He turned and saw Brody. And he wasn’t necessarily in the mood to deal with Brody, who was obviously referencing his grand exit from Smokey’s.
He didn’t really like this new trend of his brothers being up in his business.
“I don’t think that we have anything to talk about.”
“You saw Elsie Garrett with that other guy and you lost it. Practically ran out of the damned bar. You came back in with a bloody hand, then you stole her from her dance partner, then the two of you left and I didn’t see you again.”
“Yes, Brody,” he said. “All of those things were done in full view of everyone in that bar.”
“Yeah. But I talked to Wolf Garrett, and he mentioned how you lost your temper and punched a wall at your house, and busted up your knuckles. Which you and I both know isn’t true. So while that was done in full view of everybody, you don’t want them to know about it. Which tells me that you are messing with Elsie Garrett.”
His brother zeroed in on the truth in a way that made him squirm.
But he was not messing with her.
It was something else. Something deeper. Something that he’d never felt or experienced before ever in his life. But he didn’t have words for it, and he certainly didn’t know how to explain it to Brody.
But then, he didn’t owe Brody an explanation.
His brothers were acting like Elsie was a kid, and she wasn’t. They were acting like they knew her when they didn’t, not like he did.
Elsie was his friend. In her own right. She didn’t belong to Sawyer and Wolf, and she wasn’t beneath him.
She didn’t need mindless protecting.
Hell, he wondered why no one was worried about Hunter. From where he was standing he thought Elsie might have the power to destroy him with the right words.
He gritted his teeth. “I am not messing with Elsie Garrett. Can you think of anything stupider than that?”
“In terms of whether or not you want to wear your colon outside of your body as decoration, courtesy of Sawyer and Wolf, no. I can’t think of anything stupider. In terms of just the reality of the fact that she’s an attractive woman—”
His fury was immediate. “Don’t talk about her that way,” he snarled.
“What, don’t notice that Elsie Garrett hasn’t been twelve for a damned long time? She’s cute. That’s just a fact.”
“Yes, she is cute,” he said, feeling so possessive now he couldn’t see straight or hide it. “That’s not for you to notice.”
“I’m not the one getting in fights over her.”
“I didn’t get in a fight. I took her off that guy on the dance floor and he let her go. He let me do it. Which as far as I’m concerned shows he’s an idiot who never deserved to dance with her in the first place. I don’t let go of something that I want.”
“Hunt, you might as well come clean. There was something going on between the two of you at the poker game, and there’s obviously something going on between you now. You can’t tell Sawyer, you can’t tell Wolf, you need somebody to run interference because you aren’t hiding it very well. So if I were you, I would chill out, and tell me what’s going on.
“I’m not going to tell Gus,” Brody continued. “That guy has a sense of humor failure deeper than that well we have out in the back pasture, and I don’t want anything to do with it. Because he will likely tell on you, and join Wolf and Sawyer in dancing on your grave.”
“Gus already knows,” he said, his voice hard.
“Well, damn,” Brody said. “Now I feel left out.”
“If you think you already know, Brody, why should I tell you?” he asked, walking into his cabin and grabbing the duffel bag he had in their already packed and ready to go for Vancouver.
“Well, because I’m looking for any explanation that’s not what I think.”
“You think I’m sleeping with her?”
“Hell, no,” Brody said. “I think you wish you were sleeping with her. If you had slept with her, you wouldn’t have been sitting there while she was talking to Travis.”
Damn his brother for knowing him this well. And damn him for being unable to keep a secret. “Well. Fair. I haven’t slept with her.”
“You want to?”
“Like you said,” he returned, a muscle twitching in his face. “She’s cute.”
“A lot of women are cute, Hunter. You and I both know cute isn’t worth all this. This is something else.”
It was something else. Something new. Something...
“Fuck.” And the truth of it all was buried in that. “I want to sleep with her.”
“You’re taking her to Vancouver.”
“I am going to sleep with her, jackass.”
“Right. So...did you want a proper Catholic funeral or...”
“It’s not like that,” he bit out.
“What do you mean it’s not like that? You just told me it’s exactly like that.”
“She wants to...she wants to get some experience. I’m happy to oblige. It was going to be me or him. And you tell me, who do you think it should be. Me or him?”
“I don’t want to weigh in on this debate. Because I don’t really want to know where you put your junk.”
“You’re digging into my business. Like hell you don’t want to know, you practically demanded an accounting of where I want it to go.”
“Fine. But I don’t want... Look. Obviously, that guy is someone I don’t trust. And I would be worried about having her anywhere in proximity to him. But I don’t know how you could think this isn’t going to blow up in your face. Or your junk.”
“It might,” Hunter said.
And he accepted it as he said it.
“Doesn’t that matter?” Brody asked.
Yeah, it mattered. It mattered a hell of a lot.
Which was why his willingness to go forward with it meant something.
“She’s worth it,” he said, surprised at the conviction with which those words came out. He walked past his brother, down the dirt trail, toward his truck. He slung the duffel bag in the back and turned around. “I don’t know how else to say it. She’s worth it. And I am willing to risk whatever might happen to make this special for her.”
He’d had to defend himself to Brody, to Gus, and most of all to himself, and he came back to the same place every time.