Divided Interests (Southern Bride 3)

Lucas walked past Milo and down the steps. Milo raised his brows and pursed his lips.

“He never was a morning person,” I said in a joking manner. Lucas grunted, and Milo laughed.

“See ya in a few,” Milo said, following Lucas down the steps.

Rushing into the bathroom, I quickly brushed my teeth and looked at my hair. It was a mess. Pigtails today.

I changed into jeans, a T-shirt, and slipped on a pair of pink Keds. I made my way downstairs. I could hear muffled voices, but they didn’t sound like they were coming from the living room. I followed them and stopped outside William’s study, which Lucas had made into his home office.

“I don’t understand the problem, Lucas.”

A loud bang made me jump. “You know the goddamn problem, Milo.”

“No, I honestly don’t. And to be frank, I don’t know you anymore, man. I don’t think you know either. Why are you here, dude? If you don’t want the house, just give it to her. Let her have it, let her rent your part from you. Why are you so desperate to sell this place? Once upon a time you wanted to live in this house.”

“With her!” Lucas shouted.

Milo sighed.

“I don’t want to sell the fucking house anymore. I already told you that.”

My hand covered my mouth.

“Lucas, calm down, dude. You know I would never do that to you. Nothing happened. I knocked on the front door and no one answered. It wasn’t closed all the way, so I walked in. I figured she was still asleep.”

Lucas made a noise and then said, “I don’t give a shit anymore. If you want to ask her out, ask her out.”

My heart dropped, and I dug my teeth into my lower lip to keep the instant flood of emotions at bay.

“I’m not asking her out, Lucas. Anyone with two eyes can see you’re still crazy about her.”

Before I could hear Lucas’s response, I decided I was done eavesdropping. Probably because I was scared to death what his response would be. I knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Lucas barked.

With a wide smile, I walked into the room. “Thought y’all would be in the living room, but if you want to repaint this room, we can certainly pick a color. The cost to paint it will fall on you, though, Lucas. Since you’ve claimed this room.”

Milo smirked, and Lucas stared at me. He gave me a once over before he stood, grabbed his keys and wallet, then quickly walked out of the room.

“I don’t give two shits what color you paint any of the rooms. I’m leaving.”

I watched him storm past us like a five-year-old. “Will you be coming back, or have you decided to sell me your half of the house?”

Lucas stopped abruptly and walked back over to me. He leaned down, let his eyes search my face, then let out a long breath. Through gritted teeth, he slowly said, “Will you please stop wearing the pigtails. For the love of God and all that is holy, just stop with the pigtails!”

Then he stormed out again, leaving me stunned into silence with Milo holding onto his side, laughing his ass off.

I faced Milo and shook my head. “What in the world was that about?”

Lifting both hands, Milo said, “I’m staying out of this.”

Lucas

I PULLED THE saddle down and made my way out of the tack room. When I rounded the corner, I smiled.

“Morning, Dad.”

My father stood before me, wearing his worn-out favorite Stetson hat, work gloves in hand, and a smile on his face.

“You have no idea how good it is to see you in this barn, son.” His eyes swept over me. “And dressed like a goddamn man for once.”

I chuckled. “It’s good to be here, Dad. You need me to do anything? I need some hard labor.”

He laughed. “That’s a loaded question. This ranch always needs something done. I need to head into town later for a meeting with the city council.”

After I tossed the saddle onto my favorite horse, Ranger, I looked at him. “The city council? What’s going on?”

“They want to look at restoring some of the store fronts on the square. I offered to give them some numbers to crunch.”

I nodded. “Paige is looking at buying or renting a place to open a flower shop.”

“Lou told me.”

My heart stopped at the mention of granddad’s best friend. For a moment, I debated going there, but my curiosity won out. “Dad, did Grams ever date Lou before granddaddy?”

Putting on his work gloves, he reached for a bale of hay. I walked over and helped him.

“Not that I know of. They were thick as thieves, the three of them.”

“Did Granddad and Grams ever break up?”

He laughed. “I’m sure in the beginning they had their arguments, just like any couple.”

We tossed the hay bale onto the back of the ATV.