Rosa crawled over to Claire and started slobbering all over her slacks. Claire picked her up and wiped the drool and cracker crumbs off her chin. “I’ve got to run. We’re late opening up the store. But Alice, I’ve known Beau my whole life. He and Bryce are the closest things I’ve ever had to brothers. If I were you, I’d rip that contract up. You will not find a kinder or sweeter man. Playboy antics aside—and at least some of that is overblown, by the way—Beau is what my mama would call a keeper.”
“But he said he’s not looking for a relationship—”
“And you’ve said the same thing ever since I’ve known you. But what do you want now?”
Beau. She wanted Beau.
Someone else knocked on the door. “Holy guacamole, it’s like Grand Central Station this morning.”
She answered the door and found Brittany, red-eyed and puffy-faced, sniffing on her doorstep.
“Oh no!” Alice said. “What’s wrong?” She was proud of herself for not adding the word now.
“It would take less time to tell you what isn’t wrong,” Brittany said, limping her way into Alice’s living room. “My cousin Margo has appendicitis.”
“Oh dear,” Alice said. “I’m sure she’ll be fine. The mortality rate for appendicitis is extremely low.”
Brittany looked at Alice like she was nuts. “My aunt says she can’t be in the wedding now,” she wailed.
“Oh.”
Brittany threw her hands up. “So, I have an extra groomsman.”
“How . . . tragic?” Claire said.
Brittany became very still, eyeing Alice carefully. “Aren’t you about a size six?”
Dang it. She was a perfect size six.
Beau turned off the coffeepot and washed the plates in the sink. It was ten o’clock, and this morning he’d be following Bryce up to the Rockin’ H to help him settle in. Then he’d be coming back here, to Rancho Cañada Verde, until Wednesday, when he’d head back to help Bryce get the place ready for Brittany’s wedding.
The wedding. Just thinking about it set off a domino train of emotions. He’d get to be with Alice again, and barring uninvited parents, he was going to make love to her properly. And he was for damn sure looking forward to it. But it also meant the expiration of their contract. And he was not looking forward to that at all. He rubbed his temples. “Bryce! Better get a move on if you still want to hit the Rockin’ H by noon.”
He was trying to act as if everything was cool. Like today was like any other day instead of the day he was helping Bryce move out.
Memories played through his mind like a movie reel. Blanket forts and tree houses. Wrestling through the small living room and into the kitchen, their mama hot on their heels threatening to get after them with a flyswatter. The smell of fresh-baked cookies when they came home from school. A Christmas tree in the front window with two matching bikes beneath it. He had very few memories that didn’t include his brother. Being half of a twin unit was a natural state for him. Unless he’d been at his special spot on the bluff—the only place he ever went alone—he’d always been half of a whole.
Bryce came in and smacked him on the shoulder. “I just packed the last box. Do you have room for it in your truck?”
“Yep. On the front seat.”
Bryce pointed at the window over the sink. “Remember when you got stuck trying to sneak into the house while drunk on your ass? You finally managed to fall into the sink, breaking the faucet.”
“I didn’t have a choice. Mom locked the doors and all the other windows.”
“Yeah. She really wanted you to work for it.”
“And she was sitting in the dark, waiting for me, like some kind of freak in a horror film. Scared the shit out of me. And then she acted like it was my fault the faucet was broken.”
“It was your fault. God, our poor parents. The emergency room visits alone should have sunk them.”
No kidding. Their parents had earned their retirement on the Gulf Coast. “It’s a good thing your new place is furnished. Otherwise we’d be fighting over the couch.”
“We’ve already battled over the cookware and small appliances.”
“I can’t believe you’re taking the spaghetti pot and the fucking blender.”
“You don’t use either one. And anyway, we might have to fight over the couch later. I’m thinking about getting an apartment in Austin,” Bryce said. “And it won’t be furnished.”
Beau turned to face his brother. “Oh? Why would you do that? Gerome said you could live in one of the lodge’s suites.”
“I think it might be fun to live in the city,” Bryce said. “It would only be about a twenty-minute drive out to the Rockin’ H—”
“Ha. It’ll take you twice that long just to get out of the city limits. Austin traffic sucks.”
Bryce just shrugged as if city traffic didn’t bother him in the least. “You ready to run this place all by yourself?”
“Yep. On Monday, I’m installing those new solar panels and getting the battery bank set up—”
“Were you able to read the instructions?”
“Good enough.”
Bryce frowned, and it made Beau bristle. He was good at putting things together, and he had the diagrams.
“Do you want to fire up the new software program?” Bryce asked. “Take a look at it one last time? I’m still kind of figuring it out, myself . . .”
“Nope. Allie helped me with it last weekend. I know which tab takes me where and how to enter the correct information. I even emailed a report to Ford last week—no problem.”
“That’s great. I told you Alice would help you, and I was right. Looks like it’s working out very well.” He shook his head with a grin. “I’m surprised you came home last night.”
“I wanted to be here with you this morning. Also, her parents barged in on us.”
“No way! That sucks.”
“It was fine. They’re nice folks.”
Bryce nodded. “So, from what
