Chapter Seven
The morning passed in a blur of activity. Jaxi cooked and cleaned with a vengeance, but deep inside a huge lump sat and burned at her innards. Blake hadn’t said good morning to her. He’d avoided her gaze at breakfast and hightailed it from the house as quick as a jackrabbit. She wasn’t sure what to do next because after she’d crawled into her bed last night she realized she’d been way out of line.
Apologize? That would be smooth. She could hear herself now. “Sorry for getting naked and hoping you’d ravish me in your parents’ house with your brothers just down the hall.”
Damn. How was she supposed to get him to make a move when they lived in the same house? With the whole family always around or popping up unexpectedly? As much as she loved his family, it was Blake she wanted.
This wasn’t going to be as easy as she’d first imagined.
After dinner Matt tugged her aside. “You want to go to the children’s summer theater performance at the community hall this Wednesday?”
She hesitated, panic flooding her. Not Matt too. Sweet, considerate, usually insightful Matt. He excited her about as much as a bouquet of dandelions. The expression on her face must have shown her fear because he chuckled and quickly reassured her. “I don’t mean with me, Jaxi. Hell if you need that kind of complication in your life right now. Not to mention you know Helen would have my balls if I stepped out on her.”
Her muscles unclenched slowly as he patted her shoulder. A pat from him felt proper, caring and supportive. It wasn’t a cop-out like the treatment from Blake the other day. If any of the Colemans was a big-brother figure to her, it would be Matt.
“I’m already going to the hall on Wednesday,” Jaxi said. “I promised to seat people and sell tickets for the raffle. Plus do cleanup after.”
“Maybe you should have someone help you. I hear Blake is free on Wednesday, and I bet he would give you a hand if you asked.”
Jaxi snorted. “You here on his behalf? I don’t think your brothers are too shy to ask me if they want to do something with me, Matt. They’re grown men, they’ve got tongues in their heads.”
He stopped and stared out the window for a minute before he answered. “Well…yeah, we might be all grown, but that doesn’t mean we can all see what’s right in front of our noses. Some of us don’t make the best decisions for ourselves because we try too hard to do what we think is proper for everyone else.”
Cryptic, even for Matt. Jaxi leaned a hip on the counter. “Okay…”
He smiled before reaching to tweak her nose. “As for not being shy, you never know. Sometimes it’s the biggest and seemingly boldest animals you’ve got to gentle along real slow and easy to get the right results. Too fast and they spook.”
Her face flushed with heat, and she busied herself wiping the sink to avoid looking him in the eye. Oh lordy, did Matt know what had happened last night? How shockingly she’d behaved?
“If you have a little extra time this afternoon, you can switch your stuff into the far basement bedroom. Blake told me this morning he’s taking the guest cabin so you can have a real bed, and we’ll be able to use the office again.”
Jaxi’s heart choked off her throat. What had she done?
Matt watched her walk away, her expression of dismay showing all too clearly something had gone down sideways.
He stepped outside and sucked in a deep breath of the late August air. He didn’t know if he should be happy that he wasn’t the only one who had a setback last night or not. He didn’t wish Jaxi and Blake anything but the best, even if it pissed him off royally that Blake had someone willing to show at every turn how much she admired him and the bastard kept pushing her away. Whereas he had someone he loved who simply wouldn’t admit it back.
And then last night…
Fuck.
He drove to the north field to fix a pump that was acting up. Diving into a frustrated tussle with rusted pipes and broken water lines was preferable to the mental wrestling he’d been doing for the past twelve-plus hours.
A line of dust headed his direction, his cousin’s shiny new Toyota drawing closer. Matt wiped the sweat from his brow with his shirtsleeve and waited for Gabe to park on the far side of the gate.
“Uncle Mike called. Said you’ve got a seized pump?”
“She’s dead.”
Gabe handed forward the replacement part Matt needed. “Just so happens I’m doing the same sorry task as you today. Want to work together? It’ll save time.”
Matt nodded. “I’d enjoy the company.”
They worked easily together, slipping the new part into place and adjusting the attachments. Matt twisted the tap, and water filled the trough. “This one’s done.”
“You want to drop your truck at the main gate and use mine to work the fields?” Gabe asked. “I’ve got extra pumps with me, and tools.”
Matt followed his cousin back across the field. The whole time his dilemma with Helen repeated like a scratched CD. He jumped into the cab with Gabe, momentarily distracted by the new vehicle. “Damn nice in here. You win the lottery or something?”
Gabe shook his head. “Just don’t have to spend my money on keeping a woman happy, like you.”
Fuckdamnshit. “Solo as always, hey, Gabe?”
“Damn right. I know what to do with a woman, but it’s gonna take more than a sweet fuck to make me want to give up my freedom like you Six Pack boys seem bound and determined to do. I hear Blake’s being pursued by Jaxi again. When he gonna give up running and lay down in defeat?”
“Hell if I know.”
“Yeah, then there’s Daniel. He still sweet on Sierra?”
Matt held tight to the roll bars as Gabe cleared the ditch en route to the next pump. “She ditched him a couple of months back. In the spring.”
Gabe swore. “For serious? I hadn’t heard that. Thought she was aiming to get him to the altar before the year was out.”
Another woman Matt didn’t understand. “Remember last winter when the mumps went through town? Daniel never had them as a kid and caught them.”
“I remember.”
“She got worried about him not being ‘right’ afterward and told him to get checked at the doctor.”
Gabe snorted. “Not being right? What the hell was she worried about?”
Matt sighed. “Turns out Daniel’s shooting blanks, and Sierra wanted a big family. She dumped him right after the results came in.”
“That’s fucked up. I thought that was usually the guy’s deal breaker, not the girl’s.” Gabe shook his head, pausing the truck by another gate and waiting for Matt to hop out to open it. “Damn incredible the things some women get into their brain as to being important.”
The words impacted harder than his cousin intended. Matt popped the wire at the top of the gate and dragged open the fence, closing it after the truck and pacing slowly forward to rejoin Gabe. It was a perfect opportunity to approach a very awkward subject.
He sat heavily, staring at his cousin for a minute. Gabe’s side of the family was the blondest of all the Colemans. The girls in town were always raving about their angelic good looks. Yet, he knew without a doubt that Gabe had no interest in stealing his girl.
Matt dithered for another moment. There really was no way of saying this but straight out. “You ever done a threesome?”
Gabe hit the brakes a little too fast, jolting them both in their seats next to the pump. He frowned at Matt. “Where the fuck did that come from?”
“You mentioned the incredible things that women get into their heads. You won’t believe the one Helen dropped on me last night.”
“Threesomes? You guys got to talking about that?” Gabe undid his seat belt and whistled softly. “Hell, I figured with your family history you’d already been fooling around left, right and center with that woman.”