The Promise (Butler Ranch Book 1)

by Heather Slade

  “It wasn’t long after that Kade told me they got Lang for not paying child support. Courts get after those bastards for shit like that.”

  “She’s better off without him.”

  “Yeah, but Kade told me she didn’t care about the money, what she cared about was her boys not having a dad.”

  Kade would’ve filled the role, and now he was gone too. Shit. No wonder Peyton didn’t want his stuff.

  When Naughton buried his head in a horticulture annual, Brodie went outside. It was damn cold, but he needed to walk off talking about his brother. How many nights had he gone on this same walk, wondering if his brother was okay?

  All of them looked up to Kade, all of them missed him in their own way. As far as Brodie was concerned, there wasn’t a finer man to emulate than Kade Butler. He was forty years old when he died, and until he met Peyton, hadn’t ever been serious enough about anyone to talk about marriage. Maddox and Naughton hadn’t been either. Only Skye was married, and fortunately for the rest of them, she was pregnant with her second child. Her oldest was a little girl, Spencer, and she’d recently found out she was having a boy this time around. With one grandchild and another on the way, their mother stopped nagging the rest of them as much.

  After his morning run-in with Peyton at the beach, Brodie didn’t feel like going back to the ranch. Instead he drove down to Morro Bay and had lunch. After that he hiked around Whale Rock Reservoir, managing to kill enough time that it was almost dark by the time he drove home. Through it all, he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

  Closing his eyes, he could remember everything about how she looked this morning. Brodie was surprised by how tall she was, five foot seven or eight, he’d guess. Her blonde hair was pulled back away from her face, and her pale green eyes reminded him of the sage that grew wild on the hills of Butler Ranch. She had on a heavy, gray sweater that stopped short of the black belt that looped through the worn jeans she had tucked into knee-high, black riding boots.

  Right after Kade died, he found photos of her with him on hikes with her boys, and kayaking. There was even a shot of her holding a surfboard, wearing a full-body, neoprene pink and gray wet suit that covered every inch of her, yet left nothing about her body to the imagination.

  From those photos he knew she was pretty, but in person, she was beautiful. Beautiful and badass. It was no wonder Kade fell in love with her. Any guy would.

  Brodie had no idea what his next move would be, but he knew there would be one. Whether she wanted his brother’s stuff or not, there was no way Brodie could stay away from Peyton Wolf.

  Naughton was opening a bottle of wine when Brodie came back inside.

  “This is their 2013 Cab Franc,” he handed a glass to Brodie. Naughton breathed in the aroma from the glass he gave a hard swirl. “Anise, blueberry, vanilla, tobacco.”

  Brodie picked up the bottle. Wolf Family Vintners. He took a sip. The palate had that distinct, oily mid-texture you only got with Cab Franc. It was soft on the palate with extracted tannins on the finish. Nice. More than nice. It was a beautiful wine. Made by a beautiful girl’s family.

  “Hey, Mom?”

  “Yeah, sweetie?”

  “You forgot the juice.”

  It was the third time Peyton walked from one side of the little market to the other because she forgot something. And it wasn’t because she didn’t have a list.

  “You okay?” Jamison asked her. He was her sensitive child. He picked up on even the most subtle nuances. At first Peyton tried to hide her feelings from him, but then one day it occurred to her that her son would benefit more from her emotions than her lack of them. What was wrong with being sad because you lost someone you cared about? It was real, and that’s how she wanted her boys to see her. Real.

  “I saw someone from Kade’s family today, sweetheart. So I’m a little distracted.”

  “A little?” he smiled.

  Peyton ran her hand through his hair. “How’d you get so smart?”

  “Genes.”

  She pulled him close and hugged him hard. “I love you so much, kiddo.”

  “Same.”

  It was an expression Peyton got used to. She heard Jamison use it with his friends too. Evidently “I feel the same” required too many words.

  Finn was another aisle over, talking to Louie, who owned the market. It was one among many things Peyton loved about their little village. She didn’t have to worry if her son was not right next to her. It wasn’t as though she’d let him too far out of sight, but there was comfort in knowing that the locals knew her boys, and they knew the locals. They had more people who looked out for them, and loved them, than most people had in a lifetime.

  “Whatcha’ talkin’ about?” she asked her youngest son.

  “Louie says R2-D2 is a better droid than BB-8. I say no way.”

  It figured that Louie, who had to be in his seventies, would have Star Wars droids behind the cash register counter.

  Peyton went back for the orange juice Jamison reminded her to get, while he joined the droid discussion. It was the kind of conversation Kade would’ve had with them. The three of them would argue, but he’d never get impatient with them. God, she missed him.

  “Saw you with Brodie this morning,” Louie muttered.

  “Sorry about that, Louie.”

  “About what?”

  “Leaving the way I did.”

  Louie shook his head, and patted her hand.

  “Thanks, Louie.”

  “Who’s Brodie?” Jamison asked on their drive home.

  “He’s Kade’s brother.”

  “Oh.”

  “I miss Kade,” Finn said from the backseat.

  “I do too, buddy.” Peyton looked over at Jamison sitting in the passenger seat next to her. “You okay?”

  “Miss him too,” Jamison whispered. It was easy to see her son was fighting back tears.

  “It’s okay to feel sad, Jamie. You too, Finn. I feel sad too. I feel sad a lot.”

  “Maybe Brodie will wanna hang out with us,” Finn suggested. Peyton cringed, but had to admit, she’d been thinking that way too.

  What was wrong with her? He sought her out to give her the stuff Kade wanted her to have. That was all there was to it. He looked so much like his older brother, Peyton transferred her lingering attraction for Kade to his likeness.

  “Don’t be dumb,” Jamison scolded his brother.

  “Hey now, Jamie. There’s nothing wrong with wishing someone could replace someone else you lost, although it rarely works out. We loved being with Kade, and we miss him. We wish he was still here, but he isn’t, and his brother is. But they’re two different people, Finn.” Peyton looked in the rearview mirror to make sure he was still paying attention. He was looking out the window, but nodded.

  “I get it, Mom.”

  Finn didn’t want her to read a bedtime story, he wanted her to tell him stories about Kade. Some of the stories she told were real, and some were greatly embellished. To Finn, Kade would always be the superhero who saved them, and the rest of the world, from the bad guys.

  She and Kade shared a love of reading. They could sit in the same room for hours, both reading, no conversation necessary between them. When he left on a mission, Peyton read whatever books he left behind. His taste in literature was vastly different than hers, but she learned a lot about him and what he did from the books he chose to read. Some of the stories she told Finn came from those books.

  When she checked on Jamison after Finn fell asleep, he was asleep too.

  Her boys needed a man in their lives. They had her dad, but they only saw him on the weekends. She thought about moving back to the guest house full-time, but the forty-five minute commute every morning and night would’ve worn her out. She could manage the five minute drive home after the tasting room closed.

  Peyton washed her face, brushed her teeth, and climbed into bed. She closed her eyes, and thought about Brodie sitting on that rock above Moonstone Beach. He hadn’t
been waiting for her, he didn’t know she’d decide to take a walk after she stormed out on Alex. What had brought him to the spot where she and Kade often sat and watched the sunset? How could he have known?

  She woke a few hours later, and turned off the television that lulled her to sleep. It seemed as though she dreamt about Kade every night, but tonight, she dreamt about Brodie instead.

  The next morning, when she was making breakfast for the boys, she saw a text alert on her phone. It was a message from Brodie asking if he could see her today.

  Why?

  I’d like to talk to you.

  Not sure.

  Peyton sent a text to Alex, asking if she’d mind if Peyton skipped the morning run they’d talked about.

  Morning what? she answered, and then added, JK, you know I’d rather sleep.

  We can meet, she responded to Brodie.

  Moonstone?

  What time?

  You tell me.

  Nine?

  Perfect.

  Why not take another walk down Heartbreak Road? She was beginning to know its dead end all too well.

  3

  Brodie moved the plain cardboard box from the front passenger seat of his truck to the floor in the back. It wasn’t the only reason he wanted to see Peyton, and he didn’t want it to be the first thing they talked about.

  After a night of tossing and turning, he got up this morning knowing that if he wanted to sleep tonight, he had to see Peyton today. He didn’t have a plan other than he wanted to see her, spend time with her, get to know her a little, and then force himself to give her the box, and close that chapter of Kade’s life.

  When he pulled up to the same parking spot as yesterday, Peyton’s car was already there, but she wasn’t in it. Brodie got out, walked to the edge of the boardwalk, and looked north and south. He spotted her a ways down the beach, near where Santa Rosa Creek spilled into the Pacific Ocean. She was walking away from him but stopped, turned around, and waved. He waved back. He’d thought about stopping at Louie’s again this morning for coffee and another pastry, but wanted to wait to see if Peyton would like to have breakfast with him. It was a long shot, and would probably take far more time than she intended to spend with him, but he took it anyway.

  Rather than waiting for Peyton to walk back, Brodie ran down the path, and met her partway.

  “Wanna keep going?” she asked.

  “If you do.”

  They continued walking down the beach, until they reached the rocks of the state preserve.

  “It gets a little rough through here,” Peyton began. “Maybe we should…”

  “What were you going to say?”

  “Maybe we should turn back.”

  “You’re not just being nice, are you? Have you heard my stomach loudly reminding me that I haven’t eaten breakfast?”

  “Neither have I.” Peyton smiled, and her cheeks turned the slightest bit pink.

  Brodie looked at his watch. “What time do you have to be at work?”

  “We’re closed today.”

  “That’s great! I mean, that you don’t have to hurry in to work, but I don’t want to keep you if there’s something else you need to do.”

  “Nope, not a thing. I’ve got all day, and nothing on my calendar. Except picking up the boys.”

  “What time is that?”

  “Not until five. They’re both in basketball after school.”

  Since Peyton did not take advantage of a single out he gave her, he stopped offering. “How about breakfast then?”

  “I’d love it.”

  They talked about the business of winemaking, a subject they were both passionate about. Brodie told her he was impressed with the work she’d done since taking over Stave. Peyton gave most of the credit to Alex, but he knew better.

  “Where should we go?” Brodie asked when they got back to where her car and his truck were parked.

  “Do you mind a drive?”

  “Not at all.” How far away was she thinking? And did he have a protein bar buried in his truck somewhere?

  Brodie looked over her black BMW 4 series. “How fast does this little number go?”

  “Zero to sixty in a little over four seconds. Wanna drive?”

  “Your car? You’re kidding!”

  Peyton tossed him the key fob. “I get to drive it every day.”

  “The coupe is a little faster than the Gran Coupe, but only by about a tenth of a second, and a four-door is much better for the boys,” she said once they were inside.

  “I can’t believe you have two boys and your car stays this immaculate.”

  “Yeah, well, they aren’t typical boys, I guess.”

  Brodie backed the car out, and got his bearings on Moonstone Beach Drive. It would be another story when they hit Highway One. “Which way?”

  “Mind going down to Big Sky?”

  “Love that place. I never think of it.”

  Peyton leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes. “I miss it, and I never seem to have time to drive all the way down to San Luis Obispo. When I am down there, I always have somewhere else I have to be.”

  “What’s your favorite thing to have for breakfast?”

  “In general, or at Big Sky?”

  “Both.”

  “In general, yogurt and fruit, sometimes with granola.”

  “Ugh, too healthy!”

  “You forget how much food I have to taste all day.”

  “Is wine considered a food group these days?”

  “No, but the chefs who put on our events don’t make wine, they prepare food. The wine dinners are a big part of what we do at Stave.”

  Brodie glanced over at Peyton. She had been smiling, but it quickly disappeared.

  “I met Kade at the first wine dinner Stave hosted. In the years that followed, he came to a lot of them.”

  There was the elephant in the car with them, Brodie wondered how long they could go without one of them bringing up his brother. “I remember him talking about them.”

  “You’ve never been.”

  It wasn’t a question, and she was right, he hadn’t been to one of Stave’s wine dinners, but he’d heard a lot about them. As much as he wanted to attend one, he stayed away the last few months out of respect for Peyton.

  “I’ve heard they’re spectacular.”

  “Maybe you could join us sometime.”

  Brodie glanced over again. She wasn’t looking at him, she wasn’t waiting for him to answer, she was looking out the window.

  “Back to breakfast. What’s your favorite thing at Big Sky?”

  “That’s tough. If I could only have breakfast there one more time, I’d order poached eggs and crab cakes. Or maybe the lemon ricotta pancakes with blueberry compote, or the—”

  Brodie reached over and touched her hand. “Stop. Don’t mention another food item. I’m so hungry I could…”

  What had he almost let slip? More than anything he wanted to nibble on her beautiful, long neck. The way she arched it when she looked out the window, made him long to run his tongue from just under her ear down to her collarbone. He stifled his groan. It was a toss-up which he was hungrier for, food or Peyton.

  “I’m pretty hungry too.” She laughed.

  Probably not in the same way he was.

  Over breakfast, Brodie asked her about Cal Poly, and told her his brother Naughton had gone there.

  “Kade mentioned that a couple times. I knew him, but didn’t really know him, you know what I mean?”

  He smiled and nodded.

  “Where did you go to school? I’m sure Kade told me at some point, but I don’t remember.”

  “Davis, like Mad did. I started out in enology, but my heart isn’t in winemaking the way his is. I worked on the business side of wine in Napa for a few years.”

  “I thought for a while I’d work up there too, but I’m just more comfortable stickin’ around home.” Would he ask her about her first marriage? Did he even know about it? He must, sh
e had two kids.

  “I dated my husband all through college, and once we graduated he was anxious to get married. It seemed as though I graduated, got married, and had kids, before I even figured out what I wanted to do with my life. It all felt too fast, which it obviously was, since it didn’t work out.”

  “I think Naughton might have known him.”

  “I doubt they were friends. Lang would’ve been too…uh…much for Naughton.”

  Brodie laughed. “You got that right. I’m too much for Naughton. I think everyone is.”

  “I don’t know him very well. I really don’t know anyone in your family as well as I should. Kade and I had so little time together that when we did, we wanted it to be just us and the boys. Kind of selfish, I guess.” She and Kade hadn’t spent much time with her family either.

  “Not selfish. Just in love. You probably would’ve spent more time with us after you were married.”

  Married? Where did he get that? She and Kade hadn’t talked about getting married…ever, that she could remember, and that’s the kind of thing a girl didn’t forget.

  “Sorry, does it make you uncomfortable to talk about him?”

  “No, I like having someone to talk to who knew him. Does it bother you?”

  “I feel the same way you do. I can talk to my family about him, but you knew him in a different way than we did. I wish we could’ve seen more of that side of him.”

  “See? Selfish.”

  Brodie reached across the table and rested his hand on hers. “No, Peyton, not selfish. No one thinks that. No one would ever think that. Everyone understands. It took Kade a long, long time to find someone he wanted to be with as much as he wanted to be with you. We were happy for him.”

  “I loved him.” What more could she say? She just told him it didn’t make her uncomfortable to talk about Kade, but now she wanted to change the subject.

  “How about you? Am I keeping you from something you’re supposed to be doing today?”

  “Nope. Like you, I have nothing on my schedule. I don’t even have anyone I have to pick up after basketball practice.”