Steal Her Heart (Kaid Ranch Shifters #1)(27)

“I meant, what do you want from us?”

“Oh.” She cleared her throat. “I wanted to invite you to Tap’s.”

Wes’s icy blue eyes narrowed to slits. “Whyyyyy?”

“Because friendship is awesome, and you dumbasses fired Bryson. He actually cares about you two, and men are very bad at expressing emotions. I figured if you came out and did some shots with us, and all three of you stopped being stubborn, we could all move on and live happily ever after.”

“That sounds horrible.”

“Right. Well, if you show up, the first shots of whiskey are on me.”

“Good whiskey or cheap whiskey?” Hunter called out curiously.

“The good stuff. Why not? I got paid last week for selling all my cattle.” She grinned brightly and climbed off the fence.

“You really don’t like peas?” Hunter asked.

“Hunter!” Wes barked.

The giant man climbed up on his gate and mimed zipping his lips. With his middle finger.

Wes’s red face made her laugh.

“Decline,” Wes gritted out. “We have work to do around here. We’re a man down.”

“Suit yourself,” she called, walking away. “You wouldn’t be a man down if you would stop being a stubborn ass.”

“An ass is a donkey, and donkeys are stubborn,” Hunter explained to his brother.

God, she was tempted to turn around just to see Wes’s pissed-off face, but she was a woman, and women understood power.

Leaving with no look-backs always had a bigger impact.





Chapter Thirteen


“Where did you go to school?” Maris asked primly, sipping her margarita with her pinky up.

“Oh, we’re doing this?”

“Yep, twenty questions, like a real-life first date.”

He rolled his eyes heavenward and removed his cowboy hat, then set it on the chair next to him. He leaned back, arm draped around the chair as he studied her with an amused expression. “Born and raised in Idaho on a farm out there, went to the same schools with the same people until I was seventeen, went to a party in the woods, god shit-faced drunk, stumbled into the forest to take a piss and got lost.” He pulled at the collar of his shirt, exposing his tattoos there. No…not tattoos. She leaned forward and squinted her eyes. The skin was uneven. He had scars on his neck. “A bear found me, and I didn’t finish high school. Had to hide what I was from everyone, my parents included. Ran away a few months later, bounced around from farms to ranches, picked up work when I could. The animal was rough in the beginning. I didn’t have any control. Sometimes I still don’t. So when I started killing livestock, I would move on to the next farm or ranch.”

“Where did you meet your wife?”

He was taking a swig of beer and then shook his head. “You ain’t playin’ right. It’s my turn.”

“Well, I went to school just a couple towns over in—”

“I already know all that stuff. That ain’t my question.”

“What? How do you know where I went to school?”

“Maris Marie Thurgood, class of 2006 at Dennon High School, voted class clown, on the Dean’s list, super nerd but showed animals for 4H, sheep and cows specifically, graduated top ten percent of your class, did two years of community college focusing on classes about animal science and ranch management, barrel raced in rodeos for a while—that’s hot—worked at Farrel Ranch for a few years where you met Dallas, the entitled twatbag son of the rancher you worked for, dated for eternity, got married, bought your ranch with your life savings and a hefty inheritance you had stocked away, and the rest is history.”

“Okay, stalker. How did you find all that out?”

“It’s my turn for questions, remember? Maris Marie—”

“Oh God,” she said, rolling her eyes. “No one has called me by my middle name since my mom was alive, and even then, she only used it if I was in trouble.”

“Maybe you are in trouble. You’re on a date with me.” Bryson lowered his chin and gave her a challenging look before he asked his question. “Why did you let that man take your equipment?”

Maris stalled. She took a long, loooong draw of margarita.

She parted her lips to answer, but someone behind her said, “I’d also like to know the answer to that question.”

She startled hard. Bryson didn’t look away from her, but he spoke to the man behind her. “What are you doing here, Wes?”

The chair beside her scooted out from under the table roughly, screeching across the wood floors. “We were invited.”

“You invited these two idiots on our date?” Bryson asked her as Hunter took the chair beside him.

“Kinky,” Hunter said. “Hi Maris Marie.”

“Awesome, do you two have supersonic hearing too?” she asked low.

“Don’t know what you’re talkin’ about,” Wes muttered, lifting his finger to the waitress across the room.

She bustled over, flustered under Wes’s direct stare. “What can I do you for? Do for you?”

Wes offered an empty smile from under his low cowboy hat. “We need four shots of good whiskey.” He pointed to Maris. “This one’s paying.”