’s age, and had a crush on some new boy. Except the new boy was a man. A man who had been in her life forever. A man she was now seeing in a completely different light.

A naked light.

She ignored that dirty little thought and forced a smile. Tried to look normal.

“I see you brought dinner,” he said.

It was kind of a stiff, formal thing to say. And she had to admit she was happy that he was struggling with the right balance too.

“I did.”

Silence hung between them, and so did Alex, looking back and forth, a knowing smile on his lips. Lane shot him a deadly glare. If he said something, she would beat him over the head. Sure, Alex was actually older than her, but because he was Finn’s younger brother, he felt younger to her.

“Dinner,” she said brightly, making a broad hand gesture, which Cain took as a call to action.

He made his way into the kitchen and the rest of them followed. From there, the sounds of domesticity filled the air. Clattering plates, shuffling feet and appreciative sounds as everybody took the first bite of their pasta.

It made her chest feel warm. Gave her a sense of accomplishment. And then came a strange ache. A kind of wistful longing. For something intangible, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

But it got jumbled up with images of Cord and his family, his children, that normalcy. And then mixed up again with images of Finn from the night before, when they’d been tangled in the sheets.

She felt her face heat, her body growing warm. It was a welcome sensation next to that horrible ache she’d been grappling with only a moment before.

“I need to talk to you about something,” Finn said, moving over to where she was standing, watching everybody eat their dinner.

“Yes?” she asked, the question infused with a healthy dose of warning.

She wasn’t about to have any kind of discussion about last night with him here, with his brothers standing by. That was nonnegotiable. That was not happening.

“I had a little talk with Alex and Liam today. Though Cain wasn’t a part of this.” He raised his voice slightly. “You’re all committed to staying,” he said, directing that at his brothers. It wasn’t a question.

“We told you that before,” Cain responded.

“I know,” Finn said. “I’ll be honest. I figured the early mornings and the hard work would chase you off eventually. You all actually have places to go. You have money. You have options to have other lives. I’m crazy enough to choose this life. Crazy enough to love it. I had my doubts that you would do the same thing.”

“Who knows,” Alex said, “it might all change in the future. I’m not committing to being a dairy rancher for the rest of my life. But the Laughing Irish will always have my support.”

“I guess that’s all I can ask for,” Finn said.

His jaw was tense, his expression difficult to read. But Lane could sense his unease with the entire topic of conversation. His slight dissatisfaction with Alex’s answer.

“Where is this going?” Cain asked.

“I want to figure out how to make this workable for us. If we’re all going to be here, I don’t want us stepping on each other’s toes. I want us all to have a function to serve here. And I think that’s going to mean changing, expanding.”

“Are you actually giving me my way?” Lane asked, feeling slightly dazed.

“Kind of,” Finn returned. “But not just because you asked. Because I think it’s a good idea.”

“So, you’re talking about expanding into more specialty dairy products?” Liam asked.

“Yes. And that’s going to require marketing and business planning, and all of that stuff that you do,” he said to his brother. “And it’s going to require some extra manpower,” he said, directing that at Cain and Alex.

“Well, you have that,” Alex said.

“And Lane has a great idea to help broaden interest in products that are coming out of Copper Ridge. Her store is really popular, and she wants to capitalize on the current interest in subscription boxes.” He looked at her, a smile on his face that looked a lot like pride. That made her feel like her heart had expanded in her chest.

Made her feel like maybe she was doing something after all.

“I do,” she said. “I’m building a mailing list and I’m going to offer things on my website. But I’m also going to feature special products in the subscription boxes. I know I can ship cheese. The milk isn’t going to happen, but that I can stock in my store. I guarantee you, people are going to drive to get this stuff. No doubt, what you guys do isn’t easy. But the interest in locally sourced food and healthier products is good. We can capitalize on it.”