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“Yep. Your rooms are all ready.” He held his head for a moment. “Breakfast will be late, say, eleven?”
“Works for me.”
Xander pushed up from the table. “I’ll probably pass on breakfast and head back to the city.”
“You can’t bail on the weekend,” Gerard said, frowning. That was the rule. They stayed the weekend.
“Not in the mood, Barrett, so get off my back.” Xander flipped him off and walked out.
Gerard was the last to leave the poker room and turned out the lights. They’d been staying here for so long, they all knew their way around the house in the dark. He found his room easily and paused in the hall, looking at Xander’s closed door. His friend was hurting, and Gerard had been a prick, damn near picking his poker hand over Xander. He needed to make this right, so he crossed to the door, knocked, and went in. He found Xander on the verandah.
Sticking his hands deep in his pockets as he joined Xander, Gerard said what he’d come to say. “I’m an ass.”
“Yep.” Xander didn’t look at him, just kept staring out into the darkness.
He placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You know I don’t do emotions well.”
That was an understatement.
“I hate that this happened to you,” he continued, trying to get through. He squeezed Xander’s shoulder again.
“Yeah, I know.”
“We good?”
“Yeah. We’re good.”
He’d done what he came to do. Make things right. Yet it was hard to see Xander like this. He was a good man and a good friend. “You want to talk?”
“God, no.”
Nothing more he could do. Damn it. Only time could take the man’s pain away. “Good night, then.” With a final squeeze, Gerard turned to leave. At the door, he turned back. “You need anything, call, all right?”
With one quick nod, Xander acknowledged the offer. Gerard left and headed for his own room. He wouldn’t wish that kind of pain on anyone, especially not his friend. Brittney was a royal pain in the ass, but at least she hadn’t broken his heart like Danni had Xander’s. Women were nothing but trouble, and that pledge would be the best thing for all of them.
Gerard looked at the bed, not quite ready to climb in. Instead, he opened his own verandah doors and stepped out into the darkness. He noticed that Xander’s doors were now closed.
Brody’s love of this place was understandable. As Gerard sat quietly in a chair and put his feet up on an ottoman, he listened to the crickets and night birds and felt the calm of ranch life sink into him. A couple deep breaths and all the tension that held him together eased. He melted into the chair and closed his eyes.
Listening. Not thinking. In the moment.
Until he fell sound asleep.
Chapter Two
Monday morning after the poker game, Gerard, with Brody along for the ride, parked his car in the secured lot at Barrett Investment Group.
“Thanks for the ride, man,” Brody said, shaking Gerard’s hand.
“No problem. You need to borrow my car?” Brody was about the only person Gerard would loan his baby to.
“Nah. I’ll hoof it to my meetings, then ride share across the Bay Bridge. One of my guys will pick me up on the other side.”
Gerard shook his head. Brody was the most athletic of their group and preferred walking or running to riding, unless it was a horse. Ranch life was right up the man’s alley. Gerard, however, preferred the predictability of his gym.
One of the Barrett family limos pulled up next to them. Their driver, David, got out and came around to open the back passenger door. Gerard rolled his eyes.
One red stiletto slid out, then another, followed by legs that had kicked him in the ’nads more times than he wanted to think about. His sister, Emersyn, stepped out of the limo, saw them, and smoothed her auburn hair. With her eyes on the guy standing next to Gerard, she strode toward them, her hips swaying in the tight—and short—red skirt.
