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“We’ve never moved before either.” Kid logic.
“Not since you can remember,” she said, her voice tight. “I moved here for a job not a... There is no husband.”
“I’m just a pirate cowboy, kiddo. Sorry.” Then Brody cleared his throat and pushed the door open, revealing the clean and newly renovated cabin.
“Oh,” she said. “This is... Well, it’s... It’s just so much... I don’t know what I expected, but this exceeds it.”
“We have a little bit of an advantage now because we married into the Sullivan clan and the Garrett family, which brought a bit more support for the venture. So... We were able to significantly upgrade some of the living quarters.”
“It’s beautiful,” she said.
And for just one moment, he thought he saw her eyes go glassy with tears. But she blinked, and was back to smooth, porcelain perfection.
“I imagine you don’t need me to show you around every room.”
“I might need you to show me how some of these appliances work.”
Benny had raced away down the hall, and he let out a holler.
“What?” Elizabeth asked, hurrying down the hall, and Brody followed her.
“Look at my room!”
The room was a little-boy’s paradise, and he had to wonder which one of his brothers had been responsible for that. Brody hadn’t even realized.
He’d been busy, he supposed. Doing whatever outdoor-labor task Gus asked him, and additionally, heading to the bars and getting drunk whenever possible.
There were bunk beds with lanterns hanging on them, and the bottom bed was done up to look like an outdoor tent. The entire room was like camping. There were glow stars on the ceiling, and a light on the floor that glowed like a fire.
“I told you that you’d like it,” she said.
The little boy’s face went flat. “Well, I don’t think I’ll like it for forever.”
He suddenly felt sympathy for Elizabeth. Because he recognized when a kid was trying to make their parent miserable. “Hey,” he said. “Don’t talk to your mom that way. She’s doing her best. And from what I can see, her best is pretty damned good.”
“That’s a cuss word,” the kid said.
“Yes,” Brody said, realizing he did not know how to talk to kids. “It is. But it’s true. And if you really think it’s boring here, then you just wait. Tomorrow, I’ll show you and your mom everything.”
“Everything?” Benny asked.
“Hell yeah. I mean... Heck yeah. Tomorrow I’m going to show you why horses are exciting, and why you’re going to love it here.”
“A real cowboy,” Benny said, looking at his mom. “A real cowboy is going to show us around.”
When he looked back at Brody, Brody didn’t need to have any experience with kids to realize that he had gotten himself into a bit of a hero-worship situation. And when he looked back at the kid’s mother, and saw the cool fire banked in her blue gaze, he realized that when it came to her...
Well, it was anything but.
“As long as it’s okay,” he added.
“Of course,” she answered, her expression frosty. And hell, even he realized that he’d walked her into a situation where she couldn’t refuse.
“Great. I’ll let you all get settled. And I’ll see you tomorrow.”
CHAPTER TWO
ELIZABETH WAS CERTAIN that as soon as Brody left she would be able to catch her breath. But she found that her elevated heart rate lingered long after he walked out of the cabin.
