Chapter 2

Dallas Rose wasn’t exactly spying on them. He was just eavesdropping on the side of the house. He’d spent the better part of an hour working up the courage to finally speak to Rosie, and he hadn’t been able to even step out of the shadows.

Love sucked.

At least, he was pretty sure it was love. Last year, when Rosie had walked in to his older brother’s kitchen, Dallas had taken one look at her and known she was the girl for him. Unfortunately, when he was around her, his tongue tied in knots that would make an Eagle Scout proud.

“Is there a reason you’re lurking around the side of my house?” It was his older brother Cinco.

Dallas turned around to find him leaning against the side of the house.

“I was just …” He had nothing.

“You’re not some sort of Peeping Tom, are you? Since you’re my brother and all, I won’t turn you in to the sheriff, but I’m going to have to beat the crap out of you.” Cinco shrugged one shoulder. “I’m sure Mom will understand.”

“I’m not peeping in your windows. I was just …” Still had nothing.

“Working up the courage to finally talk to Rosie?” A watermelon-slice smile broke out on his brother’s lips.

“No.” Yes. “I was just …”

“Right, you were just …” Cinco continued to smile. “I know you have a crush on Rosie. Everyone but Rosie knows it. Every time you see her, your face turns all red like you’re having a stroke and incoherent words fall out of your mouth. It’s hilarious.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Dallas had never had a problem talking to women. His twin brother, Worth, was the shy one. Dallas was the extrovert. At least, he had been until Rosie came along. Now Worth was the chatty one, and Dallas lurked on the side of houses just to get a glimpse of her.

“Where’s all of the Rose charm? Once, you told me you could have any woman you chose, only you didn’t want to choose because it was bound to make all the other women so sad.” Cinco’s shoulders shook with laughter.

“I was eighteen and stupid. Are you happy now? I’m finally admitting it.” Ten years ago he’d made one stupid comment, and the world would never let him live it down. “Thanks for all of the brotherly support.”

“Brotherly support? You’ve been watching too much Dr. Phil. As your older brother, my job is to pound on you from time to time to remind you of your total insignificance in the world. Also, advice offering is part of the deal, but the beating you up is way more fun.” Cinco really was enjoying his discomfort.

“I hope we’ve entered the advice part of your brotherly job, because I’ve been taking an online kickboxing class and I can kill you with nothing but my elbow and my left ring finger.” True, the online course wasn’t as good as taking it in person, but the ranch was a good hour and a half away from the closest gym.

“Advice it is. Don’t take any wooden nickels. A penny saved is a penny earned. Don’t get your nose pierced during allergy season. CanDee told me that last one,” Cinco said. “Seems reasonable.”

Just once, Dallas wanted to be taken seriously by his brothers. “Thanks.” The “screw you” was implied.

“You’re welcome. Feel free to come to me anytime for advice.” Cinco turned on his heel and headed toward his pickup. “Nice talk.”

“The pleasure was all yours.” Dallas rolled his eyes. Sometimes there was way too much family around.

“When are you going to ask her out?” Justus yelled over the Bobcat’s engine. She pulled the Bobcat alongside him and shut off the engine.

Yep, way too much family. “Good God, is nothing private?”

“Nope.” Justus just grinned. “She’s single and has been for a long time. You should snatch her up before someone else does.”

“Who else?” Rosie was his woman, whether she knew it or not. “I need names.”

“Somebody’s jealous,” Justus sing-songed.

“I am not.” He totally was. “I just think that with her living here now, the ranch hands should leave her alone. Mixing business and pleasure is a bad idea.”

“Isn’t that would you’d like to do?” Justus was fast becoming that annoying sister he’d never wanted.

“That’s different.” He wasn’t sure how, but it was.

“Yep, I can see that.” She smiled up at him expectantly.

“What? Did you come back here just to give me a hard time?” With over eight hundred thousand acres, he should be able to get a little alone time, but no, he couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a family member.

She pointed to the ground at his feet. “You’re standing where I need to dig.”

“Oh. Sorry.” He stepped out of the way. “Seriously, though, have you heard anything about someone else asking her out?”

Competition had never been a problem before. What if Rosie preferred someone else’s company to his?

“No. Would you like me to pass her a note in the cafeteria at lunch?” Justus fired up the Bobcat. “You should lock her down before someone else steps in.”

He knew it, but he was at a loss for how to make it happen. He’d never had trouble talking to women before. This sucked.

Justus stuck her hand out of the cage and pointed to the golf cart pulling into the driveway. “I swiped her phone so she’d have to come back.” She gave him a thumbs-up. “You’re welcome.”

She drove off behind the house.

Oh, crap, Rosie was back. Should he wait for her casually on the porch? Or maybe he’d just lean against the porch. Or should he walk around the side of the house and pretend he’d just walked up? But what reason would he have for being here? He swallowed down the saliva pooling in his mouth. This was a disaster.

She waved and his heart rate kicked up a notch.

Then reality crashed down on him. She knew he was here, so a casual stop-by was out of the question. It was a full minute before he remembered to wave back. Since he’d taken so long, it was awkward.

She pulled up right in front of him. The red color of her suit looked really pretty against her skin.

She smiled up at him.

He stared down at her, his mind going blank.

She continued to smile at him, like she was waiting for him to do something. He just stared and stared and stared.

“Okay then. I’m just here for my phone.” She shook her head and stepped out of the golf cart. She shaded her eyes from the sun and scanned the porch, looking for her phone. She picked it up and waved it at him. “Found it.”

He opened his mouth to tell her how beautiful she was, but the only thing that came out was, “Justus stole your phone so I’d get a chance to talk to you.” He said it very fast and all in one breath.

Her eyes screwed up as she watched him carefully. “Okay. Why?”

He waited for words to spring out of his mouth, but nothing happened.

Rosie slid the phone into her suit pocket and then crossed her arms over her chest. “Have I done something to you?”

No, but he’d sure as hell love to do something to her, like ripping that conservative red suit off so he could memorize every square inch of her body. He felt his eyes go huge. Had he said that out loud?

His eyes went to her face. Surely, if he’d said it out loud she’d be mad or, well… madder. She looked kinda pissed right now.

“Huh?” was all he could get to come out of his mouth.

“Have I offended you in some way, because you go out of your way to avoid me.” She smiled as she held her hand out for him to shake. “Let’s start over. I’m Rosie Gomez. It’s nice to meet you, Dallas Rose.”

He stared at her hand, but he couldn’t quite figure out how to make his hand take hers. He glanced down at his hand, but it still wouldn’t move.

Finally, she yanked her hand back. “Whatever I’ve done, I apologize.”

He watched her turn around and march right back to the golf cart.

Until now, he hadn’t thought it was possible to make the situation worse, but things on her end had gone from awkward to animosity in no time flat.

He wanted to run after her, but his feet had stopped working. Talk about things not working. How were they supposed to ride off into the sunset together when he turned mute every time he saw her? Maybe he should learn sign language. He glanced down at his hands. That wouldn’t help since they seemed to be broken too.

“That was pathetic,” Worth called from behind a large oak tree. He waggled his phone. “Thank God I got that up on Instagram. It was a miracle, considering I only have half a bar.”

“You better be kidding.” Dallas grabbed the phone from his twin brother and checked his Instagram timeline. Sure enough, there was a video of him trying to talk to Rosie. It really was pathetic. “Ten years ago, I’d have beat you to death over this, but look how much I’ve grown.”

Dallas’s right fist shot out and smashed against Worth’s jaw. And it was on. Worth tackled Dallas and got a few good ones into the kidneys. Dallas tripped Worth, who landed flat on his back. It was time to ground and pound. Dallas pummeled him with his fists.

Ice-cold water doused his back, and he practically jumped a foot in the air. He rolled off Worth to find Rosie holding a garden hose and staring down at him.

“Are you crazy?” She tossed the hose down and went to Worth. She knelt beside him. “He’s hurt.”

“He’ll be okay.” How about that? An actual, intelligent sentence had popped out of his mouth. He grinned from ear to ear. There was hope yet.

She helped Worth up. “Have both of you lost your minds?”

“This really isn’t a big deal. We do this all the time.” Worth rubbed his jaw.

“What in God’s name for?” She looked honestly horrified.

“It’s a sibling thing.” Worth shook it off. “We fight… a lot.”

“I have three older sisters, and I can say that we never roll around on the front lawn trying to beat each other to death.” Rosie’s tone said she wasn’t buying it.

She glared down at Dallas. “It’s one thing for you to ignore me, but to beat on your poor brother? You should be ashamed of yourself.”

His mouth had gone back to not working.

Worth moaned and grabbed his side. “Think you could help me back to my house?”

She patted his back. “You bet.”

Worth turned around and discreetly stuck out his tongue at Dallas.

Dallas had never hated his brother more.

Holy crap, was Worth interested in Rosie too?

It wouldn’t be the first time they’d liked the same girl. But it was the first time Worth had out charmed him. Usually, Worth was the shy, awkward one. This tables-turning thing sucked.

If Worth was interested in Rosie, surely, he would have said something. Dallas rolled to his feet. This was just another way that his younger-by-two-minutes brother was punishing him for being born first.

He rolled his eyes. Family was always trouble, and with one as big as his, there was always someone around to film that trouble and post it on Instagram.

What was he supposed to do now? His best friend/worst enemy was being pampered and taken care of by the woman Dallas wanted.

He’d never not been able to charm a woman before. This didn’t make sense. He was the comic relief in the family, and now he could barely get out a sentence that contained both a subject and a verb. Had he had a love-induced lobotomy while he wasn’t looking? Surely he would have noticed someone poking around in his brain.

Or maybe he’d been abducted by aliens? He had seen lots of weird flashing lights at night. True, most of them were fireflies, but still. He wasn’t ruling out alien abduction as a reason for his lapses in motor and verbal function.

Or it might have been all of the punches he’d taken from his brothers. Yep, that was probably it. And now the perpetrator of most of those punches was going out of his way to make Dallas jealous. Again, family was trouble.

Dallas had walked over instead of driving, and now he was thankful for that. He needed to walk off the embarrassment and the frustration of this morning.

He did take comfort in the fact that things really couldn’t get worse.