cast a curious glance in Travis’s direction. “Yeah. But why are you asking? You have that tone.”
“What tone?” He gave her an I’m innocent look, the one he’d perfected when he was a kid and always in trouble for breaking a vase or missing curfew. Their mother usually just laughed and let Travis off with an easy punishment.
“The one that says you want to convince me to do something crazy.” When she’d been younger, she’d gone along with Travis’s ideas—camping overnight by a stream, climbing a tree, catching frogs. But their paths had diverged as she grew up and went to college and Travis...
Well, he went on being Travis. Lovable but irresponsible.
“Last I heard, you almost did do something crazy,” her brother said. “A little bird—or in my case, a little blonde college coed I used to date—texted and told me you were dancing with a stranger at the Ace tonight. She was a tiny bit jealous, because, in her exact words, ‘I had that man first.’”
Lindsay blew her bangs out of her face. “These are the moments when I do wish I lived in a big city. Geesh, does everyone in Rust Creek Falls know how I spent my Friday night? And for your information, I wasn’t dancing with him. He asked, and I said no.”
Well, sort of said no. There’d been a moment there when she’d been swaying to the music. She’d been tempted, too tempted, to slip into Walker Jones’s arms and swing around that dance floor.
“You should have said yes.” Travis got to his feet and gathered up his empty plate. He paused at the door and turned back to face her. “You’re a great lawyer, sis. Smarter than half the people I know. But you don’t take enough risks, don’t get your hands dirty often enough. Life is about jumping in with both feet, not standing on the edge and dipping in a toe from time to time.”
Jumping in with both feet was foolhardy and risky, two things Lindsay normally shied away from. But for a moment on that dance floor tonight, she’d been both.
She sipped at the wine and watched the stars, so bright and steady in the sky, and told herself there was nothing wrong with being a calm house cat sitting in the sun. Because in the end, that house cat didn’t make foolish choices that brought her far too close to enemy lines.
Walker watched his brother polish off two plates of eggs and a pile of crispy bacon before he launched into a teetering pile of pancakes. Walker had stuck to a couple pieces of toast and some coffee, his usual breakfast choice. He’d never been much of a morning eater, but his brother Hudson—he could eat all day and still be hungry at bedtime.
The food and accommodations at Maverick Manor, where Walker had decided to stay last night, were outstanding. When he’d spent a night here a few months ago, he’d been surprised. He’d expected something more...primitive, given the size of Rust Creek Falls, but the two-story log cabin–style resort rivaled any five-star hotel Walker had stayed at before. Owned by a local, Nate Crawford, the resort showed the love Nate had for the place at every turn. It had wraparound porches, big windows in every room and expansive views of the beautiful Montana landscape. He’d almost felt like he was staying in a tree house when he woke up this morning—if a tree house was big enough to hold one of the comfiest king-size beds Walker had ever slept in. The rooms were filled with overstuffed, comfortable furniture, all decorated in natural hues of beige and brown, the perfect complement to the log walls.
There’d been a copy of The Rust Creek Falls Gazette, the local paper, outside his door, filled with the usual small-town stuff—birth announcements, cows for sale, missing pickup trucks. It was all hokey stuff, making him wonder if these people were either a town full of Pollyannas or simply immune to the real world, where the front-page story wasn’t about a prize mare giving birth to twin foals.
Either way, Walker wanted to leave Rust Creek Falls as quickly as possible. The whole place grated on his nerves. The sooner he got back to Tulsa and the day-to-day operations of his business, the better, which meant not delaying the reason for this meeting, even for pancakes.
“Let’s talk about the day care,” Walker said. He waved off the waitress’s offer of more coffee.
Hudson pushed his empty plate to the side, then wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Things are going great.”
“As in, you’re there every day and are verifying that with your own eyes?”
Hudson shrugged, avoided Walker’s gaze. “Well, yeah, more or less.”
Walker’s shoulders tensed. He’d trusted his brother—and had thought it was a mistake from the start. But his father had said it would be a good idea to give Hudson a piece of the family business. Get him more involved, more invested, before their father stepped down entirely. This past year, his father had put Walker in the CEO position, while his dad took on the role of Chairman of the Board. The elder Jones continued to leave his fingerprints all over the company, as if he was still in charge. Walker hoped that once both he and his brother were part of the company, their father would ease up. But thus far, Hudson hadn’t displayed the same love for business. Hudson was a good man, a hard worker, but clearly had no desire to be involved with the family business like Walker did. Maybe Walker had read his brother wrong, and made a mistake involving him in the day care franchise.
Walker leased the building from Hudson, who owned the land it sat on. Walker had hired Bella to be a part-time manager, expecting Hudson to fill in the gaps. “What does more or less mean?”
“Place pretty much runs itself. Besides, Bella, the manager, is one of those people who likes to keep things in line, so I let her.” Hudson took a long swig of coffee.
“Hudson, you bought this property—”
“As an investment.” Hudson shrugged again. “You know, pocket money.”
Walker bit back his frustration. He should have known his brother would let him down. Their father had hoped, when Walker leased the building on the land Hudson bought, that his brother would actually get involved in the family business. As a fail safe, Walker had hired Bella, hoping she’d serve as Hudson’s right hand. Every time Walker had asked Hudson how things were going, his brother had said everything was fine. Implying he was there every day. Now, it turned out that Hudson was off...being Hudson.
“When are you going to grow up, Hudson? Take some responsibility, for once, instead of going from job to job, place to place? Actually settle down?”
“What, like you? Work twelve million hours a week and never date because you don’t have time to do anything other than—surprise—work?” Hudson shook his head. “No, thank you. I like to have a life.”
“I have a life.”
Hudson snorted.
“And just because I work a lot doesn’t mean I don’t get out, go on trips, date—”
“Name the last time you did any of the above.”
Why was Walker feeling so damned defensive? It had to be the small town, which had him out of his element and out of his normal moods. “I went to the Ace in the Hole last night and did some line dancing.”
Hudson’s brown brows arched. He was a younger version of Walker, with the same facial expressions.
