Rough, Raw, and Ready (Rough Riders #5)(29)

After she finished, Colby grabbed two more beers. He appeared to be in a mental tug of war as he slowly peeled the label from the bottle.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”


“I’m sure Channing already explained, since she and I are on the same page. But I’ll say it again.” Colby looked at her. “It’s not my secret to share. I imagine you feel a little betrayed by me too.”


Chassie nodded.

“Trevor and I’ve been best friends since kindiegarten. We weathered some rough shit together. I have four brothers, and they’re great, but Trevor’s like the brother…I chose.

And it’s the same for him, bein’s that everyone in his family is a complete dickhead.”


“I’ve heard about his family but I haven’t met them.”


“Consider yourself lucky,” he said derisively. “If it threw me for a goddamn loop when I figured out him and Edgard were more than ropin’ partners, I can’t imagine how them *s in his family woulda reacted. I didn’t pass judgment, mostly because I didn’t understand. That said, I still covered for them on the circuit and no one ever found out.”


It pained Chassie to ask, but she did anyway. “Do you think Trevor and Edgard were in love?”


“Ah hell, Chass, how am I supposed to answer that?” Colby downed half his beer.

“I’m dyin’ here. I found out the man I love, the man I married for Christsake, had a long time love affair with another man that I knew nothin’ about.”


Colby brooded for a bit. “Lemme ask you something. Would it’ve been better or worse if a woman showed up knockin’ on your door?”


“Worse,” she said automatically.

“Why?”


“With Edgard, I suspect it isn’t the same type of love Trevor has given me. It’s completely different. Separate. It doesn’t have anything to do with the way Trevor loves me.”


The truth of that statement hit her hard as a hammer to the head. Was it possible she wasn’t jealous about Edgard, just hurt because she hadn’t known about him? Chassie met Colby’s stare.

“Think on that statement very carefully before you make any rash decisions.”


She opened her mouth. Closed it. She couldn’t argue with that.

“How long’s Ed here for?”


“I don’t know. He’s been evasive whenever I’ve asked.”


“That’s weird.” The beer stopped midair. “He and Trev haven’t talked at all about Ed’s place in Brazil?”


“No. I thought it was kinda strange that Trev was avoidin’ bein’ alone with him and avoidin’ personal conversation. Now I know why.”


“How are things goin’ with you and Trev at your homeplace?”


“Good, I guess. Takin’ it day by day.”


He picked at the beer label. “You heard anything about Gus Dutton sellin’ his place south of yours?”


Chassie was a horrible liar. She settled for hedging. “What’ve you heard?”


“That his kids and grandkids never visit and he’s tired of bein’ alone since his wife died. He ain’t run any cattle for a few years.” Colby pinned her with a shrewd look. “You leasin’ his grazin’ land?”


“We did this past summer. Why?”


Colby shrugged. “Curious. Sweet piece of dirt with all that creek frontage. Me’n Cord have been eyein’ it the last coupla years, and Dad for a while before that. We’d be mighty interested in givin’ old Gus a little better than fair market value for it.”


I’ll bet you would.

She stood and studied the orange flames reflected in the glass fireplace panes.

“Thanks for talkin’ to me. I don’t have anyone to talk to about this. I’d never hurt Trevor.

Even as I’m standing here practically bleeding inside, I would protect him at all costs.”


“I know you would. I know he feels the same way, even though it probably don’t seem like it.” Colby reached for her hand and squeezed. “Good night, little cuz.”


“’Night.”


Chassie crawled between the flannel sheets. Channing’s rambling, “You really should watch them together when they’re naked in body and soul. Then you’ll understand, then you’ll do the right thing,” ricocheted in her head, mixing with the other gut-wrenching images she couldn’t erase.

The desperation in their kiss. The anguished longing as they’d stood pressed forehead to forehead in the corral. The murmured words. Their guilt. Their sadness.

As Chassie drifted into the realm between asleep and awake, she knew what she’d have to do. She just hoped she’d have the courage to ask and the guts to survive it.


“How’s Meridian?”


“The same.”


“What do you need done this morning?” Edgard blasted Trevor with a warning look.

“And don’t say nothin’. It’d be an insult to Chassie because I know she works her ass off before noon.”


What the hell? Ed was being protective of his wife? “I already fed the cattle.”