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“Brothers.” His thumb stopped moving. Kellan didn’t look at her when he said it, “End of story.”
“Where we come from…” Tanner slung his arm around her shoulder. “…there’s no such thing as half, little sister.”
“Okay, you’re close. I get it.” Resuming their movement, Kellan skimmed his fingers along the back of her hand. “Where’s your mom, Tanner? Did she and your dad get divorced?”
“No.”
“Oh, they were never married?”
“They were married.”
“She’s dead.” Kellan turned the TV off. “Buried in the family plot next to mine.”
“Fuck.” Her hand flew to her mouth.
“I was three days old.” Tanner hugged her to him closer. “Weak heart, they figured, bein’ that’s what took his mom too.”
“Why would that matter?”
“Because they were sisters,” Kellan said, matter-of-factly. “I say we get some sleep. We’ve got a long drive and a truck to unload tomorrow.”
Scrunched together, the three of them made themselves fit on the pullout sofa. Kellan faced one way, and Tanner the other, while Arien stared up at the ceiling. She thought of two little boys growing up without a mother. Two sisters lying side by side in the ground. The man who had been married to them both. How tragically sad.
Something woke her. Tanner softly snored behind her, his tattooed arm thrown across her middle. It was heavy.
She gasped.
Moonlight illuminated the piercing eyes that studied her.
Kellan held a finger to her lips. “Shhh.”
Raising his arms high above his head, Tanner stretched his limbs at the back of the U-Haul and inhaled a lungful of city air. It lacked the scent of clear spring water, wild meadows, and earth. Undertones of pine. Ozone. Denver was an all right city, he supposed, but it wasn’t the evergreen forests, the place he called home.
His new stepsister was sad to be leaving here, he was sure. Tanner was just as certain she would fall in love with Brookside, the ranch, the majestic wilderness that surrounded it.
And us.
To have Arien love him. Kellan. Their family. Well, as far as he was concerned, that was the most important thing of all.
Their blood might not run in her veins, but just as the land would seep into her skin, they’d steal their way inside her heart and brand their names upon her soul. Yeah, he’d make sure of it.
Tanner was working in the horse barn that day in May, laying fresh straw in the foaling stall, when his dad came home from one of his business trips going on about this pretty blonde waitress he’d met. He and his brother snickered under their breath, not thinking much of it at the time.
But the trips became more frequent and he didn’t stop talking about her.
“Wait ’til I get my hands on you, Jennifer.” Leaning against the paddock fence, his dad whispered into the phone, “Just the sound of your voice gets me hard, baby.”
Yeah, you still got it, old man.
Even if he was his father, Tanner had to admit Matthew Brooks was a handsome dude for forty-four. Virile and fit. It was in their genes. Hell, on the rare occasions Dad went out with them to Jackson, the ladies threw themselves at him.
“You fucking her, Dad?” Course, Kellan had to already know the answer to that.
“Mind your mouth, son.” But as he pushed off the fence, his voice wasn’t at all stern. The look he gave them was enough, though. “Jennifer is…different. Special. She’s the one…”
“How do you know?”
“Because I know.” Matthew winked. “That woman is just what I need, what this family needs.” He paused, the corner of his mouth quirking up. “And she has a daughter.”
