Tanner took my small bag and put it in the back seat of his truck, next to Chance, while I slipped into the front seat.
“Ah, hell, not far from us at all, just down the road. Most of Hamilton will be there in support of the little girl,” Tanner stated as he started up his truck.
“Y’all aren’t riding, are you?”
Chance sighed. “I’m not, but Tanner’s got him another heeler, so he’ll ride.”
“Not much on the line. Not doing it for money. It’s mostly just to help the family out. Honestly, it’s Brock and Dirk who will be bringing in the money. Mama said Brock made a donation at the bank the other day, but he told them not to say who it had come from.”
My heart melted. “That was sweet of him.”
“Yeah. I wasn’t supposed to tell you, but if I have to watch my brother mope around another day, I might go insane. He’s been home only a couple of days, but this is crazy. You guys need to make up.”
Chance leaned forward between Tanner and me. “Yeah, he wasn’t even this depressed when his wife died.”
“Chance!” I shrieked.
“What? He wasn’t! He was feeling bad; don’t get me wrong. But this is a hell of a lot different. Ain’t that right, Tanner?”
Tanner simply shrugged and looked at me.
I sat up straight. “Well, I still have a date tomorrow night, and I don’t intend on breaking it, so I’m not at all concerned about what’s going on with Brock’s issues.”
“With who?” Tanner and Chance both asked.
“Nathan Kesler. It’s nothing serious. He asked me to dinner to get to know me, since I’m new in town and he works for the city.”
Tanner pulled over to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes of his truck. “Nathan? You’re going out with Nathan?” He laughed and shook his head. “No way in hell are you going out with Nathan Kesler.”
Folding my arms over my chest, I arched a brow. “And why not?”
“Nathan Kesler makes Ty and Dirk look like virgins!”
I rolled my eyes. “I find that hard to believe.”
“No, I’m being serious, Lincoln. Listen, I like you a lot, and you’re the first girl to pull Brock out of the nightmare he was living in. I want to see you get back together; that’s no secret. But I’m not warning you away from Nathan for selfish reasons. He’s a douche. He’s the city manager, and he’s a dick. Seriously, he treats people like shit, and I can’t tell you how many secretaries he’s banged on his desk and then had to fire because they wanted more.”
I stared at him while his words settled. I shook my head in disbelief as I replied, “The Nathan I met in my office was a gentleman who asked me to dinner to get to know me, and that was all. It’s nothing serious. I’m not looking for that. It’s bad enough I fell for your brother as hard as I did.”
Chance laughed. “Did you hear that, Tanner?”
Tanner gave me a wide smile that showcased his dimples and made him the spitting image of his older brothers. “I heard it.”
“Heard what?” I asked, glancing back at Chance, and then at Tanner.
Pulling out onto the two-lane highway, Tanner didn’t say another word. Both men sat quietly in the truck cab, leaving me alone with my own thoughts and wondering what they’d meant.
The knock on my office door made me glance up. Shit. I’d forgotten to lock the office when I got here.
It was Friday, and normally my day off, but I’d needed something to keep my mind off knowing Brock was home. I had somehow, by some small miracle, avoided seeing him the last four days. That didn’t mean he wasn’t on my mind nearly every moment of the day. Work was the only way I could keep him out of my head. What better way to do that than dig myself in to Julia’s underwater remodel?
I gave a polite smile when I saw who had knocked, even though I was surprised to see him.
Nathan and I had gone to dinner on Monday night as planned. He had spent most of the night comparing himself to one Brock Shaw. His house was bigger than Brock’s. His bank account impressive for not being a local celebrity, like Brock. Compared his charity work to Brock’s.
It felt like the entire dinner was a case he was building for me to like him better than Brock. Julia must have let him know I had been dating him. As short lived as it was.
I’d wanted to set the poor man straight that night. He’d never hold a candle to Brock. Ever.
And, on Wednesday, when he’d slid into my booth and invited himself to have lunch with me, I was pretty sure the waitress had slipped him her number.