Crazy Heifer (The Valentine Boys 2)

Well, he used to be. He was getting better, slowly but surely.

I wouldn’t have thought the same of him a few years ago, though.

When he was younger, Darby had been neck deep in messed up shit. He’d been hanging around with unsavory people, and those unsavory people had taken him down a dark path that nearly got his ass thrown into jail when he’d assaulted a police officer.

That same police officer being our big sister, Georgia’s, new love interest.

Well, old love interest, too, seeing as they’d been in love since they were young kids.

There’d been a lot of ways that Nico could’ve handled Darby, but in the end, he’d straightened him out instead of sending him to jail.

Which we were all thankful for.

But he’d also scared the absolute crap out of him and done what none of his brothers had been able to do—i.e., getting him onto a path that didn’t lead to jail time.

“What did he do this time?” Ace asked as he held the door of the gym open for me.

I walked inside, catching the door before it could slam on my face, and said, “I caught him trying to steal a couple of dollars out of my wallet.”

“That’s bad because?” Ace asked.

“Because I told him I needed the money and he couldn’t have it,” I said. “But I think he was just trying to confirm that I only had what I said I had. He thought I was lying about not having much cash on me. Thinking that I wasn’t giving it to him because I still think he’s a little liar.”

“Well, he is,” Ace said. “And though he’s done better lately, a whole lot better, I still don’t trust him like I do y’all.”

“True,” I agreed. “But I need to figure out why he needed the money so bad. He’s working, he should’ve had it himself.”

Ace shrugged as he stopped right inside the door, taking a glance around.

“This place is crowded as hell,” I murmured, taking a look around too. “Colt’s going to hate it.”

Colt, one of Ace’s best friends, as well as my own, and one of the group of kids we had met through the foster system, was fresh out of the military. He was also struggling to reintegrate himself into society.

The counselor at the VA had suggested that he find a place that made him comfortable, but also made him get out of his comfort zone, to try to get some human interaction.

And he’d chosen this place, as a trainer, of all things.

Not that I didn’t think he’d do a damn good job, but I didn’t think he quite anticipated this kind of crowd out of it, either.

Though the Spartan race was a big thing here.

All proceeds from the race went to a local charity, Second Chance, that helped find disabled vets jobs.

The organizer of the charity, Mercy Spurlock, was the wife of a SWAT team member for the Kilgore Police Department. Miller Spurlock also happened to work with Nico, who had brought the opportunity up to Colt and me at lunch last week, had suggested that Colt maybe look into it.

And he, wanting to find a way to get over his struggles, had thought that doing this might help.

But I doubted he had a clue how popular it would be.

Glancing around the gym, I saw quite a few of the local police department there, as well as Desi and Codie.

Though Codie was a cute little thing, my eyes were all for Desi.

Desi was dressed in tight black leggings that hugged her every curve, a bright green shirt that said ‘Savage’ on it, and a pair of neon pink tennis shoes.

Her red hair was in a messy knot on the top of her head, and little tendrils were sneaking out and teasing the back of her neck.

She had absolutely no makeup on, but there was no doubt in my mind that she was the type of person that didn’t need makeup to be beautiful.

The woman was absolutely stunning.

Even sweating slightly and looking like she’d rather be anywhere but where she was.

It was more than obvious that she was uncomfortable, but she was pushing through the nerves and biting that full bottom lip as if she was about to run out of the gym at any moment.

“There they are.” I jerked my chin in the two women’s direction. “That redhead standing next to Codie is her best friend, Desi.”

“Pretty,” Ace murmured. “They don’t look like they’re happy with each other right now.”

I snorted. “No, they sure don’t, do they?”

“Want to go over there?” Ace asked.

I shook my head and started heading in the opposite direction of the two women.

“Nah,” I said. “Let’s go over here and get a workout in. Colt’s not going to start where we’ll want to start anyway.”

“True enough,” Ace agreed. “Want to start with squats or bench presses?”