Slow Burn Cowboy

“Just grab the second one on the way out,” she told him. “It’s on the house.”

“Pity caffeine,” he said. “But, at this point, I don’t have too much pride to take it.”

He picked up the bag and lifted it. “See you later?”

“Yes,” she said. “I’ll bring the food by after I close up here. So it should be around about five thirty.”

He grunted.

“Actual human beings with people skills just say thank you, Finn,” Lane said.

“Thank you,” he said before turning and walking out of the store. She watched him through the window as he adjusted his black Stetson and looked up and down the street.

She caught sight of a table of women sitting out in front of The Grind drinking coffee and admiring the view that was Finn Donnelly.

She turned away, a rush of heat filling her cheeks, and her stomach. She felt weird. Weird that she had been looking at Finn, and that she had been borderline sharing a moment with the women across the street, who were clearly not just looking at him but checking him out.

But she had not been checking him out. Not really. She looked up again, and he was gone. She ignored the slight kick in her stomach.

If she noticed the fact that his jaw was square, and that the muscles of his forearms were well-defined, that didn’t really mean anything. Not a thing except the fact that she wasn’t blind. He was a man. He was a good-looking man.

And she wasn’t immune to it. She had just been thinking that his smile and eyes always got him out of trouble with her. It was just—just in a friend way.

She gritted her teeth. That fact had been driven home in kind of a strange way a few months ago when he and Rebecca had nearly hooked up at Ace’s one night. Though Rebecca had been adamant that nothing at all had happened, and that really, nothing would have, since she’d only been using him to try and forget about Gage, the man she was determined to stay away from at the time.

But it had all worked out in the end.

Rebecca and Gage had resolved their differences and Lane didn’t have to deal with the weirdness of two of her friends dating each other. Which would have been the worst part of Rebecca and Finn hooking up.

Just the thought made her shudder a little bit. Because weird. It would just be weird. Just like it was weird that someone she knew really well, and had taste she respected, had seen Finn as bangable.

Yes, Finn was an attractive man. She knew that. But all the fantasies about his hands that she’d had centered on things he could fix in her house.

The door opened again and she jumped when the women who had just been ogling Finn walked in off the street.

“What can I help you find today?” She put on her brightest smile. And she did her very best to cast all thoughts of Cord, the eventual expansion, Finn and Finn’s stubbornness out of her mind.

* * *

HIS BROTHER ALEX showed up looking like a military cliché. He was wearing dog tags and a tan shirt, covered mostly by a dark jacket. What looked to be all of his earthly possessions were shoved in a giant bag he had slung over one shoulder, held like a backpack.

The only indicator he hadn’t been in the military for the past few months was that his dark hair was no longer high and tight, but was hanging down into his eyes.

He walked through the entryway and into the kitchen, slamming the pack down on the countertop. “Is Liam here yet?”

“No. And good to see you too.”

Alex smiled in that easy way the rest of them could never seem to manage. “You didn’t seem particularly thrilled to see me, Finn. Don’t try to act like I’m the cranky ass in the group.”

“There,” Finn said, forcing a smile. “I’m glad to see you.” He realized, as soon as he said it, that it was strangely true.

“You’re only saying that because if I wasn’t here it would be because I was dead or incapacitated in some way.”

“No, I’m glad to see you because you’re about the only one of us that knows how to defuse tension rather than adding to it.”

Alex shrugged. “We all have our gifts.” He looked around the room, the slow and thorough evaluation offering a slight glimpse of the intensity that lurked beneath Alex’s easygoing surface.

For all that he was the laid-back brother in the Donnelly clan, he was still a soldier.

“Is Cain around?” Alex asked.

“Somewhere. Look for the storm cloud and you’ll find him somewhere underneath it. Unless of course you find Violet underneath it.”

He’d had limited interaction with his teenage niece since her arrival, since her face had mostly been glued to her phone. But the better part of it had consisted of single-word sentences. Mostly, she’d been holed up in her room.

“What does she have to be stormy about? She’s just a kid.”

“A teenager.”

Alex swore. “I have been out of touch for too long. So, what’s happening? Are you having a lawyer read us the will, or...?”

“Not necessary. You all have a copy of the will. We just need to discuss what’s going to happen. We all inherited an equal share of the ranch. But I’m willing to offer a monetary payout.” He stared at his brother with purpose behind his gaze. “You don’t have to stay here.”

“I don’t have anywhere else to be,” Alex said.

There was something slightly haunted in his eyes then, but Finn wasn’t going to ask about it. That just wasn’t the Donnelly way.

There was another knock on the door and Finn knew exactly who that would be. “I guess the gang’s all here,” he said drily.

He walked back to the entry, jerking it open. Sure enough, there stood Liam, looking a whole lot like Alex. But where Alex smiled easily, Liam did not. His bags were down at his feet, his tattooed forearms crossed over his chest, his mouth pressed into a grim line. “Hey,” he said.

“Come in,” Finn returned.

Liam picked up his bags and walked inside before dumping them on the floor again. Alex came out of the kitchen and the two brothers acknowledged each other with a single head nod.

“Well,” came a gruff voice from the top of the stairs, “this is a helluva reunion.”

Cain chose that moment to walk in, his footsteps heavy.

“We’re all here,” Liam said, “I guess we can get down to business.”

Finn was never more conscious of the dysfunction of the Donnelly clan than when they were all standing in one room. There was—at any given moment—both a disconnect and a connection between all of them.

Brothers. Strangers. Both of those descriptions were true.

By the time the brothers had settled in the expansive seating area it was dark outside, the interior lights reflecting off of the floor-to-ceiling windows. Liam and Alex were sitting on the couch, at opposite ends. Cain was seated in a chair, one leg flung out in front of him and his hands in his lap.

Finn remained standing, taking the folded-up will out of his pocket and holding it out. “Was anybody confused about these terms?”