by Mari Carr
He removed his hat and ran his hand through his dark hair, the manners his mother had beat into his head coming to the forefront. Vicky’s number one rule was always take your hat off in the presence of a lady. Problem was he was torn between calling Jody a lady and a hellion. She’d run riot over him for the past decade and half the time he didn’t know which end was fucking up whenever she was around.
“Welcome home, Jody.” He stepped forward and bent down to give her a hug. Her shoulder-length chestnut-brown hair smelled like honeysuckle. He had to force himself to keep the embrace quick and brotherly. His cock stirred, and he closed his eyes briefly, trying to ignore the usual arousal that accompanied her arrival. She was the boss’s daughter and even at twenty-one, she was too damn young for him.
She’d been a tomboyish twelve-year-old when he first came to work on the ranch and the other hands had given him shit when it became obvious the young girl had a crush on him. Her infatuation hadn’t abated until last Christmas, when he’d foolishly kissed her under the mistletoe and then shoved her away.
Since then, the easy camaraderie and innocent flirting they’d engaged in since her graduation from high school had evaporated. She’d only been home once since Christmas, but he could see in her face she was still angry with him. He was determined now that she was back to stay, he’d make things right again. He’d been thinking about her return a lot lately. Things were about to change between him and the little wildcat. He grinned at the thought.
“Thanks, Seth. Good to be back.”
“Didn’t get the impression you were staying,” Thomas muttered.
“Daddy. Don’t you think you were kind of rude to Paul?”
“Paul?” Seth asked.
“I mean we only just got here and told you our good news.”
Thomas frowned. “Is that what we’re calling it?”
Jody’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, it is. Didn’t you tell me you wanted me to find a nice man and settle down?”
“What the—” Seth crossed his arms over his chest, suddenly worried about the direction of this conversation. “You were pissed as shit when Thomas gave you that advice. Said women these days didn’t need a man to be happy and you didn’t plan to ever get hitched.” The fight she and her father had had at the end of last summer was epic. Seth had tried to stay out of it, mind his own business, but when Jody and Thomas went toe to toe, it was hard not to hear. Neither of them understood the concept of inside voices.
Jody glanced at him and gave him a small smile that seemed too sad to be genuine. “Turns out I was wrong.”
Seth fought to restrain a growl from escaping his chest. She’d brought home a man? Paul? Seth’s fists clenched at the thought. “How so?”
Thomas shrugged, the helpless gesture at odds with his legendary ability to handle anything. Of course, now that Seth thought about it, Jody was the exception to her father’s confident approach to life. Her mother had died when she was five, and Thomas had struggled to understand and raise his daughter since then.
Jody lifted her left hand, flashing a diamond the size of Dallas in his face. “I’m engaged.”
“The hell you are.” The words left Seth’s mouth before he could catch them. While Thomas laughed at his reply, he could see he’d sent Jody’s temper into orbit.
She retracted her hand and studied the ring, sarcasm dripping from her tone. “Really? I’m not engaged? Because I think this ring and the fact Paul got down on one knee and said, ‘Will you marry me?’ sort of proves that I am.”
“Who the fuck is this Paul character?” Seth took two steps toward the main house, ready to confront the asshole who’d dared to propose without even bothering to meet her family first, but Jody stepped in front of him, stopping him.
“Back off, Seth. You know perfectly well who Paul is. He’s been my best friend since freshmen year of college.”
“That Paul? What the fuck? I thought he was gay. Hell, he spent his entire last visit here flirting with the ranch hands.”
Jody closed her eyes and took a deep breath. But long before a ten count, she replied, through gritted teeth, “Obviously, he’s not gay.”
“Since when?”
“Since he fucking proposed to me. Why am I even having this conversation? This is none of your damn business.”
He bent down until his face was mere inches from hers. “Is that right? Well, I beg to differ.”
She leaned closer, and he could detect the slight scent of chocolate on her breath. Jody clearly hadn’t lost her sweet tooth, though he was beginning to wonder where she’d misplaced her common sense. “You are not my boyfriend and you are not my brother. Hell, you’re not a part of this freaking family at all. You are my father’s foreman, which means my decision to get married is none of your damn business.”
He struggled to keep his hands on his hips, rather than reach over and prove to Miss Jody Kirkland how very wrong she was. His fingers were itching to take her over his knee and spank some sense into her.
She’d made herself his business the very first day he’d come to work here and she’d climbed atop Coy, her father’s newest addition to the stable. The far-from-tamed horse had taken exception to its rider and bolted across the yard, jumping a fence and sprinting across the lower pasture. Seth had chased her on Charlton for close to a mile before managing to catch up and pull the fool girl off the runaway roan.
He could still recall the way she’d trembled in his arms and looked at him like he’d hung the moon for rescuing her. By the time they’d returned to the stable, they were laughing like old friends and his position at the ranch had been solidified. As he looked into her blue eyes now, he missed the admiration and wished to hell he could get rid of the anger that had crept in instead.
“Jody,” Thomas broke in. “You know full well I consider Seth a part of this family. If he takes exception to your asinine engagement, then perhaps you should listen to why.”
Jody released a furious breath. “You can’t object to a man who’s been my friend for years.”
Seth leaned back a bit. “Don’t you think it’s a little strange that one minute the guy’s gay and the next he’s not?”
“He never said he was gay.”
“That’s not something we needed to be told. It was kind of obvious. Is he bi?” Seth could understand bisexuality. He’d seen glimpses of it in his older brother, Silas, when they were growing up and he suspected now that his brother was back home in Wyoming, Silas would be acting on some of the feelings he had for his best friend, Colby.
Jody sighed loudly. “No. He’s in love with me. Just me.”
Seth knocked his hat against his jeans in frustration. “Never heard you talk about him like he was your boyfriend. You were home for Easter, Jody, and you didn’t say one word about dating him. When did this so-called love affair start?”
“It turned into something more than friendship recently.”
He tried to beat down the twinge of jealousy that accompanied the thought of her being more than friends with any other man. She was right. He had no claim staked on her. But it sure as hell felt like he did. “So why the rush? If you’ve only started dating, I don’t see why—”
“Because I want to. I don’t need any more reason than that.”
“Just like that?” Seth tried to understand what the hell was going on inside her pretty head. The only thing missing from her haughty proclamation was for her to stamp her foot on the ground like a three-year-old. She wasn’t like this. She’d never been a spoiled girl, never been prone to temper tantrums or selfish demands. She’d been a fun-loving tomboy who’d grown into his laughing, easygoing friend. This angry woman was a stranger to him, and he missed the real Jody.
“That’s right. And we’re not waiting. We came home to have the ceremony performed here.”
“When exactly?”
Thomas cleared his throat. Bewilderment crossed his boss’s face. He was sure the same confusion resided on his. There would be no help from that camp
. “They plan to bring the justice of the peace out to make it official here at the ranch in two weeks.”
Hell to the no! Seth would see her married to some stranger only over his dead body. He started to say exactly the same thing, but the argument that came out was much different than what he’d intended. “What about love, Jody? Do you love him?”
His softly spoken question seemed to jar her a bit and for just a second, he saw the trace of his old friend before she disappeared again behind the indifferent, cold woman who’d replaced her.
“What kind of question is that?”
Thomas leaned against the horse stall and crossed his arms over his chest. “A pretty valid one, if you ask me.”
Jody turned to look at her father and shook her head. “You two really are a matched set, you know that? Way to gang up on me.”
“Answer me, Jody,” Seth persisted. “Are you in love?”
She studied his face and a glimmer of pain shone in her eyes. Then she nodded, turned on her heel and walked out of the stable.
It wasn’t until she disappeared around the corner that it began to sink in. Seth had missed his chance with her. He’d pushed her away for too long.
“You realize you made a mistake there, right?” Thomas asked.
Seth nodded sadly. Mistake was putting it lightly. He’d fucked up. Big time. “Yeah. I guess I did.”
Thomas studied his face and then chuckled. “Think we’re talking about two different things. Of course, maybe not. She may be in love, son, but she didn’t say with who.”
Chapter Two
Jody stormed back into the house, slamming the screen door behind her. “God damn, mother fucking, piece of arrogant shit asshole.”
“I take it you ran into Seth.” Paul’s sarcasm drifted to her from the dining room and she glanced in that direction and caught her best friend leaning against the doorframe.
She nodded, too furious to reply.
“Took the news of our engagement well, did he?”
She closed her eyes and mentally counted to ten. Seth Compton had some nerve attempting to lecture her about anything. Anything! He’d brushed her affections aside for over a decade and the minute she’d moved on and managed to say fuck him, he decided to act like he gave a shit. “He took it like the clueless caveman he is.”
“Tried to talk you out of marrying me?”
“As if he has the right to tell me what I can and can’t do. I offered him the position of boyfriend loads of times, and he rejected me. Now he can just take a giant leap and eat his fucking heart out.”
Paul laughed. “I love your locker room language. So colorful.” He took several steps toward her, stopping when he reached her. His hand drifted up to her cheek, and he brushed a stray hair away from her face. “I thought you said you were over him.”
“I am.”
Paul gave her a grin that said he wasn’t fooled by her too-quick reply. “Jody, you can’t kid a kidder.”
She sighed. “I want to be over him.”
“You realize that’s not the same thing, right?”
She shrugged and turned away. “It’s enough for me, for now.”
“We don’t have to go through with this. I can find someone else to—”
“No,” she interjected. “I’m doing it. I want to marry you. Honest.”
“But if Seth—”
She raised her hands, trying to halt his words. “He’s a typical male. He wants what he can’t have. If I’d shown up here available, acting the fool as always, following him around with my stupid heart on my sleeve, he’d still be dismissing me, offering up all those reasons why we can’t be together. I’m sick of the game, Paul. I’m not playing it anymore.”
“Fine. I get that. But that still doesn’t mean you have to marry me. I’m not happy about you sacrificing your immediate future just to help me inherit my trust fund.”
She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. “You’re my best friend, and you need me. I’m marrying you.”
“Well, isn’t this sweet?” Seth’s insulting tone set her teeth on edge again. She scowled as he opened the screen door and entered the house. “Been awhile, Paul.”
Paul smiled and offered his hand. “Good to see you again, Seth. How are you doing?”
Jody resisted the urge to kick her best friend in the ass as he shook Seth’s hand.
“Can’t complain,” Seth replied. “Besides sweating my ass off in this hellish heat, things are pretty much par for the course.”
Paul laughed easily, the sound almost flirty, and Jody gritted her teeth as she watched her fiancé checking out Seth in his tight denim. Jesus. She took Paul’s hand in hers in an attempt to distract him.
“Come on. I’ll show you around the place. There’ve been a few changes since the last time you were here. Plus we need to pick somewhere for the ceremony. Still not sure if I want to set it up in the back or front yard.” She started to yank Paul outside, but Seth stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. She sucked in a deep breath and tried to ignore the fact his touch made her so hot.
“Hold on a minute. Let me wash up and I’ll join you.”
She shrugged in an attempt to dislodge his hand. “Why?”
He grinned and she closed her eyes, unwilling to let his handsome face dazzle her. Fucking dimples got her every time. A quick glance at Paul nearly had her groaning aloud. Apparently, her fiancé was a sucker for dimples too.
“I thought it might be nice to get to know the guy you’re marrying a little better, Jody. I mean he is going to be a part of the family very soon, and we’ve never had more than a couple chances to chat.”
He stressed the word family throwing her father’s words in the stable back in her face.
“We’d love to have you join us,” Paul invited, his smile charming. She pinched his arm covertly and his grin faded quickly.
“Fine. We’ll wait here. Don’t take too long.” She tried not to wince at her imperious tone. She hated sounding like such a bitch, but she couldn’t seem to temper her bitterness around Seth. She was nursing a broken heart and doing a shitty job of it.
Seth headed down the hall to the bathroom. When she heard the door close, she turned to Paul. “Jesus Christ. What the hell are you doing?”
Paul tried to look sorry, but failed. “I forgot how good-looking Seth is.”
She closed her eyes. “You cannot be serious. You’re attracted to Seth? My Seth?”
“Technically, he’s not your Seth. You don’t want him anymore, remember?”
She frowned. “You can’t have him.”
“Jody.”
“Don’t you Jody me. We’re here to fool my family into thinking we’re in love and we can’t wait another minute to spend our lives together. That’s the only way they’ll allow me to go through with this. I explained that to you. That’s hardly going to work if you start coming on to Seth.”
Paul nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’ll behave.”
Jody sighed. “This is still a good plan, Paul. The stipulation in your father’s will was outright cruelty, and we won’t let him win.”
Paul kissed her on her cheek. “I love it when you’re on a mission, but this isn’t your wrong to right, Jody. There are lots of people in the world who think homosexuals are freaks of nature, and my father simply happened to fall into that lot. You have to be very sure you’re willing to sacrifice a year of your life. That’s a lot to give up to help me meet some silly stipulation in a will. Especially if you’re doing it to spite Seth.”
“I’m only twenty-one, Paul, and a year isn’t that long. Besides, you don’t have time to find anyone else. The will says you have to be married by the end of July to claim your trust fund. Are you forgetting about your plans for it? Think of all the good that cancer research facility could do.”
Paul shrugged sadly. His mother had passed away from the disease when he was only ten. Sometimes Jody wondered how different his life would have been if she’d survived. His father, a cold
bastard on good days, had treated him like a leper after discovering his only heir and namesake was gay. “I guess you’re right.”
“There’s no doubt about it. You’re going to earn your master’s in architecture at Cornell and then you’ll build the best damn cancer research facility in the world.”
Paul laughed. “I do appreciate your confidence in me, sweetheart, but trust fund aside, all I’m saying is Seth isn’t the only man out there. There are other fish in the sea. What if you run into your fish while you’re stuck with me?”
Jody shook her head. “There aren’t any other fish for me.”
Paul reached for her hand. “Oh, Jody. That’s not true.”
Coming home and seeing Seth again was every bit as hard as she’d known it would be. She’d put off the return as long as she could simply because she kept waiting for some miracle to occur. Unfortunately, her feelings for Seth were stronger now than ever. She pushed the thought aside, tried to bring the remaining tattered shreds of her pride to the forefront. “I’ve been such an idiot, Paul. I can’t keep playing this Follow the Stud game.”
Paul laughed. “Is this some twisted version of Follow the Leader? Have you been holding out on me, Jody? Sounds exciting.”
Jody chuckled and shrugged, appreciating her friend’s attempts at alleviating her pain. “It’s only fun when you catch the stud. Which every woman within a ten-mile radius of this ranch has done with the exception of me.”
Paul glanced back down the hall where Seth had disappeared. “Seth doesn’t strike me as the type to kiss and tell.”
“Oh, he isn’t, but some of the women have let details slip here and there. His reputation is actually sort of the stuff of legends.”
Her friend’s eyes widened. “Do tell.”
She looked away, clearing her throat. “Apparently, Seth has a bit of a rough edge in the bedroom.”
Paul groaned. “Sweetheart, as much as I’d love to hear the gory details, I’m sporting a hard-on just thinking about it. Since your Seth is off-limits to me, maybe you shouldn’t tell me too much. The temptation would be terrible.”
