“I don’t know if that’s true this time.” Taking a hand towel from me, he dried himself off and carried it to the table to use it as a Texas-sized lap napkin. “I made a lot of mistakes with that girl.”
Mistake-making seemed to be going around.
Andi got pregnant at fifteen. And Sterling took that about the same way he’d have taken her flinging his wealth—plus every opportunity she had just by being his daughter—back in his face. She’d married her boyfriend, Ryder Dent. A sham marriage, because Ryder Dent is gay.
To this day, nobody but Andi knows who Jonas’s real father is.
For a while there, our little corner of Texas rivaled any network soap opera. But it all settled down pretty predictably afterward.
Andi Chandler Dent made her own rules, just like her daddy.
“Andi knows you love her,” I reminded him. “She’s mad, but she’ll come around when you apologize. You know that as well as I do.”
“I miss Jonas.” Petulantly, he picked up his beer and popped the cap off on the edge of the counter. “I want him back, goddamnit.”
“Language, Sterling.”Wow, Twice in one night.
Elena took off her apron and hung it on a hook.
Contrite, Sterling faced his long-term housekeeper. “Sorry, Elena. I’m just out of sorts.”
“Good night, then, boys.” She met my gaze from the door. “I’m going to go watch my stories.”
She expected me to look after Sterling until he was ready for bed. That only meant making sure he had coffee or tea if he asked, and I could turn on the kettle as easily as she could.
While he ate supper, I filled him in on everything that had happened at the Rocking C while he was away, including the part about our new hand.
“So I gave him the choice between Tripp’s and Lucho’s old bunks. He picked the room on the end.”
Chandler winced when I said our former hands’ names. “Heard anything more about those two?”
“Like what?”
He rubbed his temple. “Are we in for some kind of discrimination lawsuit shit?”
“They’re staying over at Ryder’s dad’s old place until they can figure something else out. I haven’t heard if they got themselves a lawyer.”
Chandler nodded. “From what I understand, they’ve both still got jobs at the J-Bar if they want them.”
“That’s right. They could always head back to New Mexico. They’re weighing their options.”
Chandler nodded glumly. “And I suppose one of their options is staying here and turning Dent’s farm into the cutting-horse operation I envisioned for the Rocking C.”
“Oh, I hope so,” I said. “It would serve you right to see that a man’s worth isn’t defined by the direction his dick points when he’s looking for love.”
“Oh, for God’s sake, not that PC bullshit again. I wish to God all the goddamn queers’d just go back where they... Naw, shit. Sorry. Christ.” He scrubbed his face with both hands before getting up and crossing to the liquor cabinet for another whiskey. “Y’all give me a headache. Want something to drink? ’Cause I don’t mind telling you, I’ve had about all I can take from the gays right now.”
“No, thanks.” I can’t mix my meds with alcohol, but he always asked. If only he could be like that where Andi was concerned. If only he’d take her ego—and Ryder’s—into consideration the way he sometimes did mine. They wouldn’t be at each other’s throats all the time, if only he’d listen to her.
“So, you met Skyler?” he asked. “How did he seem? You think he’s going to fit in here?”
“Tad says he knows his way around horses, but he’s got no gear. I don’t even think he has boots.”
“Have Julio take some cash from the box.” Sterling took a seat in his recliner and picked up his pipe. “He can take Sky into Bitterroot first thing and get most of what he needs.”
“Isn’t Julio going to be busy with the horses?”
“Yeah. But we’ll need all the hands for moving the herd day after tomorrow, and Sky needs gear.”
