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Aiden lost himself in the thick of the crowd, dancing with anyone close enough to grab. Men, women, it never mattered. He was just goofing, and everyone knew it. Line dancing wasn't a tool of seduction; not for him. It was a way to cut loose and connect with people. Attention and affection weren't things that were freely given—they were coaxed out.
He couldn't remember the last time he'd pretended to have so much fun…all to spite the man watching from the shadows.
Seth was an immovable sentinel at the edge of the crowd, propping up a heavy beam with nothing but broad shoulders and a bad attitude. Aiden tried to ignore it, but he couldn’t shake the weight of that stony gaze.
No one approached Seth, and he didn't talk to anyone else; he was too busy keeping tabs on his baby sister. Tessa had been cuddled in a corner with Riley Jensen for hours, just talking and nursing the same flat beer. When the two kids checked the time on their phones and headed out –
together—Aiden swooped in and caught Riley by the elbow.
"Hold up," he said jovially, tugging the kid around to face him.
Riley glanced at Tessa's back, yearning toward her with every fiber of his being. "I'm just driving Tessa home," he said.
"Yeah, I bet," Aiden said dryly. "Look, I know she's a grown woman and all, but you've got to understand something. See that guy over there?"
He turned his back to the McCall siblings and jerked a thumb over his shoulder.
Riley's gaze flickered toward Seth and immediately away, as if afraid to linger for more than a moment and risk attracting his attention. His Adam's apple bobbed when he swallowed, and he nodded. "Tessa's already told me he's protective," he said hesitantly.
Aiden threw back his head and laughed, but it only seemed to make the kid nervous for some reason. "More than that," he said with an easy grin. "There was this one time back when I worked at the Double Jay. We were out riding fence, and we came across a poacher who thought he'd help himself to the bucks on our private property. Seth rode his mare right up on the guy, knocked him ass over tea kettle, and grabbed the rifle out of his hands. Then he shot out every tire on the guy's truck and made him walk seven miles to the old Miller farm for a ride."
"Damn," Riley said with a nervous laugh.
Aiden tilted his head and said, "Seth doesn't mess around when it comes to something he considers his to protect. And Tessa? She's more important to him than any piece of land. Get me?"
Riley's complexion had gone pale, and a film of sweat gleamed on his upper lip, but he still managed to look Aiden dead in the eye. "I got it," he said solemnly. "I respect her, I swear."
Aiden was reluctantly impressed. He let up on his intensity and gave the kid a friendly clap across the shoulders. "You better," he said cheerfully. "Because Seth isn't the only guy in Tessa's life who knows his way around a rifle."
He chuckled softly as he watched the kid hurry away, complimenting himself on a job well done, when he felt a prickle along the back of his neck. He turned…and there was Seth, wrapping Tessa in a bear hug but watching Aiden over her head with those dark, dark eyes. Aiden's stomach twisted.
He thought about the story he'd told Riley. He'd gone easy on the kid, all things considered. That was one of his mildest anecdotes. Aiden could have told him about the time he'd been running his mouth after a summer rodeo and gotten pinned by a roided-up bull wrangler. Seth had taken the oaf from behind and suplexed him into the ground, knocking out two teeth before getting pulled off him. Or he could have mentioned the incident on the old bridge. Seth had followed Aiden despite his misgivings, and when the condemned structure gave way, he was the one who hauled Aiden out of the class-three rapids with a strength born of sheer desperation. Then there was the story of the bear and the scars Seth still carried on his flank because of him.
What Aiden had told Riley was true: there was nothing Seth wouldn't do for the people he cared about. Like duct-taping Aiden to the seat of his truck. Like forcing himself to participate in a festival where no one wanted him just to keep an eye on Aiden. Like hauling him off Buck Carson earlier and reading him the riot act, not because Aiden was a burden or an inconvenience, but because he cared. Even after so many years apart…he still cared, and Aiden was punishing him for it.
Aiden broke eye contact when the weight of Seth's gaze became too much to bear. Tessa had left, but Seth was still there, watching over him. Guilt crept in, overriding Aiden's anger no matter how hard he tried to hang onto it.
He felt like a loser.
"Catch!" Luis Herrera stood atop the makeshift stage where a three-piece fiddle band had played all afternoon, tossing beers into the throng of dancers. Aiden swiped a can out of midair and popped the top, slurping up the frothy liquid as it spilled over his fingers. He drained the can in one long pull, throat bobbing, and sighed.
"Fuck it," he muttered, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He cut through the crowd toward Seth and grabbed him by a belt loop. "Tess and Riley are gone," he shouted over the music. "You can stop scaring people with the ogre routine now."
"You don't look scared," Seth said, eyes gleaming.
Aiden grimaced comically. "Yeah, well…like you and my mom love to remind me, I've got no sense of self-preservation."
"Never too late to learn."
"Exactly." Aiden's grin felt feral, and he tugged experimentally on his belt loop. "C'mon then. You're going to learn how to have fun again. It's time to dance."
Seth didn't budge. "I don't dance," he said flatly.
"You do now," Aiden snarled, yanking so hard that Seth was forced to go with it or else snap the denim completely.
"You're drunk," Seth said, grabbing Aiden's hand where it hooked into his belt loop with a grip that felt like a vise. Aiden ignored the warning. If Seth wanted to get free, he was going to take some of Aiden's fingers with him. Otherwise, the bastard was going to dance.
"I wish," Aiden cracked sharply, "but you took the fun out of that. All I've got left is dancing, so the least you can do is join me."
