“You’d better cover Trixie,” Clint said to Nick as he went to cover Jax.
Nick set his dark eyes on Trixie, his lips curving slyly. “Hey, hot stuff.”
As Jax began dribbling, she imagined kissing Nick to throw him off his game, but she knew if she ever got enough courage to do that, she wouldn’t want to stop. She tucked that delicious thought away and said, “About time you noticed.”
She ducked under his arm, and Jax threw her the ball. She sprinted toward the basket, dodging Nick’s arms, and threw the ball back to Jax, who made the shot.
“Oh yeah!” She planted her hand on her hip. “What was that about how it’s done, cowboy?”
Nick chuckled. “Nice play.”
“Woo-hoo!” Jillian cheered. “You can’t beat the dynamic duo of girl power and twin power!”
They played a few rounds, laughing and giving each other a hard time. The score was tied when Lily announced, “Dinner will be ready in five minutes,” and she and Jillian headed into the house.
Trixie dribbled the ball, listening for Jax to say he was open. It was a balmy evening, but the summer air had nothing on the scorching heat blazing off Nick’s body as he hovered over her back.
“You’re gonna lose, hot stuff,” he warned.
“I never lose.” She shuffled right, then left, trying to look over her shoulder, but Nick was right there, his big body blocking her view. “Jax? Where are you?”
“Downtown!” he hollered, which was their code for “by the basket.”
Trixie prayed for the best and darted to the right. Nick’s arm swept around her, lifting her off her feet and crushing her back against his chest. She shrieked and cursed, clinging to the ball. “Put me down!”
In one swift move, Nick stole the ball with his free hand and heaved it toward the basket.
“No!” Trixie hollered.
Jax jumped up to block it, but it sailed just above his fingertips and into the net. Jax and Trixie yelled, “No!” at the same time Nick and Clint yelled, “Yes!”
Trixie pushed out of Nick’s arms and shoved him with both hands. “You’re a cheater!”
He scooped her up and tossed her over his shoulder, ignoring her kicking feet and flailing arms. Everyone laughed—including Trixie—as he said, “Looks to me like I’m the only guy on the court willing to do whatever it takes to win.”
“Watch your back, Braden!” She smacked his ass. “You’re going down.”
He set her on her feet with a sinful look in his eyes and said, “I’ve never had any complaints in that department.”
She lifted her chin and threw her shoulders back. “Then that makes two of us.” She strode off the court with a determined sway in her hips, the heat of Nick’s glare chasing her down like a shadow.
Chapter Seven
THERE WERE FEW things finer than enjoying a home-cooked meal with his family, and when Trixie joined them, it usually made those home-cooked meals even better. Nick’s mother had made her famous melt-in-your-mouth chuck roast with all the fixings, including corn bread, which he normally devoured. But after the comment Trixie had made before walking off the basketball court, Nick’s appetite was shot. He wanted to twist that comment into an invitation, but after watching her and Travis spark a connection that went beyond miniature horses, he couldn’t stop the jealousy gnawing at him. She was driving him insane, and at the same time, she was sitting next to him at the table, laughing and joking with his family, nudging him conspiratorially as if she hadn’t just sent his frigging mind reeling.
“Nick told me that Zev and Carly are getting married. I’m so happy for them. They give love a whole new meaning, right, Nick?” Trixie glanced at him with a mischievous look in her eyes.
Why did she always fuck with him? “Sure.”
“They were fated to be,” Trixie added.
“Like Beau and Char and Graham and Morgyn,” Jillian said as she cut a piece of meat. “I just wish old lady Fate would set her sights on me.”
“When the time is right, you’ll find love, honey.” Even after what happened to Beau and Zev after Tory died, their mother still touted love, as if it were a cure-all.
“Did you ever think Beau and Zev would be open to love again after what happened with Tory?” Trixie asked.
His mother’s expression turned thoughtful. “When they left all those years ago, I thought they’d be back in a few weeks or months, and when that didn’t happen, I wasn’t sure what to think. But I’d hoped, of course, that one day they would heal and eventually find love again.”
“That was a difficult time for all of us,” his father said, placing his hand over their mother’s. They always sat near each other, rather than at either end of the table.
It struck Nick that Trixie did the same thing with him.
“It was like we lost four of our children that summer, and it was hard on everyone.” Their father squeezed their mother’s hand, his emotional gaze moving around the table. “Our kids were all growing up and trying to start their lives. Nick was making a name for himself in the horse industry, Jax and Jilly were getting ready to leave for college, and Graham was in high school, but our family was no longer whole. There’s a big difference between sending your kids off to school to start their lives and having them leave home because they’re grieving, lost, and heartbroken. I remember feeling like I could help them with trouble at college, but I had no idea how to help them through that type of grief from who knows how many miles away.”
Nick’s chest constricted.
His father had put up such a brave front that summer. But like with Trixie’s fears, Nick had seen through the smoke and mirrors to his father’s devastation. He’d never forget the night he’d stumbled into the house at one o’clock in the morning about a week after his brothers had left. He’d heard a crash in his father’s office, and he’d sprinted through the door and had found his father sitting at his desk with his head in his hands. His papers and the things that were normally on his desk were scattered on the floor, including a framed picture of their family and another of Beau, Tory, Zev, and Carly they’d taken at a high school dance. Seeing that mess had rocked Nick to his core. His father was the most even-keeled person Nick had ever known. He never lost control. Nick had asked if his father was okay. His father had lifted grief-stricken eyes and had tried so damn hard to school his expression, it had been painful to watch. Of course. I’m just having a tough time with a project. Nick had started picking up his father’s things from the floor, but his father had put an arm around his shoulder, leading him out of the office—I’ll take care of that later, son. How was your night?—as if it were just another night. Nick had learned a lot that evening, like the fact that it was just another night. A night in the life of their new normal.
“I definitely felt like I lost a sister when Tory died. I think we all did.” Jillian looked across the table at Nick. “I worried all the time about Beau and Zev, remember, Nick?”
He’d never forget how often he’d find her stewing or crying because she couldn’t reach them. He’d hold her while she cried and try to reassure her that they were okay and would be home at some point. He’d never understood how everyone else had sat back and let Beau and Zev drift so far away. That was why he’d tracked them down and had gone head-to-head with them many times over the years, trying to convince them to come home.