Page 2 of Wild Rivals

I like her like this, where she’s barely holding back, ready to fight and staring daggers at me. This side of Maddie I can deal with. This version is the one that reminds me of who she is and who she’s related to. It makes it a hell of a lot easier to ignore my body’s natural reaction to her.

“You should know me well enough by now, Hart.” I glance at her, my brow raised and daring her to challenge me. “I don’t do shit for your family. Now, if it were anybody else, that would be a different story.” I throw the ratchet strap over the ATV. It clatters to the ground with a thump that echoes around the yard. “Besides, don’t you have brothers who can deal with this for you?”

A muscle in her jaw ticks when I turn to stare at her. Silence settles between us. With every barb, her anger, like a raging inferno, flickers in the depths of her dark brown eyes before she blinks and it’s gone.

She sighs heavily, the sound laden with exhaustion as she pinches the bridge of her nose.

With one last look at the ATV, she says, “Just leave it wherever you want, Wilde.” Defeat coats the words, and her eyes go glassy as she adds, “I’ll figure it out.”

She stares behind me at the ATV, as if she’s trying to work out how she’s going to get the vehicle moved, before she walks away, leaving me behind to feel like a jackass.

My guilt is short-lived. I refuse to feel bad for a Hart, no matter how hurt or overwhelmed she looks.

2

WYATT

Much to my annoyance, it seems that tourist season is in full swing when I arrive at Big Sky diner. Removing my Stetson, I push my way through a group of people too caught up in their own conversation to notice they’re blocking the entryway.

Damn these people and damn the Harts.

They’re the only people in this town putting these tourists up, so I know my irritation with them is fully justified. But it doesn’t help that I haven’t been able to get rid of the image of Maddie yesterday when I told her I would leave the ATV in the middle of their driveway. It’s not guilt. I know that much, but there is a niggle of something I can’t quite put my finger on.

I shake my head to clear the thought of her from my mind as I reach the crowded counter; the smell of coffee and fried food lingers in the air.

Every year, Coldwater is inundated with people wanting to play pretend with the cowboy lifestyle. They think that the place is their own personal playground. It’s gotten worse in recent years, with Hollywood making it seem glamorous, even fun, and the Harts have leaned into that without a care for how it impacts others’ lives.

They bring customers to places like Big Sky or my cousin Autumn’s coffee shop, Chapters and Crumbs. But while they are in town, people like my “wouldn’t hurt a fly” cousin get their hearts broken. On top of that, thousands of dollars’ worth of damage is done to our ranch, Wild Heartlands.

I run the ranch with my brothers—Grayson and Kade—and our sister, Gracie. Although Gracie doesn’t have much to do with the day-to-day running of it, and Grayson has only handed over some of the responsibility to me and Kade these past two years. The ranch has been in our family for over a hundred years, and I’ll be damned if I let the Harts and their unruly tourists put that in jeopardy.

Just two more months until summer is over and everything will be back to some semblance of normal. Two months too long, if you ask me. I swear, this summer feels extra busy; there are more unfamiliar faces hanging out around town and even worse is the number of trespassers we’ve caught on our land. They’ve been crashing through fences, getting lost wandering out in the pastures to take pictures, and we’ve even found a few people having picnics of all things.

Doris is packing up a to-go order when I slide onto a worn red vinyl stool that’s just been vacated. “Mornin’, Doris,” I greet, picking up a laminated menu from the countertop. “What’s the special for today?”

She gives the bag she was packing to a guy dressed in a plaid shirt—despite the summer heat—and blue jeans, before moving to stand in front of me, her pad and pen ready. “I don’t know why you insist on us doing this every time, Wyatt.”

I arch one brow and aim my most charming grin at her. It usually works, especially with women.

Just not Maddie.

The thought catches me off guard, but I don’t falter with the smile aimed at Doris. The last person I would want my charm to work on is Maddie Hart. I’m more than happy with the way things are between us.

As expected, Doris blushes before rolling her eyes and tugging on her apron, clearly a little flustered. “Wyatt Wilde, you are a pain in my ass,” she admonishes, but we both know she doesn’t mean it.

“But you love me anyway, Doris,” I tease, setting the menu down on the counter, because I already know what I’m having, I get it every time I come in.

“I think that’s debatable.” A patron calls her from the other side of the diner, holding up their coffee mug and drawing her attention away from me. “Well, this has been fun, as always. You want the usual?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I reply, dipping my chin as she backs away and leaves me with my own company.

Doris walks off, jotting down my order and handing it into the kitchen as she passes the window that separates it from the main dining area. She might be eighty-something years old, but she gives as good as she gets whenever we talk.

The group blocking the doorway leaves, the chime from the bell above the door signaling their exit along with the lowering of the volume in the place. Tension eases out of my body and I exhale as I cast my eyes around the room looking for an open booth. As much as I love watching Doris work, I’d much prefer a view out of the windows that span the two walls of the building.

Familiar faces litter the room, mingling with some that I’ve never seen before. When you grow up in a small town like Coldwater, with a population of 544, it’s hard not to know everyone and their business. Some I wish I didn’t know—like the Harts’—and others I’d go to bat for, like Doris.

I narrow my eyes when they land on a certain brunette as she leans back in her booth talking with her brother. Speak of the devil and she will appear. Maddie and Rhett Hart.