Billy had a number of valid points. Especially the part about him being a pussy. Billy might think Bree was protecting her heart from him, but he felt it was the other way around. His heart had been stomped on plenty in the last couple of years. If anyone needed to swathe their heart in bubble wrap, it was him.

Jace had never been intimidated by a woman. Not ever. But Bree Fox sure as hell changed that. One minute she seemed so fragile he was afraid he’d break her. The next, she had him by the balls. That’s the way it had always been between them.

“Quit thinkin’ about it so much. If you want her, go get her. Simple as that,” Billy mumbled.

Was it that simple?

Bree cleaned the house from top to bottom. She went for long rides on her mountain bike. She went fly fishing. She even looked into getting her Ph.D. No matter how busy she tried to keep herself, she was bored out of her mind.

She wasn’t just bored; she was lonely. She was home, and everyone else was gone—her parents, her sister, Lyric, and Jace. They were all together too, which only made the loneliness worse.

There wasn’t anything she could do about it either. Her isolation was self-imposed. She’d done it to herself when she and Jace last spoke. But had she? Had he given her a chance to speak? When he assumed she was ending things with him, he wasn’t wrong. It was what she’d planned to do; he just didn’t give her the chance to say it. It wouldn’t have ended differently if he had. So, yes, she had done this to herself.

Next week would be better. The academic year would be starting, and she would be teaching at the Air Force Academy. She wouldn’t have time to be bored or lonely.

Part of her was scared about being there. Zack had gone to the Air Force Academy. He was buried in the cemetery on the grounds. Everywhere she looked, there would be reminders of him. Would she feel closer to him, or farther away?

Bree closed her eyes and imagined she was with…Jace. Not Zack, but Jace. He was her comfort. Whenever she felt worried, or sad, she thought of him. It was his arms she wished she was in, not Zack’s. What was wrong with her?

She opened her book and read the same chapter she’d been trying to get through all day. When she didn’t get past the first couple of paragraphs without her mind wandering, she slammed the book closed. She had to find something to get her mind off Jace Rice.

“We’ll go ahead of you,” Hank said to Jace and Tucker. “I want to spend a day at TZ Bucking Bulls with Billy before your mom and I go back to Montana. Bullet’s goin’ with us.”

When they got back from

Texas, Lyric was at the Flying R with her brother, Bullet. Before Jace knew it, the other partners brought him into the fold, not as a partner himself, but he’d be working for them in some capacity. Jace didn’t mind. Bullet was smarter than Lyric gave him credit for, and he knew a lot about the rodeo industry.

As a group, they’d decided to take half the broncs from Crested Butte to Montana, and work on bringing more bulls south as soon as they could.

Billy had been talking to his father about setting up another operation in Black Forest. It would be smaller than the ones in Montana and Crested Butte, but even so, Billy’s dad would require help to make it work. That’s where Jace figured Bullet would prove most useful.

“You stoppin’ in on your way home?” asked Billy.

“Just for the night. I’ll stay with Tuck and Blythe, and get on the road the next morning.”

Billy was chewing on a piece of straw, studying Jace.

“Since when are you the relationship whisperer? I never figured you’d be one to meddle.”

Billy grinned at Jace, and walked away.

“That’s more like it,” muttered Jace.

11

“Can you hold him for a minute?” Blythe asked Jace. “Tucker is unpacking our bags, and if he gets any further along, I won’t be able to find anything.”

“I can hold him all day,” Jace said, taking Cochran out of her arms. “We got a lot of catching up to do, don’t we, little guy?”

Cochran reached out and tugged on Jace’s hair.

“Ouch,” he yelped, which made the baby giggle and do it again.

“First sign you need a haircut,” said Blythe, walking out of the room.

“Tell me, little man—you got your Aunt Bree’s heart in the palm of your hand—how’d you do it?” Jace murmured to his nephew once he was sure Blythe was out of earshot. “Give your Uncle Jace some pointers, would ya?”

When Cochran leaned in and put his head against Jace’s chest, it melted his heart. “You’re a charmer, that’s what you are. It’s that Rice blood runnin’ through your veins.”

Tags: Heather Slade Cowboys of Crested Butte Romance
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