Page 1 of Wyatt

Chapter One

~Wyatt~

A cold wind whips around my face and threatens to blow my hat off as I ride around the perimeter of the ranch. These daily checks for any faults in the fencing are nice, peaceful even. I may act like a joker most hours of the day, but this time is mine, a time when I feel like I don’t have to be the comic relief, the goof off brother who no one takes seriously. It’s my own fault people see me that way. Its how I’ve always been.

As a child, I was always messing around, trying to get a laugh out of anybody. As I got older, I wasn’t sure if that was something I needed anymore. I wanted people to look at me a little differently, more serously. Then my siblings and I lost our parents almost six years ago. I was only twenty-one, just starting to discover who I was, but the two people who were there to help me do that were taken from us.

Once mom and dad were no longer around, we all kind of fell into different roles. Sawyer naturally took over managing the ranch with Brooks acting as second in command. Mav was always out with the horses or cattle, and Scarlett took over the books. I wasn’t sure what to do with myself at first, but after taking one look around at my siblings, it finally came to me.

They were working hard, pushing through their grief, but I saw it all the same. They were hurting, and needed a little reminder of how it used to be when things were good. So I kept up my childish antics, making myself the clown, the one that would do any stupid thing to give them a laugh. It was a role I was happy to play…for a while. Now, not so much. I want more than to play the screw up. I want to accomplish something, have something solid in my life.

Goofball wasn’t the only part I gave myself. “Ladies man,” was the other. Now, that title couldn’t be further from the truth. Before my parents died, I had my share of dates. Flirting came naturally to me and hooking up was something that I did more often than not on our nights off. After they were gone, however, I needed more connection than a simple night of sex could offer.

My siblings were all dealing with our loss in their own way, so I figured having someone outside the family to talk to, to lean on would be nice. It’s too bad that by the time I had that realization, all the women in town wanted nothing more from me than a night of no-strings fun. I went along with it for a short time, but it all just felt so empty and I couldn’t do it anymore.

Now, I still flirt like my life depends on it and everyone assumes that I’m still sleeping my way through the phone book, but each time I go out, I come back home alone. That’s how it’s been for the last five years. I suppose it’s my own fault, pretending to be something I’m not, and it’s not like I’m really interested in anyone from town anyway. Well, except for one person, but that’s out of the question.

The one person I’m thinking about is Georgiana Lee. Georgie isn’t someone I used to think twice about romantically, but that all started to change a year or so ago. Before that, she was always just my sister’s best friend, a girl whose home life was fairly shitty and who my parents pseudo-adopted as their own from the time she was twelve.

When my parents died, she came over every day after school and would clean up a little and cook for us, taking care of us because she wanted to help out. When she was seventeen, she moved in with us for good and she’s been on the payroll as the cook slash house manager ever since. Georgie was always the sweetest girl anyone ever knew, always wanting to help out and be a friend if you needed one. I never looked at her as anything other than that, but not anymore.

Georgie is too sweet and too caring to be with a clown of man like me, but that hasn’t stopped me from wanting her all for myself for the last twelve months. Twelve long, sexually frustrating months.

Every time I come into the kitchen, I find her bending down to pull something out of the oven or reaching into a low cabinet with that big, juicy ass of hers on display, and it is just begging for my hands to come over and palm it, give it the attention it deserves. Then there are the few times I’ve caught her in the hallway walking back to her room after a shower, nothing but a towel between me and that curvy, sexy as fuck body of hers.

Ripping it aside, gathering her into my arms, and carrying her into my room to make her mine is always a strong temptation I’m only able to resist by immediately running into my room, whipping my cock out and pleasuring myself to the images in my mind, Georgie’s name on my lips as I find my release.

Fuck, even just thinking about it right now has me rock hard in my pants. Being with Georgie like that isn't something that will ever happen though. Georgie is the best person I know, and she deserves better than me.

With a sigh, I finish up my ride around the ranch and head back to the barn. I’m just finishing up unsaddling my horse, Buckeye, when my brother Mav strolls in, looking like the cat that got the cream. I can’t say I’m mad to see him looking so happy. If anyone deserves it, it’s him. Now that he’s married and has a baby on the way, like every other brother except me, he’s been smiling more and acting a helluva lot less grumpy.

“Hey there, baby brother,” he calls out to me, a dopey ass grin on his face. Fucker probably just came from seeing his wife, Violet. Jealousy slashes through me just like it does every time I see one of my brothers with their wives. I want that for myself, but I doubt I’ll ever get it. “I need your help setting up the bonfire for later.”

“Oh right. I almost forgot,” I lie. Its Georgie’s twenty-first birthday today, something I’ve been counting down to for a while. The present I got her is in my nightstand, and as excited as I am to give it to her, I’m also a bit little nervous.

Georgie is always buzzing around, working on something for anyone but herself, so I cut up some strips of leather and made a bracelet for her with a little honey bee charm in the center. It’s not much, and she deserves much more than what I can give her, but I think she’ll like it. I hope she will anyway.

“Let me finish getting Buckeye settled and then I’ll help out.

As I get my horse in his stall and fill his feed bucket, I think about how nice it will be to have a celebration for Georgie with just the family tonight. We thought she might want to celebrate the milestone down at Tipsy’s bar, but Georgie surprised us all when last week she asked if we could just have a cookout and toast marshmallows around the campfire.

I close the stall and walk up to my brother, whose build, while slightly larger than my own, isn’t anywhere near as intimidating as it used to be, especially now that we know what a big softy he is with his wife.

“You and Violet get her anything special?” I ask, trying to gauge whether or not my gift will be as lackluster in comparison to others as I think it will be. Scarlett already booked the two of them a spa day today, so I know my meager bracelet will fall well short of that already.

Mav scratches the back of his neck nervously. “Uh, yeah. Though it was mostly Violet’s idea. We got her one of those books she and Scarlett are always reading,” he mumbles, his cheeks turning pink.

I smile widely at his embarrassment. “Would you look at that? My big brother getting all shy talking about smutty novels.” You’d think a guy getting some on the regular would be less squeamish about sex.

Mav scowls at me and grunts as we walk out of the barn. “Not shy,” he grumbles. “Just hard to think about little Georgie liking to read stuff like that.”

“Yeah, well,” I tell him, nodding at my brother Sawyer as he walks up to us. “She’s not so little anymore.” Georgie is all woman now with a body built like it was made for me. It wasn’t though. It was made for someone else, someone who knows who they really are and acts like it. She needs a grown ass man, not a joker.

Sawyer looks at me, a shit-eating grin on his face. “So, you finally admitting you’ve been checking Georgie out,” he says, and my eyes widen with the realization that my ogling may not have been as inconspicuous as I thought. “It’s about time you figured out you’re in love with her.”

“Yea,” Mav chimes in. “Can you just marry the girl already? She’s pracctically been a part of this family for a decade. Now you can make it official.”

My hands shoot up and out in front of me automatically. “Whoa there. Who said anything about love, or marriage?” I ask, panicked. I care for Georgie, more than I have for any other woman I’ve ever known, and while if I look deep down in my heart, I could probably admit to being in love with her, I certainly can’t marry her. I’m no good for Georgie.