Fall to Pieces (8 page)

He watched as she finished distributing the
hay and paused next to one of the mares, a pretty little bay with a
white star on her forehead. She snuffled and stuck her muzzle in
Sadie's cupped palm.

"Would you want to run this place?" he said
and moved next to her. His palm itched to run down the pale length
of her arm to see if her skin was as silky smooth as it looked. He
reached out and patted the mare's warm neck instead.

She shrugged. "Not really. My interests have
always lain elsewhere. But it would be nice to be worthy of
consideration. Not have the decision made for me." She gave her
head a little shake. "It's just so weird being back here. It brings
up all these things I thought I got over a long time ago. And at
the same time, I feel like such a different person, with such a
different life, it's almost like visiting another planet."

"I know what you mean," he said. “It's nice
being back, seeing my family and all, but compared to how I've been
living all these years, it's all just so... normal."

She turned to him with a little smile. "You
say that like it's a bad thing."

He shrugged. "Not bad. Just not something I
think I could ever get used to."

"It might take some time, but I'm sure you'd
make the adjustment."

Just the thought of having to make such an
adjustment sent a shock of fear through him. "How can I be normal
when—" he started and snapped his lips closed.

She gave him a long, probing look. "When
what?"

When I can't escape the nightmares and the
questions about whether anything we do out there is worth it. When
I feel like if I don't get back out there soon, I'm going to lose
my fucking mind?

His chest got tight, his stomach twisted with
the irrational thought that she was somehow seeing all the dark and
twisty going on underneath his skull.

He took a step back and forced a smile.
"Nothing. I better get going," he said and looked pointedly at his
watch. "I told JT I'd meet him and some other people at the Last
Chance."

The blatant lie came easily to his lips.
Whatever guilt over that or the disappointment that flashed in her
eyes was overpowered by the sudden compulsion to get away from her
before he did something stupid.

Like give into the urge to lean down and kiss
those soft, parted lips. Like fall under the spell of those dark,
knowing eyes that beckoned him to share too much.

Sadie watched Dylan's taillights disappear
through her office window. She ignored the pit in her stomach,
calling herself all kinds of stupid for feeling a little stab of
hurt that he hadn't invited her to join him at the Last Chance
bar.

So he didn't want her to crash his man-date
with JT. So what? It wasn't like she and Dylan were particularly
close. It wasn't like when she invited him to move out to the
ranch, she expected he would become her new bestie.

Even when back in high school, when they'd
spent a couple afternoons a week together either here or at the
school library, they'd been what she would describe as friendly,
not really friends.

When Dylan went out, it was with a decidedly
different crowd, populated by his football and basketball teammates
and the cheerleaders who pranced around school in their tight
sweaters and skirts just barely covering their asses. They might
have ended up at some of the same parties, but that was never any
of Dylan's doing.

The only time he sought her out was when he
needed something from her. In high school it had been help with
homework. Now it was a place to live.

Once again, Dylan needed something from her,
and she was only too happy to provide it.

She gave herself a mental smack at the
thought that painted her as a sap and him as a user.

Admit it. The only reason you're feeling so
sour over this is that you were hoping there were some other needs
Dylan would want you to serve.

She hated to admit it, even to herself. She'd
had some silly fantasy that Dylan would take a look at her grown up
self and deem her worthy of the same attention he seemed to have no
trouble bestowing on nearly every other single woman between the
ages of twenty-two and thirty-five who passed through his orbit.
And when he'd taken her up on her offer to rent the cabin, she
couldn't deny a little thrill of hope that proximity might push him
over the edge.

But so far if it had occurred to him that she
was mere yards away every single night, he hadn't given any
indication.

She tore her thoughts away from Dylan and JT
and the women they were no doubt charming the pants off right this
very minute and forced herself to focus on the hours of work that
lay ahead of her before she could go to bed tonight.

She heard Dylan's truck pull up sometime
after eleven. She continued working until after one. When she
turned out the light in the office, she noticed the lights in the
cabin were blazing and wondered what he was still doing up.

None of her business, she told herself firmly
and trudged upstairs.

She didn't see much of Dylan for the next
several days. He'd leave a little after eight, and return after
five. Some days he stayed out until well past dinner time, other
days his truck pulled in at the end of the workday and he closed
himself in his cabin for the night.

June continued to invite him to supper—which
he wisely refused, and finally Sadie told her to let up, it was
obvious he wanted his space.

Fortunately between working to get Mary's app
ready to go live (she'd loved the prototype so much, she wanted to
move up the release by two weeks), and all of the slack she had to
pick up around the ranch, Sadie didn't have time to concern herself
with Dylan's comings and goings.

Not much anyway. Though she couldn't decide
which bothered her more; the nights he stayed out, leaving her to
speculate on what he was doing and who he was doing it with?

Or the nights he spent holed up in his tiny
cabin, so close by, so clearly wanting nothing to do with her.

###

"You look like shit!" Molly said and slid a
vodka and tonic in front of her.

"Why, thank you, dear friend," Sadie said,
sighing in pleasure at the first sip. Molly had been trying to get
her out all week, and now that she'd sent her app out to be QA'd
she figured she deserved to take Molly up on her invitation to join
her at the Last Chance.

"Seriously, have you been sleeping, like, at
all?" Despite Molly’s bluntness, Sadie could see the sincere
concern in her friend’s eyes. And it wasn't like it wasn't true.
After several days in a row hitting the pillow well after midnight
and getting up when her alarm went off at six, she was pale and
bleary eyed.

Not for the first time she wondered if she
should have stayed home and just gone to bed.

"Obviously my efforts with the concealer
didn't pay off," she said wryly.

Molly waved a hand. "Of course, you look
beautiful. You always look beautiful. But I can tell you've been
working too hard." She paused took and took a sip of her drink,
cocking an eyebrow. "Or maybe it's your new tenant who's keeping
you up nights," she said with an exaggerated waggle of her
eyebrows.

Sadie laughed softly and shook her head. "No
such luck."

Molly gave a little pout. "Too bad. I was
hoping at least one of us was getting laid. Josh has been working
so much lately I've practically forgotten what it feels like. But
he promised he'd meet me here later tonight, so hopefully..."

Sadie bit back her own theory about what was
keeping Molly's fiancé from her bedroom, and it wasn't work. But
she knew better than to voice her suspicions about Josh and why he
was still dragging his feet after all these years. The last time
she'd questioned their engagement it had been like a brick wall had
dropped between her and Molly, the only time in the course of their
friendship that she hadn't felt like she could be completely honest
with her best friend.

She sighed took another sip of her drink,
savoring the cold, bitter bite of the vodka and the warmth it
spread through her belly. She loved Molly like a sister, but Molly
had her issues that made her cling to Josh like a barnacle. And no
one was going to be able to solve them for her.

"I know you've been busy, but I'm glad you
came out tonight," Molly said and clinked her glass with Sadie's.
"I missed you this week."

"I missed you too. And Brady's food," she
said with a grimace.

"What did she make tonight?"

"Pork chops."

"That doesn't sound too bad."

"Imagine a perfect, beautiful pork chop,
cooked until it has the texture and taste of shoe leather."

Molly wrinkled her nose in sympathy.

"Then imagine it served next to a pile of
carrots that were steamed to the consistency of baby food."

"No wonder you look like you've lost weight.
Maybe I should come eat June's cooking for the next month," Molly
said with a mock frown.

"You don't need to lose weight," Sadie said,
barely managing to suppress an eye roll. It had been like this ever
since puberty hit them in the seventh grade. In Sadie's case, all
it had meant was another six inches of height on her already tall
for a thirteen-year-old frame.

For Molly it had meant a set of curves that
would have done a playboy centerfold proud. And while she was, to
Sadie's eye, not in the least bit overweight, she'd always lamented
that, unlike Sadie, she didn't even come close to resembling the
models in the fashion magazines they'd spent hours perusing.

"I just need to lose, like ten pounds to fit
into that dress we found down in Billings." She took a sip of her
vodka and soda. "But I swear, working around Brady, it's
impossible. Just today he made these amazing shortribs."

Sadie closed her eyes and moaned at the
imagined taste. "You know you're torturing me, right?"

"He served them over a sweet potato purée,"
Molly said, lowering her voice to sound like a phone sex operator.
"And roasted asparagus on the side."

"Slow down," Sadie said with a mock gasp.
"No, don't stop. Give me more."

"For dessert he made plum tart with homemade
vanilla bean ice cream."

Sadie thumped the table and did her best Meg
Ryan in the deli scene imitation as Molly laughed.

"Uh, are we interrupting a personal
moment?"

Sadie froze, horrified as she recognized
Dylan's voice. She felt her cheeks flame as she looked up and saw
him standing with Brady next to their table, both men grinning at
their obvious embarrassment.

They each pulled up a chair and plopped down.
"I have to know what all that was about," Dylan said.

Sadie's vocal chords were frozen. Molly
opened her mouth, but only got out a little croaking sound before
she dissolved in a fit of laughter. Sadie cracked up too, laughing
until tears streamed down her cheeks and she struggled to
breathe.

Finally she calmed down enough to speak. She
turned to Brady, whose eyes were shimmering with humor. With his
grey eyes, dark hair, and chiseled face and body, he was every bit
as delectable as the man sitting beside him.

But for whatever reason, he didn't make her
go all awkward and tongue tied like Dylan did. "Actually," she said
and drained the last of her gin and tonic, "we were talking about
you."

"Me?" Brady said, looking delighted.

"Brady?" Dylan said, sounding irritated.

"Your food," Molly clarified.

"Molly was giving me today's menu highlights.
I've been feeling sorely deprived living on June's cooking," Sadie
explained. "I don't know if Dylan told you but ever since Dad's had
to go on his low fat, low salt, low taste diet it's been pretty
bad."

"We're talking worse than the shit on the
shingle they used to serve in the mess hall," Dylan added.

Brady grimaced sympathetically and turned his
speculative gaze on Molly. "It makes me happy to know I've been
giving you such pleasure," he lingered on that last word, his grin
spreading at the way Molly blushed.

"Well, since neither of us are getting laid,"
Sadie piped up, her tongue loosened by vodka and fatigue, "we have
to get our jollies where we can."

She felt a sharp pain on her right shin and
met Molly's glare with an apologetic look.

Brady opened his mouth but before he could
speak, Sadie grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out to the dance
floor. For a big guy he was good on his feet, expertly spinning her
around the dance floor until she was out of breath and slightly
lightheaded.

"You just let me know whenever you want me to
help you take care of that dry spell," Brady yelled to be heard
over the music.

Sadie grinned and called back, "Thanks for
the offer but from what I've seen your dance card is filled up into
the next decade."

"Say the word and I'll bump you right to the
front of the line."

She laughed and felt herself relax for the
first time in over a week. Though there was nothing behind it, it
felt good to laugh and flirt with a guy, especially one as hot as
Brady.

The first song ended and shifted into a slow
ballad. Sadie looked up and saw that Brady had moved them across
the dance floor until they were right next to Dylan and Molly.

She tilted her chin and caught the
calculating look in his eyes as they lit on the back of her
friend's head. "Whatever you're thinking, I'd advise against
it."

He gave her a wink. "You know I love to fuck
with her."

Sadie wasn't sure exactly what was going on
between those two. But for Brady's part, she was pretty sure
removing the "with" from his statement would make it more
truthful.

He tapped Dylan on the shoulder, ignoring
Molly's protests as he pulled her tight against his chest.