stand apart from Bear. He loved his brother; he did work hard around the ranch to make Bear proud.
After Daddy died, it was Bear he needed to impress. Bear who checked off his work. Bear who’d taken him in and loved him like an equal even though he’d been a teenager trying to be a man.
“Bishop.”
“I’m done talking about it, Mother,” he said, glancing at her. “Okay?” He smiled. “Thank you, but I don’t need anything else.”
She wore worry plainly in her bright blue eyes, the source of where all of her children had gotten their lighter features. Of them all, Bishop was the most like her coloring, and she often told him he was her favorite son.
“You’re my favorite son, remember?” she asked, smiling.
He smiled too and turned into the parking lot for her favorite restaurant. “Yes, Mother,” he said. “But I’m pretty sure you say that to all the sons.”
“I do not,” she said huffily, her hand going right back to pat her curls. “Now come help me out of this truck like a proper gentleman. I see our new pastor coming out, and you’ll want to make a good impression.”
Bishop laughed as he got out of the truck and went to help his mother. He let her clutch his arm and act utterly delighted to meet the new pastor who’d come to their church to help his brother, who’s suffered a fall a month or so ago.
He smiled and he made small talk, playing the perfect Texan cowboy gentleman, but inside, a storm swirled, and Bishop needed a way to release it before it consumed him whole.
As Mother sat down and got situated, he sent a quick text to Cactus. I asked Montana to dinner right before you guys came in, and she didn’t answer. Do I ask again?
Cactus’s response came instantly. You’re asking me? How would I know?
Come on, Bishop said. You know.
You like her?
That’s a hard yes. In fact, Bishop had done the interview with the other cowboy this morning, but he wouldn’t be able to hire him for more than day work, which only paid fifty bucks a day, because he’d blown his whole budget on Montana’s contract.
When Bear found out….
She knows you like her?
Yes. If she didn’t, Bishop didn’t know how to make it more obvious.
And you met her when?
Yesterday morning.
Then give her a minute, Cactus said. We’re a lot to handle—you’re a lot to handle, Bishop. Handsome, tall, strong, good with your hands. Maybe you intimidate her. Maybe she needs a minute to breathe after getting a job at our ranch and meeting you literally less than twenty-four hours ago.
A minute to breathe, yes. Maybe Cactus was his person, despite their age differences, and Bishop smiled as he read the text again. He looked up from his phone to find Mother’s eyebrow cocked at him, asking, Are you going to be on that thing the whole time?
“Sorry, Mother,” he said, setting the phone face-down. “Now, tell me more about Donald, because I know you like him.”
Chapter Eight
Cactus Glover couldn’t help feeling like he was doing something wrong. He’d put his extra-wide-brimmed cowboy hat on for this trip to town, and he wasn’t even sure why. Who was he hiding from?
Himself, that was who, and he frowned at the faint reflection of himself in the passenger window as Ace pulled into the tack and feed store.
Cactus had mentioned that he needed to go on the family text, and the next thing he knew, Ace had set it up, claiming he needed to get down there too.
As if driving thirty minutes to the town of Three Rivers was so dang hard for any of them to do.
Cactus yawned, his all-nighter from a couple of days ago still dragging him down. He didn’t recover from anything as easily or as quickly as he once had. When he’d smashed his thumb while working on a cabin in January, it had taken a month for it to start to feel better.
He glanced at the appendage now, where the nail was just barely starting to grow back in. The moment he’d turned forty, his eyesight had started to dwindle, and now that he’d be forty-four this year, he couldn’t do anything without lights bright enough to see from space.
“Let’s go,” Ace said, getting out and slamming his door before Cactus had even registered that he’d parked. He strode away from the truck without waiting for Cactus, who narrowed his eyes at his cousin.
“What is goin’ on with him?”