Ace High (Lost Creek Rodeo #6) - Heather B. Moore Page 0,32

he sat crammed into the booth with the other women and Eric and Ryan, Lars had started to regret his actions. Yeah, he’d been open and honest with Kellie, but he hadn’t taken any risks.

He hadn’t told her he’d love to take her out. See where things went. A day at a time. He’d basically bulldozed her with words, then hadn’t let her respond. Did she have a response?

His phone buzzed, and he moved out of the horse stall he was cleaning and pulled the phone out of his pocket. His brother Braden had left a message. Why hadn’t Lars heard his phone ring? He listened to the message. It wasn’t good. And his brother sounded … off.

“Call me as soon as you can, Lars,” Braden said. “I’ve gotta … Things aren’t good. Call me when you get this.”

Lars called Braden’s number. It rang six times. No one answered.

Something thudded on the other side of the barn, and Ryan shouted, “You good-for-nothing, two-bit—”

“Whoa, what’s wrong?” Lars asked, only to witness Ryan yanking the entire stall door off, hinges and all.

“Bought the wrong size hinges,” Ryan muttered, dropping the door on the ground. He stood over it with his hands on his hips.

Lars walked over to the mess Ryan had created. Lars crouched and eyeballed the hinges attached to the door and the space they should fit into on the stall. Yep. Wrong size. “Want me to look through the tool chest?”

“Nah,” Ryan said. “I already did that before I went to the hardware store. Guess I’m making another trip.”

“I can go,” Lars offered, even though he was plenty busy himself. Maybe if he did Ryan a favor, things between them would ease.

“Stop,” Ryan grumbled.

“What?”

“Stop being Mr. Helpful,” Ryan said. “I’m sick of it.”

Lars chewed on his cheek as he let a gamut of emotions pass through him. “Sorry.”

“Stop apologizing, too—you’re making me and Kellie crazy.”

Now, Lars faced one of his best friends, truly confused. “Kellie?”

“I know you talked to her,” Ryan said. “She told me. She also said there’s nothing going on between you, but you being here is making things complicated.”

Heat shot through Lars. Did Ryan want him to leave? Was free labor really that painful? “I can leave tonight,” he said in a low tone.

“That’s not what I mean.” Ryan closed his eyes, then opened them. “You and Kellie …” He looked down and kicked at something invisible on the ground. “This is hard to say.” His gaze met Lars’s once again. “I’ve had two long days and two even longer nights to think this over … You and Kellie are good together.”

Lars really needed his ears checked.

“Now, don’t go telling my sister that,” Ryan said. “But these last two days have been … enlightening. You tiptoeing around here and working every hour of the livelong day. Her trying to put on a bright face and pretending her heart isn’t bruised.”

Lars’s mouth fell open. “I didn’t … I don’t …”

Ryan set a heavy hand on Lars’s shoulder. “From here on out, I’m staying out of the middle, Lars. I don’t know what my sister is and isn’t ready for, but I’m not going to hover. It’s not my place. And …” He swallowed audibly. “If there’s a man I fully trust over anyone else I know, it’s you.”

Lars rubbed a hand over his face as his heart pushed its way up into his throat. He’d said so many things to Kellie, thinking he had no chance, knowing he never wanted to put a divide between her and her brother. But Ryan had changed his mind.

“Just … give her time and space,” Ryan continued. “She needs it. Also, good luck. Kellie can be a handful.”

A beautiful, brilliant handful.

“Thank you, Ry.” He swallowed over the tightening of his throat.

Ryan gave one nod, and the two men clasped hands. The handshake was one of friendship and forgiveness, and maybe even hope.

“Hey, Ryan,” a woman said from the barn entrance.

Both of them turned. Kellie stood there, her hair pulled into a golden knot at the top of her head. Her light blue jeans were soaked from the knees down, and her red tank top was splattered with something dark.

Her gaze flitted over Lars, then zeroed in on her brother. “The bathroom is flooding from under the sink. I think a pipe broke or something—”

Lars was already striding out of the barn and toward the house, Ryan right behind him.

He jogged the rest of the way to the house. “Turn off the water