Branded as Trouble

“Mom has zero whispering skills, and it wasn’t as if I could get up and walk somewhere else. They were talking about it right after my surgery.”

Sophie nodded as if all of this was crystal clear. It wasn’t. He motioned for her to continue with her explanation.

“Before I started seeing Clay, Mom looked up some regular dating sites for me. Those are the ones she gave to Mila, though I can tell you from personal experience that it was a sucky ordeal. Anyway, Mila gave Mom the sites for fantasy dating, but I’m hoping Mom will decide against doing those.”

So did he. On both counts. A woman shouldn’t have to risk a “sucky ordeal” for her first time, and he didn’t want to think about his mother having fantasies of any kind.

“I plan to talk to both of them about it. Now, you go ahead and get some rest.” Sophie gave him another kiss and walked away.

Well, rest had been the game plan, but Roman wasn’t sure that would happen now. If he tried to nap, he was certain the only thing that would be going through his head was the conversation he’d just had with his sister.

Crap.

Why did he even care a rat’s butt about this? His mom and Mila were grown women. And plenty of people used dating sites, even strange ones like those that catered to the fantasy experiences. One of his business associates had found a site that catered to men who liked threesomes. Then foursomes.

Since it was obvious he wasn’t going to get any rest, Roman used the French doors in his room to go into the backyard. As a teenager, he’d used them to sneak in and out of the house, and he was sort of doing that now. He wanted a moment to himself. And he got it. No one, including any of the hands, was around. Not a surprise, really. On a nice spring day like this, there was plenty of ranch work to do, and Garrett and Tate would have gone out through the other side of the barn once they’d saddled up.

The stitches in his side were still letting him know he wasn’t completely healed, so Roman kept his steps light as he walked across the yard and to the corral where he spotted two palominos. Probably some of the new horses that Garrett had mentioned he’d just bought.

His brother had certainly made this place successful. Roman had the proof of that in the financial reports that Sophie sent him each month. Not just for the ranch, but for Granger Western, as well.

The bottom line was they had plenty of money.

But then, they always had. They hadn’t done anything to get that seed money started. They could thank their ancestors for that, but his siblings had certainly built on that, and built big. Roman had done the same with his rodeo promotion business, but he never forgot that it wouldn’t have been possible without those silver spoons they’d all been born with. Most of the time, though, people forgot about all the hard work that it took to keep those spoons polished.

He made his way to the corral fence to get a better look at the horses. He not only got that, Roman also got a jolt from the memories. There were memories everywhere on the ranch, but there was a bad one here.

This was where he’d had one of those pivotal moments in his life. Well, actually, the pivoting had started earlier that day. He’d been about the same age as Tate and had ridden his bicycle over to his great-grandfather’s old house. Not far, just a half mile or so, and it was a trip he’d made plenty of times before. That day, however, he’d seen his father’s truck, pulled off onto one of the trails that led to the house. Roman had stopped because he thought his dad had broken down, and he’d looked around, expecting to see his father fixing a flat tire or something.

But Roman hadn’t seen that.

Instead, he’d gotten an eyeful of his father making out with the new waitress from the Maverick Café. Roman couldn’t remember her name, but he sure as hell could remember seeing his dad kissing her and running his hand into her unbuttoned squirrel-brown uniform top. Even though Roman knew little about sex in those days, he was well aware of what was going on and recognized the heat-glazed eyes and the groping.

When his dad had spotted him, he’d stopped, bolted from his truck and gone after him, but Roman had ridden his bike into the woods and hidden.

Roman had also cried.

He hadn’t exactly put his dad on a pedestal because, in addition to being his father, his dad was also an asshole. Always wheeling and dealing. Always playing mind games. But the bottom line was he was still his dad. And Belle had still been his mom. In those days, Roman had had her on a pedestal. That had been before the harping, before the constant flood of criticism. When he still had respect for her.

But it all changed that day.

His dad had finally found him a few hours later, right here, next to the corral fence. He’d been neither apologetic nor remorseful. Just the opposite, in fact. He’d simply said to Roman if he told anyone what he’d seen in that truck, that he would ground him and sell his favorite horse, Lobo. After that, his father had walked away as if he’d just delivered some kind of decree that Roman would obey.

He didn’t.

That “decree” had made Roman feel dirty, as if he’d been the one to do something wrong. It hadn’t been fair, and in those days, Roman still believed in fairness.

It’d taken a week for him to build up the courage, but Roman had finally gone to Belle to tell her. He had waited until she was alone in her rose garden, and even though he’d fumbled with what he was saying, Roman had spelled it out for her.

Her husband was cheating on her with a woman—a girl, really—who probably wasn’t old enough to vote. And not only that, he’d threatened Roman into keeping his secret. A secret that was twisting and tearing his insides apart as only bad secrets could.

His mother hadn’t even looked at him the whole time he was talking. She’d kept clipping those roses, kept placing the flowers in a perfect, flat row on the basket looped over her arm. No tears, no denials, no falling apart as he had feared she would. She simply said the words that still echoed in his head.

“Go inside and wash up, Roman. Your hands are filthy.”

Even now, her reaction stunned him, and he’d tried to repeat what he’d told her, in case she hadn’t understood. But she had. When her watery blue eyes had finally met his, Roman had seen it all. She not only knew about her husband’s cheating, but she also wasn’t going to do anything about it.

He’d gone to his room and cried again.

The last tears he had ever shed.

Roman had tried to make sense of it. Hard to do that with his thirteen-year-old’s mind. And he hadn’t wanted to tell Garrett, his big brother, because he had known that Garrett would confront their dad. Garrett was the good guy even back then. He would have confronted their father, who would have given him a punishment equal to or possibly worse than the threats he’d issued to Roman, and it wouldn’t have made any difference.

Belle would have condoned the cheating with her silence.

Maybe his mother hadn’t wanted to give up being a Granger. Maybe all of this—the house, ranch and money—meant more to her than her self-respect. Maybe she’d just been too weak to walk out of the marriage.

Whatever it was, Roman had lost respect for her that day, too. And for his father. Because his dad had indeed grounded him and sold Lobo.

Roman hadn’t expected Belle to go to his father and tell him what he’d said. But obviously she had, and she didn’t lift a finger to stop her husband from carrying through on his unfair threats. Then she’d tried to fix things by leaving him a picture of Lobo on his bed.

As if that would help.

It hadn’t. Not that day, anyway. But he’d kept the picture and looked at it from time to time. Still did. Because it was a reminder that things you loved could be snatched away. It was also a reminder, though, that there’d been something important enough in his life to love.

After that, Roman said fuck-you to fairness and to his mom and dad. He’d said fuck-you to a lot of things. And he had done that right here, standing at this very corral fence.

His father had continued the unfair shit for the next ten years before cancer claimed him. He’d made Roman the owner of the ranch when Garrett was the one who wanted it. Maybe that had been his father’s way of trying to pull Roman back into the family, but it hadn’t worked.

Ironic, though, that Tate had been the one to get Roman back here.

His father was probably laughing his butt off in the grave.

He was so deep in thought that he didn’t hear the footsteps until it was too late to duck for cover. But at least it wasn’t his mother. It was his cousin Lawson.

“Pretty, aren’t they?” he asked, tipping his head toward the horses. He walked to the fence, stood next to Roman.

They were the same age and looked more like brothers than cousins. On occasion, they’d raised hell together by drinking and making time with some of the more willing girls in Wrangler’s Creek.

“Garrett loves this place,” Lawson went on.

That caused Roman to look at his cousin. Because it sounded as if there was a “but” coming.

Roman cursed. “Please tell me Garrett’s not thinking about leaving here once Nicky and he get married.”

“No way. Nicky and her kid love it here, too, and you couldn’t get Garrett to move away if you stuck dynamite up his ass. There might be trouble coming, though.”

Hell. “What kind of trouble?”

He motioned to the back part of the ranch. “You know that land by the creek?”

With just that question, Roman got an inkling of what this was about. Because that land had been in dispute for more than six decades. It was an old family history lesson, but Roman’s great-grandfather, Zachariah Taylor Granger, or Z.T. as people called him, had a brother, Jerimiah, who was Lawson’s great-grandfather. Both Z.T. and his brother had built not only the town of Wrangler’s Creek but the ranch, as well. However, after a falling out, they’d split the land.

Except for about a hundred acres that, at the time, had been leased out to another rancher.

The lease had long since expired, and that meant the ownership of the land was in question, and it was a prized chunk of acreage to own because the creek coiled through it. Garrett needed the creek water to keep the ranch growing.

“Your brothers don’t even ranch their land,” Roman said, though he was certain Lawson needed no such reminder.

“That might change. Lucian is thinking about bringing in large herds.”

“Lucifer,” Roman grumbled.

Lawson didn’t object to the nickname for his oldest brother, especially since he was the one who’d given it to him. Roman’s family wasn’t the only ones on the outs with Jeremiah’s kin. Lawson had parted ways with his three brothers, as well. That was mostly due to Lucian. Roman was a badass novice compared to Lucian and the man’s cut-throat business tactics. Lucian and his brothers already had a huge ranching operation in another part of the county, but if they were looking to expand, they’d definitely be looking here.

“Did Lucian tell you this?” Roman asked.

Lawson shook his head. “Dylan.”

Another of Lawson’s brothers. Roman was a novice womanizer compared to Dylan, but at least he wouldn’t stab you in the back. Dylan fell into the lover rather than the fighter category.

“I’ve already told Garrett all of this,” Lawson went on, “but he’s not spreading the news just yet. Especially since it might not happen. Dylan’s trying to talk Lucian out of doing this.”

Okay, maybe Dylan had some fighter in him, after all.

“Tell Dylan thanks,” Roman said. It wasn’t thanks because of him but because of Garrett. This place did mean everything to his brother.

“I will. I’m seeing Dylan later this week. He’s coming into town to meet Mila for a drink.” And with that, Lawson walked away.

“Mila?” Roman cursed in pain when he moved too fast to catch up with Lawson.

When Roman did step in front of him, Lawson looked at him as if he didn’t understand what had to be a look of concern on Roman’s face. “A friend set them up on a blind date,” Lawson explained. “Of course, it’s not really blind because they know each other. Not well, though... Say, what the hell’s wrong with you? Are you about to keel over again from the pain?”

Roman took a moment to decide how to answer that. He took another moment to try to figure out why it bothered him that Mila was going on a date with his cousin. And it did bother him. There was no mistake about that. It bothered him because Dylan was a love-’em-and-leave-’em type.

Just like Roman.

And considering what Sophie had told him about Vita giving her a condom and Mila using a dating site, maybe she had decided to lose her virginity to Dylan.

Dylan would take it, too, because he wouldn’t care if he broke her heart in the process.

“Are you okay?” Lawson asked.

No. He wasn’t. Roman had to stop Mila from making a huge mistake.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“I DON’T WANT to risk getting seaweed and sand in my hoo-hoo,” Belle said.

Mila just nodded. Something she’d been doing a lot since Belle had shown up at the bookstore at nine a.m. and had brought her list of fantasy dates with her. The list now included discarded ones, the possibilities and her favorites. Despite the fact that Mila had told her she needed to order some books and do paperwork before she opened the store at ten, Belle had sat down as if this were a social call.

“That’s why I’ve decided against From Here to Eternity,” Belle added. “Plus, I’d have to drive a long way to get to a beach.”

Good point, but she had convinced Mila at the no seaweed or sand in the hoo-hoo. At least she was convinced if hoo-hoo was Belle’s word for her lady part. If not, then Mila had no idea what the woman meant.

“That brings us to the pottery scene in Ghost and the scene from Twilight. The one where they’re in the woods, and he tells her to ‘say it.’ I like that scene a lot.” Belle sighed like a schoolgirl. “I like the one from Ghost, too, but I don’t want to fall in bed with my undies showing.”

Mila wasn’t sighing. The first one would mean very close contact, and if Belle got someone like Wesley, then it could turn ugly. There was also a problem with the Twilight scene because it was indeed in the woods where Belle would be alone with this guy.

“Uh, you just got out of the hospital a couple of days ago—” Mila started.

“Four days,” Belle corrected. “That’s plenty of time, considering I wanted to jump-start my life. This is the slowest jump-start in history, since it’ll take me at least a week to set this up. And that’s after I decide which one.”

Since it was obvious she wasn’t going to be able to use Belle’s health to get her to rethink this, Mila took the list and looked it over again. And mentally ticked them off one by one. Great day, but the woman had lofty fantasies that ranged all the way from Tolkien scenes to Pretty Woman.

“How about Scarlett O’Hara?” Mila suggested. “You could do the scene where she visits Rhett in jail.” That way, “Rhett” wouldn’t be able to get his hands on her.

Belle stared at her, huffed. “All right, what’s wrong? You did this fantasy stuff for a couple of years. If it was okay for you, why isn’t it okay for me? And don’t say it’s because I haven’t had a date in over forty years because you haven’t had a real date in ages, either.”

The woman had a point, but Mila thought maybe she picked up on bad vibes a little better than Belle. Maybe not, though, since she had had that encounter with Wesley.

“Honestly,” Belle went on, “I see just as much risk in you going out with Dylan later today as in me doing Twilight. And my name’s already very close to the character so that might be a good sign.”

Mila froze. “How’d you know about Dylan?”

Belle froze, too. “Uh, Lawson mentioned it.”

Great day. That meant it was all over town. “It’s not a date. It’s just coffee.” Mila was thinking of it as more of a prequel to a possible date.

Belle just stared at her. “Dylan isn’t the ‘just coffee’ type. He could charm the panties off a nun. Or you.”

Maybe, but it would be a nice change of pace from the other guys in town who were trying to do the same.

“How’d Dylan set up this date with you, anyway?” Belle asked.

“He’s friends with Julie Dayton. She’s the librarian at the school.” Basically, Julie had played matchmaker, and Mila didn’t know whether to thank her yet or not.

Mila braced herself for Belle to tell her all the reasons she shouldn’t go out with Dylan. After all, it wasn’t her coffee meeting that folks were chattering on about. They were also talking about the possible lawsuit that Dylan’s brothers might file against the Grangers.

“I have an idea,” Belle said, lowering her voice to a whisper despite the fact they were the only two people in the entire store. “Go out with Dylan. Let him think you’re falling for his charming ways. It won’t be hard because all those boys are lookers. Anyway, while he’s charming you, you could pump him for information about the lawsuit. You might even be able to convince him to tell his brother to back off.”

Mila lowered her voice to a whisper, too. “No.” And she didn’t have to think about it, either. “This is just for coffee at the café in about an hour. No pumping. No spying. In fact, I don’t plan to stay for more than thirty minutes.”

Her plan also included ordering iced tea so she wouldn’t even have to wait for it to cool. To say she was having second and third thoughts about this was an understatement. Still, she would go since it seemed cowardly to back out now especially since she’d arranged for her part-time help, Janeen Carlin, to cover the store.

Belle didn’t say anything for several long moments. “Do you want a short date because of Roman?”

“What?” A conversation with Belle was rarely easy to follow, and this one was no different. “Why would you think of Roman?”

“Because he’s right outside the window. I guess it’s the opposite of out of sight, out of mind. Instead, he’s in sight, in mind.”

Mila turned toward the window so fast she heard her neck pop. And Roman was indeed there. He was peering through the window at them. He lifted his hand in an awkward wave.

“I hope nothing went wrong with Tate,” Belle commented. “He was supposed to start school today.”

Mila had already moved toward the door, but that caused her to go even faster. “Is Tate okay?” she immediately asked the moment she unlocked it and threw it open.

Roman pulled back his shoulders, surprised by her question. Or maybe he was just surprised that her voice was so intense.

“He’s fine. I got all the paperwork done for him to go to school here, and I just dropped him off...” His words trailed off when he spotted his mother. “Did I interrupt anything?”

“No.” Belle snatched her fantasy paper from Mila, folded it and put it in her purse.

Obviously, this wasn’t something the woman wanted to discuss with her children. Probably because they all disapproved. Sophie and Garrett had already called Mila with their concerns. So had Billy Lee. Apparently, though, Belle had no hesitation about discussing it at length with Mila.

“I need to be going,” Belle said. She kissed Mila’s cheek and spared her son a glance on the way out. “And you need a haircut,” she added to Roman.

“Dippity-do,” he grumbled to her.

Mila didn’t have a clue what that was about, and she didn’t have time to ask Belle because the woman hurried out.

“Are you here about your mom’s fantasy dates?” Mila asked at the same time that Roman asked, “Was my mother here about your date with Dylan?”

Neither answered.

They just stood there, obviously surprised and also waiting for the other to say something. There was no need for her to ask him how he knew about Dylan. Gossip. No need for him to explain how he knew about his mother because he’d overheard their conversation when they were at the hospital.

And speaking of hospitals, she looked at his side. He wasn’t hunched over in pain as he’d been the last time she’d seen him. “Are you supposed to be driving, walking and such?”

His mouth tightened a little, probably because he thought she asked in an effort to avoid answering his question. She had. But Mila honestly wanted to know how he was doing.

“The doctor didn’t say I couldn’t do those things,” he answered. Then added, “I’m fine. Practically good as new.”

She doubted that, but it was nice to see him up and about, especially since he had given her a scare when he’d collapsed.

“So, why are you here?” she pressed when he didn’t continue.

He glanced around. “Books. I thought I’d get some for Tate. You know what he likes, and I thought you could help me pick out a few. I don’t want him to get bored while he’s at the ranch.”

She doubted that would happen. From what she was hearing, Tate was riding a lot and even helping Garrett with some of the ranching chores. Now that he was back in school and had his therapy sessions three times a week, he probably wouldn’t have a lot of spare time. Still, it wouldn’t hurt for him to have some books on hand.

Mila headed to the Young Adult section, specifically to the postapocalyptic books that Tate preferred. Roman followed her, and that’s when she noticed he was hobbling a bit. Definitely favoring his right side.

“I also wanted to thank you again,” he said.

Mila should have just let that pass, but she couldn’t. She whirled around to face him but hadn’t realized that he was so close. She practically knocked right into him.

“Please don’t tell me thank you. Or hug me.” She hadn’t meant to blurt that last part out, but maybe her visit with Belle had put her close to her tipping point.

“Hug you?” he questioned. Roman huffed. “Does that have anything to do with you seeing Dylan?”

Mila could see no correlation, but obviously Roman could. “No. Why would you ask that?”

He shrugged. “Because I know you’re going out with him today, and maybe you think he won’t like it if you and I are...friends.”

So, perhaps that was the correlation, but it required a huge stretch to get from a coffee date to dictating her friendships. Of course, Roman might believe Dylan would feel that way because of this potential lawsuit. Because Dylan and his family wouldn’t be just suing the Grangers.

They would be suing Roman since he owned the ranch.

Mila forced herself to turn back to the books and took several from the shelf. “Friends,” she repeated. She didn’t make it sound like a question. She just tossed it out there to see how Roman would react.

He hesitated. A long time. “Yeah. We’ve been friends since we were kids.”

That hurt. He could have at least said good friends. Or dear friends. Something to distinguish her from the cashier at the grocery store.

Mila handed him the books with a little more force than she’d intended and started back to the front. Again, he followed her.

“Are you mad at me?” he asked.

“Yes! No,” she quickly amended, and then went with a “Maybe.”

She was toying with the idea of playing with fire here. If she said she didn’t want to be just his friend, it could put him on the spot. He could reject her.

Heck, he probably would.

She wasn’t anywhere near his usual type, and it didn’t matter that she wanted him to feel more for her. Mila couldn’t force him. And that’s why she needed to keep that coffee date with Dylan.

God, she had to move forward instead of being stuck in gear over Roman.

“It’s okay,” she assured him. It was a lie, of course. Mila stopped, turned and gave his arm a friendly pat.

Or at least that’s what she’d intended. He reached out, lightning fast, with his left hand and caught her wrist. He was so close again. So close that she caught the scent of his aftershave. It smelled expensive. And dangerous.

“Are you going out with Dylan to prove some kind of point to me?” he asked.