Smooth-Talking Cowboy. Maisey Yates
the ranch in some capacity or another while supplementing their incomes with other work over the years. Grant had gotten married at eighteen and had taken a job working at the power company, where he had worked his way up over the years, needing a place that provided benefits because his wife had been sick.
He had carried on working there even after Lindsay had died. But when Quinn Dodge had remarried and retired abruptly a year ago, and Wyatt had decided that it was his time to try and give the ranch new life, Grant and Jamie had both decided to go all in with him.
Bennett, on the other hand, had a thriving veterinary practice working on ranch animals. But still, because he was his own boss, working with his friend Kaylee Capshaw, he did get to determine his own hours, and that meant he was able to invest time and a decent amount of money into the ranch.
Also, the fact that they had their own vet was damned helpful.
As for Luke, for him it had always been Get out of Dodge. But the more it changed, the more the Dodge children took control, the more he realized it had never really been his.
“Hey,” Wyatt said to Grant, “you had a desk job. A lot of men would like a desk job.”
“Yeah, those men have never had one,” Grant said drily, moving to the dining room and heading toward the kitchen. Bennett followed close behind.
“You keep giving them a hard time and they are going to mutiny,” Luke commented.
Wyatt lifted a shoulder. “They won’t.”
That was Wyatt all over. Sure of his place in the world. Sure of his authority.
Bennett and Grant returned and took their seats at the table with their bowls of chili.
“I’ve got vaccinations in a couple of hours,” Bennett said. “So, if you have anything you need me to get done, now’s the time to ask.”
“What’s that for?” Grant asked, “Rabies?”
“Scabies,” Wyatt said, “probably.”
“I’m not going to dignify that with a response,” Bennett said.
“Why?” Luke asked, figuring it was time to join in the harassment of the youngest Dodge brother. “Is it something worse? A below-the-belt issue?”
“Vaccinating a litter of puppies,” he said.
“You coming out drinking tonight?” Wyatt asked. The question was directed at Bennett. “Because you really should. Considering you’re a free agent now.”
“You never harass Grant about being a free agent.”
Grant let out a harsh breath. “Because I’m not really.”
“You should,” Luke said to Bennett. Eager to smooth over that momentary rough patch. That was what he did. It was why people liked him around. “You can come, too, Grant. At least just because there’s alcohol.”
“Not my thing,” Grant responded.
Luke wasn’t going to press it. In his opinion, it was time for Grant to move on. Lindsay had died eight years ago. Of course, that was an easy conclusion for him to draw, since he had never been in love before. He didn’t know what it was like to lose someone he felt that way about.
He had lost his mother, but that was different.
“Since when is beer not your thing?” Bennett asked.
“I like to do my drinking alone,” Grant answered.
“That’s concerning,” Wyatt said.
Grant lifted a shoulder. “I’m concerning. That’s not a newsflash. Anyway, you guys go out. Drink. I’m going to go home like an old person and sit in front of the TV.”
Luke didn’t see the appeal in that at all. But then, he wasn’t a huge fan of solitude in general. He found that the louder it was, the less he had time to think. And he liked that. In general, he preferred to drink or fuck until he fell asleep. Because the alternative was to lie there and let memories chase around in his head like rabid foxes.
He really didn’t see the appeal in that.
“I gave Olivia a ride to work this morning,” Luke said, addressing the eight-hundred-pound breakup that seemed to be sitting in the middle of the table at the moment. “She had a flat tire.”
Bennett looked up. “Really?”
“Yep.”
He lifted a brow. “I bet she didn’t like that.”
“No. She did not. But then, you know she’s eternally surprised when the world dares go against her express wishes.”
“Yes,” Bennett said. “I do know that about her.”
Luke always had a hard time getting a read on Bennett’s feelings for Olivia. The relationship had been a funny one. Intense, on Olivia’s part. Which was why it was odd that she was the one who had done the breaking up. At least, from Luke’s point of view.
“She’ll come around,” Luke said. “I mean, if you want her to. She asked about you.”
Bennett took a bite of his chili. “Hey, she broke up with me.”
“Lindsay broke up with me once,” Grant said. They all looked at him, because Grant rarely mentioned Lindsay at least not by name. There was a lot of alluding to the past, to his marriage. But he didn’t say her name very much. “Seriously. We were seventeen.”
“Why?” Wyatt asked.
“It was when she got sick again. She was in recovery when we started dating. It came back and she wanted to let me go.”
“How’d you change her mind?” Luke asked.
“I proposed,” Grant said. “Told her I was in it for real, and it wasn’t up to her to tell me how to live my life. That I wanted one with her.”
They were silent for a moment.
“Proposing would have worked with Olivia,” Bennett said. “That is why she broke up with me. I didn’t propose to her on Christmas Eve.”
“What are you waiting for?” Luke asked. “I thought that was the plan. To marry her.”
It had seemed inevitable from the time the two of them had started dating a year ago. The obvious conclusion to something that they’d been circling for years. They were the two most respected families in town. Everybody knew that Bennett Dodge and Olivia Logan were destined to be together.
“Yeah,” Bennett said. “It was. But I don’t know. She broke up with me. So I’m taking the time to think about that. I care about her. She’s a sweet girl. I mean, maybe sweet is the wrong word. But she’s... She’s something.”
Luke chuckled. Yeah, Olivia Logan sure as hell was something. He finished up his lunch, then stood, going into the kitchen and rinsing out his bowl before passing back through the dining room. “I’ve got work to do,” he said. “Hey—” he directed that at Bennett “—you can work on decorating the cabins.”
“What?” Bennett asked, frowning. “How did I get nominated for that?”
“I’m your boss, little brother,” Wyatt said. “And I say you need to hang some curtains.”
Bennett laughed. “I’m the only one with a thriving business independent of this place. I’ll pay to have someone else come and do it before I go hang any damned curtains.”
“Save your money for some G-strings down at The Frisky Mermaid,” Wyatt said, referring to the strip club down in Tolowa. “Since that’s about all the skin you’re seeing these days.”
That forced Luke to think about the skin that Bennett had been seeing. Olivia’s skin. Pale and pretty, and easy to turn pink with indignation. He wondered if she turned pink all