Page 106 of Kaden & Keegan
His thoughts drifted to the ranch, only this time, he superimposed Bristol into the picture. She would look good there, he realized. Living with him and Keegan. Married. Some kids running around.
Yeah, he knew he was moving fast where the future was concerned, but he honestly didn’t care. At this point in his life, what did he have to lose? He’d spent the past couple of years attempting to get close to this woman. Now that he was, he didn’t want to waste a minute. All that taking-things-slow shit didn’t appeal to him in the least. Nor did the hiding part. Perhaps it would have if he hadn’t been doing exactly that since the first day he met her.
“We need to get an order placed for flooring,” he told his brother, pulling himself out of those wayward thoughts.
“You decide on which wood you’re gonna go with?”
He shook his head.
“Then I suggest you close your eyes and point,” Keegan said with a chuckle. “‘Cause it ain’t gonna get done if we can’t get it ordered.”
Yeah, yeah.
“Right now,” he told Keegan, “we’ll get a better look at the car, see what else’s needed. In the meantime, we’ll let her keep yours.” No way was he leaving her without a vehicle.
“Good plan.”
Kaden parked the truck in front of the mechanic shop, grabbed the keys from the center console, then got out.
“I didn’t know Ethan was workin’ today,” Keegan said as they passed the big black Chevy parked directly in front of the door.
Kaden hadn’t been aware of it either. And since he knew Beau’s mother tended to watch the little ones after church on Sundays, he figured a knock on the door was necessary before they barged in and got an eyeful of husband and husband going at it.
He rapped his knuckles on the door, waited. There was no answer and he knew that could mean one of two things: Ethan and Beau were busy, too caught up to notice the knock. Or Ethan was there alone, had his headphones in, and was working away.
It was a crapshoot as to what they were going to walk in on, but Kaden figured he didn’t have much of a choice.
The keys weren’t necessary because the door was unlocked, so he opened it, listened. When there were no moans or groans to greet them, Kaden stepped inside.
The good news was, Ethan was working, not indulging. Didn’t look as though Beau was there, but Kaden could see Ethan’s expression, knew the man’s brain was hard at work.
“Hey, man,” he said, projecting his voice to be heard over the music in Ethan’s ears.
Either hearing them or sensing them, Ethan turned, tugged the earbuds out.
“Hey.” Ethan planted his hands on his hips. “What’re you doin’ here?”
Kaden nodded at the newest vehicular resident. “Bristol’s car crapped out on her the other night. Told her we’d give it a look, see if we can get it fixed. You?”
“Travis just left. We were talkin’ about Autumn. He wanted to know how she’s doin’.”
Kaden leaned against the car. “What’d you tell him?”
“That she’ll do.” He grinned. “Unless, of course, she makes it her mission to overload us more than she already has.”
Keegan laughed. “She does know how to ramp up business, don’t she?”
“Thank God she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty,” Kaden added.
Autumn had spent quite a bit of time in the shop, helping out. As it was, the woman was probably more knowledgeable about engines than either of them.
“No shit.” Ethan grabbed a tool, turned back to what he was doing. “I hate to see Reese move on, but she’s doin’ a damn fine job. I was actually surprised she was interested.”
They’d never really talked about Ethan’s cousin and Kaden was curious. “Yeah? Why’s that?”
“Big corporate type,” Ethan said, head halfway under the hood, “couple of degrees. I didn’t figure she’d want anything to do with Coyote Ridge again.”
Kaden didn’t know the reason behind that, but he suspected it had something to do with her ex. From the bits and pieces he’d picked up on, they had separated nearly a year ago, although neither had moved forward with divorce proceedings until recently when Autumn officially filed.
