Herd That (The Valentine Boys 1)

“What would you do instead?” I asked, not bothering to disagree with his earlier statement.

“I was thinking about applying at the sheriff’s office,” he explained. “Or the highway patrol. I haven’t decided which yet. Sheriff’s department would allow me to still be here and help out on my days off. Highway patrol could send me practically anywhere.”

I nodded my head. “Why a cop?”

He shrugged. “Why not?”

“If that is the way you’re rationalizing getting a job, why not finish your degree?”

Banks had been halfway through his degree in fire science and his paramedic degree before he’d quit both to move back with us. After spending years in the military, then two trying to get his college degree as well as work full-time as a bar bouncer, he’d come up here and quit everything.

He’d begun working for us and us only, which inevitably made his mind idle.

Which wasn’t a good thing for Banks, and never had been.

Not even when he was a young boy.

Out of all of the Valentine crew, Banks had definitely been the most adventurous.

I’d say the worst, but Darby had taken that crown a long damn time ago.

At least when Banks got into trouble, he did it in a way that he wasn’t caught.

Which meant he at least had some common sense.

Darby, though?

Well, him getting a blow job in the middle of the living room with every single door in the house unlocked, as well as every single light turned on? Well, that was just asking for trouble.

“I guess I could,” he finally said. “But the highway patrol will hire me. I know they will.”

“You don’t want to finish your schoolwork?” I guessed.

He shrugged. “It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?” I asked.

“I’m thinking I want to get back on the bull.”

I shook my head at that. “You know I’ll support you in any way, Banks. But there was a reason that you quit last time.”

Four concussions, as a matter of fact.

“Yo!” Jensen, who I hadn’t seen come into the gym even once since he’d come down, came running up to us. “Did you hear?”

We both stopped and turned. “Hear what?”

“That there was a fight down at the police station,” he said. “I was in town picking up some feed and happened to hear a couple of old men talking about a rumor that they heard. Anyway, I got to listening, and then I heard an old man’s radio going off about a disturbance at the police station. The old men go running out to their trucks. Anyway, long story short, I decided to follow them because I’m curious by nature. You know me. So I get there, and there’s this big ass throwdown going on in the parking lot. Jace and Marie were screaming at the top of their lungs. Marie was throwing accusations out, and Jace said he was filing for divorce. All the while your little lady stood there looking awestruck. She was forced back inside by the chief along with Marie. Marie was slinging verbal blows at Codie all the while they went inside. Apparently, everyone is saying that Codie decided to tell everyone that Marie was cheating on her man.”

I sighed.

“I bet that’s the meeting that kept her,” I finally said. “And what the hell, Jensen? How do you find this shit out?”

Jensen grinned, and then his eyes darkened. “When you’re invisible, people tend to run their mouths. Which is why I know that it wasn’t Codie that said anything at all. It was Jace. He was the one that confronted the man that was giving Marie the business.”

I groaned. “Fuck.”

“Fuck indeed.”

***

I wasn’t sure where Codie was going to head when she finally got off work, which was why I was waiting outside when she finally came slinking out the front door.

She saw me and ran straight to me.

I caught her up in my arms the minute that she reached me, then pulled her in close.

“How was your day?” I asked against her lips.

She pressed her mouth to mine once more, then cupped my cheeks.

I hadn’t shaved in a while, and I was damn close to having a beard and not just a five o’clock shadow.

She studied my face for a few long seconds, then shrugged.

“It was okay,” she answered. “Nothing exciting. Nothing to process, which I suppose is a good thing. I missed following you around while you worked, though.”

I grinned. “You can do that Wednesday. You still have Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays off?”

She nodded. “As long as nobody gets dead, yes.”

“Gets dead?” I teased.

She shrugged, causing the earrings that were in her ears to touch the tips of her shoulders.

My eyes took in the earrings.

“Where’d you get those?” I asked.

“I’ve had them for a while,” she said. “I felt like maybe I should make an impression. But I don’t wear jewelry very often. Most of the time it breaks me out where it touches me. So only the sterling silver, twenty-four-carat gold, and a few other things really work for me. And those, of course, cost money. So, I don’t have much of it.”