by Jessie Evans
He scowled so hard the back of his eyes started to ache, but when Reece gave his arm another tug, he let her lead him down the aisle away from the tack room.
“I wasn’t going to hurt him,” he growled beneath his breath. “Just teach him the manners his parents clearly neglected to instill when he was growing up.”
“Andy was going for a shovel behind you,” Reece whispered, leading him across the yard toward the house. “That was about to turn into a brawl.”
Grayson grunted. “That’s fine. I could have handled both of them. I didn’t need you to rescue me.”
Reece stopped in front of the porch steps, spinning to face him with a frustrated huff. “And I don’t need you to defend my honor. I’m used to men in this town talking about me like that. Dumb cowboys were calling me a slut years before I let a guy get to third base. I’m over it, okay? It doesn’t faze me anymore.”
“Well, it fazes me.” Grayson crossed his arms and met her angry look with one of his own. “You don’t deserve to have some stranger talking about your body like it’s something he’s going to pick up at the store.”
“I don’t know.” Reece’s shrug was paired with an eye roll that made it clear how dull she found this conversation. “Maybe I do.”
Grayson’s scowl deepened. “Bullshit. You don’t believe that.”
“I stopped playing by ‘good girl’ rules a long time ago, Grayson, and I’m happier because of it,” she said. “I fuck who I want, when I want, and the list of cowboys I’ve wrestled naked isn’t a short one. If you’re the kind of asshole who believes women are virgins or sluts, then I know which category I fall into, and I’m fine with that.”
“Having sex with who you want, when you want, doesn’t make you a slut.”
“Not if I were a man it wouldn’t,” Reece said with a bitter twist of her lips. “But like I said last night, I don’t live in Happily Ever After land; I live in the real word. Today isn’t the first time I’ve been called ugly names and it won’t be the last.” She let out a long slow breath. “Besides, the way I see it, calling me a slut says more about the person saying it than it does about me, anyway. So I just let it roll off my back and go on about my business.”
Grayson shook his head. “But if you stop standing up to people who have their heads up their asses, how are things ever going to get better?”
“They’re probably not.” She lifted her hands into the air before letting them fall back to her sides. “Women have been getting a bum deal for centuries, and we’re still getting paid less for the same work and being told all the things we can’t do because we don’t have a penis. It’s shitty, but it’s the way the world is.”
“That’s not what you thought when it came to your career,” Grayson said, refusing to back down. He didn’t want to give up and accept that things were going to stay shitty. He wanted to know there would come a day when the women he cared about didn’t have to expect a raw deal. “You fought back and made people change their minds. Why not fight back now? Why throw up your hands?”
“I’m not throwing up my hands,” she snapped.
Grayson lifted a judgmental brow. “Sure sounds like it.”
“Listen, when it comes to staying on a bull, I either stay on or I don’t. There aren’t any shades of gray. No one can argue the facts.” She shook her head, sending her curls bobbing around her shoulders. “But when it comes to all the rest of it…I don’t even know where to start. I can swear all day long that the sky is blue, but if some asshole is determined to call it gray, we’re never going to come to a meeting of the minds.”
She propped her hands on her hips, her eyes narrowing as her gaze returned to his face. “And you know, a lot of people would think you’re pretty stupid for risking a beating defending a woman who propositioned you not fifteen minutes after you met her.”
“So? I took you home an hour after I met you,” Grayson said. “We’re adults who made a choice. And sometimes it doesn’t take more than fifteen minutes to know what you want.”
He paused, stepping closer and leaning down until Reece’s breath warmed his lips before he added in a softer voice, “Besides, I knew you couldn’t help yourself. I’m damned near irresistible when I’m scowling into my beer. You think you’re the first woman I picked up that way?”
A smile crept slowly across her face and her tongue slipped out to dampen her lips, making Grayson hope she was thinking about kissing him as much as he was thinking about kissing her.
Finally, she laughed and punched him lightly in the stomach. “Yeah, well, I actually like you better when you smile. How about that?”
“I like you better when you smile, too,” he said, giving one of her curls a gentle tug. “What do you say we get out of here? Find something to do with ourselves that won’t lead to another fight?”
Reece hummed as her eyes drifted to the blue sky overhead. “I don’t know, fighting with you is pretty fun, and I had some big plans to shovel horseshit this morning.”
“How about you come help me repair some fence instead,” he suggested. “And when we’re done, I’ll make you lunch. And if you’re really up for more fighting, I’m sure we can find something to butt heads about while we work.”
She grinned, setting the dimple in her right cheek to popping. “Sounds like an offer I can’t refuse.”
CHAPTER NINE
Grayson
Reece emerged from the house a few minutes later with her purse and two cups of coffee. They drank coffee and talked fence post repair on the way to the Parker ranch and a few minutes later Grayson was pulling up his front drive, just as the late morning sun peeked over the top of the ridge. He parked near the barn and circled around to open Reece’s door, but by the time he reached the passenger side of the truck she was already standing in the remnants of yesterday’s snow. She craned her neck, staring up at the top of the barn, where a horse weather vane swirled in the winter breeze.
“It’s so weird to be back here,” she said softly. “When I left the last time, I didn’t think I’d ever set foot in that barn again.”
“I didn’t even think about that,” Grayson said, feeling like an asshole for not considering that this might be painful for Reece. “You want me to take you home?”
Reece glanced over at him, eyes wide. “No, it’s all right. It’s weird, but it’s okay. And the dragon’s dead, right? No sense being scared to go into the cave.”
“No, but fear doesn’t always make a lot of sense,” Grayson said with a sigh. “Mine never responded to logic, anyway.”
“What did it respond to?” she asked, sounding genuinely curious.
“Therapy,” he said honestly. “And time. Mostly time.”
Reece nodded. “I tried therapy once. I didn’t have the patience for it when I was younger, but I might now. I’d like to have a clearer head on my shoulders before I decide what to do next.” She grinned. “Maybe I’ll look for a therapist in Vegas while I’m waiting for my skull to heal. I can get my head shrunk and patched up at the same time.”
Grayson shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and shrugged. “I don’t know, why can’t you stay here while you’re getting better? Lonesome Point has to have at least one decent therapist. And I know you and your dad have your differences, but I bet he’d be glad to have some time to spend with you after the holidays.”
Reece turned back to the barn, her smile fading. She was quiet for a long beat before she said in a flat voice, “He didn’t believe me. Back then. About what happened with your dad.”
Grayson shook his head, a father not believing his own daughter about something like attempted rape was so wrong it was difficult to process. “Seriously? What about your mother?”
“Seriously,” she said, gaze still fixed on the barn. “And Mom never said what she believed. She gets too scared to say ‘boo’ when Dad gets wound up and he was plenty wound up that day. He just kept screaming that I was going to ruin a man’s life…”
She ran a hand through he
r hair, twisting the curls into a knot that she tucked into the top of her sweater. “I guess he thought the fact that I skipped school and hated all the bullshit rules he tried to force on me and my sister meant I was a liar, too.” Her shoulders lifted and fell. “I’ve always assumed that’s why, anyway. Or maybe he just didn’t like me as much as he liked Neil.”
Grayson cursed.
“No need to cuss about it,” she said, with a hard laugh. “Just stop pestering me to stick around for a happy family reunion and we’ll be good.” She took a deep breath and clapped her hands together. “Okay! So how are we getting out to the fences? I can’t ride a horse, but I’d probably be okay on a four-wheeler, as long as I don’t get going too fast.”
“We’re fine to take the truck,” Grayson said, patting the edge of the truck bed, willing to let the subject of her staying drop. For now. “The ground is frozen, so we shouldn’t get stuck in the mud. I just need to load the supplies and we’ll be good to go. Wait here if you want. I can get it all in two trips.”
“No way,” Reece said, leading the way toward the barn. “I want to go in. See what kind of horse treasure you’ve got hidden away in there.”
“I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed. The barn’s half empty.” Grayson followed her around the stone path to the entrance. “Dad sold off the broodmares before he died, along with all the younger stallions and the prize winners.”
Reece frowned at him over her shoulder. “That’s weird. I never remember him parting with a single animal when I was growing up. I wonder why he up and sold them all of a sudden.”
Grayson shook his head. “I don’t know. The back property taxes might have had something to do with it. Dad hadn’t paid in three years. Unfortunately, I’m having a hell of a time tracking down what he did with the money from the sale of the horses. If I can’t find it by April, I’m going to have to empty my savings to get the property back in good standing.”
Reece stopped in the middle of the wide main alley into the barn, where horseshoes from all of Neil’s prizewinning horses were nailed into the wood around the entrance for luck. “That doesn’t sound like him, either. Was he getting senile in his old age or something?”
“I think he was just trying to stay afloat.” Grayson stretched his neck from side to side as stress crept into his muscles, the way it did every time he started thinking about the mess his father had left him to sort out. “The operation’s been losing money for almost a decade. I think I can get things turned around in the coming year, but I’m going to have to let three hands go and pinch every penny to get there.”
Reece’s brow furrowed as she followed him into the barn. “That’s a shame. Well, let me know the names of the people you have to drop. I was talking to Cole Lawson the other day and he said he was going to need an extra pair of hands soon. Maybe I can help get at least one of your men transitioned over there.”
Grayson paused near the equipment room and smiled down at Reece. “That’s sweet of you.”
Reece’s lip curled as she snorted. “No, it’s not. I just hate to see anyone out of work that’s all. Life’s hard enough without losing your damned job.”
Grayson’s smile widened. “Sounds pretty sweet to me. And you’re cute when you’re snarly.”
Reece crossed her arms and glared up at him, but he could tell she was fighting a grin. “Watch your step, Parker, or I’m not going to tell you the brilliant idea I just had to save your ass.”
Grayson forced a sober expression onto his face as he spun the combination lock on the equipment room. “I’m listening, Snarly. How are you going to save my ass?”
“You’ve got one of the biggest, swankiest barns in the county sitting half empty,” Reece said, following him into the dimly lit space. “You need to put an ad out that you’re open for boarders ASAP. You charge people two hundred dollars more per month than anywhere else and tell them they’re paying for the luxury experience or some shit. I bet you’ll have those empty stalls filled in a month, and you might be able to keep one of the hands on to help out.”
Grayson glanced back at her as he fought his way through the crowded room to the fence posts in the corner. “But people from around here don’t have that kind of money, and most who do have their own barns.”
Reece held a finger up in the air. “But you’re not after the people from around here. You’re after the transplants from the city who are buying up those cute little houses in the development near downtown.”
He slid his gloves on. “Really?”
“Yes,” Reece said, the excitement in her voice contagious. “A lot of them are buying horses, but they’ve got no place to keep them. Tulsi sold her therapy animals a few months back and my dad had his open stalls filled in a week. And our barn doesn’t even have heat or big fancy fans to keep you cool in the summer. I seriously think a high-class boarding situation could work.”
“And I think you’re a genius.” Grayson dropped his first load of fence posts in the wheelbarrow nearest the door and pulled Reece into his arms, hugging her so tight her feet left the ground.
“Hardly,” she said, her giggle becoming a sigh as her arms twined around his neck. “I’m just used to wiggling my way out of hard spots.”
“Well, I’m still grateful.” He turned his head, inhaling the sweet and spicy smell of her shampoo as his arms tightened around her. She felt so good pressed against him he didn’t want to put her down.
“This is a long friendly hug,” she finally whispered.
“You want me to let you go?” he asked, voice husky.
“No.” She pulled back to look him in the eye, bringing their faces only inches apart. “But what I want and what’s best aren’t always the same thing. I’m leaving January second, Grayson, come hell or high water.”
Grayson nodded. “Okay.”
“So it’s really up to you,” she said, a vulnerable note in her voice. “Whether you think a week being more than friends with a woman with a dent in her head is worth your trouble.”
“If you’d stuck around the hospital the other day, I would have told you I have a high tolerance for trouble when it comes in the body of a woman as fascinating as you are.”
Reece arched one brow. “Is fascinating another way of saying a pain in the ass?”
“Stop it.” Grayson crossed the room, until Reece’s back was against the wall near the door and her curves pressed even more tightly against him. “If I’d meant a pain in the ass, I’d have said it. Don’t put yourself down.”
“I’m not.” Reece held his gaze as she wrapped her legs deliberately around his waist, setting his blood pressure to spiking. “I just don’t like pretending to be something I’m not.”
“I think you’re trying to keep people from seeing who you really are.” Grayson cradled her ass in his hands drawing her closer to where his erection strained the front of his jeans, biting his lips to hold back a groan as her eyes fluttered closed. “You’ve got a soft heart for a tough girl.”
“Nothing soft there.” Reece’s fingers dug into his shoulders as her hips rocked against him. “Is it wrong that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about your cock nine out of every ten minutes we’ve spent together?”
“If it’s wrong,” Grayson said, dropping his forehead to hers, “then I don’t ever want you to be right.”
He was seconds from claiming her mouth and showing her all the things he’d been thinking about since the last time she was in his arms, when his phone starting blaring in his pocket.
“Don’t answer it,” Reece said, her lips so close they brushed his cheek as she spoke.
“I have to, it’s Layla’s ring.” He set Reece on her feet and reached for his phone. “She never calls unless it’s important.” With a deep breath and a slight adjustment to ease the uncomfortable situation in his jeans, Grayson answered with a strained, “What’s up?”
“It’s the police,” Layla said, fear vibrating in her voice. “They called a few minutes ago. They�
�re coming back to take another look at the building that burned when Daddy died and they’ve got a warrant for the house, too.”
Grayson sighed. “All right. Do they need us to do anything special? Or should we just plan on staying out of the way?”
“Chief Wyatt said we didn’t have to be here if we would rather leave a key,” Layla said. “He was really nice, but the guy who called right after I hung up with him wasn’t pulling any punches. It was a reporter from CNN, Grayson. He already knew about Dad and some sort of child pornography sting operation or something. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. I was too afraid to ask.”
“You didn’t say anything to him, did you?” Grayson asked, pacing outside the equipment room. “We don’t want to fuel the fire or give them any reason to keep calling.”
“No, I didn’t say a thing,” Layla said. “But if someone from a news network that big is already on the story, this is worse than we thought. I’m betting it won’t be long before we have reporters at the gate.”
Grayson cursed, his plan to put an ad in the paper for boarders going up in smoke. No way was he going to be able to sell the barn as a luxury experience when he had scandal-hungry reporters on his doorstep.
“I wish we could get out of here,” Layla said. “Just for a little while.”
Grayson paused, turning back to Reece, who was standing in the equipment room doorway with a curious expression on her face. “Just a second, Layla.” He covered the speaker with his hand and asked, “How do you feel about a road trip to San Antonio? We could hang out on the river walk, eat too much Mexican food, get away from the small town bullshit for a couple of days?”
Reece’s brows lifted, but after a moment a twinkle entered her eyes. “That sounds amazing. And I’ve got a ton of hotel points saved up. I might be able to get us a room for free.”
