Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Still, he’d been surprised at the changes Sawyer taking on a girlfriend and a partner had wrought. The fire hadn’t helped.
There were blinds now instead of the threadbare shades that covered the windows, and where once there had been three kinds of glasses—beer, wine, and rocks—there were martini glasses and different kinds of wine glasses. And apparently now there were wines beyond red, white, and pink. He should know because Brooke had commented on being able to order a Sauvignon Blanc.
Damn, she looked good, but Shane was right. There was something dark in that girl’s eyes.
“She’s in some kind of trouble.” He took a long sip of beer.
“Told you.” Shane sat beside him. “I’m wondering why she decided to order a ride. I can’t imagine her brothers wouldn’t let her borrow a car. They have several. Unless she didn’t want them to know where she was going.”
“Why would… You think she’s looking for someone?” Bay asked, not taking his eyes off her. Brooke Harper was made of delicate lines and generous curves. She was a study in contrasts. She was solid, with hips and breasts and a healthy figure, but there was a fragility to the woman, too. He tried so hard to capture it in drawings, and more importantly, the sculptures he felt the desperate need to make. Like an impulse he couldn’t control.
Stef Talbot supplying him with materials, letting him experiment with things like marble that he would never be able to afford, was a godsend. If the man hadn’t been so good-hearted, he could have pulled some seriously Mephistophelean shit with him.
He wondered if Brooke would be impressed with his proper use of a literary figure. He wondered if she would be surprised by how much he and Shane read. Not that they were well educated. They’d barely made it through high school, but part of that had been the chaos after their parents had died.
They’d never had a real chance at college. The rodeo had been their salvation.
The question now was how long they kept doing what they were doing. How long until they put down roots and tried to build something that might have a chance at lasting?
“I think she’s looking at us,” Shane said, his voice going low.
There weren’t a ton of customers on a Thursday night. There were a few people in the booths, but the majority of patrons this evening seemed to be at the private party. “I wonder how they know each other.”
“Cleo and Brooke went to school together.” Sawyer Hathaway was polishing glasses at the end of the bar. He was a huge, kind of brutal-looking man who only softened up with his girl and partner and tight-knit group of friends.
Bay wished they had a group like Sawyer seemed to have in Lucy and Ty and River. The four had gone to school together and grown up alongside one another, and still held those ties through adulthood.
Shane was his only tie to anyone, really.
“Where did they go?” Shane seemed way more comfortable with the big guy. “I know they recently built a school here. Was there another one?”
Sawyer huffed out a laugh and replaced the glass. “Oh, we didn’t have a school here in Bliss when I was growing up. We got our asses on a bus and drove forty-five minutes to Del Norte to go to school. Rain or shine or blizzard, we all went.”
“You went to school with Brooke?” Bay wasn’t much of a talker, but he couldn’t help but ask.
Sawyer’s dark eyes narrowed. “You two interested in Brooke?”
“Yes.” They said it at the same time.
Neither of them liked to prevaricate.
Would she be impressed that he knew how to properly use the word prevaricate? She’d seemed interested in Bobby Farley’s education. He didn’t think a real limo would be so easy to listen in on, but he wasn’t going to complain.
For a moment he thought they’d made a mistake. Sawyer studied them like he was planning to throw them out on their asses. “Aren’t you two the little assholes who hit on Rachel Harper before she married the twins in an attempt to force them to buy her at Stef’s auction?”
Not their proudest moment. “We were doing it as a favor for a friend. That friend being Stef.”
“We respect Mrs. Harper and her marriage very much,” Shane tried.
A brow arched over Sawyer’s eyes. “Do you? Would you do it again?”
“Absolutely not,” Shane began.
“Oh, yeah.” Bay might not always pick up on social cues, but he felt like Sawyer might be his people. “Max is an asshole. I would do it again in a heartbeat, but my brother thinks we probably shouldn’t flirt with Brooke’s sister-in-law since we’re into her. Miss Rachel is nice and lovely, but it was always Brooke.”
A smile broke out over Sawyer’s face. “You are going to drive Max crazy. I approve.”