PROLOGUE
MATTY
Summer, 4 years ago
Nothing in the world smelled better than sun-warmed dirt and freedom.
The kind that clung to the back of your throat, dry and heady and alive. The kind you couldn’t find in a city, no matter how many fancy parks or overpriced colognes tried to fake it. This was the real thing.
Home.
We rumbled down the winding road in Dad’s beat-up Jeep, windows down, tires spitting up little clouds of dust. The sun burned lazy patterns into the hood, and the scent of hay and fresh manure drifted on the breeze like the ranch was welcoming us back with open arms. I leaned out the window, letting the wind slap against my face like it could knock the city off me.
I needed that.
Dad was quiet behind the wheel, one hand resting on the cracked leather, the other drumming his fingers against the steering column in time with some old country songplaying low on the radio. It crackled now and then, but he didn’t bother to change the station.
“You’re acting like you’ve been gone a damn year.” He flicked a glance at me and my older brother, Carter, in the rearview mirror. “Four months in that concrete jungle and you’re both limp as overcooked noodles.”
“I’m not limp.” Carter pushed his designer sunglasses up the bridge of his nose. “I’m refined.”
“God,” I muttered, shaking my head in disgust. “I can’t believe we’re brothers.”
Carter grinned. “Because I’m stylish and urban, and you’re still wearing spurs and a Stetson at a city college.”
“And yet, which one of us got laid?” I shot back.
“Oh, fuck off. I could get laid plenty. I’m just more picky about where I put my dick.”
“Wasn’t so picky when Dad caught you in the eighth grade with?—”
“Don’t even say his name!”
Dad laughed, a deep, warm sound that filled the Jeep better than the radio ever could. “Boys, boys, knock it off before I toss you both out of the vehicle.”
Carter snorted, stretching out his legs with that smug-city-boy energy he always brought home with him. Spending the summer with him was going to be brutal. Until we went to Mom’s. Then it would be worse.
“Won’t be so easy, Dad,” Carter said. “I’ve been working out.”
“Yeah, lifting lattes doesn’t count.”
“Matty,” Dad warned gently, though the corner of his mouth twitched like he was fighting back a smile.
I leaned back in the seat and let my eyes roam the land outside. Golden fields rolled out like a painting. Fence posts leaned at stubborn angles, a few wildflowers poked uparound the ditch banks, and horses grazed in the distance with their tails flicking in lazy rhythm. The sky looked bigger here. Like it gave you room to breathe.
Tomorrow at this time, I could take Junebug out for a run. My skin tingled with anticipation. I could already feel her raw, unadulterated power beneath me, the rhythmic pounding of her hooves against the earth, the wind whipping my hair around and cutting through my clothes. To be back in that saddle, to let all thoughts melt away and simply exist within the rhythm of nature was a kind of bliss I couldn’t find anywhere else. A year of college in DC hadn’t changed that.
“Missed this,” I said quietly, almost choked up. I could never understand how Carter preferred the noisiness of the city over the serenity of the vast countryside.
Dad glanced at me again, softer this time. “Ranch missed you too.”
Carter groaned from the passenger seat. “You two gonna start writing poetry now about the wholesome country life? Because if you are, you might as well let me out, and I’ll walk the rest of the way.”
“No one asked you to come,” I muttered. “You could have gone straight to Mom’s.”
“Except we kind of promised to split the time between here and the city.” He nudged me with his loafers, so fucking unsuitable for ranch life. “Though I don’t see why I couldn’t go straight to Mom’s, and you stay here. Problem solved. Dad wouldn’t have to try to get me out of bed before seven every morning, and Mom wouldn’t have to force you to wear something other than plaid.”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t argue. Carter had always been closer to our mom, thriving in her world of social events and skyline views, bottomless brunches, and rooftop pools.
