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Corbin glared at him. “Very funny.”
Jesse laughed. “Lighten up. I’m teasing. You’re doing great and ready to brave the wilds.” He opened the gate.
Corbin shook his head. “I’m not ready.”
“Of course you are. Just loosen your grip on the reins a little and quit sitting in the saddle like a stiff poker. If you can stare down a hard-ass business mogul and get his money to invest, you can handle riding a horse.”
“I’d rather stare down a hard-ass mogul,” he said as the horse walked out of the paddock.
Jesse followed and moved up next to him. “Then why are you here? Why aren’t you back in your office in Houston?”
“I told you. This is all for Sunny.”
Jesse studied him for a long moment. Corbin knew Jesse was torn between wanting Liberty’s family to keep their ranch and wanting his new sister to be happy. While Corbin and Jesse had met almost three years ago, Jesse and Sunny had just met a month ago. Still, it was easy to see the bond between them. They looked like their daddy while Corbin looked more like his and Sunny’s mother.
It hadn’t been a surprise that Daddy had fooled around with another woman and gotten her pregnant. Or that the woman had turned out to be a child abuser and the state had taken Jesse away from her. Daddy had never gone for motherly women. What had been surprising was that Jesse had been adopted by one of the wealthiest families in Texas and had still come looking for his half brother and sister. And not just looking for them, but wanting a relationship with them.
Corbin had tried blowing him off. He hadn’t wanted anything to do with his brother by another mother. But Jesse had refused to give up. No matter how many times Corbin ignored his calls and texts, Jesse kept right on calling and texting. He’d shown up at Corbin’s work and offered advice. He followed him to bars and bought him drinks. When Corbin had told him about his dream to start his own investment company, Jesse had offered to stake him. Still, thanks to his parents’ desertion, it had taken Corbin a long time before he completely trusted Jesse.
He trusted him now.
Jesse trusted him too.
He smiled his big dopey smile. “Well, if this ranch is what Sunny wants, then this ranch is what Sunny will get.” He glanced over to where their sister was riding in circles. “Hey, Sunny! I’m heading over to Rome’s to help with branding, you want to come?”
Before Corbin could get after Jesse for making the offer, Sunny yelled back. “Hell yeah, I do! I’ll race you to the Remingtons’.” With a loud “Yeehaw!” she took off across the pasture.
Jesse laughed. “I better go after her so she doesn’t get lost.” He took off and called over his shoulder. “Just take Homer back into the barn and I’ll unsaddle him later.”
Unfortunately, Homer had other ideas . . . like joining the fun and chasing after Jesse’s and Sunny’s horses. Corbin had to hang on for dear life or end up in the dirt. It took him a good while to get the horse to slow down. When Homer finally came to a stop, Corbin realized two things. Sunny and Jesse were nowhere in sight and he didn’t have a clue where he was.
Cussing out his siblings, he took out his phone and tried pulling up GPS. For some reason, it wasn’t working. Probably the same reason he couldn’t get Wi-Fi at the house. He was living in a dead zone.
And a hot zone.
The temperature had to be in the high nineties already and it wasn’t even noon yet. If Homer didn’t decide to toss him off and break his neck, he was going to die of thirst and heat exposure. Not that Homer looked like he was about to buck him off. In fact, he seemed as drained by the heat as Corbin and was plodding along as if the next step would be his last.
Did horses drop dead from heat?
Corbin had a lot of pride. If it had just been him wandering around in the heat, he would have kept going—even if they found his skeleton remains years later. But he wasn’t about to let his pride kill a horse. He guided Homer over to the shade of a mesquite tree, dismounted, and called Sunny.
She answered right away. “Geez, Cory, I’m fine. So stop worrying about me. I’m not going to get a big Y branded over my heart. I’m just standing on the fence watching. You should see how efficient this is. Rome, Casey, and their crew have already inoculated, tagged, and branded like fifty cows. It’s unbelievable . . . and sexy as hell. I might just have to marry me a cowboy. I’m thinking Casey Remington might do.”
“You’re not getting married until you’re older. And while you’ve been gawking at Casey, Homer and I have been wandering around lost.”
There was a long pause. “Wait a second. You followed us? Jesse and I thought you stayed back at the ranch.”
“I wanted to, but Homer had other ideas.”
A burst of laughter came through the receiver before Sunny yelled. “Hey, Jesse, you’re not going to believe this, but Corbin followed us and is now lost.” More laughter before Jesse came on.
“Hey, Whitty! So you’re lost, huh?” The smirk in his voice was extremely annoying.
“I’m sure you two are real amused. But you won’t be if this horse drops dead of thirst and heat.” Jesse snorted with laughter and Corbin scowled. “It’s not funny, Jess. Get me some water and a trailer for this horse and get it now!”
“Don’t freak out, Whitty. Where are you?”
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be lost, now would I?”
