“Well, see how you feel after Christmas,” she said, heading over to the far end of the counter to do some clean-up. “You never know how things would land right now that the holidays are so close. I bet if you talked to your parents about moving out right now, they’d flip out just over the principle of it being so close to the holiday.”
She had a point, and I guessed it came from having grown up with my family for so long that my parents had practically raised her also.
“You may be right,” I admitted. The two of us continued to chat casually, going over our plans for the next few weeks, with Molly occasionally opening a bottle of beer for a new customer or shooting Vin, the bar’s manager, a dirty look in return when he came over intending to lecture her for having a conversation on the clock. I didn’t think much of any of the other customers until Molly looked up at the opening door, a wicked gleam filling her eyes. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the A-Team.”
The words were called with her typical crow of barkeep welcome, and I raised an eyebrow at her in surprise at the strange name. She cocked her chin over my shoulder, grinning. “See for yourself.”
I turned around on the bar stool, feeling my eyes widen and a hard, echoing thump in my heart as I saw the group that loped into the bar, carrying with them the smell of hay and hickory smoke just like I’d always remembered.
“Holy shit,” I said, blinking rapidly. “Are those the Kent brothers?”
“Yep,” she said, and I could practically hear the wickedness in her voice. “They turned out pretty good, didn’t they?”
That was an understatement. The four Kent brothers had never been a bad-looking group. But these men were far from the boys who I remembered, crowding around the dinner table at their parents’ ranch.
2
ADAM
It had been another long day, and to be honest, I hadn’t really been in favor of coming out tonight.
By the time I’d come back in from mucking out the stalls for the new foals, I’d been filthy, hungry, and feeling every one of the thirteen hours that I’d spent out in the pasture and the barn today.
But Andy had had that restless look on his face that he always got after a day of looking over the ranch’s books, and Austin had had a particularly grueling day out in the pasture, vaccinating the pregnant mares. The two of them had been practically chomping at the bit for a beer, and it hadn’t been enough when Aaron and I had offered to go into town to pick up a six-pack.
No, they needed to get out and breathe the air in Spurs. Sure, it was vaguely stale and smelled like old liquor and the peanut shells that littered the floor, but it was still our place, and Molly deserved our best efforts. After my mom had sat down on the sofa next to my dad and put her head on his shoulder, saying, “You boys should go out. Have a good time! Leave the old people to their own devices,” with a raised eyebrow at my dad, I’d taken my annoyed ass up to the shower, knowing that I’d lost that argument before I’d even tried to win it.
Even when I’d tried to get Aaron on my side with a look, he’d just shrugged at me, essentially signaling to me that we’d lost this fight before we’d even started it, which was how the four of us now found ourselves climbing out of Aaron’s truck outside the bar.
We walked into the bar, the warm, beer-scented air washing over us as we all sighed in relief. December in Colorado could be a cold motherfucker, and even the few steps across the sidewalk from the truck had been brutal.
“Well, if it isn’t the A-Team!” Molly called from behind the bar, and we all looked over in unison to smile at her. She was grinning at us, her familiar dark curls collected on top of her head into a high ponytail as she sliced limes and wiped down her work surfaces behind the bar. “Usual table’s open for you.”
My three brothers smiled at her also, going to take our usual spot in the booth that sat at the back, next to the pool room.
“Who’s getting up to get the drinks?” Austin asked, his voice gruff as he ran his hand over his face. I could tell he was just as tired as I was, but for some reason, he’d needed this enough to get us all out here.
I got up, not bothering to hide my sigh from any of them. “First round’s on me.”
“Good man, little bro,” Andy said, clapping me on the arm as I walked away. I snorted a little, walking away toward the bar.