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“Why were you there?”
I take the aggression running through my veins and try to cool it by dousing the horseshoe in the bucket of cold water, imagining it’s my temper. The water splashes over the edge, and I continue to swish the shoe around, not wanting to have this conversation with him.
“Did Gillian send you?” I ask.
“No.” He puts down the brush and walks back out of Magnum’s stall, then sits on the bench in front of me, resting his forearms on his thighs. “But she is worried.”
“She has nothing to worry about.” I keep my head down because my brothers can call out my bullshit just as well as I can theirs.
“I’ve seen you look at her, Emmett.”
Ben and I have never really fought. That was always more him and Jude, but I can feel an argument brewing between us.
“I’m not blind.” I place the horseshoe on Legend and hammer it into his hoof, careful not to hurt him. “Just spit it out.”
“I don’t know the details, but something bad happened in Chicago. Briar’s hurting, and she needs this time to recharge.”
“And?” I move to Legend’s next hoof to start the process over again.
“She’s vulnerable. And we both know you’re only interested in sex.”
I glance up at him through my eyelashes. “I told you that you don’t have anything to worry about.”
“I want insurance on that.”
I gently place Legend’s hoof back on the ground and stand up straight. “I think you’re forgetting that Briar is a big girl. Last I checked, she can make her own mistakes.”
His eyebrows rise at the word mistake.
“Not like she’d regret being with me.”
His eyebrows draw down, and his shoulders fall. “Cut the shit, Emmett. I’m here to make it worth your while not to lay a finger on Briar.”
I step closer, crossing my arms. “Do tell.”
He rises to his feet, but I’ve still got inches on him. The day my pencil mark on the wall was higher than his and Jude’s was one of the best in my life. It’s the little things, but being taller than my older brothers and seeing the irritation on their faces was epic in my world.
“You’ll have my vote.”
I tilt my head. “Excuse me?”
He runs his fingers through his hair. “You heard me. The dude ranch thing you want to do. You have my vote if you keep away from Briar.”
Dad, Aunt Darla, and Aunt Bette became the owners of our farm after our grandparents died. Now, over the years, all the kids have been given their slice of the pie, so to get this dude ranch approved, I need at least eight votes, including mine. Ben is a huge vote, but he’s the only one whose steady paycheck doesn’t rely on the ranch. Like, be real—he has enough money from his football career that he doesn’t have to work another day in his life if he doesn’t want to. Of course, Dad would never allow him to sit around all day.
“Let me be sure I’ve got this right—you’re going to give me your vote in exchange for me not touching Briar?”
Ben looks as though he’s signing his life away, but he nods.
I click my tongue off the roof of my mouth. “One vote doesn’t make it happen.”
He sighs.
It’s an easy deal to make since there’s a lot against me when it comes to Briar. She hates me for one, and I doubt she’d ever entertain any type of arrangement between us, although I do catch her checking me out occasionally. Second, I made myself a deal a long time ago never to fuck anyone my cousins or family members are friends with, which was more a lesson learned than something I came up with on my own.
So I can play this multiple ways, but there’s only one way that assures me Ben will not only vote for my idea but go to bat for me with my cousins. We have a big family meeting in two months to discuss what’s working, what’s not, and what we can do to improve the ranch. I plan on announcing my idea after I film a few more things on the ranch and see how many views I can get. Today, I was going to film myself putting new horseshoes on Brutus.
“I don’t know, Ben. I mean, I feel this pull to her.”
