Claiming The Rancher's Heir (Gold Valley Vineyards #2) - Maisey Yates Page 0,14

would get close enough to the truth without actually giving his brother all of it, and that would probably be more believable. “That woman is giving me hell.”

“Scared of a girl?” Jackson took a swing at him, verbally. He was his older brother, and Creed knew he lived for that.

Creed wasn’t in the mood.

He shot his brother a dead-eyed look. “I live for the day a woman gives you hell.”

“Not going to happen,” Jackson said. “I’m not going to let myself get tangled up in knots over a woman. Especially not a Maxfield.”

“The only other Maxfield is Cricket. And she’d kick your ass if you came near her.”

Jackson snorted. “I’d kick my own ass ten ways till Sunday if I ever did anything that stupid. She’s...young.” He grimaced. “Wren, on the other hand, is perfectly age appropriate. If you want her, just have sex with her and get it over with.”

Creed gritted his teeth. “That’s not always the answer, Jackson.”

“Look,” he said. “I know you had a bad experience. But it’s not like you’re a monk.”

“No,” Creed responded. “I’m not. It isn’t that I quit having sex, but I don’t let my body tell me what to do.”

Too bad he had. Too bad he had one hundred percent followed his libido and nothing else.

And he knew that he should talk to Wren about the fact that they hadn’t used protection. But she was a grown woman. She was probably on birth control, and if she wasn’t, she would handle anything she needed to on her own.

“The problem is that you banged her already,” Jackson said, his expression suddenly going sly. “And you’re pissed about it.”

Creed about ground his teeth into powder. “Go away.”

“You did. Well, what the hell are you going to do about it now? Is there any point beating yourself up over it?”

His brother’s question gave him pause. “I mean, I think there’s always a point in beating yourself up about something.”

“Yeah, but you’re a martyr. So, let that go for a second. You’re a grown person, she’s a grown person. You don’t like her, who cares? You’ve been with plenty of women you don’t even know.”

“Sure. But then the possibility for liking them exists.”

“What does it matter? You’re not going to be in a relationship with her.”

“No, but it seems...like the wrong thing to do.”

“Sometimes the wrong thing to do feels pretty damn good. Maybe you should try it.”

“You forget. I did.”

“You’re not sixteen anymore. Neither is she. You’re not going to have your life gutted by some girl and her family intent on keeping her to the straight-and-narrow path they put her on.”

And that was the bottom line of it all. Creed had to keep control, because he knew what happened when he didn’t. And more to the point, he knew the way that other people could then take control of your life.

“I know that.”

“Yeah, but you act like you don’t sometimes.”

“If I didn’t learn from a mistake like that what kind of fool would I be?” Creed asked.

“The normal kind.”

“Well, whatever is going on with that now, you don’t know what it’s like to disappoint him quite in the way that I did.”

Jackson only chuckled. “You don’t know everything about my life, little brother. And I don’t claim to know everything about yours. But quit moping. We have things to do.”

“Since when do you care about any of it?”

“I don’t. But honestly, talking about this joint venture with the Maxfields is about the only thing that’s gotten a reaction out of Dad in way too long. He was interested in it. And...I care about that.”

Well, so did Creed. Anything to get their dad out of his depression. They’d already lost their mother. They didn’t need to watch him slowly slip away, too, because of his sadness.

“Then it’ll get done. Don’t worry about it.”

And maybe Jackson even had a point about himself and Wren. They were adults. And as long as everything proceeded with a bit more planning and caution than they had yesterday, what was the harm?

Maybe it was possible for Creed to drink his wine and have his beef, too. Or something like that.

“I’ll be down at the winery in a couple of hours,” he said. “I really do need to finish this wall.”

“All right. See you back at the ranch.” His brother tipped his hat, and turned and walked back toward his truck. And he took with him Creed’s excuses.

Creed supposed he should write his brother a thank-you note for that. He was