“True that,” Emma said. “Never in my wildest imaginings did I think I’d ever settle down this soon. Or ever. And Luke? He’s a mass of contradictions and complications. But oh, he’s so sexy. And so sweet. He bought us wine tonight, you know.”

Des smiled as Emma began to slur her words. Friends were great. Drunk friends were even better. “I don’t know that you need to understand them, but you can still offer me some advice on what you think I should do about Logan.”

“Or to Logan,” Chelsea said, weaving a bit in her chair. Then she laughed.

And so did Jane.

And then Emma laughed, too.

Des cracked a smile. “You all are not helping.”

Jane set her glass down on the table. “Okay, you’re right. We are not helping. But honestly, Des, what do you want to do? Are you mad enough at him that you think he’s not worth it, or do you have genuine feelings for him?”

That was the big question, wasn’t it?

“I have feelings for him, things I’ve never felt for another man before. But I don’t really know how he feels. And God knows I have no idea what he really wants.”

“It seems to me that you’ve never had any qualms about telling him how you feel or what you want. Isn’t that right?” Chelsea asked.

“True.”

“So why the hesitation now? Unless you’re afraid you won’t like the answer.”

Des sighed. “You’re right about that. I’ve never been afraid of any man, ever. I’ve always been very honest with my feelings, my wants, and my needs. Until Logan. He makes me crazy. And conflicted.”

“Because you’ve fallen in love with him,” Emma offered.

“I don’t know that I’m ready to admit that yet. It’s all wrong between us.”

Emma waved her hand back and forth. “Trust me, there are no spectacles.” Emma frowned. “No, wait, that’s not the right word.” She laughed. “Obstacles. There’s the word I was looking for. There’s no obstacles that can’t be overcome between two people who truly want to be together.”

Jane raised her glass. “I’ll drink to that.”

And they did. More than once.

Chapter 18

LOGAN WAS SITTING on the deck outside his bedroom when he saw Luke’s truck driving past the house. It was late. He pulled out his phone to see it was past midnight. He headed downstairs and waited about twenty minutes.

Luke pulled up to the house and got out, then headed up to the porch where Logan had pulled up a seat.

“Raiding my cattle?” Logan asked.

Luke’s lips curved. “Making a delivery.”

Logan cocked a brow.

“Dropping your drunk girlfriend off.”

“Drunk, huh?”

“Girls’ night. I had to drive her, Chelsea, and Jane home.”

Logan nodded. “Bet that was fun.”

“You have no idea. The three of them babbled all the way to Jane’s house about nail polish colors. Then after I dropped Jane off, Des and Chelsea played some movie-trivia game. After Chelsea’s drop-off, Des talked to me nonstop the whole way here.”

“About nail polish?”

“Even worse. About you.”

“Huh.” Logan looked out over the dirt road toward the barn. “Care to elaborate?”

“Not particularly.”

“Okay.” He’d really hate to beat the shit out of his little brother, but if it came to that, he would.

The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes.

“You gonna tell me or not?” Logan finally asked.

“About?”

“Des.”

“What about Des?”

“Goddammit, Luke.”

Luke let out a short laugh. “I’m going to preface this by telling you she was pretty toasted, so she’ll probably be embarrassed tomorrow by all the babbling she was doing about you.”

That made him feel a little better, especially considering she hadn’t given him the time of day in the past week. “What did she say?”

“She’s confused.” Luke turned to face him. “What the hell did you do to upset her?”

“I was a dickhead.”

“That’s not unusual for you.”

“Funny. She stayed the day after the Fourth of July to work at the ranch. I was hard on her.”

Luke folded his arms. “So you didn’t give her the typical McCormack Day at the Ranch treatment.”

“No. I mean I treated her like shit, pushed her hard all day long.”

Luke didn’t say anything for a few minutes. “To see if she’d run like hell? Like Mom?”

Funny how everyone had spotted it right off. Except him. “I didn’t even notice I was doing it. Ben did, though. And now you.”

“You’ve never done that with any other woman.”

“No.”

“So why Des?”

“Hell if I know.”

“Don’t you? She means something to you.”

Logan stood and went to the porch railing to look out over the land before turning to face his brother. “How could she mean something to me? You know who she is, what she does for a living.”

“So? Why would that even matter if you care about her?”

“You went through it with Becca. Dad went through it with Mom. City girls don’t belong on the ranch.”

“That’s bullshit, Logan, and you know it. If she’s the right woman and she loves you, it won’t matter what she does for a living. Becca wasn’t the right choice for me. It wouldn’t have mattered where she and I lived. She hated the life I chose. And Mom should have never married Dad. She knew ahead of time what her life was going to be like. Dad showed her what a life on the ranch was going to be, yet she chose it, and then she was miserable, and made everyone around her miserable, too.”

Logan shook his head. “What Des and I have together is something . . . fun, you know? It just got out of hand that day, and I need to apologize to her for being so hard on her. We need to get back to having fun together.”

“Yeah, because God forbid you should actually fall in love with someone, make a commitment and ask someone to share your life. You might actually be happy.”

Logan narrowed his gaze at Luke. “Hey, screw you. I know what I’m doing.”