Josh & Hannah (Redwood Falls 1)

After a few moments of quiet, she found her courage and quietly asked, “What’d he do?”

Josh let out a deflated sigh. “You don’t want to know.”

“Did he break-up with her? Did he break Katie’s heart?” Hannah hadn’t even known the two of them were dating. She thought Katie Turner was going with another guy and had been for like two years or something.

“No. Just forget it.”

“Jesse seems okay to me. I thought—”

Josh cut off both Hannah’s words and her thought process when his head jerked up and his hands sank into her scalp, lifting her face to his, all gentleness gone. “He’s not okay. You listen to me and you listen good.” He shook her, just once, but it was enough to drain the blood from her face as she realized how serious he was. “Stay away from him. Far away, you understand? I know what I said earlier about Ty not being trustworthy.” He took a deep breath and continued, “That was just—I don’t know—my jealousy spewing off. Ty just plays fast and loose and I don’t want you near him. He wouldn’t intentionally hurt you, though. But Hannah,” his grip tightened and a ribbon of shock bled through her veins at his look of intensity. “Stay. Away. From. Jesse. Whitaker. He’s dangerous. I cannot stress that enough. The guy is—I can’t tell you what he did to my cousin, because I’m sworn to secrecy. But I will tell you this. He likes to hurt girls. And I will see to it that he gets caught and punished for it, someday. But you need to stay the hell away from him. You see him—you run in the opposite direction, understand me?”

Hannah couldn’t speak, but she nodded her head. Just the thought of what Katie might have gone through was enough to fill her eyes with tears, even though she didn’t know the older girl all that well. But Hannah knew one thing. Katie had never been mean to her. Katie always spoke to Hannah when she saw her, and Katie was one of the few girls in school who treated Hannah as another decent human being would.

And now Hannah wasn’t feeling scared of Josh any longer. She understood why he’d done what he’d done and said the things he had to Jesse. And not only that, his forced confession that he was jealous of Ty was sending crazy currents through her bloodstream. But still, Hannah was hesitant to tell Josh what she needed to, so she just sort of spit it out, before she could chicken out. “You know, he’s been working at the ranch.”

Josh’s face blanched of all color. “The Bar M?”

“Yeah.”

Josh began shaking his head back and forth and Hannah realized she’d just upset him with that information. He continued to look straight into her eyes, but Hannah had the gut feeling that he wasn’t seeing her; he was seeing a huge problem that he didn’t know how to deal with. And she was proven correct when he mumbled under his breath, “I’ll have to tell your father.”

Josh was torn, completely, in two. Never in a million, billion years had he expected to react to Hannah McIntyre the way he had in the last week or so. It was true that he hadn’t seen her in a couple of years, and that was no doubt the reason this … situation had all but taken him by storm. She’d changed so much since he’d last seen her. She was so damn beautiful … and tasted so, so sweet. But the relationship, for lack of a better word, between his family and hers was contentious at best and hostile at worst. And he figured Hannah didn’t have a clue that any of it was going on.

She probably had no damn idea that Josh’s low-life, drunk of a father was sleeping with her brother’s wife. Josh knew that Zachary McIntyre was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, but his wife, Cindy, was older, about thirty. And Cindy McIntyre and his fuck of a father were screwing every chance they got. And they weren’t even being careful about it. They’d been seen together in town, and of course, the whole community was siding with the McIntyres, who were richer than fuck, and they were blaming the scumbag Turners for the cuckolding of Zachary McIntyre.

But the situation of Jesse Whitaker’s employment on the McIntyre’s Bar M ranch couldn’t go on. Not if Josh had anything to say about it. And how the hell was he supposed to tell Hannah’s stepdad? What was he supposed to say? What could he say? Josh was sworn by an oath of secrecy to Katie. So how did you explain to a man who was already predisposed toward animosity toward you that his choice of employee sucked shit and that Josh couldn’t allow it to go on?

Suddenly, Josh wasn’t so upset that Hannah was spending the night at the Andersons tonight, after all. Because, he knew, with a sinking feeling in his gut, that he couldn’t put this off. He couldn’t allow Hannah to be on that ranch with Jesse anywhere in her vicinity. It wasn’t safe and he couldn’t allow it. That meant that the minute she was at home again, which would be tomorrow, he had to speak to her father.

Josh put his hands on her shoulders. “Hannah, I’m going to have to talk to your stepfather about Jesse, okay?” Josh was vaguely aware that he would rather think of Mr. McIntyre as being Hannah’s stepfather instead of her real dad, because it made Hannah seem just a little more on Josh’s own level, a little bit more attainable to him, even though he knew it wasn’t true. If not by blood, then certainly by marriage, Hannah was the McIntyre princess, and therefore, out of someone like Josh’s reach forever. The McIntyres were oil and land rich, very well educated and prosperous, and in comparison to the Turner family, who barely eked out a living from their farm, the McIntyres were almost like royalty in the county. And then when you added in the fact that Josh was Chris Turner’s abused and all but abandoned son, and was basically living on David Turner’s charity, the difference in Josh and Hannah’s circumstances was even more disparate.

As all these thoughts ran through his head, Hannah’s slight shoulders trembled under his hands. She was so young, so damn pretty as she watched him seriously and looked at him in agreement.

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow morning, okay?” he told her.

She nodded her head. “Okay. I know dad’s busy, but I’m sure it won’t be a prob—”

“Hannah!”

Both Hannah and Josh turned when they heard Hannah’s name shouted from across the yard. Josh watched as Ava marched purposely in their direction with her arms crossed over her chest and Ethan hot on her heels. Josh slipped behind Hannah and pulled her back against his chest and held his hands on her shoulders, refusing to let her go as they waited for the other two to join them.

“Ty just ditched us.” Ava announced to Hannah in an aggrieved tone. She looked to where Josh’s hands were holding onto Hannah’s shoulders and lifted a single eyebrow in his direction. “Hey, Josh.”

“Ava. You always turn your back on Hannah like you did last weekend?”

Hannah gasped when he asked that question but Josh didn’t care. If Ava was going to be Hannah’s friend, she needed to learn how to be a friend.

“I already apologized to her for that, didn’t I, Hannah? It was a week ago, Josh, geez.” Ava said.

“What the hell are y’all talking about?” Ethan demanded, his already pissed expression turning even more so.

“Nothing … it’s nothing,” Hannah said.

Ava walked to Hannah’s side in a move that screamed solidarity and looked at the two guys who were her brother’s best friends. “Ty dumped us for Kayla and we need a ride home.”

Ethan’s boots kicked up dust as he pushed himself over into Ava’s space again as Josh watched from the sidelines. He’d never seen Ethan give Ty’s little sister so much as the time of day, so this was new. “I told you I’d take y’all home, goddamnit,” Ethan hissed as he reached out and encircled Ava’s arm in his brawny fist, but she shrugged him off.

Josh figured this was as good a time as any to let his intentions be known and focused on Ethan. “I’ll take them because I’m staying the night over there, anyway.”

All three sets of eyes turned on Josh when he said that, but it wasn’t either of the girls who protested. “Bullshit, you are.” Ethan rasped out in angry disagreement.

“Bullshit, I am. Ty’s going to be home in an hour or two and his parents aren’t home. They’re o

ut of town. Did you know that, man? Hannah’s not staying under the same roof with Ty without the parents being there. Horny motherfucker. Ain’t happening. Don’t trust him. He may be with Kayla right now, but he’ll have to come home sooner or later and you can bet your ass that I’ll be there when he gets there.”

“Then I’m staying over, too. I don’t trust your sorry ass around Ava.” Ethan snarled.

Josh looked at his friend. “I’m not interested in Ava. You don’t have shit to worry about.” Josh turned to Ava. “No offense.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “None taken.”

Josh glanced back to Ethan. “What’s up with you two, anyway?”

“Nothing!” Ava and Ethan shouted simultaneously.

Josh was almost amused as he stood watching his buddy. It would serve Ethan’s sorry ass right if he got hung up on Ty’s little sister. Ty would come unglued when he found out about it. Josh hoped he could be there when that shit went down. “So, it’s settled. We’ll have one nice big sleepover. Let’s go, we’re wasting time.”