AIDEN FLYNN LOOKED from one dog-tired, soot-blackened face to the next along the fire line. His heart hurt when he saw the look of despair in his two younger brothers’ eyes. They were all suffering as a result of Brian’s disappearance. His heart sank to his feet when he considered how the loss of her sister was going to affect the woman he loved.
In a miracle of cooperation, Grayhawk and Flynn had been working side by side for the past sixteen hours fighting the Yellowstone fire. Connor and Devon stood nearby with Pulaski tools slung over their shoulders, their eyes bleak, their hips canted in exhaustion. Matthew Grayhawk’s nose and eyes dripped clear fluids in a useless effort to rid themselves of smoke, and the blond ponytail that ran halfway down Leah Grayhawk’s back beneath her hard hat was peppered with ash.
The grueling, backbreaking, mind-numbing effort to curb the fire, beating back flames with tree limbs, digging furrows in the earth with a Pulaski tool—with its hoe on one side of the metal head and ax on the other—and cutting down trees with a chain saw to make a firebreak, gave them a way to fight back against the fear and worry they all felt at the disappearance—without a trace—of Brian Flynn and Taylor Grayhawk.
Within the past hour, word had reached them that the fire-breathing dragon had been curbed. The flames weren’t completely squelched, but the Yellowstone fire was no longer burning out of control. Now a more thorough search for the missing plane, and possible survivors, could begin.
As Aiden approached Leah, his heart began thumping erratically. He tried to look casual. He felt anything but. His voice was raspy from smoke. He coughed to clear his throat and said, “You look beat.”
Instead of admitting to fatigue, she focused her red-rimmed eyes on him and said, “I’m just thirsty.”
He handed her the canteen from his PG bag.
She opened it and drank before handing it back to him. She sighed, then removed her hard hat and used the back of her wrist to shove the bangs off her forehead. She pursed her lips and shook her head as she eyed the blackened cuff of her khaki shirt. “I need to go to the command post. I promised to find something for us to eat.”
Aiden took a step to block her way. “You haven’t said two words to me since we got here. You didn’t say much more than that on the drive here from Jackson.”
“Not now, Aiden.”
“When, Leah? When are you going to believe I love you?”
She glanced around to make sure no one was close enough to hear and rounded on him, her eyes fierce, her voice a harsh whisper. “Leave me alone. Stop harassing me.”
“Give me a chance to explain. If you’re still determined to be rid of me, I’ll walk away.”
“I know everything I need to know. You bet Brian you could get me to fall in love with you. You won. End of story.”
“You’re my wife.”
Her nostrils flared with anger. “Not for long. The minute I find the time to fly back to Vegas, this marriage is over.”
“Catholics don’t believe in divorce.”
“Brian got a divorce.”
He saw the flash of regret in her eyes that she’d mentioned his missing brother. He swallowed the knot of raw pain in his throat and said, “I’m not Brian.”
It was Brian who’d talked him into the bet. When he’d told his brother to stop moping over his broken marriage and move on with his life, Brian had countered that Aiden hadn’t even managed to get a woman to fall in love with him, let alone marry him. He was in no position to lecture Brian on his love life.
Aiden remembered bragging, “I can get any woman I want.”
“Any woman?” Brian had countered. “How about Leah Grayhawk?”
“Who’d want her? That female’s nothing but piss and vinegar.” In fact, Leah could be downright vicious when it came to defending her sisters against Flynn pranks. Aiden had the scars to prove it.
In retaliation for Connor cutting Eve’s cinch before the barrel race competition at a junior rodeo, causing Leah’s youngest sister to break her arm when the saddle came free, Leah had cut the cinch on Aiden’s saddle before the calf-roping competition at the same event. He’d ended up breaking his leg. It still ached on cold days.
“You said any woman,” Brian jibed.
Aiden eyed his brother sideways. What was Brian’s game? He rubbed his thigh and said, “Not Leah.”
Brian made clucking sounds. “You’re afraid to try because you know you’ll fail. Leah isn’t likely to fall for your tricks. She knows too much about your exploits with women.”
Leah was the same age as he was. They’d been in most of the same classes in high school. They hadn’t had much to do with each other since, but Jackson Hole was a small place, and he was sure she’d heard whatever gossip there was about him. “I could have her swooning at my feet”—he snapped his fingers—“like that.” Even as he said it, Aiden realized how silly the whole conversation had become. At thirty-three, he didn’t need to prove his prowess with women. He’d had plenty of willing partners over the years. Getting involved with one of King’s Brats was a dumb move.
“I have no doubt you could charm Leah into a date or two,” Brian said. “But could you get her to fall in love with you?”
“That’s ridiculous.”
Brian bent his elbows and flapped his arms. “Like I said, cluck, cluck, cluck. You think it’s easy to get a woman to trust you enough to give you her love? Put your money where your mouth is. I’ll bet you my Harley that you can’t get Leah Grayhawk to fall in love with you.”
Aiden had been coveting Brian’s Harley-Davidson ever since his brother had bought it. He could have bought a motorcycle of his own, but that would have felt too much like he was copying Brian. As the firstborn, he always had been, and always would be, the leader in the family.
“I have to admit I’m tempted,” he told Brian. “That’s a fine ride.”
“If you lose,” Brian said, “you never say another word about me getting on with my life.” Brian then extended his hand. “Do we have a bet?”
It had seemed harmless enough at the time. All Aiden had to do was put his best foot forward with Leah. He’d never seen her date, even in high school. He supposed she’d stayed home to keep an eye on her sisters. She wasn’t as pretty as the twins or Eve, but she wasn’t bad-looking, either. She had really beautiful golden brown eyes that reflected what she was feeling. At least he would have that much of a head start figuring out what was going on inside her. He liked a challenge, and he was sure Leah would give him a run for his money.
He put his hand in Brian’s and said, “You’re on.”
Even making contact with Leah hadn’t been easy. Both of them worked on their fathers’ ranches. The Flynn ranch, the Lucky 7, and the Grayhawk ranch, Kingdom Come, had a few common borders, but both ranch houses sat in the middle of thousands of acres of land. Unless he and Leah happened to be in Jackson Hole at the same time shopping for supplies, or showed up at the same cattle auction or rodeo, there was no reason for their paths to cross.
When he finally tracked her down at the hardware store in town, Leah had been so suspicious of his motives—rightfully, as it turned out—that it took all his persuasion—and a small lie—to get her to go out with him.
“I was wondering if you’d help me out with a problem I’m having.”
Her eyes had narrowed suspiciously. “What sort of problem?”
There was no problem. So he made one up. “Uh. It’s about this girl I was dating. She broke up with me, and I can’t figure out why.”
Her lip curled cynically. “She must be blind. Or stupid.”
He’d been shocked by her response, which suggested she liked his looks and maybe even him as a person. He shot her a coaxing smile and said, “Obviously, she’s not as perceptive as you.”
Leah snorted derisively. It was the sound a cowhand might make to another cowhand. There was nothing feminine about it. It dismissed the possibility that she thought he was anyone worth knowing.
He appreciated the fact that she hadn’t gone all girly on him and said, “I hoped you’d be willing to hear me out, about the relationship, I mean, and let me know what you think I should have done differently.”
Her gaze lowered to her feet and remained there for a few moments. He was almost rocked backward when her eyes finally locked with his. Those fierce, sun-lit orbs, which reminded him of a lioness on the hunt, challenged him to tell the truth. He suddenly felt guilty for the hoax he was perpetrating on her. He almost ended the bet right there.
Except, there was something else in her eyes. It was a feeling he had that she could see inside him to what he was thinking, what he was feeling. The experience was strange enough to keep him silent.
“Why don’t you ask your brothers for advice?”
“They’re no help with something like this. I need a female perspective.”
“I haven’t dated much, but I have three sisters with a lot of experience. Maybe you should speak to one of them.”
He was surprised to hear her admit she hadn’t dated, even though he knew it to be true. He was even more surprised that she’d offered to set him up with one of her sisters. “I have a suggestion. I don’t know if you’ll go for it, but here it is. Go out on a date with me. You can judge for yourself where you think I might have gone wrong.”
“Why me?”
“I can count on you to tell me the brutal truth.”
Her lips pursed and then flattened. “All right. I’ll go on a ‘pretend’ date with you.”
Leah had been a babe in the woods, falling for a line like he’d handed her. To this day, Aiden was ashamed of his underhanded tactics in getting her out on that first date. But he wasn’t sorry he’d done it. Otherwise, he would have deprived himself of everything good that had followed.
Leah had greeted him with wary eyes at the Stagecoach Bar in Wilson, where they’d arranged to meet for their “pretend” date, and watched him with mistrust the rest of the night. The bar just outside Jackson, which had been around since the 1940s, catered to local workers, so they were less likely to run into someone they knew. The music was so loud, talking was difficult.
By the end of the evening, Aiden was ready to forget the whole thing, but he knew Brian would never let him hear the end of it. He walked Leah through the parking lot to her pickup, then put a hand on her elbow to turn her to face him.
“Well, what do you think? If this were a real date, would you go out with me again?”
“No.”
Even though Aiden had no intention of going on another date with Leah, her rejection stung. “Why not?”
“You couldn’t have had a good time tonight. We only danced the two-step twice. You passed on every waltz, when you could have used the opportunity to hold me in your arms. You drank one beer. I don’t know if you just don’t like beer, or whether you were afraid I’d take advantage of you if you got drunk.”
He laughed at the absurdity of her suggestion.
She held up a hand to keep him from explaining or making excuses and continued, “You didn’t ask me anything about myself. Nor did you offer any information about yourself that would lead me to believe you’re interested in the two of us getting to know each other any better.”
He found her scathing honesty refreshing enough to meet it with equal frankness. “Everything you’ve said is true enough. But I think there’s something about this”—he gestured between the two of them—“that’s worth exploring.” It dawned on him that he meant it. There was something about her that he found intriguing, but he knew little more about her now than he had before the evening had begun. “So. Do you want to give it another try?”
She took a long time considering his suggestion. Instead of speaking, she rose on tiptoe and slid one arm around his neck, teasing her fingertips through the too-long hair on his nape, raising gooseflesh. Then she pressed her lips softly against his, her tongue dipping inside his mouth for a thrilling instant, spinning his insides as though he were on a Tilt-A-Whirl.
When she was done, Leah looked into his eyes and whispered, “Yes. This is worth exploring.”
He felt as though he’d been poleaxed. He was dizzy, and his heart was pounding like it wanted out of his chest. Nothing even remotely like it had ever happened to him. Aiden fought the confusing feelings, because they frightened him. For a moment, he considered changing his mind. Then he realized that, if he did, he would have to give Brian a reason for giving up.
Flynns never quit. Which meant he had to see Leah again. He would just be more careful next time. He would make sure that he was the one in charge of any kissing they did. And he would find out everything about her. Once she was no longer a mystery to him, he would be able to walk away without a qualm.
He should have known it wouldn’t be that simple. Nothing was ever easy between Grayhawks and Flynns. Considering the way their relationship had started out, it was doomed from the start. Aiden never should have expected—or hoped—for anything else.
They met in secret for every date, because Leah was worried about what King—or Angus, for that matter—would do if he ever found out. Aiden couldn’t disagree with her, because their fathers’ hatred for each other was as virulent as ever. But the more fences she put in his way to keep them apart, the more determined he was to move over them, around them, or just knock them down.
Aiden wasn’t sure when or how he’d fallen in love with her. It just happened. One day she was this fascinating creature who figuratively held a palm against his chest to keep him at arm’s distance. The next she was this amazing woman he couldn’t hold close enough to his heart.
Leah had put off having sex, arguing they needed more time to know each other first. It had dawned on him that, despite everything, she still didn’t trust him. He debated admitting that he’d started dating her because of a bet with Brian. He would explain how his feelings had changed and grown into something genuine and true. But he was afraid she would use the bet as an excuse to walk away and never see him again.
That would break him apart.
Four months ago, when her sisters were all out of town, Aiden had surprised Leah with a trip to Vegas. He’d never seen her so carefree, so…happy. Until that weekend, he’d never seen her drink anything stronger than beer, and when he’d offered her champagne to celebrate, she’d liked it so much, she drank it like fruit punch. He’d done his share of celebrating as well.
As the evening wore on, her smile seemed broader to him and her laughter more jubilant. Getting married at the Golden Bells Wedding Chapel in the middle of the night seemed like a wonderful idea. As the gloriously happy bride and groom, they finally consummated their relationship.
Leah had been surprisingly remorseful the next morning.
“If it’s because your sisters weren’t at the wedding—”
“It’s not that.”
“Or because I didn’t have a ring—”
“Or that, either.”
“Then what? Was the sex not what you expected?”
She blushed a fiery red. “It was…You know what it was.”
She’d been a virgin. He’d been half drunk and in a hurry. It hadn’t been good.
Aiden had silently vowed to do better—to think more about her than himself—the next time. But Leah was already up and dressed and ready to leave by the time he woke up. He hadn’t tried to coax her back into bed, which he didn’t realize until much later was a terrible mistake. He simply got up and got dressed, all the while listening to the reasons why they shouldn’t have done what they’d done.
“Where will we live, Aiden?”
“At the Lucky 7, of course.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Getting married was a bad idea.”
“Then what have we been doing for the past five months? Do you love me, Leah?”
She refused to answer him. Refused to say what he’d already said to her more than once—without a like response. He thought he saw love in her eyes, but what she said was, “I can’t live with you, Aiden. I need to be home for my sisters.”
His face grew hot with anger. “Your sisters are grown women. They can take care of themselves.”
“I’m the only mother they have,” she argued. “Until they have homes of their own, I’m responsible for them. Besides, I could never live under the same roof as your father.”
“I have a whole wing of the house to myself.”
“But there’s one kitchen, right? And one dining room?”
“Fine. We’ll build a house of our own.”
“Where?”
“My father has plenty of land where—”
“So does mine. In fact, Kingdom Come will be mine one day.”
“I need to live at the main house, so I can take care of ranch business.”
“So do I.”
Frustrated, he said, “I want to stop sneaking around, Leah. I want to wake up with you in the morning. Think about coming to live with me. Please.”
“We should have left things the way they were. We never should have gotten married.”
“Don’t say that. I love you. I want to spend my life with you.”
She looked at him with the saddest eyes he’d ever seen. But she didn’t say the words he longed to hear. Or even promise to think about coming to live with him. It was a problem without an easy solution, but one he was determined to solve.
They left Vegas that same day, with everything still unsettled, and returned home—where he’d made a fatal mistake. He’d sought out Brian, who was having lunch on the patio of the Sweetwater Restaurant, across the street from the Jackson Hole fire station where he was on duty, wanting to share the happy—if stunning—news that he and Leah had gotten married.
He’d been surprised at the sneer on Brian’s face. “You won your bet, fair and square,” his brother said. “I’ll give you the keys to the Harley when my shift ends.”
“I thought you’d be glad for me.”
“What bet?” Leah interjected.
Aiden turned to find Leah standing right behind him. Apparently, she’d been sitting at a table by herself on the opposite side of the patio and had come over to speak to him.
“He didn’t tell you?” Brian said.
“Tell me what?” Leah said.
Aiden felt a chill run down his spine when he met Leah’s gaze. She looked like a whipped cur that expects nothing better than unkindness, or even cruelty, at the hands of others.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
He never took his eyes off her as he said, “Keep your mouth shut, Brian.”
“Aiden bet me he could get any girl he wanted to fall in love with him,” Brian said. “Even someone as full of piss and vinegar as you.”
The blood leached from Leah’s face so completely Aiden thought she might faint.
She stared at him with eyes so wounded he felt like throwing up. She opened her mouth to speak, then clamped it tight to still the wobble in her chin. In a voice like a rusty gate she asked, “Is that true?”
“Yes, but—”
He would never forget the look in her eyes as long as he lived. He had never seen such wrenching pain, or felt such pain himself. She tore her gaze from his as she whirled and ran.
Aiden snatched Brian out of his chair by his shirt front and smashed him in the jaw, sending him stumbling backward over the bench onto the ground. Aiden shook his throbbing hand as he railed, “What the hell were you thinking? Why would you hurt her like that?”
“You’re a fool if you think love is forever, Aiden,” he yelled back. “I did you a favor. See how fast she took off? Better she does it now than later.”
Aiden shook his head in disgust and dismay. He didn’t recognize the man sprawled in front of him. This wasn’t the brother he knew. Brian’s divorce had changed him—for the worse. “I don’t know what your wife did to make you such a bitter sonofabitch, but figure it out and get over it. You better hope Leah forgives me, because if she doesn’t…” He left the sentence unfinished. He didn’t like the feelings roiling inside him. Anger and frustration. Fear and hate. He leaped the short fence that separated the patio from the sidewalk and raced after Leah.
She hadn’t forgiven him, despite all his pleas since that awful day. But she hadn’t gotten an annulment during the past four months. Or a divorce. At least, not yet.
He wasn’t particularly encouraged by her delay in cutting the cord that bound them, because within a week of Brian’s revelation, her life had been turned upside down.
Without any warning, the “Black Sheep” of the family, Matthew Grayhawk, who’d disappeared without a word twenty years ago, arrived at Kingdom Come with his nineteen-year-old daughter, Pippa, and six-year-old son, Nathan.
King had lured Matt back to Wyoming from Australia by promising him that, if he stayed at Kingdom Come for a full year, the ranch would be his. Matt’s arrival had thrown the lives of the Brats into terrible turmoil, because Matt had made it clear that, when the year was up, he expected all of them—including Leah—to be long gone.
Aiden remembered how Leah had told him Kingdom Come would be hers one day. He tried to imagine how she must be feeling, now that her father had disinherited her, and her stepbrother was threatening to throw her out on her ass. But she wasn’t speaking to him, so he could only guess how fuming mad she must be.
On the other hand, he saw in her situation an opportunity for the two of them. If Kingdom Come was lost to Leah, maybe she would agree to come live with him.
That is, if she ever forgave him.
Aiden was familiar with the trails Leah rode on horseback every morning, because it was one of the ways they’d managed their meetings when they’d been secretly dating. Recently, he’d intercepted her at a place where she couldn’t see him soon enough to avoid him, and couldn’t easily escape once she did lay eyes on him.
He’d angled his mount across the trail and asked, “What are you going to do about Matt’s ultimatum?”
“Fight. Matt’s not getting this ranch. Not if I have anything to say about it.”
“You don’t have anything to say about it,” he pointed out. “The way I heard it, King has given Matt the authority to treat the ranch as though he already owns it.”
“A lot can happen in a year. By the time I’m through with him, Matt will head back to Australia with his tail between his legs.”
“You don’t know Matt.”
“And you do?”
“He lived with us for a while when he was a teenager, when he had that falling out with King that eventually sent him running off to Australia. Matt’s not going anywhere. That man is grit personified.”
“We’ll see.”
He leaned over to kiss her, but she turned her head away. “Is this the way it’s going to be? I’m not even allowed to touch you?”
“I don’t trust you,” she shot back. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to trust you again.”
She’d spurred her horse so its shoulder knocked into his mount, forcing it backward, and ridden away.
The first time she’d spoken willingly to him since that day was to ask for a ride to Yellowstone. Based on what, and how little, she’d said during the trip, it seemed her heart hadn’t softened toward him.
Aiden loved his brother. But he hadn’t confided in him or shared much of anything personal with him since their fight. Because Brian’s wife had gotten his house in the divorce and Brian hadn’t yet bought another place, they both still lived under the same roof. But for all intents and purposes, he’d cut his brother out of his life.
Brian couldn’t die, because Aiden hadn’t yet forgiven him for destroying his relationship with Leah. The mere possibility of never seeing his brother again made his stomach churn. Aiden knew Brian had suffered from his continued cold shoulder, but he’d nursed his grievance and let things hang.
Now it might be too late.
“I’ve got to get us some sandwiches, Aiden,” Leah said. “Everyone’s hungry.”
He stepped aside. She couldn’t avoid him forever. And she couldn’t get out of this marriage without him signing papers of some kind. Which he had no intention of doing. Ever.