by Dawn McClure
Misty smiled through most of the day, even when no one was around to see it. Back when she and David had been eighteen, nerves had taken away from a lot of the passion in the back of his Ford. Sure, it had been there, even though they’d both been undoubtedly nervous, but not like last night—nothing like last night. She'd had no idea she could want someone that badly. To ache just to feel their skin against yours. All that talk about taking it slow had been incinerated and never to be brought up again. Not after last night.
The sound of a text coming through had her fishing her cell out of her back pocket. She was following the line of hay in the hay baler, steering with one hand and checking her screen with her other.
I have a surprise for you.
She smiled like a goof and texted back. Anything like last night?
Line.
She laughed out loud and looked up to see her brother standing to the side of the field with his hands on his hips. With a smirk, she slipped the phone back into her jeans. She finished up the bale she was working on and then she stopped and waved at Matt.
Instead of waving, he yelled across the distance, “Where's David's truck?”
She'd known this was coming, she was just surprised it had taken him this long. “At my place,” she called back.
Even from where she was sitting in the hay baler she could tell he was none too pleased. “He stayed at your place last night?”
“Hell yes he did,” she yelled back. She started the baler again and ignored the look he gave her. He could wait until she was finished to bitch her out. She didn't really care. She had two lines left, and his opinion wasn’t exactly something she was looking forward to, nor had she asked for. At some point last night, between kissing in the lake and making up for lost time in the cabin, her give-a-damn had busted, just like the lyrics of one of her favorite songs. She’d gone full-on rebel last night, and she wasn’t tap-dancing around the town’s opinion of her character anymore. Let them talk.
Thirty minutes later, Matt was waiting for her just as she'd expected. She blew out a breath before she got out of the baler, wishing she didn't have a twin brother who thought it was his duty to keep her in line.
Before he could say anything, she got out of the baler, walked up to him and said, “Why didn't you act like this when it came to Brandon? You didn't give a rat's ass what the two of us did, but suddenly when it's David, you lose your shit. Why?”
He threw his arms wide. “Who says I'm losing my shit? Do what you want.” He took off his ball cap, swiped the sweat from his brow with the bottom of his T-shirt, and slapped his hat back on. “Get in the damn truck.”
She followed him to the truck, wondering why she put up with his crap the way she did. He had no reason to be mad. No reason not to want her and David together. She had every intention of letting the subject drop and die a quick death. She made her way to the passenger side of the truck and gave up trying to keep her mouth shut. “So now you're going to act like an asshole?”
He snatched his hat off and pointed at her with it. “One week, Misty? You just broke up with Brandon, for shit's sake! One damned date with David and you're jumping into bed with him. The town's eating it up. You talk shit about Caroline, but here you are, acting the same damn way.”
“Watch your mouth,” she warned. She certainly didn’t consider herself a rabid feminist, but what was good for the goose was certainly acceptable for the gander. It wasn’t as though her brother had a squeaky clean reputation.
“He ain't going over there tonight,” he warned, putting his hat back on for the second time. He put his hands on his hips, looking more like their dad with every gesture.
“The hell he isn't. It's not like you don't run around with Jennifer whenever the mood strikes you.”
Jennifer, who was a year younger than they were, wasn't exactly a slut, but Lord did she have it bad for her brother. All her brother had to do was look in Jennifer’s direction and the girl was ready to do anything he wanted. Needed a date? She said yes. One-night rodeo? Done. And then she would just wait on the sidelines until he looked at her again. As pathetic as it was, she still liked Jennifer. She was fun to be around, even if slightly dumb when it came to her brother.
“That's different.”
She barked out a laugh then sneered at him. “Why? Because you're a guy?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. Pretty much.”
What a... He had to be kidding. Double standard much? “You know how that makes Jennifer look, don’t you? Why are you so bothered by what I do?”
“Because you're my sister. It's different.”
She took a deep breath. She couldn't really pinpoint why he'd be upset about her and David. “Seriously, what is this about? Do you think if David and I are in a relationship I'm gonna take your best friend away or something?”
Her brother turned away from her, and off came the ball cap again. “Jesus, Misty. I'm not ten.”
Well you're acting like it. She came around the side of the truck and stood behind him. They were going to bury this shit right here and right now. When David had first returned, she would have sworn Matt had been doing everything he could to get her and David together. Now? He was throwing a hissy fit because David had stayed with her overnight. What the hell was Matt’s problem?
“Then what is it? Just come out with it because you're seriously starting to piss me off.”
He shook his head, looking down at the ground while slapping his hat against his jeans. “He's actually a great guy. Better for you than Brandon ever was.”
“Then what the... Matt, you're contradicting yourself, and you're driving me crazy in the process.” Actually, he was starting to remind her of herself. Maybe crazy and being indecisive ran in the family.
He finally turned to her and on went the ball cap. “What if you and David don't work out? What if you two can't manage to make a long-distance relationship work? Shit, you're heading off soon. Then you'll be heartbroken again, and Lord knows that took a year off my life. Before you got that job in Rapid, I thought the two of you should give it another go…but you’re going to be four hours away. Our group of friends had a good thing going this past month. It was like old times again.”
It had been like old times. But the part he never realized was how much she and David had held back throughout the years. It could be better this way. “Is it that you feel like the odd man out?”
“Misty, when it comes to the two of you, I always felt like the third wheel. That ain't it.”
She'd never known he'd felt that way. “Then what is it?”
“I can't put my finger on it. Part of me thinks you two will be just fine. Get married. Pop out some kids. Hell, David would be my brother. Sounds perfect, right? The part that's against this is the same part that watched you lose twenty pounds and turn into a damn hermit.”
The only twenty pounds that had ever come off easily. “He made a mistake. I promised him I'd forgive and... Well, you can't really forget something like that, but I've moved past it.” Mostly.
Her brother stared at her, and she could see his mind working. There was something he wasn't telling her. She'd seen that look before and could read it from a mile away. “Matt, what is it? Did David do something I don't know about? Did he say something to you? Is that why you're against this?”
He let out a harsh laugh, shook his head and looked up at the sky like he was praying for Divine help. “Not what you're thinking, I'm sure.”
There was something he wasn't telling her! Well, I'll be damned. If it had anything to do with Caroline she’d lose her lunch. “Spit it out. Now.”
He shook his head, not meeting her gaze. “I told him I wouldn't tell you. It's got nothing to do with this anyway. There's just shit he has to deal with, and it has nothing to do with you. I just think you should slow this down. That's all.”
Shit he has to deal with? Had something happened while he was deployed? She'd never really talked to him about Afghanistan, but he didn't seem to be struggling
with anything. Maybe David had talked to Matt about it? She frowned. And her brother wasn't going to tell her what it was? “Who's more important to you? Your sister or—”
“Oh Christ, here we go,” he muttered, giving her his back again.
“Well, you can't say something like that and not tell me what it is.”
“It's his business to tell you, not mine. Maybe that should give you a damned clue. The fact that there are things about him even you don't know about.”
She knew he'd drawn his line in the sand, and it hurt her a little. Actually, it hurt a lot. Surely, if it were something bad he'd tell her, but then again, if it were something good, David wouldn't want to keep it from her. “Damn it, Matt!”
He whirled on her. “See, this is what I'm talking about. Am I going to be in the middle of y'alls’ shit every day? It's his business. I have nothing to do with it.”
“But you're my brother,” she said simply. When had they started keeping things from each other? She swallowed down the lump in her throat and started to walk around the truck again.
“Jesus, Misty! You damn crybaby, fine. His dad kicked him out that morning. He didn't have nowhere to go. Didn't have enough money for college. Then he ran into me, and I punched him. He said he didn't say goodbye to you because he'd have never left. He didn't have much of a choice. He and his dad hadn't been getting along and that's what caused him to drink. Said he couldn't deal with it anymore. I guess it got pretty bad at one point, which was why he and Caroline hung out. I don’t think Big Mike beat him. I think it was more verbal than anything.”
David had told her that his dad had kicked him out. “He told me the part about being kicked out, but not about his relationship with his dad. Still, he could have talked to me about it. And he didn’t have to leave because he’d been kicked out. You know damn well he could have stayed with us. Or Shane.”
“When the hell are you going to understand? Everyone always thought you followed him around like a puppy, but the truth is, he did the same with you. He probably thought if he stuck around, no money and no future, he'd drag you down with him. When a man loves a woman, he thinks about providing for her and protecting her. He was just young and stupid.”
She looked away.
Her brother continued, “Why didn't you tell me he tried to call you? He told me he tried to reach out, but you wouldn't take his calls.”
She wanted to cry, and damned if tears didn't gather in her eyes. How many mean things had she said to David’s face because of what she'd thought? How many cold shoulders had she given him? And the whole time he could have told her the truth...told her what really happened. Why hadn't he? He would have everything to gain by telling her that his home life had been bad. How come she hadn’t seen it? “But why didn't he just tell me?”
Matt threw up his hands. “Pride? Embarrassment? I don't know.”
This changed everything. She'd been so mad at him for so many years. Maybe he'd have told her if she'd accepted his calls when he got out of boot camp. Just how bad had it been between him and his dad? Suddenly his relationship between him and Caroline made sense. If he'd been having trouble with his dad, Caroline would know what that felt like. “When did he tell you this?”
“At the fair when we went to get burgers.”
Why wouldn't David have exonerated himself? Why...then it dawned on her. “He didn't tell me because of my relationship with Mike.”
Matt nodded. “Yeah, he might have mentioned that. Hell, I can't keep up with what goes on between the two of you and I don't plan to.”
He'd shouldered all the blame for Big Mike. Why would his dad go so ballistic on him though? There had to be something else to it. “I won't tell him you told me.”
“Well, isn't that a silver lining?” Matt said irritably as he walked to the truck. “Get in. It's time for supper.”
Maybe she'd been a little quick to think they'd shared everything. Instead of coming to her to talk about his problems with his dad, he'd gone to Caroline. She recalled how tense he'd seemed just before they'd visited his dad in the hospital. She'd asked him why he was so tense, and he'd said it was because his father was coming home.
Just how bad had it been between the two of them? And why had he still not opened up to her about it?
If they were going to get through a long-distance relationship, they had to trust each other, but how could she do that if he was still holding back on her?
David held the bottle for Twister as the calf latched itself on to the nipple. The little shit was growing fast. He highly doubted Misty could throw him on her lap and drag him to safety today. “Why didn't she give you a cool name like Destroyer?” he mused aloud. Twister, more aptly named for the day he was born, kept sucking, but jerked his head toward the barn doors, eyes going sideways, mouth still attached greedily to the bottle that David managed to keep in his mouth.
“There you are.”
David looked up to a sight. Misty had her hair pulled back, though several locks of hair had come out of her ponytail. Her jeans were dirty, hay was stuck to her red T-shirt, and her face was sunburned across her cheeks. Sunlight spilled in through the double doors of the barn, silhouetting those curves of hers. The sight of her just about did him in, probably because he'd spent a lifetime of wanting her so badly but having to keep his hands off.
That wasn’t the case anymore.
He could do this every day for the rest of his life. With her. Had imagined days like this, nights like last night. He'd known there would be no in-between when it came to Misty. They'd fooled themselves when they said they'd take this slow. He'd had every intention of doing so until her body had molded against his last night. Hell, he'd known what was going to happen the second he'd woken up and realized she'd covered him with that sleeping bag. When he'd turned to look at her and found her awake, there'd been no doubt in his mind what they were going to do.
And in a few short weeks she was leaving, and then there’d be no more days like this. No more of her just dropping by the barn to look for him. Maybe every now and then, but it wouldn’t be the same—for years. The thought of existing like that for months on end made his chest tighten.
He wondered if he could convince her to stay in Garner. Probably not. She’d signed a contract and she’d dreamed of being a teacher since grade school. He let go of the idea of trying to convince her to stay, knowing she wasn’t about to give up her dream just because he was back in town.
But there was more than one way to skin a cat. Perhaps if he gently reminded her of all the things she had in Garner, of all the things she'd once loved to do, she'd reconsider that job in Rapid. He didn't want to ruin the surprise he had for her, so he thought he'd throw her off the scent. “You're going to have to clean up if I'm going to give you that surprise.”
She got a wicked look on her face. One he wasn't quite used to seeing but loved to see nonetheless. “I might need a little help,” she said suggestively.
He didn’t miss her inuendo. Slow? Had they really ever thought they could do slow? More like Highway to Hell going a hundred-and-twenty, and he was like a dog hanging its head out of the window, tongue rolled out and flapping in the breeze, loving every second of the ride. Just to tease her he said, “Line.”
She bit her lip and nodded. “Okay. I'll shower by myself.”
Twister damn near yanked the bottle out of his hands, not knowing if he wanted to run over to Misty or if he wanted to continue with dinner. “I was just kidding. I take it back.”
Misty walked up and started to pet Twister, and the calf calmed down instantly. “So, Matt just gave me the twenty questions.”
He'd been afraid of that. Not a half an hour after he'd arrived at the ranch this morning, Matt's truck had pulled back into the driveway to the guesthouse. Matt hadn't seemed mad at the situation, more like frustrated. David had been in a good mood, so he'd let Matt go on a little until he'd finally heard enough and shut it down. Yes, they were moving too fast. No, he wasn’t going to ch
ange a damn thing about it. Yes, he understood Matt would kill him slowly if he hurt his sister.
Always a fun time with the Evans’ Twins. “You want me to talk to him again?”
“No need. He's okay with it.” She scratched Twister behind the ears one last time before she stood and looked down at him. “So, what do I need to wear? You taking me somewhere fancy?”
“Tell you what,” he said, pushing away from the bucket he'd used as a seat. Twister nuzzled Misty's leg. “It's a bit fancier than the dip in the lake we took last night.” It wasn't really, but he didn't want her to figure out what he was doing or where they were going. She’d no doubt refuse to go if he did.
“That tells me nothing.”
“I know,” he said with a wink.
“I think Matt's expecting me to cook dinner.”
“The man can fend for his damn self. Give me twenty minutes and I'll be ready.” He bent down and kissed her and told her he'd be back before she knew it.
An hour later they were both ready. They'd stopped at her rental cabin, she'd cleaned up, and they hit the road in his new truck. Wouldn’t be too long before that new leather smell went away. Most farmers kept shit trucks for everyday ranch chores, and nice rides for heading into town and such. But being covered in dust, mud and muck, and being sweaty ninety percent of the time, nice things like this usually didn’t stay nice long for men like him.
David couldn't help but notice how comfortable it felt to have Misty riding next to him. She'd come out of the bathroom in jean shorts and a flowing blue top that had slits where her shoulders were. The blue brought out the blonde highlights in her hair and made the color of her eyes look more intense than usual. Funny, he'd never paid so much attention to a woman's hair before.
