Cowboy Love on Hold [Love: The Cowboy Way 1] Read Free

just fucked like a couple of teenagers on our first date.” Wade smiled and closed his eyes. “Maybe seeing Brandon after all this time made us feel like kids again?”
    Kimber scooted off his lap and straightened her clothes, almost annoyed at Wade for mentioning Brandon’s name. Why did she feel again like she was cheating on someone?

Chapter 2

    Brandon looked up at their house, unable to make his feet carry him towards his worst nightmare—having to watch Kimber and Wade together and in love. He could see without needing to be told that they were crazy about each other. Well, it served him right. He’d deserted them both, and they were living the life that should have been his. It was no more punishment than he deserved.
    Wade appeared in the open doorway, two beers already in his hand, gesturing for Brandon to come in. “What’s keeping you?”
    “It’s like stepping back in time. I haven’t been inside this house since I was a kid.”
    “Hardly a kid. What age were you when you signed up?” Wade met him on the step and handed him a bottle.
    “I’d just turned twenty. Jesus! That was almost half my life ago.”
    “We’re getting old, Buddy, no need to remind me.” Wade raised his beer in silent salute.
    Brandon followed Wade into the house and found that not much had changed since he’d last seen it. The wooden floors still gleamed, faded by years of wear and tear, their golden tones enhanced by the traditional Navajo rug in the center of the hall. The old bench sat where it always had, on the wall between the bottom of the staircase leading up to the bedrooms and the entrance to the den. Walking past the stairs, Brandon looked ahead into the Great Room as it opened up before him. Besides a couple of leather chairs, a computer, and an entertainment center dominating a corner next to the huge timber and stone fireplace, everything was exactly the same as he remembered it. Except Kimber—she hadn’t been a part of his memories of the house.
    Finding her curled up in one of the leather chairs, engrossed in a book, Brandon couldn’t help wondering how she’d look in his home, the place she’d be right now if he hadn’t run away. He smiled to see she still did that thing—twisting a tendril of her wheat blonde hair around her finger over and over while she concentrated. He’d always loved her hair, although she wore it much shorter now in a shiny golden mass of waves that ended at her collarbones. He watched her silently, enjoying the rare moment to just look at her again after all this time, but then Wade came up behind him and slapped him on the shoulder, and Brandon tensed, reminded again of why he’d been forced to leave. Carefully stepping away from his friend, Brandon cast a glance at Wade’s face, unable to believe that he had forgiven and forgotten as completely as it seemed.
    “Hey, Brandon.” Kimber got to her feet and crossed the room to hug him again, her smile a little shaky at the edges and the expression in her cornflower blue eyes full of some emotion he couldn’t quite put a name to. He was slightly more prepared for her touch this time, but not much. The second her hands grazed over his shoulders, the years slipped away, and he knew without a doubt that almost two decades of self-imposed exile had done nothing to lessen his hunger for the woman in his arms. And unless he was very much mistaken by her reaction earlier, Kimber was no more immune to him.
    “How long ’til we eat?” Wade’s voice cut through Brandon’s thoughts, and Kimber pulled away at the sound of her lover’s voice.
    “Brandon, are you okay with having leftovers? I don’t want to spend all night cooking, and I think I have enough chili for the three of us.” She turned to Wade. “You don’t mind having it again tonight, do you?”
    “Hell no! I’d eat your chili every day for the rest of my life, you know that.” Kimber laughed and kissed Wade in thanks for the compliment. Brandon knew he was