Longing For Langston (Mavericks of Meeteetse, Novella Book 1: Brody & Liv)

by Renee Vincent

“So, tell me what happened last week at the Wagon Wheel. I’m dying to hear it from the horse’s mouth.”

  Olivia stopped strumming and splayed her fingers across the strings of her guitar, throwing her friend Regina a look from across the room. “What are you talking about?”

  Regina plopped down beside her and reclined against the arm of the sofa. Her smile beamed as she crossed her arms. Her lips were perfectly lined in a shade of deep red, which, along with her soft brown hair and warm hazel eyes, accentuated her natural classic beauty. While Regina often remarked about needing to lose a few pounds, Olivia thought she was model perfect. “You know darn well what I’m talking about. The whole town’s fussing about it.”

  “What, with Brody?”

  “Yes, with Brody!” Regina cried. “That whole thing about how he stuck up for you and tossed some wannabe cowboy around like a toy.”

  “Oh yeah. That.” How could she forget? That was also the night she thought Brody confessed to wanting her, only to modify his words into something else. “What’s there to tell? Some douchebag groped me, Brody got upset, and he bloodied the guy’s nose.”

  Regina crossed her arms and smirked. “Aren’t you forgetting the part where you told Jethro to take a hike?”

  “I didn’t tell Jethro to take a hike. I told him I was clocking out so I could make sure Brody was okay. He was pretty upset when he left.”

  “What else is new,” Regina sneered.

  “Don’t do that,” Olivia scolded.

  “What?”

  “Do what everybody else in this town does when it comes to Brody. He’s not the screwup everyone makes him out to be.”

  “I know that. But, he has been in jail.”

  “Like, seven years ago, when he was a minor,” Olivia defended. “How long is this town going to hold that against him?”

  “If it’s any consolation, I hold nothing against a man who comes to the aid of a woman,” Regina said, suddenly endorsing him. “Especially a man who looks like Brody Galven.” She fanned her face. “All those muscles and that teeny-weeny butt… I’d love to sink my teeth into it.”

  Olivia wanted to laugh when her friend growled and bit the air, but she wasn’t in the mood to joke around about a guy who’d never be interested in her the way she was in him. It hurt too much.

  “And don’t get me started on his tatts,” Regina ranted. “He looks like that lead singer from Maroon 5, except with lighter hair. And broader shoulders. Oh, I’m such a sucker for a bad boy.”

  While Regina raved on and on about Brody, Olivia spaced out on his long, muscular arms and the flamboyant sleeves that colored them. Inked with blue flames, pinup girls, and biomechanical paraphernalia, he resembled someone more from Orange County Choppers than Park County, Wyoming.

  While his tatts lent him an air of distinction among the average residents of Meeteetse, it was the sleek muscle definition of his upper body she loved most. Having a job that revolved around tossing hay bales, roping steers, and splitting wood, it was no wonder the man had arms like a roughneck on an oil-drilling rig.

  Thinking back to last week on the McKinley ranch, she could curl up in those arms every day of her life if Brody’d let her. Therein lay her problem. He might have been her best friend, but that was all she’d ever be to him.

  “How do you do it, Olivia?”

  Upon hearing her name, Olivia snapped out of her trance. “What?”

  “I said, how do you keep your hands off him? I mean, best friends or not, I wouldn’t be able to.”

  Olivia feigned a smile. “It’s not because I haven’t tried.”

  “Well, try a little harder, will ya? I know I’ll never have a chance with the guy, so my best hope is through you.”

  Olivia pursed her lips and strummed a G chord. “Don’t hold your breath.”

  Regina’s exuberance faded as she regarded the bleakness on Olivia’s face. Her hands came up to hide her openmouthed stare. “Oh, honey. Are you…”

  “Am I what?”

  “In love with him?”

  Olivia tried to play it off as hogwash, but she’d never been a good liar. Regina reached for her hand and clasped it in hers. “And here I was going on and on about him like that. I had no idea.”

  “It’s okay. It’s not a big deal.”

  “Yes, it is,” Regina contended. “Why didn’t you tell me? Better yet, why haven’t you told him? Don’t you think he’d want to know?”

  Now Olivia felt like laughing. “Yeah, right. So he can rip my heart out one more time? I don’t think so.”

  “Are we talking about the same Brody Galven here? ’Cause if I recall, he can’t seem to get enough of you. He’s always protecting you, shoving his weight around at any other dude who tries to steal your affections. Hell, the man gets in a fight over you more often than bronc riders get bucked.”

  Olivia shook her head repeatedly. “Trust me, he may be a little overprotective, but it’s not because he has feelings for me. I’m more like a sister to him.”

  Just as Olivia resumed plucking a tune, Regina clutched the neck of her guitar and arched a disbelieving brow. “Come again? A sister?” She narrowed her gaze. “Livie, I know you’re an only child and you have no idea how siblings treat each other, but let me tell you this right now. Brody does not look at you like a sister.”

  “Then why did he backpedal out of a kiss so fast never to speak of it again? Or, better yet, why did he recant on a confession he made last week?”

  “Wait, Brody kissed you? What else haven’t you told me?”

  Olivia squeezed her eyes shut and scratched her head. “It was a long time ago, Regina. Last year when I signed with my agent. I’d gotten off work, and after listening to my voice mails, I ran outside to tell Brody. I remembered being so damn excited that I leaped into his arms and popped a quick kiss on his lips. No big deal.”

  “No big deal?”

  “Anyway… We both realized what had happened and…I remember the way he stared at me. The way he held me as he cupped my face. It was like he couldn’t resist the pull of attraction any more than I could, and he surrendered.” Olivia fell limp and smiled, staring off at a distance. “His lips were so soft, yet so domineering. And he smelled so good, like hay and leather and cologne.”

  “Yeah…go on.”

  Olivia straightened, and all reminiscent bliss disappeared. “That’s it. He recoiled the second our tongues touched and hightailed it off the tailgate.”

  “And he never told you why?”

  “Honestly, it was such an uncomfortable situation that I don’t think either of us wanted to know why.”

  Regina waved her hand in front of her face as if she were erasing a chalkboard. “Okay so let’s get back to his confession. Did he actually admit how he feels about you?”

  Olivia shrugged. “Well…he said he wanted me. Then as soon as the words came out, he modified them.”

  “To what?”

  Olivia huffed in frustration, loathing the fact that she had to relive this humiliating moment. She liked it better when Regina had no idea how she felt about Brody. “He changed it from ‘I want you’ to ‘I want you…to take a drive with me.’ Who does that?” she asked, lifting her arms in exasperation.

  Regina tilted her head with an expression of sincere pity. “A man who’s in love with you, but thinks he shouldn’t be because it’s not in your best interest. That’s who.”

  Olivia pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to make sense of her friend’s words. “Why wouldn’t it be in my best interest if we dated?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe because the whole town still looks at him like he’s a criminal…and he thinks you deserve better?”

  “I couldn’t care less what everybody thinks.”

  “That may be so, but a true gentleman always puts the welfare of others before himself. And I’d say Brody, given the respectful upbringing he had as a child, not to mention the ever-watchful brother who keeps him in line to this day, is the kind of man who’d put
a lady first. Case in point, last week when he took on three guys single-handedly for you. Tell me I’m wrong.”

  Olivia pondered the scenarios in her head. She recalled the way Brody would watch her like a hawk and oftentimes come to her rescue, even when she didn’t need him. He was always a gentleman when they hung out, and, in turn, he demanded it from others. She even remembered times when he’d act a little out of sorts the minute she got too close. What Regina said seemed conceivable enough, supporting the theory that he might have feelings for her, except for one thing. It didn’t explain why at one moment he seemed so eager to kiss her, only to practically fall off the tailgate to get away from her in the next.

  She’d seen the look on his face that day. He’d appeared confused. Surprised. Appalled. Not exactly the kind of reaction a girl wanted to see right after the start of an intimate, toe-curling kiss.

  “You know,” Regina intimated with a sly grin, “there’s only one way to really know for sure how he feels about you, right?”

  Olivia cringed, not quite ready to hear what that was. “And that is?”

  Regina leaned in and whispered, “Ask him.”

  “No.”

  “What do you mean, no? He’s your best friend. Surely you can talk with him about anything.”

  “Everything but the sappy crap. Galven’s a rough and tough cowboy who likes his friend”—Olivia patted her chest, indicated herself—“to be as tough as he is. We fish. We ride horses. We drink beer. We don’t sit around and discuss our feelings, Gina.”

  Regina reached for Olivia’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Maybe it’s time you did.”

  Olivia’s cell phone danced across the coffee table. Inwardly, Olivia was grateful for the interruption and glanced at the display. “Oh my gosh!” She snatched up her cell and stared at it as it kept vibrating in her hand. “It’s my agent!”

  “Well, answer it!”

  Olivia’s heart kicked up in tempo. She wanted to scream with uncontrollable exhilaration. Was this the call she’d been waiting for all her life? Was this the day all her dreams would come true?

  She jumped up and handed her guitar to her friend, gawking at the screen on her phone as if it were the president of the United States. She stepped over Regina’s legs and paced the living room floor, shaking her hand vigorously. “Oh my gosh, I cannot believe this. What if—”

  Regina sprang to her feet and landed in a soccer-goalie stance. “Would you just answer the damn thing!”

  Olivia drew a huge breath and swiped the screen, then put it to her ear. “Hello?”

  “Hello, Olivia, this is Sarah Saulita. I have good news for you. Do you have time to talk?”

  She swallowed, trying to relieve the sudden dryness in her throat. Is this really happening? “Yes, I can talk.”

  “Great. Well, I guess the easiest way to say this is how do you feel about coming to Nashville and recording an album with Capitol Records?”

  Chapter Seven