Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Or both?
Chapter Two
MAVERICK
The guy was an idiot. How could he not see how Lily looked at him with those big honey-colored eyes was beyond me.
“Fucking idiot,” I whispered as I lifted the beer and took a long pull.
“Who’s a fucking idiot?”
Turning to see Nathan, Lily’s younger brother, I smiled. “No one.”
“If you’re talking about Ben and my sister, I’m right there with you.”
I narrowed my eyes at the seventeen-year-old who stood next to me. He was dressed in a black suit with a cream-colored tie. The kid was already drawing looks from nearly all the single women in the room. Young and old. He was tall, muscular from working on the ranch, and he had the craziest-colored eyes. They almost looked silver. He was the spitting image of his father, Tanner, but had his mother Timberlynn’s kind disposition. Undoubtedly, he’d be leaving a long line of broken hearts in his wake as he went through life.
“I was, in fact, talking about him,” I replied.
In the three years I’d been working on the Shaw Ranch for Tanner and Timberlynn, I’d grown pretty close to Nathan, so I wouldn’t lie to him now. He was like a little brother to me, and there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for him. Hell, for the entire Shaw family. To say they made me feel like one of their own would be putting it lightly.
A small part of me, though, was waiting for the floor to drop out from under me. It took me at least a year before I’d even accept any kindness from Tanner or Timberlynn. The only thing I took was orders for my job and a place to sleep. Every dinner or party invitation was turned down until Timberlynn finally broke me.
That first night I joined the family for dinner was the first time I truly allowed myself to see Lily as more than my bosses’ daughter.
She was home from school and was filled with stories about her time at college. I was entranced. Her smile, her eyes the color of golden sunrays in the morning, her zest for life, and her love of horses. It took everything I had not to stare at her like a lovesick puppy.
From that point on, I knew the moment she was near. I could sense her. Feel her. It was the strangest sensation. The last year, anytime she came home, she’d hung out in the barn more and more when I was working. Said she wanted to observe me with the horses. To say she was horse crazy would be an understatement. Lily loved horses, and she was damn good with them. Since moving back home for good, though, I felt like she was constantly around—and that wasn’t working out for my dick so much. Every time I saw her, I got hard.
There’d been so many times when I wanted to lift her chin and take her mouth with mine…but I loved my job. And Lily was hung up on her stupid idiot best friend, who’d been dating another woman for a good while. It was shocking to see how he hadn’t noticed what was right in front of him.
“What do you think we can do to make Lily see Ben isn’t the guy for her?” Nathan asked conversationally as we watched Rose and Bryson feed one another a slice of cake.
“It’s not for us to do anything, Nathan. Lily has to figure that out for herself.”
I could see him shake his head in my periphery. “He’s comfortable.”
Glancing at him, I asked, “Excuse me?”
Nathan shrugged. “That’s why she thinks she loves him. He’s a comfortable presence in her life. Or a…I don’t know, a familiar thing. Lily never was one to like change. So it makes sense she’d fall for her best friend.”
I raised a brow. “Are you sure you’re only seventeen?”
He laughed, but then his face grew serious. “Why can’t she like someone like you? You’d make a great boyfriend for her. You both love horses, my dad likes you and can’t stand Ben. You’re better-looking, you for sure have better hair, and you’re a great guy. Ben’s a total ass. I don’t get how my sister doesn’t see that.”
Clearing my throat, I replied, “Wow, thanks for all the compliments.”
He just grinned.
I looked back over the crowd. Lily had since walked away from the douchebag, who was now back at their table with his head hung over his phone.
“One of two things will likely happen here,” I started. “He’ll finally open his eyes and see what’s in front of him, or Lily will finally learn that he doesn’t share the same feelings as she does.”
Nathan sighed. “And then my sister will get hurt, and I’ll want to beat the living shit out of her best friend with a baseball bat.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Remind me to never get on your bad side.”