“You making me a granddaddy again, Rhett?” My dad chuckles as he draws near. He has no business hearing this well for a man his age. It’s annoying that nothing gets past him.
I brace my hands on my hips and turn my face up at the blue sky, blowing out a hot breath and watching it turn to steam that dances up into the air.
“Sorry to disappoint,” I mutter as I turn back to them, trying to ignore the confused scowl on Cade’s face. That’s basically his range of looks: happy scowl, tired scowl . . . I imagine he even has some sort of horny scowl that he’s hidden away for the past several years.
“Summer is here, Rhett,” my dad starts, with a look that says I better behave myself. I’ve been seeing that look my entire life. “You didn’t mention how delightful she is. Did you know she just finished law school?”
My brows pop up. I’m not above admitting that’s a little bit impressive. But it’s also worse somehow. She’s prissy, smart, accomplished, and assigned to babysit me.
And also insanely beautiful. She’s changed into jeans, and I’m trying like hell not to eye the way they hug her pint-sized frame.
With a few sure strides, my brother closes the space between himself and Summer, stretching one long, muscled arm out in her direction. “Cade Eaton.” His voice is brusque, but I know he’s not shaking her hand as hard as he usually does. She has a delicate air about her, and Cade may be a grumpy asshole, but he’s also a gentleman.
“Summer Hamilton.” She smiles, and it still borders on a smirk. Like she’s amused by this whole thing. When she’s alone, I bet she has a nice, long, rich-girl laugh at my expense.
“And sorry, how do you know Rhett?” Cade’s scowl is now curious.
Here it is, the moment everyone has a big laugh at my expense. My dad already knows, but as much as he jokes around, I don’t think he’d throw me under the bus. We both know my dickhead brothers are going to get a real kick out of Baby Brother being in trouble. Again.
He’ll just sit back and enjoy watching it all unfold.
But Summer doesn’t miss a beat. “I’m a new junior agent with his firm. Just trying to learn the ropes with someone established.” Her smile is soft and demure—sincere.
And she’s lying through her goddamn teeth.
The girl is good. I’ll give her that.
My brother’s brows tug together, and my dad’s eyes twinkle as he watches the exchange. I hold my breath, hoping that’s all there is to it. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll get away with this without being completely embarrassed.
Cade’s head quirks. “But why are you he—”
“I’m hungry,” Luke announces.
“Bet you are,” Summer replies. “What’s your favorite snack?”
Instant redirection. My dad catches my eye and winks.
“Popcorn!” Why do kids always exclaim everything? Like they’re going to win some sort of prize for shouting it out first.
Summer quirks a hip and crosses her arms, like she’s weighing the child’s response. “With M&M’s mixed in?”
“Oooh!” Luke exclaims as the rest of us men wrinkle our noses. “I’ve never had that!”
“No?” Her eyes flare dramatically as she crouches down.
“What are emnems?” Luke asks, admitting he hasn’t got a fucking clue what she’s talking about. The exchange is cute, and my eyes snap to my brother, wondering if he’s falling in love with Summer Hamilton on the spot. But he just seems perplexed.
“They’re a candy. With chocolate. And peanuts. I saw stores on my way here that would have them for sure. I bet your dad would take you to get some.”
And just like that, Cade looks colossally annoyed.
“Can we, Dad?” Luke’s big blue eyes light up.
“After you ran away from poor old Mrs. Hill?” Cade’s jaw pops, and he shoots Summer a disapproving glare. Some women would shrink under that scowl, but not this one.
She shrugs and mouths, “Sorry,” looking a little chagrined as they turn toward their house to leave. But when she glances over her shoulder at me, that smug smirk touches her mouth.
And that’s the moment I realize she wasn’t chagrined at all. That entire exchange was a completely intentional way of cutting off my brother’s line of questioning.
To help me save face.
“I’ll go give Cade a hand with Luke,” my dad says, dropping his head down to hide what I know has to be a grin under the brim of his cowboy hat.
Which means Summer and I are here on the top of the dry, scrubby knoll, all alone for the very first time. But she doesn’t give me any attention. She just stands gazing out over the hills toward the peaks of the Rockies.
She’s so still that for a few moments I can’t help but watch her. The cool wind whistles through the bare branches of the sparse trees. There’s a solid nip in the air, and when it gusts, her shoulders come up tight under her ears, the puffy down coat rubbing against her earrings as the breeze tosses her silky brown hair around behind her.
And then she sighs, deep and heavy, and I watch her shoulders slowly drop, entranced by her reaction. When my eyes track lower, I shake my head. I have to remember that even if she throws me a bone, she and I are not friends.
We’re not even on the same team.
“Using a five-year-old boy to get your way. Is that a new low?”
She huffs out a laugh and shoves her hands into her back pockets before turning around to face me, all wide eyes. “I didn’t use him. I enlightened him. Mixing candy with your popcorn is a life experience that every child deserves.”
“Cade is going to hate you for that.”
Her lips press together, and she shrugs, seeming truly unaffected by the prospect. “I guess I’ll have to hope Brother Number Three likes me. Or maybe I’ll go for the trifecta? Get you all to hate me? That might be nice for me.”
The balls on this girl.
“You could have told the truth.”
“I did.”
My teeth grind. “Learning the ropes? We both know you’re here to babysit me.”
Her head tilts, and she stares at me in the most unnerving way. “I guess we all see things the way we want to. I am new at the firm. They only recently hired me as more than a summer intern. And you are established. And I’d be an idiot to think I’m not here to learn something. Or Kip would have sent someone with more experience, no?”
Then she walks back toward the main house.
“Why didn’t you just throw me under the bus then? They’re going to figure it out, eventually.”
“Because that’s not my job. Keep up, we need to go over some things.”
I hang back for a few minutes, because when Summer Hamilton tells me to jump, I refuse to respond with, How high?
5
Summer
Dad: How’s it going?
Summer: It’s beautiful out here.
Dad: I meant the cowboy.
Summer: Oh, him? He hates me.
Dad: You’ll win him over. Just make sure he keeps his dick in his pants.
Summer: I’ll pass the message along. A sure way to win him over!
Men are so fragile.
I told Rhett to keep up, and I’m almost positive he stood in that field sulking just to prove a point. It’s kind of amusing. My lips twitch as I set up my files and laptop on the living room table.
We need to hammer out a schedule for the coming months, and I’m going to need Rodeo King here to do that.
Eventually, I hear the back door slam and heavy footfalls traveling in my direction. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of his frame. His broad shoulders, his unruly hair, and dark scruff. You’d have to be dead to not appreciate a man like Rhett Eaton.
He’s not pretty and polished. He’s rugged and a little rough around the edges.
He’s all man.
One hundred percent different from any man I’ve met. Girls like me don’t usually mix with men like him. We don’t even mix in the same circles, but that doesn’t stop me from appreciating him. The way a pair of Wranglers fit him hasn’t changed since his early days on the circuit.
“I was worried a bear had attacked you,” I announce as I seat myself on one of the tufted leather club chairs.
“Black bears rarely attack people,” he husks as he strides into the living room, eyeing up my spread like it might be an explosive or something.
“Grizzlies?”
“Mostly stick to the mountains,” he grumbles.
“Okay. Cougar?”
He towers above me and quirks a brow.
“Yeah,” I sigh and lean back in the comfy chair, sensing the pressure of his honeyed stare on my body. “You definitely look like cougar bait.”
He shakes his head while I bite back a grin. “This is going to be a long two months.”
“You could always throw yourself down that well I saw on my way back to the house and put yourself right out of this misery.”
That comment sobers him and instead of responding with something flippant, he flops down on the couch across from me and runs his hands through his hair. The silence stretches between us as I regard him carefully. “My mom used to make wishes down that well with my brothers and me. Don’t remember it at all.”