MONTANA HOMECOMING (Montana Book 2) (7 page)

"I should be out helping Blake, but it is kind of nice
just chilling for once."

"You deserve a break,"
Maddison
said, pointing her finger and doing her best big sister, bossy voice.
"And…"

Her sister clutched her stomach and both Amanda and Charley
jumped up.

"What's wrong?"

Maddie
just laughed. "Sorry, he starting kicking so hard I
lost my breath.
Like he was doing acrobatics in there, the
little monkey."

Amanda exchanged a relieved look with Charlotte and they
both sat back down.

"So are you seeing Scott again?" Charley asked.

She wanted to tell them, but at the same time she didn't.
"Ah, maybe."

Maddison
nudged her with her toes.
"Spill.
If you don't tell us, we'll tattle to Blake."

"Playing dirty, huh?" she laughed. "Just for
the record, I'm not scared of big bad brother. But yes, if you have to know I
am
seeing him again.
Tonight."

Their smiles were contagious, and she had to try hard not
to let on how much she was looking forward to it, or how into Scott she was.

"It's just dinner between two friends. Nothing
more," she said.

Charlotte grinned. "The way Scott looks at you has
nothing to do with friendship."

Amanda put her sunglasses back on and shut her eyes. For her
own sake, she hoped her sister was right. She had plenty of friends, but what
she wanted to do with Scott wasn't something she'd ever thought about doing
with any of them before. She only hoped that she hadn't misread his signals,
because her toes were already curling in anticipation of what might happen.

"Can I join you girls?"

Amanda pushed her sunglasses down her nose when she heard
her brother approach. She was still angry at him for the way he'd spoken to her
over Scott, but she couldn't stay mad with him for long. He was like a younger
version of their dad - tall and dark to look at and with a heart of gold - the
only difference being that nothing had ever rattled their father. Blake? He was
the one to get overly protective, especially where his sisters were concerned.

"We're trying not to feel guilty," Charlotte told
him as he dropped down into a chair.

"No, you're trying not to feel guilty. We're just
basking in the sun," Amanda chimed in.

"Well it looks like a damned good way to spend the
afternoon," Blake said. "Anyone else want another soda? I'm joining
you."

Ranching work could wait, and so could her thoughts about
Scott. Family was the most important thing to all of them, no matter how long
some of them had spent away from the ranch at different stages of their lives.
And truth be told, she was terrified of Blake finding out about her date with
Scott. He was her big brother and she loved him, but she also knew she needed
to make her own decisions without him looking over her shoulder. And the one
thing that Blake didn't know was that there was no way Scott could break her
heart, not now, because all she was looking for was a little fun.
A way to blow off some sexual steam and forget about the real world
for a little while.

"Hey, tell mom to come join us,"
Maddison
called out to Blake as he walked toward the house.
"And bring more food!"

SHE knew it was crazy, because they were just going out for
a low key dinner, but Amanda had been getting ready for over an hour. She had
clothes strewn all over her bed, and she was standing in her underwear staring
at what she'd already tried on. If she hadn't been trying to make it seem like
dinner with Scott was no big deal, then she could have asked her sisters for
their opinions, but she had, and there was no way she wanted them to start
making a fuss.

This was Scott
. Scott who'd seen her grow from a gangly kid into a woman,
who'd
kissed her as a shy fifteen year old, who'd seen
her sitting in her backyard only hours ago, wearing hardly any make up and
hardly any clothes.

She sighed and reached for her favorite pair of skinny
jeans. Then she played with the edge of her bra, wondering if it had been
stupid to wear something black and lacy.
Nonsense,
she admonished herself. She was wearing it for herself, not Scott, and it
was making her feel sexy as hell.

Screw it.
Amanda grabbed a low cut t-shirt with jewels over the
shoulders, her black leather jacket and a pair of platform heels that gave her
at least four inches. Now she'd almost be able to look Scott in the eye, and
she felt good. She put her lip gloss in her purse and took a moment to take a
deep breath, rolling her shoulders back and forth.

So what if she hadn't been out with a guy in over a year?
Scott didn't know that and neither did anyone else. The only thing she had to
do now was make it past Blake and she'd be fine.

"Where are you off to looking so gorgeous?"

Damn.
Amanda shut her bedroom door behind her, feeling all of
sixteen years old, like she'd just been caught sneaking out.

"Um, just dinner with a
friend."

Blake leaned against the wall, towel slung low around his
waist and a pissed off look on his face. He'd gone from smiling to scowling in
less than ten seconds.
 

"No," he said, shaking his head and crossing his
arms. "No fucking way are you going out with Scott dressed like
that.
"

She laughed. There was nothing else she could do. "So
if I was wearing an old shirt and baggy pants you'd approve?"

He looked furious. "Amanda, I'm serious. I have my
reasons for not wanting you to see him, okay? I'm not trying to be a jerk
here,
I just need you to listen to me."

She crossed the distance between them and kissed her
brother's cheek, squeezing his hand at the same time. They'd been through so
much as a family lately, and as annoying as he was, he was her brother and
whatever crazy stuff was going through his head, he genuinely thought he was
looking out for her.

"It's just dinner, Blake. Believe me when I say I need
to let my hair down and just enjoy a night out with a friend. It's nothing more
than that."

He didn't say anything, but his eyes told her everything
she needed to know.

"If you're not home by midnight…" he started.

"Yes, dad," she replied with a laugh, for once
not having to fight emotion at the mention of her father. "I'll turn into
a pumpkin at twelve, I know."

"Just make sure he brings you home," Blake said,
giving her a long stare before walking back down the hall to his bedroom.

What was it about being home that actually made her feel
like she'd stepped back in time? For the past ten years she'd lived alone,
except for a couple of bad decisions that had seen her temporarily move in with
a boyfriend. She had a loft apartment in New York that she adored, a day to day
life that her family had little knowledge about, yet now she was back her
brother was telling her who she could and couldn't see, and her sisters
practically knew what she was thinking every second of the day.

It was crazy and intrusive, but it was also nice. Something
she'd been missing without realizing it.

"Mom?"

Her mother was crossing from their living room into the
kitchen, and she called out to her as she ran down the last flight of stairs.

"Amanda, you look beautiful."

"Thanks." Her mom's smile was infectious.
"Are you sure you don't mind me heading out?"

"Sweetheart, I have Blake and Charlotte. You don't
need to babysit me the whole time you're home."

Amanda put an arm around her mother, wishing she wasn't
already wearing her heels because it only made her mom seem even smaller beside
her.

"I just want you to know that I'm here for you. If you
need me snuggled up on the sofa with you every night for the next month, I'll
be here. I can stay."

Her mom touched her cheek, eyes locked on hers. Amanda
could see her tears, but they never spilled. She could only hope that she'd
inherited her mother's strength - that one day when she'd lost the love of her
life, she could cope so well.

"You just go enjoy your night with Scott. I don't want
you worrying about me for even a moment."

Amanda laughed. "How did you know it was Scott?"

"You forget how bad your sisters are at keeping a
secret. And besides, who else would be taking you out for dinner?"

Trust them
. "I'll tell him you said hi."

"I always was fond of Scott," her mom said with a
coy smile.

Yeah, me too
, Amanda thought. But she just gave her mom a kiss on the
cheek and waved, relieved to hear the sound of a vehicle pulling up outside the
house as she walked toward the door. Best of all, it wasn't a motorcycle.

Amanda
pushed her worries aside, clutched her purse and yanked the door open. She
deserved a night out, and she needed to just be herself, forget about why she
was back here and what the future was going to be like without the patriarch of
their family. And she bet Scott was just as eager to blow off some steam as she
was, because there was something about being back in Montana that made her want
to rebel just for the hell of it, and she bet the black sheep of the Gregory
family felt the same
.
Even
if he was trying to be the reformed bad boy.

"Hey gorgeous."

Scott jumped out of his SUV and jogged the few steps to
Amanda. He'd used that line a lot before, but tonight he actually meant it -
she looked amazing. He kissed her cheek and ran his hand across hers.

"So you do actually own a vehicle," she said,
smiling as he opened her door for her.

Scott braced himself against the open door, glancing down
Amanda's body before meeting her gaze. He couldn't help himself - the tight cut
of her jeans, the low front top that was giving him an eyeful of the top of her
breasts - it was enough to make him want to drive her straight back to his
place.
If he actually
had his own place.
Instead he'd have to smuggle her past her own
sister and his brother, which would be a complete passion killer.

"Jack wasn't crazy about me upgrading the farm truck
when I got back," he admitted, watching Amanda's face. "But he's
spent a fair bit of time behind the wheel since it arrived."

"Looks to me like it would have had ample room for my
luggage," she said, one eyebrow raised in question.

He laughed. "Yeah, but what fun would that have been?
Don't tell me you didn't love hanging on behind me, feeling the wind in your
hair."

A pink blush crept across Amanda's cheeks, and it gave him
a kick. She was still staring straight back at him, never broke their eye
contact, but he knew he'd rattled her. That she
had
liked it, despite her protests.

"I'm not going to
lie,
there
was something kind of awesome about it."

"Want me to drive home and swap rides?"

She planted her hand on his chest and pushed him out of the
way so she could shut her door, laughing as she did it. Tonight was going to be
fun,
he just knew it, even if all they managed to do
was flirt. Coming home had been riddled with some pretty bad memories for him,
but hanging out with Amanda was keeping him away from that darkness.

"So I take that as a no?"

Amanda rolled her eyes. "I didn't spend so long doing
my hair to have a helmet
plonked
on my head."

He shrugged. "You'd look gorgeous anyway. But
seriously, I'm going to get you back on that motorcycle one day soon, and
that's a promise."

They sat in silence for a few minutes as they drove away
from the Jones house, down the gravel drive and out onto the road. It was
almost dark, but still light enough for Scott to admire the landscape, the
ranch as they passed. It was such a different landscape to what he'd become
used to - the bleached Australian countryside had been all he’d seen for so
long - but now this was already feeling like home again. Like he'd returned to
the place he was supposed to live.

"So have you thought about how long you're going to
stay for?" Scott asked her.

He listened to her sigh, glanced at her as she put her head
back against the rest and turned slightly to face him.

"I honestly don't know," she said. "I
thought a week, but I might make it two. Depends on how mom is coping, I
guess."

"You're lucky your work is flexible."

"Oh my god, please don't talk about work," she
said with a groan. "I have an exhibition coming up, and the gallery owner
is freaking me out with all the pressure he's putting on me, and I
haven't…"

When she let her sentence trail off without finishing he
glanced at her again, wondering what she'd neglected to say.

"You haven't what?"

"I've just frozen. It's never happened to me
before."

"So how many more paintings do you have to do?"
he asked.

She groaned. "Can we please just talk about something
else?"

Scott laughed. "Yeah, we can, but maybe you could use
telling me as a practice run for admitting the truth to the gallery
person."

"I have the one piece I used as a sample to build the
entire collection upon," she admitted, shaking her head like she couldn't
believe what she was saying. "I promised at least ten new pieces, and all
I have is a whole heap of stuff that I've started and not finished. In other
words, I'm screwed."

From the sounds of it, she was, but he wasn't going to say
that to her. "One thing I've learned is that where there's a will, there's
a way," Scott said. "Somehow you'll find your inspiration for this,
and you'll get it done."

"How can you be so sure?"

Now Amanda had one leg tucked up so she could better face
him, her body angled directly toward him, cheek resting on the seat as she
stared at him.

"I can be sure because the Mandy I knew twelve-odd
years ago had a dream of being an artist and making it big. You didn't move to
New York and struggle to make it just to give up now that you've found
success."

She emitted a noise that sounded like a low laugh, but he
couldn't be sure. "How can you remember that? I don't even remember
telling you my career dreams."

"I took more notice of you than I'd like to
admit," he confessed, taking one hand off the wheel and then deciding that
touching her wasn't his best move right now. "I might have been a
dickhead, but I remember."

"You know, Blake was pretty grumpy when he realized I
was going out with you tonight."

"Looking like that?
I can see why."

She turned her body so she was looking out the front window
instead of at him. "He seems to think that you're going to hurt me,"
Amanda said. "But it's like there's something he doesn't want to tell me,
some reason why he's so sure I shouldn't be let within ten feet of you at any
time."

Scott had wondered how long it was going to take her to ask
him, because Blake was sure making it clear that he wasn't suitable for his
little sister to so much as be friends with.

"Do you really want to know?" He didn't mind
telling her, but as far as he was concerned, the past was the past.

"I should be mature enough to say no, but yeah, I do
want to know," she said with a laugh. "Blake's acting like you're a
convicted rapist or something terrible."

Scott took one hand off the wheel and glanced from the road
to Amanda and back again. "You remember that girl Blake was into back when
he was about seventeen? Her name was Rose and she went to school with us."

Amanda made a face. "I remember
every
girl that Blake fell in love with."

"Yeah, well he was really into Rose, and I was a jerk
and slept with her. She came onto me and I just went with it."

"
Which is why you guys had a falling
out that summer.
"

"Yeah.
He wanted to know why I had to sleep with the one girl I
knew he wanted."

He watched as Amanda shrugged.
"Fair
question.
You had every other girl from school hanging off you, so it
wasn't like there was a shortage for you to choose from."