“Yeah, I counted. He was big!” I smiled.

My smile quickly faded as he took his hands and rubbed them down his face.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, Layton. It’s not even hunting season. Why are you getting all upset?”

“Let’s go.” He started to make his way down the ladder as he mumbled something about it being a huge, heavy twelve point that would look awesome on his wall.

I went to get down, and I froze. “Um…Layton…”

Then, it started pouring right as Layton was helping me down and out of the stand.

I glanced over at him as he drove the Jeep in the rain. He looked so damn handsome when he was mad. I looked away and giggled. He didn’t think I had noticed the three times he’d placed his hands on my ass to help guide me down from the stand.

Something caught my eye, and I spun around to look at it. “Wait! Layton, stop!”

He came to a stop and looked at me.

“There’s an old house back there. Can we go look at it?”

His face turned white as a ghost. “I haven’t been to that house in years, Whitley.”

“Oh, come on! Please? I want an adventure!”

“Driving in the rain isn’t adventurous enough for you?” he asked with a small smile.

“Nope,” I said.

He started to turn around, and we made our way up to the house. After he stopped, I jumped out of the Jeep and about slipped and busted my ass in the mud.

Thank God I brought the change of clothes Courtney had insisted I bring.

I had barely seen the house from the road. As I walked up to it, I could tell it was unfinished. It was a white clapboard house with a tin roof. It would have made a darling ranch house if the owners had only finished it.

I walked up onto the porch and pushed open the door. The inside was filled with old torn-up furniture.

“Please don’t go in.”

I turned and saw Layton standing in the yard. He looked gutted. I quickly stepped back out of house and shut the door. I glanced to my right and saw two chairs sitting on the porch.

My eyes caught the carving in the wooden rail—Layton and Mike. There was a date, but I couldn’t make it out.

No…oh God, no.

My head snapped over to Layton. Our eyes met, and I knew it wasn’t rain on his face. I walked down and took him into my arms.

He lost it and started crying. I’d never in my life seen a grown man cry.

“They both left us…he left us all alone. He never came back.”

Oh God. Who is he talking about? His parents?

“Shh…it’s okay. I’m here, Layton. I promise I’ll never leave you. I promise.”

He held me tighter in his arms. I brought my hand up and started to caress the back of his head.

“Mike did the best he could. He went into the fucking military, so I could go to college, and it cost him his life.”

He began to cry harder, and my heart had never hurt so much in my life.

“He left me…alone. Everyone leaves me.”

After a few minutes, he pulled away and began to walk toward the house. I saw a sign that said outhouse with an arrow pointing out into a field. I got a sick feeling in my chest.

He walked up and sat down on the porch. “I’ve never brought anyone here, not even Olivia.”

I walked up and sat next to him. For a few minutes, we stayed like that, sitting in silence.

“My father started building this house for my mom. Then, she got cancer and died. He had to get out of the house where he’d lived with her, so he moved us out here after she’d passed away. I guess he thought this would be better, but all it did was remind him of her. We reminded him of her. He told us he was going out of town to look at a racehorse.” He smiled as he looked at me.

“Besides the cattle, that was his thing—racehorses. It was Mike’s thing, too. My dad was damn good at it, and he had the eye for a winning horse. Our dad would send money every year for the property taxes, but we never got anything extra. One day, we got a letter in the mail. My dad had signed the ranch over to us. Mike used it as motivation. He got a few jobs, and we bought cattle and slowly started saving up our money. Then, a lawyer pulled up one day when we were standing right here on these steps, trying to decide what to do with the house. Mike’s high school friend Mitch, the foreman who had been working for my dad since he was practically in high school, had told him where to find us. All the lawyer did was walk up to us and hand Mike an envelope. That was it.”

My heart started pounding.

“Mike opened it, and there was a check in it for half a million dollars. Turns out our dad was better at racehorse pickin’ than we thought.” He let out a gruff laugh.

“In the note, my dad said he wanted us to start building the best cattle ranch in Llano. He sent us the money for that, yet he’d let his two sons live in a house with no running water or heat or air conditioning, leaving us to totally fend for ourselves. I was already in my freshman year at A&M, and Mike was a few years into the Marine Corps when we received the money.”

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Layton, I’m so sorry.”

He turned and looked at me. “Please don’t feel sorry for me, Whit. I have more money now than I know what to do with. Mike took the money, and he invested it well. Then, he made even more money with our horses. My side of the business has always been the cattle. The horses were always Mike’s thing. Before he left for the Marines, he made me promise him that if anything ever happened to him, I would keep up with the racehorses and keep his dream alive.”

“I’m sorry you lost your brother, but do you know how proud he would be of you?”

He stared out into the pasture and smiled. “I hope so.”

I could see how being here was tearing him apart. I stood and reached my hand out for him. “Ready to let go?”

He looked at me funny. “Let go?”

“Yep, I think it’s time you let go of the anger and the hurt. It’s time to let it go, Layton.”

He stood and took my hand as he smiled at me.

We walked back to the Jeep, and he didn’t say a word. He started rubbing his thumb up and down my index finger again, and I felt like I was going to combust. He held my hand up and helped me into the Jeep. He started to walk around the Jeep, and then he stopped and slowly turned around. He stared at the house. He stood there for a good three minutes before he finally turned and got into the driver’s side of the Jeep.

“Thank you, Whitley.” He gave me that drop-dead gorgeous smile of his.

I smiled. “Always.”

“Let’s have some fun, shall we?” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down.

I had a strange feeling that his idea of fun was going to be very different from mine.

Chapter Twelve: Layton

I turned up the radio, and Whitley started singing along to the songs.

Why in the hell is her voice turning me on so much? I don’t know.

She was soaking wet and looked more beautiful than ever. I loved the fact that she didn’t even care that she was soaked. I wasn’t even paying attention to where I was going on the ranch. I kept looking at her, watching her dance in her seat.

She threw her head back and let the rain just fall onto her face.

I think she’s trying to kill me! Fuck, I really wish she’d stop doing that. It is fucking hot as hell.

I stopped the Jeep and sat back. “Shit!” I hit the steering wheel.

She looked over at me, confused. “What’s wrong?”

“I think something just happened to the front passenger side tire.”

“Really? Like what?”

“Not sure…I felt a pop. Did you not feel it?” I said, trying to hold back my smile.

“Nope.”

“Will you do me a favor? I’m going to slowly start driving. Will you lean out and take a look at the tire? Tell me if everything looks okay.”

She nodded as she grabbed on to the bar. She leaned out the side of the Jeep. “Okay…ready.”

I smiled and gunned it while I held the brake down. Mud flew up everywhere, and she let out a scream that I was sure Mimi and her husband Frank would hear.

I let off the gas and looked over toward her. She was covered in mud.

“Oops. Sorry.”

Her mouth dropped open, and she balled up her fists. “You asshole! My eyes are burning from the mud in them, you fuckwad!”

I lost it and started laughing. I laughed so hard that I was pretty sure I’d snorted once or twice.

Whitley jumped out and began walking away.

“Where are you going?” I called after her.

“As far away from you as I can get!”

She turned and walked backward as she shot me the finger with both hands. Then, she dropped out of sight.

I jumped out of the Jeep and ran over to her.

“Shit! Oh shit! Oh my God…shit!” She cried out over and over as she held on to her ankle.

“Sweetheart, what’s wrong? Whit, what’s wrong?” I dropped to my knees.

She looked up at me, and the next thing I knew, I had a handful of mud in my face. She smeared it all over my face and down my neck. She started laughing, but then she quickly stopped when I looked at her.

“You better run,” I said, glaring at her.

“What?” She jumped up and started to run.

I gave her a good thirty-second head start before I went after her. She kept looking back at me, laughing. She ran up to a group of oaks.

“You think a few trees are going to stop me?” I asked with a sly smile.

“Layton, let’s just call a truce, okay? Truce ’cause I’m itching all over. I really need to get this mud off of me.”

I shook my head. “Oh no, Miss Reynolds. Payback is a bitch.”

“Wait! You got mud on me first! I was paying you back.”

I acted like I was going to run to the left and then made a sharp move to the right. She screamed and tried to go left, but then she slipped. I ran up to her, picked her up, and threw her over my shoulder. I looked up and saw we were near the hunter’s cabin. There was a tank right around the bend next to the cabin.

Oh yeah, her ass is going in the tank.

“Layton, put me down! Layton! Oh. My. God. No, Layton, no! Where are you taking me?”

She must have seen the tank because she started kicking and screaming.

“Scream all you want, honey. No one can hear you!” I laughed.

“Mimi! Frank!” she yelled out. “I know sound travels in the country.”

“Whit, it’s pouring. No one can hear you.”

I smacked her ass, and she let out another scream.

“You’re crazy! Layton, please…I’ll do anything.”

I walked up to the edge of the tank and saw a snake. Shit. She lucked out!

I turned around and saw a huge mud puddle. I started walking toward the cabin.

“Oh, thank God! I thought you were going to throw me in the tank.”

“I was…but I saw a snake.”

She started screaming and kicking again. “Oh my God! Put me down! I just want to go back to the house. I want down, Layton! Now!”

“You want down?”

“Yes! Right now, you asshole!”