Chute Yeah (The Valentine Boys 3)

I nearly groaned when I saw how tight his pants were. So tight that I could see that he tucked his package to the left side of his jeans. And it was quite an impressive package.

Cursing myself and my stupidity, I headed back the way I came, bypassing the entrance to the stands and heading for the side where he was leaning over the fence.

When I got there, I crossed my arms over my chest and glared.

“I found out why your donkey keeps coming to our place,” Banks said, making me drag my eyes away from his junk and to his eyes that were now sparkling with mirth.

Dammit. He’d caught me checking out his penis.

Son of a biscuit.

“Why?” I croaked.

God, I really needed to get it together.

But, the problem was, I didn’t ever have it together when it came to Banks Valentine.

“Because Fern used to live at the old man’s property that we just purchased. The fastest way to get to the old man’s property is by way of cutting straight through our land. The old man sold him to you and dropped him off, right?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I didn’t purchase him. Fern was given to me.”

Banks nodded.

“I asked the old man that we bought the land from,” he said. “Saw him at the diner. Apparently, the donkey and the old man’s dead wife were pretty close. The donkey likes to visit her grave.”

I blinked as a wave of emotion rolled through me.

“That’s kind of sweet,” I said.

Banks’ eyes went intense then.

“Was what you said earlier true?” he asked.

I didn’t have to ask him what.

I knew what.

He knew what, too.

My non-answer was enough of an answer.

That was when Banks looked at me like I’d broken his heart.

“Have a good night, Candy Ray Sunshine,” he whispered. “And I won’t call you that name again.”

Thank God.

But also, holy shit.

“’Night, Banks Valentine.”Chapter 7I don’t want to end the year on bad terms with you. So apologize to me.

-Banks to Candy

Banks

“You know,” I heard Desi, my brother Callum’s woman, say. “I heard something today that concerned me.”

I looked over to Desi to see that she was staring at me with a look that I couldn’t quite decipher in her eyes.

“What?” I asked, trying to chew all the way before swallowing the delicious pie that Desi had made.

Desi was the ranch’s resident cook. She did breakfast and dinner, and also went well out of her way to ensure that we always had something sweet to eat.

Tonight, it was apple pie.

“What?” I repeated again, this time feeling something lock in my belly at the look on her face.

Desi dropped the towel that was in her hands and leaned her hips against the counter.

“Her best friend, Mack, came into the store today,” she said softly.

The ‘store’ that Desi was talking about was the coffee shop that she and Candy had just opened up. Candy worked the front part of the shop while Desi worked the back.

In the back, Desi made cakes and delicacies to sell alongside the coffee and coffee beans that Candy sold out of the front. Candy was the face of the bakery/coffee shop while Desi made her living in the shadows. Which was exactly how she liked it, according to Desi.

“Okay,” I said. “What about him?”

“Well, I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop,” she hedged. “But I was peeing, and taking a wee bit of a break, and Candy and Mack came up to talk right outside of the bathroom. He said something that concerned me.”

I had a feeling where this was going.

“And…”

“And he said something about her trying to hurt herself,” Desi said. “And at first, I think Mack was just worried about her. That she’s working too hard. Doing too much. He said that she was going to hurt herself like she did a long time ago, and she might not be as lucky as she was then.”

I felt something inside my gut clench at her words.

“What else?” I asked, belly in knots and my throat sounding like I’d gargled with gravel.

“She didn’t deny that she’d done it,” she said. “Or that she was doing it. But… I…” She swallowed. “I can’t shake the feeling that something more is going on. I’ve watched her a lot while we’ve been working together over the last couple of months. Something is wrong.”

Candy’s words from last night haunted me.

“I almost killed myself over that nickname in high school. I definitely don’t want to be thinking of that time in my life again.”

I wondered if her words last night had been to shock me. I also wondered if she knew that her father had already told me what she’d tried to do.

Whatever the reason for her opening up for the first time in a long time, I wasn’t going to let it go like I did all those years ago.