His first thought had been to tell Noah to hurry the fuck up so he could have a turn.
His second had been to kill his brother.
Well, it was done now. She’d made her choice.
How had things gone to shit in a day? And what the hell was he going to do about it?
He thought about going into the house and doing the paperwork sitting on his desk, but he couldn’t stand the thought of being cooped up. His eyes trailed to the corral. Trev stood there talking to two unfamiliar men.
Damn it. He’d forgotten about the interviews. Late last night, he’d gotten a call about a couple of hands looking for work. He still needed three or four more men, but the thought of conducting an interview right now made his stomach churn. He could only think of the questions he would ask.
Do you intend to waltz in and throw my girl up against a wall and fuck her?
Do you intend to stay on for a couple of years, let me rely on you, and then head off the first time something shiny catches your eye?
He had problems, and they all came back to his brother.
What he needed was some seriously rough work. He had a few hours before he needed to pick up Hope, and by then he had to decide if he was going to force his brother to walk back to the G. He had no doubt Noah would have made his way to Hope’s side by then.
“Hey! James, this is Brad and Jay.” Trev tipped his hat toward the two newcomers. “They’re answering the ad we put out last week.”
Brad was a solidly built guy, but something about the other one was off. Jay was awfully skinny for someone who worked with cattle. Even a lean cowboy had a lot of muscle. And his jeans looked brand new and pressed. James didn’t know a single cowboy who pressed his damn jeans before he went to work, but maybe the kid was nervous.
And it wasn’t like there was a lot of choice. The ad had run for a week, and this was the first time anyone had answered.
“Good. Nice to meet you.” He jerked his head a bit to indicate he’d like to talk to Trev alone.
Trev asked the men to wait on the porch, and they ambled off toward the house. “If I weren’t so desperate, I would send both of them packing. I don’t know why, but something’s off with those boys. They said they’re best friends, but they don’t fit to me. I don’t know.”
James waved him off. He was mired in his own misery. “Give ’em a shot. We can always fire them later. We have to move the herd in before first snowfall. You have no idea what a winter here is like. We’re going to need them since you’re going to want to spend time with Beth.”
Trev’s face fell. “I’m not going to let you down. Bo and I can take turns watching out for her. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” He wasn’t going to force his new partner into a heart-to-heart, huggy damn discussion about the fucked-up state of his life.
Was Noah planning on running off with Hope?
“I was asking because I heard about what happened with Hope.”
James turned. “God, what now?” His hands were in his pockets reaching for his keys when Trev responded.
“Uhm, you know, the stuff with Noah in her apartment. Lucy called the house and talked to Beth because she wanted to talk to Hope, but Beth grew up in a small town, too. She knows the sound of a woman with gossip to tell. She got the story out of Lucy who heard it from the fry cook at Stella’s.”
Goddamn grapevine. A man couldn’t take a crap without someone in this town commenting on it. “I’m fine. Hope wants to screw Noah, more power to her.”
“Really? I thought you were interested in her.” Trev put a booted foot on the railing.
“I was just doing a favor for a friend.” No point in talking about it now. He hadn’t really wanted Hope. He hadn’t dreamed about her last night. He hadn’t liked taking care of her this morning. He hadn’t enjoyed looking at her across the breakfast table and talking about stuff. No. He liked being the odd man out because it meant he was free.
Freedom sucked ass.
“Well, that’s good then,” Trev said with a sigh. “I would think you would be happy for your brother. Maybe this will settle him down. If things work out with Hope, he could really find his place back here. A family settles a man. I should know. I know I’m odd, but I like the responsibility. Damn, I can’t wait to see that kid. You know what else? I can’t wait to see how Bo and Beth handle it. And if your brother works as fast as I think he will, we might have a whole bunch of kids running around the ranch.”
A red mist swam in front of James’s face, and then his hand throbbed.
Trev shook his head. “Damn. We’re going to have fix that.”
He’d put his fist through the railing. Right through. He was damn lucky he hadn’t broken his hand. The very thought of Hope pregnant with his brother’s baby had made him insane.
He’d had a vision of her pregnant, his and Noah’s hands on her belly as she lay between them.
But she’d made her damn choice. And Noah had made his.
“So, not so happy about that,” Trev commented.
Trev McNamara was a manipulative bastard who had known exactly what putting that image into his head would do to him. “It’s none of your business.”
“Oh, partner, you’ll find one of my great flaws is sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong. I can’t drink anymore, and I swore off strippers, so giving advice is really my pastime now.”
James shook his fist out. Trev was also a great guy in addition to being a nosy asshole. “Fine. What’s your amazing advice?”
“Well, the way I see it, you have two choices, the first one being infinitely preferable to the second. You can make up with your brother. You can convince him to share Hope with you.”
“Hope might have something to say about that.”
“I doubt it. I saw the way she looked at both of you. Let me tell you, there aren’t many women who will turn down a chance to be in the middle of two men they want. They might say it’s only for a night or two but soon enough if the men are smart and talented, she’s got two rings on her finger and a baby in her belly and she’s all—‘what happened, where did all this laundry come from?’”
James chuckled at the idea of Hope surrounded by dirty laundry. Most likely, he would end up doing hers. But he wasn’t ready to try option number one. “I don’t want to talk to him. I don’t know if I can even be in the same room with him.”
“Then you move to option two. Tell her to choose again.”
“What?”
Trev shrugged. “You think your brother stole her? Steal her back, man. The way I understand it, I don’t know that Hope really understood there was a choice to be made.”
He was never going to hear the end of this. “I asked her out.”
“That might have been your mistake,” Trev said. “Noah didn’t ask her out. Not really. He went at her on a desk or something.”
Ah, the flaws in the gossip mill. “It was a wall.”
Trev frowned, shaking his head in a disapproving fashion. “Sounds uncomfortable. And quick. You could do better. And that girl’s a sub if I ever saw one. If I were in your shoes and I couldn’t stomach sharing with my brother, I would tie that pretty girl up, smack her ass ’til it was a nice shade of pink, and show her who’s really boss. A couple of hours of that and she might change her mind.”
Not the worst idea in the world.
“But seriously, the first option is best,” Trev insisted. “I think in the end you’re going to want to have a relationship with your brother.”
He couldn’t stand the thought of a heart-to-heart with Noah right now. “My fist would like to have a relationship with his gut.”
Trev seemed to give in to the inevitable. “Or you could be a stubborn ass. That’s a way to go. You know, you could always just suck it up and step back. I didn’t offer that as an option because I see the way you look at that girl. You’ve waited a long time for her.”