But he didn’t like it. Not in the least. Not one bit.
Thankfully, though, Sawyer and Wolf were nowhere to be seen, since they were now family men, and his brother Brody was there, sitting at a table.
He crossed the space and sat down in the chair opposite him.
“I’m hoping to find a date,” Brody said. “So you can sit there until one appears, but I don’t want it looking like my evening’s not free.”
“Same,” Hunter said. “I know when to make myself scarce.”
“Yeah. I know you do. You aren’t Lachlan. You won’t overstay. And you aren’t Gus, so you won’t scare away potential dates.”
Hunter huffed a laugh. “How long has it been since Gus got laid?”
“Too fucking long,” Brody said, grinning. “That’s why he’s such an insufferable ass.”
“I don’t think that’s why Gus is an insufferable ass,” he said, keeping his eye on Elsie.
One of the waitresses, who was wearing a formfitting dress and a little green apron tonight, came over to the table. Dulce, that was her name. And she was damned pretty. He imagined that if he really wanted to, he could go home with her. Or she with him. He wasn’t really picky.
“Hi there,” she said. “What’ll you have?”
“Whatever you got that’s local,” Hunter said.
“Same,” Brody added.
“Sure.” She winked and turned away, walking back to the bar with a little sway to her hips.
“She’s cute,” Brody said.
“Yeah,” Hunter agreed. “But I don’t want it to be weird when I come buy beer.”
“Fair,” Brody said. “Still. If no other women show up... I’ll take weird.”
“That’s a low bar,” Hunter said.
“My bar is eternally low, little brother.”
“Well, that I do know.”
“So, what happened with Elsie?” he asked.
That was right when Dulce reappeared with two beers and set them down on the table, which gave Hunter enough time to think about how to respond. Or hope that Brody forgot what he’d asked.
“Some onion rings too,” Brody said. “That’d be great.”
“Onion rings?” He stared at his brother after the waitress left. “I thought you were trying to get laid.”
Brody lifted a brow. “Onion rings are not going to stop me from getting laid, Hunter.”
“I think you’ve got an ego problem.”
Brody shrugged. “I haven’t got a problem with it.”
“Maybe onion rings would be good...”
“Don’t deflect. What was going on with you and Elsie?” Dammit. “Lach said she was madder than a wet hen during the poker game the other night, and that she was TO’d at you the other day when she came to do work. He told me what she said to you. I’m shocked you didn’t turn her over your knee and take a switch to her backside.”
He would love to go back in time and pay his brother not to put the image of him spanking Elsie Garrett in his head. His brain was already a pretty messed up place right about now, and he didn’t need Brody adding to it by introducing an idea that was inescapably erotic into the mix.
Hunter scowled. “Don’t you and Lach have anything better to do than chatter like a pair of old biddies?”
“Not really,” Brody said, grinning.
He sighed.
“She was just being Elsie,” he said. “You know how she is. She’s like a bobcat with a hangnail when I’m around. There’s nothing I can do about it. And nothing I did to deserve it either. Ain’t my fault.”
“You didn’t let her get away with that shit about Dad...”
“No. I took her to task.”
“Good. You should defend yourself. You don’t need to let bullshit like that stand.” Brody paused. “You know it’s bullshit, right?”
“I don’t think I’m like Dad,” Hunter said.
Brody looked benignly innocent. “I didn’t say you did.”
“You actually looked concerned. Which is unlike you.”
“Not really,” Brody said. “I worry about you enough. I’m a pretty callous bastard all things considered, but you’re younger than me—”
“But a year, for heaven’s sake.”
“I worry about you.”
“I don’t have any hidden concerns I’m like Dad, Brody.” And as he looked at Brody, all pretty and unscarred and Dad’s favorite, he had to wonder if it was Brody who really carried that concern. But Hunter just didn’t even know how to...how to say it to him. Especially right now when his whole world was a mess. “Worry about Gus.” Defaulting to worrying about Gus was what they all tended to do when he wasn’t around. “If someone said something like that to him...”
“Gus isn’t fragile,” Brody said.
“No. Gus is basically a mountainside. But he could be eroding underneath and you never know. That’s what worries me about Gus. He’s hardheaded. And he’s impossible to get to. He’d never tell us if he was falling apart.”
“A smile covers up things just as well as the frown, Hunt,” Brody said.
That hit him square in the chest. His brother smiled at him, and Hunter smiled right back. And it all felt a little bit pointed and far too close to the truth of who they both were. But rather than going deeper...
They just smiled.
“Whatever,” Hunter said. “It’s handled. Just the same kind of petty squabbling when I’m out with Elsie.”
“Right. Well. Glad you cleared it up.”
“Cleared.”
“So, are we obligated to intervene with her and that douchebag?”
“Which douchebag?”
He knew which one.
Brody shrugged. “I don’t know his name. All these little upstart ranch hands look the same to me, and they’re all gone just as quickly. But do you honestly think that Sawyer wants her messing around with him?”
“Is he a particularly egregious douchebag?” Hunter asked, as if he hadn’t been more involved with all of this than he cared to admit.
“Yeah, I think so,” Brody said. “I don’t like him. I don’t like anything I’ve seen of him. He’s charming. But it feels fake to me.”