Cowgirl Up and Ride (Rough Riders #3)(57)

“I don’t know.” AJ looked right into his eyes. “I want to come home with you. No strings. I just really don’t think you should be alone tonight.”


“AJ—”


“Would it be so hard to let me take care of you? Just for one night?”


Cord stared at her, wishing his hand wasn’t bloody so he could touch her sweet face.


Wishing he could be a man instead of a shell of one.


“Cord?”


“I’d like that, baby doll. I’d like that a helluva lot more than you could ever know.


I’ll see you at home.”


Chapter Fifteen


Kade threw Colt in his pickup and he passed out before they hit the outskirts of town.


He had that same hollow feeling in his gut he’d seen in Cord’s eyes. Poor bastard.



No extra cars were parked at the Boars Nest, just Kane’s and Dag’s trucks.


Great. He hadn’t seen his cousin since he’d inadvertently seen way more of Dag’s nocturnal activities that night he’d moved out. If he was lucky, maybe Dag’d be passed out and he wouldn’t have to deal with another f*cked up situation with one of his cousins.


Colt managed to stumble into the house on his own. Kade still felt some perverse responsibility to make sure his brother was all right. After he checked on Kane and found him snoring in bed, he noticed Dag sat in the darkened living room, drinking cheap whiskey straight from the bottle.


“Evenin’ cuz.”


“Evenin’ Dag.”


“You pissed I moved inta your room?”


“No. Just wondered why you skipped out on your dad.”


Dag snorted. “He don’t need me. He’s got his hired hand and Chassie’s squeeze, Trevor to whip the West homestead into shape.” He saluted with the bottle. “Fuckin’ place is rundown. None of the damn equipment works, and somehow the old man sees that as my fault. Even when I ain’t been around for years.”


“Maybe that’s why he’s blamin’ you, Dag. He’s old. He ain’t been able to take care of that place for a long time. Since way before your mama died.”


“He don’t wanna take care of it. He ain’t never wanted to be a rancher. He wanted to be a damn mechanic. But rather than stand up to granddad, he knuckled under. And instead of lettin’ me pursue my dream of pro rodeo, he done the same damn thing to me.”


Dag took another swig. “Makin’ me quit the circuit to come home to tend to forty lousy cows and two hundred acres. I could hate him for that alone.”


“You don’t mean that.”


Dag sighed. “I probably don’t. It’s just…I didn’t ask for this. Ain’t my fault I was born first, the only male. I ain’t like you and Cord. I don’t wanna spend my life a slave to the land.”


Kade bristled. “So instead you’re just gonna be a drunk? Carryin’ on about your glorious past rodeo days? Don’t you think there are times Cord and I wanna walk away?


Say f*ck it and do something easier?”


“No, I don’t. You’ve both got too much of that goddamn McKay pride my daddy warns me about.”


“What the f*ck does that mean?”


“Why do you think my dad didn’t want his sister—your mother—to marry a McKay? Because they don’t care about no one but themselves. You ain’t neighborly.