Slow Ride Home (The Grady Legacy)

Slow Ride Home (The Grady Legacy) by Leah Braemel Page A

Book: Slow Ride Home (The Grady Legacy) by Leah Braemel Read Free Book Online
Authors: Leah Braemel
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air. When he was a kid, a ranch hand had told him that being able to hear the steel wheels on the rails from this distance meant a storm would soon follow. He cracked open one eye and surveyed the starlit sky. The stars were obscured to the west, hinting at clouds, and the wind gusted now and then, stirring the trees by the stock pond beyond, but for now all was safe.
    A horse whinnied in one of the nearby pastures, and another responded from the north, probably one of the stallions trying to court a mare in heat. Closer by, crickets chirped, one particularly loud by the back stairs, and stinkbugs occasionally flung themselves onto the wood.
    Headlights arced across the side of the house and across the back lawn as a vehicle drove into the driveway. Minutes later, the kitchen light blazed on, sending a rectangular swath of brightness streaking across the lawn.
    “Ben? Where are you?” Jake called.
    “I’m in the hot tub.” Ben blinked, half blinded, when his brother turned on the outside spotlight.
    A beer can in hand, Jake wandered onto the porch. “You got any leftovers? I haven’t had anything to eat since breakfast.”
    Considering they had a cook who made dinner for the hands every night, it was Jake’s own fault if he hadn’t eaten. Ha, he snorted to himself, pot meet kettle. “I haven’t had any dinner myself. Next time bring your own food instead of taking mine. And where the hell have you been? Did you turn your damned phone off? I’ve been trying to reach you all frickin’ day.”
    “I was out fixing the pump—you know there’s no cell coverage out there.” Jake cracked open his beer and took a long drink.
    “You were out there this late?”
    “No.” Jake drew the word out to three syllables. “I had to run into Joshua Falls and meet up with Cam.”
    “And you couldn’t check your messages? I needed to talk to you.”
    “I got distracted, okay?”
    Figured. Jake was always getting distracted. Usually by a tight pair of blue jeans on some blinged-out waitress.
    He closed his eyes and rested his head once more. “Next time check your damned messages before you hit the bars.”
    A rustle of cloth and the small waves lapping higher on his chest told him Jake had ditched his clothes and climbed into the opposite side. It would have been a helluva lot more fun if it had been a woman stripping off and climbing in rather than his brother. Some strange part of his brain supplied an image of Allie, though the ache in his heart shoved the thought right back out again.
    What was he going to do about her? He’d thought he’d gotten her out of his system long ago. To find the attraction was still there plagued him. He had two choices, he decided. A) Be all business-like and pretend she was a stranger, or B) work out whatever the lingering attraction to her was by dating her, talking to her, whatever. He debated the various alternatives and decided he couldn’t pull off pretending she was a stranger, which left B the only choice. He could be cordial. They could talk. They had when he’d brought the food over, hadn’t they?
    “Ma said Panola’s the one claiming he bought half of Bull’s Hollow.”
    “Yup.” So much for pleasant thoughts of hot nights with Allie in his bed.
    “She also said that Allie Daniels is working for the title insurance company.”
    “Yup, but her name’s O’Keefe now, not Daniels.”
    “She got married?” Jake took another long swig of his beer. “I’d like to meet the man who took her on. Man, I bet she’s a handful to please in the sack.”
    “She’s divorced.” The picture of another guy making love to Allie left a sour taste in his mouth plain water couldn’t cleanse—not that it should have made any difference to him after all this time.
    “She holding a grudge about her pa being fired and them getting kicked off the spread?”
    “Yup.” Ben pinched the bridge of his nose. The jets that had been relieving some of the ache in his muscles proved

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