Wyatt: Casanova Club #4
Wyatt
Casanova Club #4
Ali Parker
BrixBaxter Publishing
Contents
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Description
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
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Copyright
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Description
There is nothing sexier than a good old Texas cowboy.
* * *
Wyatt Brewer is no exception to the rule. He’s tall, dark, and handsome, and it’s only a matter of days before I realize I’m in over my head with him.
* * *
He makes me feel like the world is at my fingertips—except it’s his world, not mine.
* * *
A world of rolling grassy fields, starry evenings, front-porch swings, and hard work on his Texas ranch. It is everything I didn’t know I wanted in life. It’s far too easy to see myself settling into this life with him, so when things take a dangerous turn on the ranch, I find myself reeling in the aftermath.
* * *
This is not what I expected when I met my third Casanova Bachelor.
* * *
But it turns out it might be everything I needed.
* * *
Not that it matters.
* * *
Wyatt Brewer may be winning over my heart, but there is only one way this year can end: with me alone and a pocket full of cash.
Introduction
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Chapter 1
Wyatt
Raymond Boone, all two hundred and forty-five pounds of him, landed ass first in the dirt with a grunt and a foul string of curses. The colt he was trying to break shook his black mane and whinnied victoriously before prancing off in the opposite direction, hooves flicking at the dirt as he made a lap around the corral.
Chuckling, I draped my arms over the wooden fence and watched as Duke, the stubborn, too smart for his own good, two-and-a-half-year-old, chestnut-brown horse came to a stop on the opposite side of the corral as Boone.
“He’s not close to being ready for a rider,” I said.
Boone shot me a foul glare as he got to his feet and nursed his backside. “Yeah. Well. That might have been good to know before I came out here, wouldn’t it?”
I shrugged. “You’ve been at this just as long as me. I didn’t tell you to come out here and try to ride him. That brilliant idea was all yours.”
Boone looked imploringly to his fellow ranch hand, Phillip Dodge. “Any words of support?”
Dodge was on the opposite side of the corral from me. He shot me a cocky grin before nodding at Duke, who had dropped his head to drag his nose along the dirt in search of grass. There was none. “He’s too clever for you, Boone. Neither one of us stands a chance. This one’s on you, boss. I’m not getting in there with him. No way in Hell.”
I pulled my kerchief from my back pocket and dragged it across my sweating brow. It had already been a long morning. The sun was directly above and beating down on my shoulders. We were having a warm spring here in Austin, Texas, and the last week had been varying between seventy-three and seventy-six degrees.
I braced myself on the corral fence and hoisted myself over. My boots landed with a thud in the dry dirt, and I tucked the kerchief back into the pocket of my jeans. “All right, boys. Watch and learn. Slow and steady is the key. And patience.”
Boone hobbled out of the corral, still muttering under his breath. “Stupid fucking horse.”
Dodge, however, stood at full attention and watched as I approached the colt with my arms slack by my sides.
We’d been working with Duke for the last two weeks and hadn’t made much progress. He was a wild and unpredictable thing, and it was no wonder Joe Kirby had asked for my help breaking him. Joe had his own ranch about a two-mile drive up Cherry Road. He didn’t have many horses, but his mare had given birth to Duke, and he decided to use him as a labor animal on the property rather than sell him. When we ran into each other at the farmers’ market three weeks ago, he expressed concern about the colt that was giving him a hard time, and I offered to help him out.
Joe jumped at the opportunity.
And now, I was taking time out of my already very busy day to wrangle a colt with an attitude problem.
I made it to the middle of the corral before Duke lifted his head and stared straight at me. I stopped walking and relaxed.
Boone chuckled on the outskirts of the corral. “The fucker isn’t going to let you near him, Wyatt. Believe me. Even you won’t be able to—”
In the time Boone spent complaining, I took another three steady steps forward. Duke watched me cautiously, but he didn’t flee, and I stopped again. And waited.
Dodge snickered. “What were you saying, Boone?”
“Shut up,” Boone said.
I held up a hand to stop their bickering. “I’m not going to try to ride him. I just want to make friends with him.”
“Here we go,” Boone drawled.
I ignored him and focused on Duke. The horse watched me with a hesitant curiosity as I turned slightly away from him, showing him my shoulder and dropping my gaze to let him know I didn’t want anything from him. I wasn’t here for a purpose. I just wanted to say hello.
The horse let out a soft whinny.
“What the hell?” Boone breathed incredulously.
I grinned and moved toward Duke. The horse held his ground even when I reached out to rest my palm on his nose. I didn’t move after that. I stayed perfectly still and let Duke push his nose a little harder against my palm, as if asking for more.
I ran my hand up the length of his nose, over the white stripe between his eyes, and into his mane. I ran my fingers softly over his eyes to chase away the flies, scratched his cheeks, and worked my way down the sides of his neck.
“I’ve been at this for two hours a day and haven’t been able to get close to him,” Boone said.
I grinned. “Your energy is all wrong, then.”
“Energy? Please.” Boone scoffed. I could feel his eyes roll behind my back.
Dodge rapped his knuckles on the fence. “Boone, don’t be a sour git. Maybe you could learn a thing or two if you—I don’t know—tried a different approach for once?”
“Who asked you?” Boone said.
Dodge sighed. “Forget it. Keep doing it your way, and get thrown to the dirt any time you get within a foot of the animal. You’re doing great.”
I moved to stand by the horse’s shoulder and left my hand on his neck. Then I pushed gently, guiding him forward. Duke resisted at first, so I backed off and continued stroking his coarse hair. When I tried again, he took a few steps forward and then stopped. I repeated the process several times until finally he walked a full lap around th
e corral, followed by four more. As we walked, I had Dodge hand me the rope draped around one of the fence posts. I looped it over Duke’s neck and stepped away from his shoulder to lead him for the last fifteen minutes of the session.
Having him follow me was a crucial lesson. I was the boss. He was the follower.
The relationship would be founded on trust and respect, and laying down this groundwork was the most important piece of the whole process. That was something Boone still needed to learn and the reason why I was the one in the corral and not him.
“Open the gate,” I said.
Boone opened the gate for me, and Duke and I left the corral. He followed without resistance or distraction as I took him to the stable, where we brought him into his paddock, gave him some fresh hay and water, and left him to rest after his training session. The other horses in their stables whinnied in greeting, and I made sure to pat each of their noses before emerging back out in the afternoon sun to follow Boone and Dodge out around the side of the barn to the wash station.
Boone turned the tap on the outdoor sink and splashed cold water on his face. “It’s going to be a bloody hot summer.”
“You can say that again,” Dodge said, pressing his hands into his lower back and cracking it loudly. Then he did the same with his neck. “But hey, ladies like a man with a tan, right?”
Boone snorted. “Yeah. What ladies are you talking about?”
Dodge shrugged and splashed water on his face when Boone got out of the way. “You know. All of them. Any of them.”
Boone and I exchanged a look, and Boone chuckled. “If you catch yourself a girl this summer, I’ll run naked down Cherry Road in the middle of the afternoon screaming ‘Phillip Dodge is a handsome bastard.’”
Dodge arched a blond eyebrow and looked at me. “You’re our witness that this happened.”
I nodded. “Naturally.”
Then Dodge pointed a finger at Boone’s chest. “I’m going to hold you to that. Just you wait and see. This is my year, man.” He clapped his hands together and then rubbed them eagerly, his dry palms whispering against each other. “I’m going to lay the groundwork at the Doherty’s party at the end of the month.”
“What groundwork?” Boone asked dryly.
Dodge, getting a little defensive under Boone’s relentless nitpicking, lifted his chin confidently. “I’ll see who’s single and who’s not, and I’ll find out if any ladies are coming to spend the summers at any of the neighboring ranches. You never know. Sisters. Cousins. Nieces. Daughters. Hell, people in these parts are getting old enough now to have family members we’ve never met before.”
“You’re an animal.” Boone sighed.
Dodge flipped him the bird and splashed more water on his face. Then he turned to me. “You’re the lucky one in all this.”
“Sorry?” I asked, moving forward to run my hands under the cold water and scrub my face too.
Dodge ran his wet hands through his thick, dirt-crusted blond hair. “You heard me. Your girl gets delivered to you tomorrow. Just like that. No awkward small talk. No asking her out on a first date.”
I smiled and shook my head at him. “Yeah, sure. It sounds great when you put it that way. Are you forgetting the eleven other bachelors she’s being paired up with over the year? Do you really think she’s going to swoon over all this?” I gestured at the ranch, at the dry dirt and surrounding fields of tall grass that blew in the gentle afternoon breeze. Everything was bright green and alive in the spring. But soon, when the dead of summer rolled around, everything would be gold and yellow and burnt and dry.
Boone slid his hands into his jean pockets. “Some ladies like ranchers. You know there’s male stripper routines where they dress up like cowboys and ride a fake bull on stage, right?”
I blinked at him. “Why do you know that?”
Boone shrugged. “Women talk. Apparently, they need to have a story in a performance.”
“A story?” Dodge asked, cocking his head to the side.
“That’s all I know,” Boone said.
I splashed more water on my face and ran a hand down my face. The whiskers on my chin and cheeks tickled my palm. “Things will be different around here for the month. That’s for sure.”
“I’d say,” Dodge said. “We haven’t had a lady on the property in, what, fifteen years?”
“Sounds right,” I said.
There hadn’t been a woman staying at the ranch since my mother passed away fifteen years before. The lack of feminine presence showed. The flowers had all gone, and the inside of the main house lacked that feminine touch that pulled everything together. It was very clear that a man lived there. A single man.
“You nervous?” Boone asked as we turned away from the sink and stepped out of the shade cast by the barn.
I shrugged. “A bit.”
Dodge clapped a hand over my shoulder. “You have nothing to worry about, man. Just treat this girl how you treated Duke. She’ll come around and be eating out of the palm of your hand in no time.”
He and Boone giggled like schoolgirls.
I shook my head. “You see, those are the sorts of jokes that you’re going to keep to yourself while she’s here. Yes?”
Dodge reined in his laughter. “Yes, sir.”
I sighed. “It’ll be hard balancing my responsibilities here and my time with her.” I wasn’t going to say it out loud, but I wanted to spend the time to get to know her. Women were a rarity in this life. And after some bad luck, I was ready to dive back into trying to find a partner.
At least, I was pretty sure I was ready.
Boone nudged me in the ribs with his elbow. “She might just have to get her hands a little dirty and help out around here. Then you’ll see if she’s worth all of this.”
“All of this?” I asked.
Boone nodded. “Yeah. This whole Casanova thing. If the girl can’t muck out a stable, she’s not worth your time, right?”
I didn’t say anything. Everything I remembered about Piper from December suggested she was very much worth my time. Every single minute of it.
Chapter 2
Piper
Janie stopped at the front door of the apartment we shared together and looked over her shoulder at me as she rummaged around in her purse, looking for her keys. “How are you feeling, Pipes?”
I shrugged and let one of my bags fall from my shoulder. She’d just picked me up from the airport after my month with Easton. I was dead tired and terribly sad and full of that same, familiar misery I’d felt when I left Joshua.
It wasn’t as intense, and it didn’t make me feel like I was going to throw up, but it was real nonetheless.
“Pretty shitty,” I said, sighing. “I wish I’d thought about how hard this was going to be before I agreed to do this.”
Janie gave me a sympathetic smile. “I know, babe. But it will all be worth it in the end. Right?”
“Right.” I sighed, trying to make my nod look more confident than it felt.
Janie opened the door and helped me haul my bags inside.
I had one night at home before I had to hop back on a plane tomorrow morning at ten o’clock to catch my flight to Austin. The next man up on my list was Wyatt Brewer, who I remembered from December as being super southern and very, very handsome.
And a gentleman.
But I was so tired and drained, and the thought of meeting another man made my knees weak—and not in the good way.
All I wanted was to sleep and eat good food and drink a lot of tea. We shuffled into the kitchen, and I drew up short when I saw the fully set kitchen table. Janie had pulled out all the stops with napkin rings, gold chargers under the plates, candles, and flowers. It smelled heavenly in here too, like curry.
I looked at my friend. She was watching me with her hands clasped together. “I have a little surprise for you,” she said.
My mouthed worked but no words came out.
Janie giggled and tucked a strand of sleek black hair behind h
er ear. “I invited your parents and Phillip over for dinner. I know you barely have any time between Easton and Wyatt, and I also know how much you missed everyone this month. So, I wanted to give you a chance to see everyone in one shot in the comfort of your own home. Please tell me this isn’t a horrible idea?”
“Janie,” I said, raking my fingers through my hair and pressing the heels of my hands to my forehead. “This is amazing.”
“Really?”
“Really, I promise. Oh my gosh. Thank you!” I threw my arms around her shoulders in a big hug. “I mean it. Thank you.”
She patted my back. “You go shower. I’ll put your bags away and finish dinner. Everyone will be here in about twenty minutes.”
“Okay,” I said, all of a sudden feeling a little frantic. “I have to throw a load of laundry in, too. And pack my bag all over again. And—”
“Piper,” Janie said, putting her hands on my shoulders and looking me in the eyes. “We have time. And I’ll help you after dinner. I already set some of my things aside that you can bring.”
“Please tell me it’s not all plaid and denim shorts and straw hats.”
Janie threw her head back and laughed. “Just get in the shower.”