for him.
“You could have called my cell,” Adam said, smiling as he rose to his feet. “What can I . . .” His voice trailed off as two other men crowded behind Nate, trying to see in.
“You’ve got guests,” Nate said, wearing a wry grin.
“Hey, Adam!” one of them called over Nate’s shoulder.
Adam thought he recognized them, but the light from the workshop didn’t quite reach, and he didn’t want them crowding Josh and asking questions.
“We can finish up later,” Josh said. “You go have fun with the boys.”
Nate and Josh seemed to know something he didn’t. But he wiped his hands on a rag and went out into the open area of the barn between stalls.
“Remember these guys?” Nate asked in a dry tone of voice.
“It’s Derek and Chad,” said one man, reaching out to shake Adam’s hand.
“Derek and Chad,” Adam repeated, shaking the other man’s hand, too. They weren’t from his football-playing days but from before, when he’d been joyriding in cars and getting in trouble. He’d avoided them junior and senior year, when the two of them had been tag-teaming each other in detention and even the occasional suspension. Who was he to assume they hadn’t straightened out in the past ten years?
Nate excused himself with a touch to the brim of his Stetson, buttoned up his coat, and left the barn, closing the door behind him.
Adam turned to the two men. “What can I do for you guys?”
“Nothing,” Derek said. “We just heard you were in town and thought we’d be neighborly.” He had dark hair that crossed a line into a mullet, curling out from beneath the back of his baseball cap.
Chad constantly smoothed the patch of sparse brown hair on his chin and gave a nervous twitch of his shoulders. “So you’re out of the Marines?”
“Yep.”
“Had enough killing?” Derek asked.
Adam frowned. “I’m not sure what you’re trying to say.”
“Oh, we know you were ‘serving your country’ and all that,” Chad added. “But it’s gotta be tough.”
“It was. What have you two been doing with yourselves?”
“We both tried getting married,” Derek began.
“To each other?” Adam asked innocently.
“Naw!” Chad looked offended. “We’re not gay. We got divorced from women. Derek’s even a dad.”
Poor kid, Adam thought.
“We work for Sweet Brothers Construction,” Derek continued. “Good jobs and lots of building going on from Glenwood Springs to Aspen.”
“Good for you.”
“We didn’t know you were a cowboy,” Chad said, a bit too slyly, as if it had been rehearsed. He braced a hand on the door of a stall, then pulled away when Brooke’s horse, Sugar, tried to nip him.
“I wasn’t. But the Thalbergs offered me a job as a ranch hand while I’m in town. I’m learning a lot.”
“Is Brooke teaching you?” Chad asked, then sent a significant glance at Derek.
Adam didn’t know how he was supposed to miss that, but if they thought they were hiding something, then whatever. “Sometimes. Why?”
“Chad had a dance with her the other night,” Derek said. “They looked pretty good together.”
Adam arched a brow in surprise and just waited.
Chad rocked back and forth on his heels, wearing what he probably thought was a woman-magnet grin. “Think you can call Brooke here so we can say hi?”
Their bravado should be laughable—but Adam wasn’t laughing. “So basically, you’re using me to get to Brooke?”
Derek’s brow wrinkled. “Don’t see how anyone’s using anyone. We came to see you and Brooke.”
“But I’m supposed to somehow . . . smooth your way?”
Chad and Derek exchanged grins. “That’s mighty nice of you,” Chad said.
“Not today, boys. I have to get back to work.”
They looked confused but eventually left after Adam had to refuse them a second time. Hands on his hips, he watched them go, then turned and went back into the barn.
Josh was coming out of his workshop. “They left? You could have gone with them, you know.”
Adam grimaced. “They stopped maturing in high school.”
Josh cocked his head. “I heard them mention Brooke. Why didn’t you call her?”
“Because she wouldn’t want to see them.”
“Really? Good luck with that.” Josh grinned and returned to his workshop.
Adam went to search for Brooke and found her in the truck shed, starting and restarting the engine of the ATV that the teenager had stolen. “Is something wrong with it?” he asked, hoping he wouldn’t have to mention the kid.
“No, I thought it hesitated when it started, but it seems fine now.”
Adam was relieved. “Just wanted to let you know that Derek and Chad from the old days stopped by.”
She grinned, climbing