In Love With A Cowboy (BWWM Romance) by Tasha Jones, BWWM Crew Page A

we had that he couldn’t get up there, but that hadn’t stopped him. A drunk person was bat shit crazy, and he’d gotten it in his head we had to be punished. So he found the axe and started chopping it down. We’d stayed up there as long as we could, but we had to get down at some point if we wanted to survive the fall.
     
    By the time we’d gotten down, my dad had been exhausted and the alcohol had finally knocked him out. But he’d destroyed our tree, and the happy memories of my childhood with it.
     
    I walked around the old farm house to the back door. We’d left the farm after that. Mom hadn’t left him, but Dean and I had moved to an apartment in town. We’d never looked back. When they’d died in a car crash , a drunk driver had hit them in an ironic twist. I felt so bad for my mother, but what could I do? For my father I didn't feel anything.
     
    It was terrible. I was terrible for feeling that way. But that was how things were. Dean and I were finally rid of a drunken tyrant. And my mom was finally free of the life she’d been forced to live with my dad who she refused to leave.
     
    I shouldn’t have come to Cosmos Valley. I shouldn’t have come to Westham. I should have stayed in Houston where I could forget about my past and pretend like I didn’t have a dead beat father and a brother that was headed down the same road.
     
    But he hadn’t headed down the same road. He’d had Jada for a little while, and she was wonderful. I could give her the kind of life Dean never would be able to. She deserved that.
     
    I walked back to the horse and got on. Miles of empty fields lay behind the farmhouse, and it called to me. My horse felt it too, and he strained against me until I let him loose. He flew across the grass. The wind whipped around my face, numbing my skin and taking my breath away. If I could go fast enough, maybe I could outrun my past. Forget where I’d come from. But the horse slowed down, tired, and real life insisted I return.
     
    The horse was a sweaty mess when I rode it back and the owner made a face, but I shrugged and got into my car. I drove to the sheriff’s office, not really feeling much better at all.
    ***
    “Morning,” I said to the young man that sat behind the desk filing paperwork. He wore the brown law enforcement uniform Dean also wore, but he didn’t have the sheriff’s star and he looked like he was scared of his own shadow.
     
    “I’m looking for Sheriff Dean,” I said.
     
    “Today’s his day off. You’ll find him at home most likely. Or over at Jada’s.”
     
    He jerked his thumb in the general direction of her café and I felt jealous and angry right away. I didn’t know what my face showed, but his face was guarded. I relaxed my hands that had clenched into fists involuntarily.
     
    “Thanks,” I grunted and stomped out of the office. Dean’s place was just around the corner. I walked up the front door and hammered against it with a fist. When I stopped, the silence of the morning sung around me. I hammered again, feeling more and more upset with every second that passed without an answer.
     
    I was just about to turn away when the door finally opened and Dean stood in front of me looking like hell. He wore boxers and a shirt with holes in it, and he squinted at me through narrow slits.
     
    “Tanner? What time is it?”
     
    I looked at my wristwatch.
     
    “Nine,” I said flatly and pushed past him into the house. It was a mess with takeout containers lying on the floor and all over the kitchen table. Dishes were stacked high in the sink and it smelled like old socks. I didn’t care what was going on in his house. He wasn’t at Jada’s and that was all that mattered at this point. I couldn’t even try to imagine what it would be like with my dead beat brother sitting at her table.
     
    “Put some coffee on, will you?” Dean mumbled and slumped into a chair, cradling his head like it was going to break. I got up and filled the kettle.