she growled under her breath.
He heaved a weary sigh, and his shoulders slumped as he dropped his focus to his boots. “Later then.”
Later? No. Not if she could help it. She was so tempted to get back on a plane and flee the ranch for the safety of Boston, the safety of distance from Brady. But she’d come for her parents’ anniversary celebration, and she refused to leave before the weekend party. Standing up her parents, disappointing them was unthinkable.
The awkward expressions her family wore told her the exchange with Brady had not gone unnoted. Josh scratched his chin and rolled his eyes, while Zane clapped his hands together once and said, “Well, that’s the plan. Any other ideas or questions before we call it a night?”
Roy rose from his seat and jammed his hands in his back pockets. “If you guys want me to take a look at that business plan with you, especially as it relates to the activities happening on the ranch premises, the bunkhouse renovation and so forth, give me a holler. I’m glad to help where I can.”
Josh stepped forward to shake Roy’s hand. “Thanks. We appreciate that.”
Piper’s mother and father also stood and approached the twins, and Brady used the moment to lean closer, his breath warm against her ear. “We need to talk.”
Piper shoved to her feet and sent him a quelling glare. “No, we don’t.” Then softening her tone and digging for a tight smile, she added, “Thanks again for getting me at the airport today. Tell Connor I said good night.”
“Piper—” He reached for her hand, and she jolted at the warm scrape of his callused palm closing around her fingers.
“Good night, Brady,” she said firmly, although she heard the telltale crack in her tone. Pulling free of his grasp, she clutched her now-tingling hand to her chest and rushed from the den.
Her brothers had given her so much to consider, possibilities that she’d once longed for with her whole heart. If she’d felt she had a place here at the ranch after high school, would she have followed the same path, made the same choices she had back then?
Regret was a bitter pill, and she knew second-guessing herself served no purpose. For seven years she’d dealt with the hard choices she’d made. She’d not looked back. Yet in only a few hours of being back at her family’s ranch this trip, her world had been upended. She couldn’t deny a part of her longed to move back to the Double M. What a cherished honor it would be to take an active role in saving the ranch, her family legacy.
But was she strong enough to have Brady in her life again? Leaving him in the past had been hard enough. The past needed to stay buried. Because if Brady became a regular part of her life again, the walls she’d built to protect her heart would come crumbling down.
From his position at the top of a ridge, Ken squinted through his telephoto lens and brought the Double M Ranch buildings into focus. Figuring out which one was the main house, where Piper would be staying, was easy enough. The main house was the biggest building and had a long front porch with rocking chairs, a river-rock chimney and large windows that glowed with warm golden light. Through process of elimination, he would figure out soon enough which window was Piper’s bedroom.
As he studied the house, two men emerged through the front door and shuffled across the ranch yard toward a house nearer the stables. Several dogs yipped and raced around, following the men.
Damn it! The presence of dogs meant he’d have to be extra careful when he approached the buildings. Dogs were living security alarms. From his vantage point, one appeared to be a yellow Labrador retriever, and the other two were medium-sized black-and-white dogs with big pointy ears. Ken lowered the lens for a minute, thinking. What were those dogs called? Shepherds? No, blue heelers. Smart dogs, he’d heard. Sighing his frustration, he made a note on his pad to figure the mutts into the equation, then raised the high-powered lens again, snapping pictures.
Zooming in on the faces of the cowboys, he discovered one was older, maybe fifty or sixty years, and the other was the guy that had driven Piper from the airport that afternoon. The guy who’d been too familiar with her, held her too long when she’d stumbled, watched her too closely when she hadn’t known he was looking. But Ken had seen it all, and he didn’t need a crystal ball to know this guy meant trouble. The younger cowboy with too much interest in Piper had to be dealt with.
Ken clenched his teeth and lowered the camera with the powerful lens. Piper belonged to him, and if anyone or anything posed a threat to the future he had planned for them, Ken swore that threat would be eliminated.
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