Stay with Me (Cowboys of Crested Butte Book 4)

by Heather Slade

  “Uh, no, ma’am, but thank you anyway.”

  Figures, she thought. Bree needed at least two cups of coffee before she could function in the morning. She’d never seen Lyric drink it, and no one had more energy than Lyric did. Bullet was probably the same way.

  “Why don’t you come with us?” Lyric asked her later, when they were getting ready to leave for Crested Butte.

  “Thanks, but I just got home. I haven’t seen my parents yet.”

  “But Blythe and Cochran are down there. Bet you’re missin’ them. Not to mention Jace.”

  Lyric came close to talking her into going by mentioning Cochran. But as soon as she added Jace’s name, Bree remembered why she didn’t want to go.

  “You’re right. I miss them, but I have to pass. I’ll see them the minute they get back.”

  “Chicken shit,” she heard Lyric mumble.

  Lyric wasn’t wrong. Part of her was afraid to see Jace because she knew her resolve would crumble if she did. Just thinking about him made her want to rewind their conversation.

  “Jace Rice and I…” What? She didn’t know what to say. They were over before they began. It was better that way. The longer she let herself believe there was a chance the two of them could make something work between them, the more she opened herself up for hurt when it didn’t.

  “I don’t know how you can resist him. He’s so damn hot.”

  Lyric wasn’t wrong about that either. He was hot. If she closed her eyes, she could see his sweet smile and those green eyes that seemed to look straight into her soul.

  “The things that take you down seem so beautiful from a distance,” she murmured.

  “What’s that?” Bullet sat across from her in the kitchen.

  “Nothing, really,” she answered. “Just that sometimes it’s better to resist, no matter how intriguing the temptation.”

  “I heard that,” he grinned, shaking his head.

  “Words you should live by,” said Lyric, smacking him upside the head.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he glared at her.

  “Lyric mentioned you had a wife and a baby.” Actually two babies, but Bree didn’t want to open that can of worms. “Aren’t they with you?”

  “My wife didn’t wanna come.”

  Oh. Bree didn’t know what to say to that.

  “She’s like that. Ain’t nothin’ in it for her, and she isn’t interested.”

  “Well, uh—”

  “You don’t have to come up with nothin’ polite to say. I’m sure Lyric told you all about me and my screw-ups.”

  “I wouldn’t put it that way, Bullet.” Bree looked to Lyric to rescue her from the very awkward conversation she was having with her brother.

  “Yes, you would. And yes, I did. Poster boy, over there, for why you should pay attention in health class when they’re tryin’ to teach you the importance of condoms.”

  Bullet turned as red as Bree knew she was. It was too early in the morning for such an embarrassing conversation.

  “When did you say you were leaving?”

  Lyric laughed. “Let’s get on the road, Bullet. We embarrassed Miss Priss, here, enough for one morning.”

  Bree started to say something in her own defense, and then thought better of it. Lyric was right, this conversation was making her very uncomfortable.

  “Nice to meet you.” Bullet leaned over and looked a little too deeply into her eyes.

  Bree fanned her face. “Oh, my goodness. Your sister isn’t kidding. You are something.”

  The smile he gave her was no less devastating than the look before it.

  “Warn me next time he’s staying over,” Bree said to Lyric. “I’ll stay with my parents.”

  Lyric slapped Bullet upside the head again. “You’re walkin’, talkin’ testosterone, bro. You hear ads on the radio for low ‘tee’—think they got anythin’ for high ‘tee?’”

  Liv came out the front door of the house and joined Jace where he sat in one of the Adirondack chairs.

  “I heard you wanted to talk to me.”

  “I do. About Bree, if you don’t mind.”

  “She’s so much like me,” sighed Liv later, when Jace finished giving her the short version of their relationship.

  “I don’t know what to do. Her last words to me were to wish me a nice life.”

  “You pushed her buttons by not letting her tell you what she was thinking, Jace.”

  He knew he did. He couldn’t bear to hear her say the words. Just when he’d made progress on one important relationship in his life, the other important relationship took a nose dive.

  “What did Ben say?”

  “He said we both had some cookin’ left to do. Whatever the hell that means.”

  “Sounds like something Ben would say. And then write a song about later. Good advice, though.”

  “I can’t stop thinkin’ about her.”

  “You and Bree parted ways how long ago? A couple of weeks? Slow down, Jace. Give her time. You and Tucker have made great progress in healing what’s between you in no time at all. What she’s dealing with is going to take a lot longer.”

  “I have to see her.”

  “Oh, dear boy, it isn’t as though you have no reason to. If you can’t get yourself front and center in Bree’s life, then shame on you.”

  “Between the ranch in Montana, getting the operation going here, building our inventory of rough stock, and then getting out to the rodeos, I don’t know when I’ll have time.”

  “There’s your answer.”

  “What?”

  “The best thing Ben did for us was give me time to miss him. If it’s right, it’ll work out. If it isn’t right, it won’t.”

  “He said almost those exact same words.”

  “He’s a smart man.” Liv smiled up at her husband, who had joined them on the porch.

  “Somebody’s hungry.” Ben handed their baby girl over to her mother. “And I don’t happen to have what she’s lookin’ for.”

  Jace got up to go inside, but Ben put his hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to go anywhere.”

  Liv had the baby cuddled up against her with a blanket over her. Jace felt the same pangs of envy he’d experienced earlier.

  “You can’t force it, but you sure can help it along.” Ben smiled. “You’re a Rice, after all. And don’t you forget it.”

  10

  “What do you mean she’s in Crested Butte?” Bree asked her father.

  “She left a couple of hours ago,” Mark answered.

  “But I’m home,” she pouted.

  “When did you get home?”

  “A couple of days ago.”

  “Did she know you were home? Because I didn’t.”

  “She knew I was coming home.”

  “She did? When?”

  “Well, I didn’t say exactly when.”

  “Ah. So what you’re saying is that you’re upset with your mother for leaving town when she didn’t know you were in town. Is that right?”

  Bree hated when her father was right. Not just her father, she hated it when she was wrong and anyone else was right.

  “Okay, so she didn’t know exactly when I was coming home, but still. How often does she go to Crested Butte?”

  “Depends on how you define ‘often.’ Since Liv moved there, and you and your sisters developed lives of your own, she’s in Crested Butte at least once or twice a month.”

  “Once or twice a month? Why?”

  Mark put his hand on top of Bree’s. “Stop this, and tell me what’s really going on.”

  “I just didn’t expect her to be gone.” Bree put her head in her hands. Tears threatened, and she wasn’t a six-year-old; she was a grown-up. The fact that her mother wasn’t home shouldn’t make her cry.

  “You could always go too. Renie and Blythe are there. I think that’s why your mother went. Jump in the car, you won’t get there much after she does.”

  She couldn’t, but she didn’t want to tell her dad why n
ot. Bree looked over and saw a suitcase near the front door. “Whose is that?”

  “Mine.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’m going to help your sister Brooke and her husband put a deck on their new house. If you don’t want to go to Crested Butte, you could come with me.”

  If there was anything she could think of worse than going to Crested Butte, and seeing Jace, it would be going to visit her older sister.

  Tucker was insisting they stop in Santa Fe for the night. Billy and Jace wanted to keep driving.

  “The sooner we get to El Paso and pick up the bronc, the sooner we can be on our way back. You are in a hurry to get back, aren’t you?” Jace asked him.

  “Not in such a hurry that I don’t want to sleep.”

  “Jesus Christ,” swore Billy. “Is this how it’s gonna be with the two of you? One of you whinin’ all the damn time about somethin’?” He pointed to a service station they were about to pass. “Pull in there.”

  Jace stopped the truck. Billy got out the passenger door and walked back, toward the trailer. When neither Jace nor Tucker followed him, he walked back and pounded on the window.

  “Get your ass outta the truck,” he yelled at Tucker.

  “What’s he talkin’ about?” Tucker asked Jace.

  “No idea.”

  He got out and walked back to where Billy stood by the trailer.

  “What?”

  “You wanted to sleep, go sleep.”

  Tucker opened the door. “Why didn’t you show me this before we left Crested Butte? I could’ve been sleeping comfortably this whole time.”

  Billy shook his head and glared at Tucker. “Cause I didn’t know I was travelin’ with somebody too stupid to know the first thing about a rig.” He stomped off, back in the direction of the truck, and opened the driver’s door.

  “Get out,” he barked at Jace. “I’m drivin’.”

  “What the hell was that all about?” Jace asked when he got back in the truck.

  “Your idiot brother didn’t know he could sleep in the rig. And he’s our newest partner. This is just fuckin’ great. Tell me this, does he at least know the difference between a bronc and a bull, or am I gonna have to explain that to him too?”

  Jace laughed. It was the first time he felt like laughing in two days.

  “Remind me why we had to bring him along?”

  “He’s our partner, Billy. He’s gotta learn this stuff if he’s going to be any help to us at all. You wanna be out on the road all the time? I sure as hell don’t.”

  “Quit bein’ such a pussy.”

  “Wait a minute. What? How am I bein’ a pussy? I’m not complainin’ about anything.” Jace couldn’t figure out what had gotten into Billy. Was he pissed at him because of Tucker’s behavior, or was he calling him a pussy because he didn’t want to be out on the road all the time?

  “There’s gotta be somethin’ Bree likes about you, even if I can’t figure out what it might be.”

  “Where you goin’ with this, Billy?”

  “You didn’t have a shit chance with Renie.”

  No, he didn’t, because she’d been in love with Billy all her life. “What’s your point?”

  “And Blythe, she’s better suited to your idiot brother anyway.”

  “Again, Billy, do you have a point? Because if you don’t, I’d rather you just shut the hell up.”

  “You scare the shit outta her.”

  Why hadn’t he gone to sleep when Tucker did? Billy was rambling, and he wasn’t in the mood for it. What the hell did he know about Bree anyway?

  “She’s damn smart, I’ll tell you that much. Too smart for her own good. Brooke, she was just a bitch. Still is. And Blythe, she was a damn pain-in-the-ass, spoiled brat. But Bree? She was the steady one. Even when she was a little girl. She’s just like her mama. Always holdin’ it all together.”

  Jace was stunned. Billy wasn’t exactly one to express his opinion about much of anything. If anyone had asked, he would’ve told them Billy didn’t know any of the Cochran girls even existed, for all he seemed to notice.

  “I’m tellin’ you, she’s runnin’ scared.”

  “Okay, let’s say you’re right. What am I supposed to do about it?”

  “Keep right on scarin’ her. Best thing for her really. Look at Mark and Paige.”

  “What about them?”

  “When ol’ Paige met Mark, he was this bigger-than-life rock star. Travelin’ all over the world. Even after he quit, he still rocked her world, if you follow.”

  “Okay, so…”

  “I feel damn bad about Zack. That was an awful thing. I didn’t know him real well, but from what I did know, he seemed like a nice enough guy. Can’t say as I ever saw Bree look at him the way she looks at you, though.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Like she’s about to be lit on fire.”

  “Is that a good thing?”

  “She’s smolderin’ for ya,” Billy smirked. “And that’s a great thing.”

  “Blythe told me she thinks Bree would feel as though she settled if she ended up with me.”

  “Don’t agree. I’m bettin’ she thinks you’ll lose interest in her. Protectin’ her heart.”

  “When did you get so philosophical?”

  “Just because I don’t spend all my time talkin’ about stuff, doesn’t mean I ain’t noticin’ it. In fact, I notice more than all of you put together.”

  Billy had a number of valid points. Especially the part about him being a pussy. Billy might think Bree was protecting her heart from him, but he felt it was the other way around. His heart had been stomped on plenty in the last couple of years. If anyone needed to swathe their heart in bubble wrap, it was him.

  Jace had never been intimidated by a woman. Not ever. But Bree Fox sure as hell changed that. One minute she seemed so fragile he was afraid he’d break her. The next, she had him by the balls. That’s the way it had always been between them.

  “Quit thinkin’ about it so much. If you want her, go get her. Simple as that,” Billy mumbled.

  Was it that simple?

  Bree cleaned the house from top to bottom. She went for long rides on her mountain bike. She went fly fishing. She even looked into getting her Ph.D. No matter how busy she tried to keep herself, she was bored out of her mind.

  She wasn’t just bored; she was lonely. She was home, and everyone else was gone—her parents, her sister, Lyric, and Jace. They were all together too, which only made the loneliness worse.

  There wasn’t anything she could do about it either. Her isolation was self-imposed. She’d done it to herself when she and Jace last spoke. But had she? Had he given her a chance to speak? When he assumed she was ending things with him, he wasn’t wrong. It was what she’d planned to do; he just didn’t give her the chance to say it. It wouldn’t have ended differently if he had. So, yes, she had done this to herself.

  Next week would be better. The academic year would be starting, and she would be teaching at the Air Force Academy. She wouldn’t have time to be bored or lonely.

  Part of her was scared about being there. Zack had gone to the Air Force Academy. He was buried in the cemetery on the grounds. Everywhere she looked, there would be reminders of him. Would she feel closer to him, or farther away?

  Bree closed her eyes and imagined she was with…Jace. Not Zack, but Jace. He was her comfort. Whenever she felt worried, or sad, she thought of him. It was his arms she wished she was in, not Zack’s. What was wrong with her?

  She opened her book and read the same chapter she’d been trying to get through all day. When she didn’t get past the first couple of paragraphs without her mind wandering, she slammed the book closed. She had to find something to get her mind off Jace Rice.

  “We’ll go ahead of you,” Hank said to Jace and Tucker. “I want to spend a day at TZ Bucking Bulls with Billy before your mom and I go back to Montana. Bullet’s goin’ with us.”

  When they got back from
Texas, Lyric was at the Flying R with her brother, Bullet. Before Jace knew it, the other partners brought him into the fold, not as a partner himself, but he’d be working for them in some capacity. Jace didn’t mind. Bullet was smarter than Lyric gave him credit for, and he knew a lot about the rodeo industry.

  As a group, they’d decided to take half the broncs from Crested Butte to Montana, and work on bringing more bulls south as soon as they could.

  Billy had been talking to his father about setting up another operation in Black Forest. It would be smaller than the ones in Montana and Crested Butte, but even so, Billy’s dad would require help to make it work. That’s where Jace figured Bullet would prove most useful.

  “You stoppin’ in on your way home?” asked Billy.

  “Just for the night. I’ll stay with Tuck and Blythe, and get on the road the next morning.”

  Billy was chewing on a piece of straw, studying Jace.

  “Since when are you the relationship whisperer? I never figured you’d be one to meddle.”

  Billy grinned at Jace, and walked away.

  “That’s more like it,” muttered Jace.

  11

  “Can you hold him for a minute?” Blythe asked Jace. “Tucker is unpacking our bags, and if he gets any further along, I won’t be able to find anything.”

  “I can hold him all day,” Jace said, taking Cochran out of her arms. “We got a lot of catching up to do, don’t we, little guy?”

  Cochran reached out and tugged on Jace’s hair.

  “Ouch,” he yelped, which made the baby giggle and do it again.

  “First sign you need a haircut,” said Blythe, walking out of the room.

  “Tell me, little man—you got your Aunt Bree’s heart in the palm of your hand—how’d you do it?” Jace murmured to his nephew once he was sure Blythe was out of earshot. “Give your Uncle Jace some pointers, would ya?”

  When Cochran leaned in and put his head against Jace’s chest, it melted his heart. “You’re a charmer, that’s what you are. It’s that Rice blood runnin’ through your veins.”