Seeing You Read Free Page B

was still feeling from yesterday to hand it right back to him.
    “You’re damn right I did.”
    Admitting that seemed to take the wind out of Wade’s sails. He looked away for a moment then turned back to me and practically whispered, “Who gave you the right?”
    I shot right back, “No one. But I’ll be damned if I sit by and let you pretend my brother didn’t exist. Who gave you that right?”
    For a moment I thought he would haul off and hit me, actually wished that he would, but he just stood there breathing hard. He started to say something, stopped, looked at me like I was dirt beneath his boot, curled his lip and stomped back out again.
    I leaned back in Wade’s chair, forced myself to relax, and couldn’t help but think that had been waiting for fifteen months.
    Three hours later I rubbed my eyes and tried to decide what would be better for my headache, dinner or bed. Probably dinner first.
    I got up, leaving the rest of the paperwork for tomorrow. I had at least managed to establish that the Lazy G was operating in the black. Barely. And if things didn’t turn around soon, the promise I made to Erin would come back to bite me on the ass. Hard.
    Mack was just serving up Sloppy Joes when I got back to the bunkhouse, and I grabbed a beer and sat down. It wasn’t until I had shoved the sandwich into my mouth in three bites that I looked up to find Mack, Billy, and Joe all staring at me.
    Mack was the first to speak. “You talk to Wade?”
    Deciding not to quibble over semantics I said, “Sure.”
    Mack snorted. “Well?”
    “Wade agreed to see a grief counselor, helped me clean the house top to bottom, paid all the bills, and he’s ready to help move cattle tomorrow.” I took a swig of my beer and almost spit it out laughing when I saw the identical expressions of shock on their faces.
    Seeing my laughter, Mack looked like he wanted to strangle me, Billy looked exasperated, and Joe just looked confused. “Honestly, Mack, what were you looking for me to do? I landed a lot of different gigs while I was gone, but magician was never one of them.”
    Mack sighed. “I dunno, boy. I just thought… Shit. Well have you at least looked at the books?”
    “Yeah. Y’all will get paid, don’t worry,” I said, and the other three began to eat with enthusiasm.
    I was leaning back and contemplating how much it would suck to fall asleep in the kitchen chair when I noticed Billy looking at me like he wanted to say something, but was hesitating. “You got something to say, Billy?”
    Billy turned red to match his hair, the curse of having fair skin and freckles, and said, “Yeah, I uh—” He cleared his throat. “Remember when Simon first moved in with Wade? Before Wade laid down the law and told Simon he could work in any room in the house except the office?”
    I had forgotten that Billy had been here at the Lazy G almost as long as I had, and I smiled as I thought back. “Shit, yeah. I don’t think I ever looked at Wade swimming in the pond without busting a gut after that.” We all started chuckling.
    Noticing Joe looking confused, I explained, “Old Wade’s not real big on words most of the time, but he sure does have a temper. He didn’t want to scare his temperamental little artist off while they adjusted to living together those first few months, so when Simon irritated him, he’d go jump in the pond to cool off rather than yell at Simon. Wasn’t long before Wade was dunking himself two, three, four times a day.” I stopped to laugh, but sobered a little as I recalled the first time I had seen Wade coming out of the pond in cut-offs plastered to his legs, water streaming down the ridges of his chest. I had gotten completely hard before it dawned on me I was looking at a man like that.
    Seeing I wasn’t going to continue the story, Mack picked it up while we followed him outside to sit on the porch, probably to give us a visual. “Well, one day, we’re all sittin’ on this porch after