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“So are you, brother.” Mason sized him up from boot to hat, and then he glanced over to Charlotte. His smile faltered slightly, and she wondered what expression she wore on her face. Mason had always had a special way of seeing right through her, even when she tried to hide things from him. So Charlotte ducked her head and moved toward the SUV.
She retrieved her purse and her backpack with her laptop, her eReader, and her chargers, and she headed into the cabin. It smelled like candy and roses, and she hadn’t experienced that before. Beau had definitely been sprucing this place up for her arrival.
The thought made her warm and smiley, and she put her purse and backpack on the dining room table. The décor hadn’t changed that much, but she did noticed the row of bowties had disappeared, and that most of the feminine scent came from the bathroom she was claiming as hers.
She smiled at the neatly hung towels waiting for her, and the bottles of plumeria-scented soaps and shampoos sitting on the counter.
“It’s okay?” Beau asked as his tall, broad frame filled the doorway.
“It’s perfect,” she said. “Thank you, Beau.”
“Close quarters,” Mason said, and Beau shifted so Charlotte could see him. He didn’t wear the same sparkles and rainbows she felt shining in her veins.
“Mason,” she warned. “I don’t want to hear it.”
Beau looked between her and him. “I do. What’s going on?”
“You’re living with my sister,” Mason said. “That’s what’s going on.” He folded his arms, and Charlotte had never felt so trapped. She couldn’t get out of the long, narrow bathroom without bursting through the two cowboys, which she wasn’t going to do.
“Did you know she tried to keep the living conditions a secret?” Mason asked.
Beau cocked his eyebrows at Charlotte without meeting her eyes fully. Before he could answer Mason’s question, she said, “I’m thirty-two years old,” she said. “You’re not my keeper.”
“Char—”
“I have it handled, Mason. This is none of your business. You don’t have to live here. I do.”
Mason glared at her, his blue-green eyes burning like angry flames. Without looking away from her, he thumped Beau’s chest. “Keep an eye on her, Beau.” Then he swung the full weight of his overprotective brother gaze on Beau.
Charlotte wanted to dart between them and silence her brother. But she couldn’t move fast enough, and Mason did what he wanted no matter who opposed him. Well, maybe not Felicity, but she hadn’t come with them to move in.
“But not too close of an eye, cowboy. She’s?—”
“Do not finish that sentence,” Charlotte said, taking angry steps forward. She shoved against Mason’s chest, and to her surprise, he fell back into the hallway. “You’re done here. Go home.”
“Charlotte,” he chastised.
“Thank you for your help this morning,” she said. “But I don’t need you to unpack my clothes.” She glared at Beau too, who wore an expression of mild curiosity mixed with mild horror. “I need some air.”
“Char,” Mason called after her as she stalked down the hall and out the back door. She burst into the morning shade at the back of the house, where the air maintained a crispness to it that would only bake away as the day wore on.
The solid cabin walls and door kept all the noise inside and the wind out, so she couldn’t hear if Beau and Mason continued their conversation. She watched her step as she darted down the steps to the back yard, where Beau’s two dogs lay in the shade.
The black lab got to his feet to come greet her, but his collie simply waited for Charlotte to scrub Pepper’s head and jowls before she came to her. She accepted the love and greeting, but she didn’t seem overly anxious to get it.
Charlotte stood in the shade and looked out over the fields. “Pretty view,” she said. “Do you guys come lay here often?” The dogs didn’t answer, but that didn’t deter Charlotte. “Do you two know the horses? What do you think they’ll think of me?”
Ruby, the collie, started to pant, and Charlotte wondered if she could leave the cabin area entirely and go meet the horses she’d be caring for.
In the end, she decided she better not. She wanted to thank all the cowboys who’d come to help her unload her car that morning, and she’d probably already been away for too long. She went back to the side of the cabin where she and Mason had parked, and she found only a few items remaining.
She’d no sooner than picked up a box marked essential oils when someone said, “Let me, ma’am.”
She did let the cowboy take the box, and he gave her a smile. “I’m Bennett. Beau’s best friend here on the ranch.”
“Great to meet you,” she said. “You’re the one getting married tomorrow.”
“That’s right.” He nodded at her and turned to take the box inside. Right behind him came another cowboy, this one much younger.
