Maybe I could try to forget I had fallen hook, line, and sinker for another Hardy, and this time, I’d been stupid enough to think he actually loved me back.
THIRTY-FIVE
ty
I stood in the Robinsons’yard, June’s words echoing their misery in my head.
“We can go back to our real lives.”
She would go back to Austin. It was what I’d expected all along, what I thought I wanted, so it shouldn’t hurt this much to hear her say it. She would start her own business and make a name for herself, just like she wanted, and I would go back to my ranch.
I closed my eyes, a cold throb settling in behind my broken ribs. The thought of going back to my ranch all alone left my heart aching for everything I’d lost. Everything I had just let slip away. I opened my eyes again, and the sight of Bret walking across the lawn turned that cold ache into an angry fire. I glared as my brother came close enough I could smell his awful cologne.
“I heard you got kicked by one of your horses.”
Bret’s smirk did it. After everything he had put June through and made me endure by proxy, he’d decided to lead with a smartass remark? I snapped. I socked him square in the mouth. Pain ripped through my chest like a Mack truck thundering over my ribs and tore a shout from my lungs, but I’d do it again to give Bret a small taste of what he deserved.
He stumbled back, putting a hand to his bleeding lip. Should have at least knocked him on his ass, but I didn’t have the energy to get in a better punch. The one I’d landed left my head swimming and sparks flashing in my vision as it was.
“What the hell was that for?”
“You had it coming.” I put one hand over my blazing chest, sure I’d felt my bones pop out of place with that punch. Worth it, but…damn. “What did you say to her?”
“I apologized, you ass.” Bret dabbed at his mouth and inspected the blood on his fingertips. Probably afraid it would drip on his fancy jacket, the pretentious bastard. I should have known better than to think he might throw a punch in return. Couldn’t sully his image. Leaving women left and right didn’t faze him, but he wouldn’t stoop so low as to fight for one.
“It’s a little late for that, isn’t it?”
“Better late than never.” He fished around in his pockets but must not have had anything to wipe his hands on. “What’s gotten into you?”
“Nothing.” I stormed around him, trying to decide if I wanted to punch him again. The first one hadn’t been very satisfying, but maybe another would do the trick. I might pass out from the pain straight after, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to land a second blow.
Even with a bloody lip, he managed a smirk. “I guess a better question is, what’s going on with you and June?”
I shook my head, still prowling around him. I wasn’t about to have a heart to heart with my baby brother, especially not over her.
“Come on, man, I might be a jackass, but I’m not an idiot. I know you like her.”
“You don’t know anything.” Like wasn’t nearly the word. This was more thanlikeburning through me, eating me up whole from the inside out.
“I saw the way you used to watch her when we were together. I know that look. You wanted her from the first day I brought her home.”
I couldn’t deny it. I’d been taken with her from the first moment I saw her. I’d tried to accept I could never be with her, but that hadn’t made me want her any less. These last weeks, all that wanting had stretched and grown until I couldn’t contain it any more. I put my hand on my chest, somewhere over my busted up heart. This wasn’t a passing interest I could put out of my mind, or an inconvenient attraction I would forget as soon as she was gone. For the first time in my life, I was in love.
In two days, the woman I loved would go back to her real life in Austin, her future laid out in front of her, all shiny and new. I wanted to break something.
“You know, I used to wish you’d make a move on her so I could bow out and it wouldn’t be my fault.” Bret flashed hisI’m a jerk but what can I do?grin.
I took a step closer, and he flinched. “The minute you thought that, you should have done the right thing and ended it with her.”
“I know. I’m a coward. I admit it.”
“You’re a coward and a cheating snake.”
“That, too.” He kept his tone light, but something in his eyes said he felt the truth of it. He could be a selfish bastard, but I had never really thought him heartless. He just couldn’t stop himself from screwing things up with women.
“Did you ever care about her?”
He hesitated, and that was answer enough.
