Millie
I ought to have been spending time on picking an outfit for my date with Brandon, most girls would spend hours brooding over it, but not me. I’d taken out the first thing that I’d laid my eyes on – a pair of skinny jeans and a black vest top with designer rips in it and a white underlay. I teamed it with a pair of black, stiletto heeled ankle boots, big hoop earrings, and an armful of silver bangles.
I hadn’t washed my hair, just fluffed it up after my shower, and had put on minimal make-up. I wanted this date to be with Jesse, because while my brain told me that I had to move on, my heart hadn’t quite caught up with it just yet. That was the trouble with love; it was selfish and didn’t give a shit about your heart.
As I looked at myself in the mirror, I knew that I looked good, but good in a ‘popping down to the local bar for a few beers’ good, not first date with a handsome cowboy good. But, that was because it wasn’t the right handsome cowboy. Taking some cash out of my purse and stuffing it into one of the jeans pockets, and my scarlet colored lipstick into another, I left my room and went down stairs.
“Wow.” Garratt grinned at me and wolf-whistled. “Who are you looking so sexy for?”
“I am not,” I scoffed, waving a dismissive hand at him. “I’m just off to Rowdy’s with Brandon.”
“Brandon?” Garratt asked, his eyes as icy as his tone was hard. “What the fuck, Millie?”
“Garratt, language!” Bonnie snapped, pointing at Addy who was curled on Ted’s lap, reading.
“You cannot go out with Brandon.” Garratt got up from his seat and stalked towards me. “Please, Millie.”
“Garratt, honey, please just drop it. If Millie wants to go out with Brandon then leave her be.”
Garratt’s jaw was clenched tight as he scrubbed a hand through his hair. I really had no idea what his problem was with Brandon, but Bonnie was staring at him wide-eyed, warning him to stop making a fuss.
“Well, I’m coming with you,” Garratt said, grabbing his wallet from the shelving behind him.
“Garratt!” Ted barked, looking up from Addy’s book. “Sit back down on the couch, now.”
“But, Dad…”
“Garratt, sit!”
Garratt looked from Ted to me and then flopped down on to the sofa.
“Ignore him, Millie.” Ted smiled at me. “You go and have a good time. You need a ride?”
I shook my head. “No, it’s fine, Brandon is going to pick me up.”
I heard Garratt growl but chose to ignore him. I checked my watch and it was almost seven-thirty. “I’ll go and wait on the porch,” I said.
“Enjoy yourself.” Bonnie gave me a tight smile that by no means met her eyes.
I smiled back and let myself out.
We walked into Rowdy’s with Brandon’s hand on the small of my back, and I had to be honest, it wasn’t totally unwelcome. We’d chatted animatedly on the fifteen minute trip into town, and Brandon had made me laugh talking about how nervous he’d been to ask me out tonight. He seemed so confident that I doubted it, but it made me feel a little easier and thought that tonight may actually be fun.
Rowdy’s had a long mahogany bar down one side, in front of which were round, tall tables with high stools, and to the right of that was a small open area that I assumed was for dancing, with a raised platform at one side with a microphone in the middle of it. Behind the bar were bottles of spirits on a long shelf and above that were dozens of pictures of football and basketball games.
“You’ll find me and Jesse up there somewhere,” Brandon said as he spotted me looking up at the photographs. “We played on our High School basketball team; Jesse was captain.”
“Really?” I said, genuinely interested. “Were you any good?”
Brandon waved his hand in a see-saw motion. “Ah so, so. We were good enough for High School, but we weren’t gettin’ any colleges bangin’ on our doors. That’s how Jesse hooked up with Melody; she was a cheerleader.”
I swallowed and forced a smile. “Oh okay,” I replied.
“Yeah, they really were the golden couple; captain of the basketball team and captain of the cheerleadin’ squad. It was kinda written in the stars.” Brandon looked down at the bar and sighed.
“Melody was a good friend of yours, too?” I asked, seeing sadness in his eyes.
“Not really, no.”
“Sorry, you just looked kind of sad.”
Brandon gave me a small smile. “Jesse is my best buddy and has been for twenty years, since our first day at school, and losin’ her has pretty much fucked him up. So, if I’m sad it’s for Jess. She was the love of his life, and I think always will be.”
Despite the vile taste of jealousy in my mouth, I found Brandon’s hand and gave it a squeeze. What he’d just said was another reason why I should forget Jesse, and concentrate on Brandon. He didn’t seem such a bad guy and I had no idea what Garratt’s problem was. Maybe I’d ask Brandon one day; perhaps if we had another date.
“Okay,” I said brightly, to change the atmosphere and to push Jesse from my mind. “What would you like to drink?”
Brandon looked at me totally horrified. “No way! You are not buyin’ me a drink.”
“Why?” I giggled. “I’m a modern woman, I can buy a man a drink if I want to.”
“Not a chance, sweetness,” he laughed, pulling his wallet from his back pocket. “Janelle, two beers over here when you’re ready,” he called to a tall blonde woman with the perkiest boobs I’d ever seen. “You do like beer?”
I nodded. “Yes, beer would be great.”
“Good. Do you wanna grab us a table and I’ll bring them over?”
I found us a table, smiling at the few locals that were already in there, and hitched myself up onto a stool.
“Karl, Wyatt, how you doin’?” Brandon asked, doing a chin dip to the two men at the next table. They both lifted their beers and smiled, murmuring that they were okay.
“It was Wyatt’s horse that you and Addy were feedin’ earlier,” Brandon explained.
“Oh yes, I remember Bonnie saying. Jesse’s breaking him in, is that right?”
Brandon grinned. “Breakin’ her in, but yeah, he is. Jesse is amazin’ at gettin’ a horse to do exactly what he wants.”
I nodded and gave him a tight smile. Brandon wasn’t helping me to forget Jesse when he kept bringing him into the conversation. But, they were best friends who worked together, I suppose it was natural that a lot of Brandon’s stories included the beautiful, dirty blond haired, blue eyed rancher that I couldn’t stop yearning for.
“I keep telling him he should make more of a business out of it, but he loves his cattle.” Brandon took a swig of his beer and looked at me over the rim of the bottle. “So, what about you, what brings you to the Connor ranch?”
I breathed a small sigh of relief that neither Jesse nor Garratt had told Brandon about my humiliation. It was bad enough that they knew without my date knowing, too.
“Oh, just wanted a change,” I replied, which was not totally a lie. “I wanted to get away from the town I lived in for a while. The job taking care of Addy came up, so I thought, why not?”
“Bridge Vale doesn’t strike me as the place to escape to, most people wanna escape from it.”
“That’s what Garratt said,” I replied before taking a drink from my own beer.
Brandon’s smile faded momentarily at the mention of Garratt’s name. “You were a teacher, back home?” he asked.
“Kind of. I have a teaching degree but taught the older kids at Nursery – your Pre-school. I did reading and basic arithmetic with the kids Addy’s age.”
Brandon nodded in understanding. “Addy should be in pre-school, really, but I guess you heard all about that?”
“Yes, I did. Honestly, I think Jesse had a point. She will learn more on the ranch if what I heard about the teacher is true.”
“Oh, it’s true alright,” Brandon laughed. “Muriel Prewitt is mean and too harsh to be a teacher, but when your husband is Principle, maybe it don’t matter whether you can actually do the job.”
“Maybe.”
“Hey, you know you would do a great job there, if we could just get rid of old Muriel.” Brandon gently pushed at my shoulder with his beer bottle.
“I’m only here for a year,” I said with a shake of the head. “Once Addy goes to school my contract is over.”
His gaze roamed lazily over my face and I felt a shiver run across my skin. Want enveloped me, but I knew it was only a natural instinct to a good looking man looking at me as though I was his last supper. It wasn’t necessarily want for Brandon the man.
“Maybe you’ll change your mind,” he whispered. “At the end of the year I might have persuaded you to stay.”
Unable to meet his stare any longer, I lowered my head and allowed my hair to fall forward, shielding my face. Brandon reached a hand out and, with a long finger, lifted my chin.
“Don’t hide that pretty face,” he said softly.
I smiled and was about to say something when the bar door swung open and in walked Jesse and Garratt, looking like one half of a boy band. The two brothers had the same long limbed, confident walk and the same swimmer’s physique; broad shoulders and narrow waists, Jesse’s a little more muscular.
When they spotted us, Garratt stopped in his tracks and stiffened while Jesse gave us a chin dip and carried on to the bar.
All of a sudden, the optimism that I’d felt about tonight dwindled and I knew that while I was here and still had to see and interact with Jesse, Brandon would never have a chance of persuading me to stay.