The Hot Sergeant (Second Chance Military Romance) (Hargrave Brothers - Book #2)

by Alexa Davis

  “Yeah, Danny. As the financial head of the ranch, this concerns you, too.” He kept his arms folded across his chest and looked at me, his brow furrowed. My father leaned against the doorframe and waited for me to speak.

  “Daniel, you’ve been taking really good care of the ranch. Obviously, me doing my time in Afghanistan, and Tucker going to law school, hell, even Logan taking off to who knows where, hasn’t put the ranch to any harm.” I rubbed the stubble on my jaw. “I’d like you or Dad to buy me out of my share.” Dad stiffened and stood away from the doorframe. Danny gaped like a trout out of water.

  “George, what fool thing you got planned now?” my father barked at me.

  “I want to start my own construction company. I have my contractor’s license, and I want to subcontract through Tom until I build a customer base. I’m gonna do it one way or the other, I just didn’t want to go into debt if I could help it.”

  “That’s…that’s a really, good plan, George.” Danny sounded more surprised than I appreciated.

  “Damnit, you guys, I’m the guy who actually served his country, remember? Not sure why you both thought I’d suddenly gone off the deep end and become the irresponsible one.”

  “You’re right, George. You have always been responsible. But, you are also a risk taker. From breaking mustangs to joining the army, you always take the risk.” My dad sighed, and I shrugged.

  “And, I’m taking a risk again. But, I’m trying to start a family here. I can’t, I won’t work for Cal’s father, or mine, and call myself a man. I want out of the ranch…unless you hire me for a job, which I will always make time for.” Daniel shrugged and scratched neck. Dad nodded, but said nothing.

  “I’ll have Tucker draw up the paperwork. But, I’m gonna suggest you leave a little something here and not take it all. With Texas Tango and a few other ideas we have lined up, that money is going to triple in the next few years. I’d be a shitty brother if I didn’t point that out.

  “Fair enough. I only need a hundred thousand to put out my shingle. How much is left after?” Danny pursed his lips and raised an eyebrow.

  “As it stands, your inheritance stands to be in the million-range. I think even if you take five hundred thousand, you’ll still see significant profit over time.”

  “Dad, you going to be pissed about this for long?”

  “I guess I thought when you grew up, you’d see your place is here, George. Maybe I was wrong.”

  “We can’t all live here ‘til we die, Pop. Jackson will probably never leave. Danny will haunt the place after he’s dead. I just want to do what I know, and not be in the way.”

  Danny rushed me and hugged me tight, picking me up off my feet so my toes dangled. When I complained, he laughed it off and turned away, brushing at his eyes.

  “G-man, are you trying to tell us you’re gonna propose?” he finally asked. I nodded, and he whooped and slapped his knee like an old-timer. “Well, shit, son, that’s the best thing I’ve heard since you got home. When you popping the question?”

  “Not until I get done with this stupid can of worms I opened.” I turned to my father. “I can’t blame you for thinking I was jumping the gun. Look what I managed, just by learning how to do taxes for a business.” My dad scoffed and clapped me on the shoulder.

  “Good news, is that bulldog mentality of yours usually gets you what you where you need to be. I’m proud of you for tackling the issue. No one ever questioned your loyalty, or your honesty.” He smiled and ducked out of the room. Danny laughed and hugged me again.

  “There’s nothing quite like knowing you have the right one, is there?” He asked the question as he started up the computer for me.

  “I’m not sure. I should’ve recognized it a long time ago, so it feels unreal now.”

  “It would feel unreal anyway, trust me.” I looked at my brother, still glowing like a kid months after his own wedding. I wanted what he had. Hell, I’d be happy just getting all carefree and glowy like that for five minutes strung together.

  He took off for parts unknown, and I took his place in front of the computer and one-finger typed an email to Tom, asking to get me into two finished buildings. I checked my inbox and opened one from the jewelry store, giving me a head’s up on the finished product timeline, and another from the TAWSAD training group to remind me of the impending final for Xavi and me.

  Finally, I checked in again with Nell. After getting over her initial shock, and after hearing about the trailer fire and Slinky’s stint in the dog hospital, she logged on remotely and started checking into things from there. She’d caught on to what we were talking about fast, and through old records she’d already transferred to the server, she’d come up with her own short list.

  When I compared the two, three names stood out. I emailed Tom the names and copied Nell and Cal everything I had.

  I found Xavi begging at Patty’s feet I the kitchen and took him outside for a little one-on-one time, and after going through some basic command practice and filling him up on treats, I cut him loose to play with the ball we’d found. It took a few tries, but soon he was chasing and even catching the ball as I threw it.

  It was time to go back to Austin and clean up the mess that had been made. Xavi played like I’d never seen before, and I knew we had to start making Lago Colina a bigger part of our lives. Too many good things had been a part of my life here to ever walk away completely.

  I looked over the land and the workers’ quarters. Between the quarters and the house, there was a swathe of land covered only by grass. In my mind’s eye, there was an outdoor dining area under a pergola, with an outdoor kitchen and grill. There were men at the tables and commercial-grade heaters at intervals around the stone patio that would be turned on during cold mornings.

  I called Xavi and turned back toward the big house to hunt down my brother and ask what had happened to all the wood from the old barn. Those ancient beams and boards would make great long tables for the men and maybe, down the road, all our families.

  22. Callie

  I took the mare that Rachel had loaned me, Rhythm, out for a long run, and when I brought her back, Pete let me rub her down and comb her out.

  It was a couple of hours before it even occurred to me to check my phone, but when I did, it was to an onslaught of new messages, mostly about the legislation I’d been trying to help pass, peppered with a couple regarding George’s final TAWSAD examination. I weeded through several hysterical messages from people who’d heard the bill was being stalled until the end of the legislative session, so it could be killed without anyone accepting responsibility.

  I group-texted the congresswoman and a few others who had helped to either write, or promote the anti-cruelty law, but no one responded immediately, which told me either things were even worse than I’d been told and everyone was running full out to fix it, or more likely, that everything was fine. I patted myself on the back for staying calm in the face of anxiety. I was miles past tired of corruption and snakes in the grass. I needed to see George, to grab hold of him and feel something in my hands that was real and incorruptible.

  I hadn’t truly had a handle on other people since I’d caught my dad cheating with a girl I’d gone to college with. George was a bastard sometimes, but he was always trying to be honest, or at least do what was right. I was so angry with my mom for staying with my dad, but I still loved my father and wanted us to be a family. I just wanted to be in a family where we all loved each other and no one had to question that.

  I kicked up the dandelions where they’d bloomed and sent the seeds aloft on the whiff of breeze that almost always played on that side of the mountain. George’s mother, Hannah Hargrave, was sitting on the front porch in the wide swing, watching me approach.

  I had never thought to envy the Hargraves anything, except maybe their immense stables. Now, I envied everything about their way of life. George hadn’t been easy for them. He never behaved quite as he ought to, but his family had stood behind him, as
proud when he broke a fence when he was thrown thorough it by an angry mustang, as when he enlisted in the U.S. army. They were everything you’d want from the American Dream.

  I sat in the glider chair next to Hannah and slowly rocked the squeaky chair back and forth without saying anything to her. It was the quietest time of day, when the Hargrave men and the ranch hands were out in the fields or on the fences and the big ranch house stood nearly empty. I stopped rocking and the air was still on the veranda, and thick like I could hold it. Out in the yard, away from the shelter of the house, the grass stirred and danced in the breeze, but where we sat, it felt like time stood still.

  “Do you remember when I first started coming up here to stay with y’all during the summer?” I asked hesitantly.

  Hannah had always been too busy for us to know if she saw us or not as kids. But when emergency struck, and one of us was ass-deep in a sink hole, or had jumped from just too high in the tree and sprained an ankle, she was there in a flash. Daniel had already been old enough to drive by the time George was old enough to decide that I was his girl, and at the ripe old age of thirteen, I’d happily followed the Hargrave boys into all their adventures.

  “I remember you were far too pretty for such a coltish thing, and I wondered if my sons were going to survive the rivalry of trying to get your attention.”

  “I never had eyes for anyone but George, even before I had any idea what that could possibly have meant.”

  “Oh, Callie, you were the biggest tomboy. The younger boys loved you because you were the first to accept a dare or up the stakes on a challenge. The older ones were amazed that you were so lovely and didn’t care at all about it. You made everything…lighter when you were here.” I smiled, but it slipped away before my next thought formed itself into words.

  “Did you blame me for George leaving?” I stared at my hands as we sat in that bubble in time, wrapped in the silence of the afternoon.

  “No. But, I think there were some terribly hurt feelings when you never came back to see us.” I glanced at her, and she shrugged. “Logan was heartbroken. He was half in love with you himself and had worked himself up to near hatred of his brother for abandoning you. The rest of us were just sad that after all those years, to you, George was the only Hargrave.” I scoffed at the thought.

  “I missed you all terribly, but the Hargraves are a lot of men for a woman who’s spoken for to be around. If George had proposed, I would likely have moved into the guest quarters and never left. But, he left me in a precarious position with respect to my reputation.”

  “I would have argued that with you, but since then, I’ve learned that it’s far easier for a woman to divide brothers than I ever could have imagined.” I knew she was talking about Daniel and Tucker and the woman who had deceived them both.

  “Any problems George and I ever had back then were our own. He may have loved the attention he got from other women, but he’d cut off his own hand before he laid a finger on one of them. It didn’t stop my nightmares,” I confided, “but, it did give me the ability to still face him once I’d woken up and mulled it over a bit.”

  “Are you one to wake up angry?”

  “No! I wake up mad as a snake-bit bull and twice as mean,” I scoffed. “Then, I remember how much worse I’d feel without him to get mad at, and it all goes away. I don’t know that he’s ever even felt my crazy female anger.”

  “Do you know why he didn’t tell us he was coming home?” She twisted her handkerchief up in her hands and kept staring out toward the gate as she spoke.

  “Only to save you the pain of seeing him hurt. Knowing him, he didn’t want to come home until he was on his own two feet. His stubbornness and resilience are a great combination to keep him moving.” I sat straight-backed and tall in my seat and watched where Hannah was staring. “Hannah, are we expecting company?”

  “Oh yes,” she chuckled. “Tucker will be up shortly for the family barbeque. George said it’d time for you two to head back into town for some inspections.”

  “Oh no, really? That means that while I was traipsing about the mountain on your lovely Rhythm – thank you, by the way – the men-folk have been taking care of business. I almost feel guilty about it.” I stood and stretched. “Guess I should at least check in and find out if I missed anything important. Do you need anything when I go in?”

  “No, honey. I’ll just relax here and wait on my son. You go find your man.” I leaned in and hugged her slight frame. She felt more fragile than I remembered, bird-like and light. She still smelled of horses and fresh baked bread, cut hay and saddle grease. She was everything that made the ranch home, and I had missed her more than I realized.

  I blinked back childish tears and went inside. Before I looked for George, I headed for the kitchen to see Patty. I let her know Hannah was getting low on sweet tea and snagged a fresh roll from the cupboard Hannah always hid them in.

  George wasn’t in the library or the office, so I wandered out to the garden. When I stepped out of the house, the sounds of eager barking leant me direction. Danny and Jackson were sitting with George on the old whiskey barrel garden seats while Xavi, Skipper, and Slinky rolled in a big furry dog pile.

  The guys laughed, talked, and drank their beers like there wasn’t a care in the world, and I hung back a little to enjoy the picture. The spring blooms had all fallen from their bushes, but the garden was lush and green, and the honeysuckle still sweetened the trellises along the garden paths. I sat on a bench next to one of the garden beds and listened to the rumbling rise and fall of masculine conversation and laughter as the men relaxed together.

  George’s gravelly bass stood out to me more than the others’ voices, weaving through the melodic, unintelligible rhythm of dialogue. When he laughed, the fine hairs on my arm stood at attention. Every cell in my body was attuned to him, whether I was happy with him or not. I couldn’t imagine life without him, and I would never be happy with another man if he was part of my life.

  “Better get used to it,” I thought to myself, “because you aren’t going to be rid of me anytime soon.”

  21. George

  I hadn’t been sitting with my brothers out behind the house for too long before I noticed Cal walking through the garden. I raised my hand to motion her over to join us, but she didn’t see me, and instead, sat down in a spot I knew she loved, where the honeysuckle was thickest. The sun made her curls a halo that framed her face and made everything about her seem to glow.

  Once upon a time, I’d bullied her into being my companion, climbing trees, swinging into the lake, and riding horses that were too wild still to be safe for me, let alone a small girl who’d never ridden before.

  The first time she’d been thrown, she broke her arm. When her mother found out she’d been on a horse, she had come unglued. Little Cal, bruised and dirty, in her shiny, new cast, had looked her mother straight in the eye and told her that she would be riding again because I would teach her how to stay on better and no one could stop her.

  I had glanced up at my father, who’d been the one to drive us to the hospital and stuck around to pay the bill. His eyes were huge. It was years before I understood the tic at the corner of his mouth was his best attempt at not smiling.

  Years later, when I’d finally realized that my best friend and sidekick was my dream-girl, he’d taken me aside and told me, that if I wanted to be the very best man I could be, I would never let her out of my life.

  I thought about the ring Tucker was bringing with him. Tonight, Callie was in for the surprise of her life. I wondered if every man felt this unsure if he would be accepted, or if I had misread how good we were still, together. I downed some beer and barked a command at Xavi, who instantly went into hero-dog mode and ran to my side, concern on his broad face.

  “It’s okay, boy; sorry I scared you. Just got a lot on my mind.” I gave Xavi a treat from the pack I’d started wearing. Jackson sniggered at it, but Danny kept whatever insults he was thinking to himself and wa
tched Xavi with a smile on his face.

  Cal had glanced up when I shouted, clearly not smiling. I waved her over and pulled another beer from the cooler between our wooden barrel chairs. I held it up to her, and her furrowed brows relaxed. She took the beer with a tentative smile and sat on the ground in front of us. Slinky ran over for love and climbed into her lap.

  “I’m glad you’re here, Cal. I wanted to talk to Danny about something, and I think we’d need your input.”

  “Um, okay. Not sure what I could tell a bunch of ranchers…and the computer genius,” she added for Jackson’s benefit, who raised his beer in salute.

  “I was about to offer Danny, here, the opportunity to take part in your legislative actions. It serves Lago Colina to be able to speak for the animals on a level we haven’t undertaken before, and maybe opens even more doors for you.”

  “Well, yeah, I’m always happy for more names to bandy about at law makers, and the Hargrave family name’s going to go pretty far in the agricultural communities. Might even get us some celebrity-type racing folk, huh?”

  Daniel laughed and shook his head. “I’m not sure that would be how it works. The attention we’re getting for having the nerve to think we have a right to be at the racetrack, well, Rachel has a thicker skin than I do, but I hear anyone use those words to her face and they’re going to get bloodied.” His eyes darkened and I had a moment of pity for whatever old money fool crossed him.

  “Well, we’ve got Tucker doing his thing for Cal’s Tom. Jackson, you’re still going to look over our computer files at Tom’s main office, just to double check nothing…hinky…is happening there, right?” Jackson nodded.

  “Yeah, Tuck and I are going to take in some farm league baseball tomorrow night after, if y’all wanna come.”

  “Sounds like fun. We’ll have to see.” I turned to Daniel. “Dad’s buying me out of those shares in the ranch, but if you really want to help, I figure a little cash infusion or some phone calls to help with passing the new dog-fighting law Cal helped write, well, it would go a long way to getting Cal and I squared away on our outside stuff, so we can focus on making sure Xavi and I are ready to pass our test together. After that, we’ll be licensed to train other vets and their dogs.”