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)
He nodded Trev’s way. “I saw you walking up the street. Thought we might talk.”
Trev looked from Bay and back to Rye. “Everything okay?”
Rye shook his head. “Everything sucks, Trev, but that’s not your fault. I appreciate you taking care of Rach. She needs breathing room, and it seems Max and I needed a kick in the pants. I’m not going to beat up your ranch hand.”
“Like you could.” Shit. He was supposed to stop that.
Rye’s lips curled in a smirk. “Oh, I could. You might be younger, but I assure you I’m meaner than you can imagine. But I think my sister would take exception, and I’m pretty sure my wife would, too. Also, Stef tells me your hands are a world of imagination or some shit.”
“That’s terrible.” Bay felt his nose wrinkle like he’d smelled something bad—which was Stef Talbot’s choice of metaphors. “Tell me he doesn’t actually say that.”
One big shoulder shrugged. “Stef can be a pretentious ass, but he’s practically my brother, so what am I going to do about it?”
Trev opened the door to the café, caution clear in his expression. “I’m going to order Nell’s food. Do not kill each other.”
“If I was going to kill him, I would be sneaky about it,” Rye vowed. “I would do it in a way no one could figure out it was me.”
That sounded like a threat. “Well, I would prefer to not be killed. Also, I wouldn’t kill Rye because I don’t want to piss off Brooke or Rachel. I think they’re plotting the downfall of man right now.”
“I’m feeling good about this.” Trev’s words didn’t match his frown. “You two work it out.”
The door closed behind him.
“I’m not sorry about what happened last night,” Bay began.
“Is she okay?” Rye asked, ignoring his hard tone. Rye’s voice had gone soft, as though even asking about his wife made him more serious.
“She’s fine. I mean physically. I don’t know what’s going on and it’s none of my business, but I do know she loves you and probably everything can be settled down if you would look at the workload and figure out how to take your fair share.”
Rye’s head tilted, like those were the last words he expected. “What the hell would you know about that?”
“I know that most of the women I’ve ever known just want some fairness when it comes to the workload. I watched my mom do everything. My father worked and she stayed home at first, so she did all the cooking and cleaning and childcare. Funny thing, though. When she had to go back to work so we would have a roof over our head, she still had to do everything. My father was useless at anything but cheating on his wife and gambling away every dollar they made. Same with my aunts. I was taught at every family gathering that women served men. They made dinner and we watched football. And my brother sat alone in our room so he didn’t disturb anyone with his presence. I wonder if I would have thought about the inequity of the division of labor if I hadn’t been thinking about how unfair it was for my brother to miss out on holidays. Would I be like my dad? Thinking women owed me because I was a man?”
“Bay,” Rye began.
But Bay wasn’t finished. It was time for this man to know him. “So the funny part is Shane had to learn how to do everything for himself. How to cook and keep things clean and wash his laundry. And I decided that made him strong, not weak. I started looking at my dad differently. My father was fairly helpless. That wasn’t something for him to be proud of. When I was around twelve or thirteen, I started to help… I don’t like that word. Not when you’re living in a place. I started pulling my weight. I did the dishes with Shane. I learned to do some rudimentary cooking when we were in high school. By the time our parents died, we were both not lost when it came to the work we do on an everyday basis. The work that is almost exclusively done by the women in our lives. So that’s what I mean by if she needs a break, look at the division of your labor.”
Rye seemed to take that in. “Max and I have been on the road a lot. I don’t mean to leave her with the whole load. We’ve been trying to make sure we can afford what the kids are going to need.”
“Balance that with what she needs now and you’ll be okay. That woman loves you. She has to because she puts up with Max,” Bay said and then winced. “I’m sorry. I’m going to be better about that. Look, Rye, I want to be honest with you. I intend to marry your sister, and that means we need to start figuring out if we can be family.”