“I’ve been up for thirty hours, that’s all. I didn’t conk out on the plane like I usually do.” As well traveled as she was for her job as a freelance photographer, Tess usually made excellent use of red-eye flights. Only these days Tess didn’t sleep well no matter where she lay her head—and that had nothing to do with jumping the international date line.
“All the more reason to get you home so Gran can fuss over you. Catch you later, Lolly.” Luke gave a wink—as much of a showman’s wink as the one Cooper Pine had given—to the woman behind the counter and plucked the bag from Tess’s hands as they headed for the door. “You got one for me, didn’t you?”
“Would it matter if I didn’t?”
He pulled open the bag. “Only two cleaned Lolly out?”
“No, I got three, but Cooper Pine cleaned her out of the other four.”
“Cooper Pine,” Luke muttered behind a mouthful of blondie. Her brother spoke the name with a distinct lack of Texan hospitality. Which was amusing, because from what she’d heard of the Pine brothers, Cooper and Luke had loads of attention-grabbing showmanship in common. “I hoped he was only vacationing, but I told you rumor has it he’s thinking about buying the place.”
“I tried to ask him about that, but he didn’t answer. Deliberately dodged the question, I’d say.”
Luke grunted. “Why’d the bank rent to him anyway? Don’t foreclosures usually sit empty? The last thing we need is to look down our drive and see a line of Pineys camped out in front of his gate.”
Fans of the horse training program known as the Pine Method—“Pineys,” they liked to call themselves—existed in Australia and Texas, and probably every other city the brothers visited on their popular, televised training tours. Their methods often achieved amazing results, but that was only half the reason for their celebrity. The way Tess saw it, the brothers’ stunning good looks, their dynamic personalities and the sheer relentlessness of their marketing had done the rest. Pineys were mostly female and it wasn’t hard to see why.
Having grown up on a ranch, Tess had as much appreciation of an attractive man who looked at home on horseback as the next girl. But that didn’t mean she was ready to get caught up in the hype. Tess didn’t own a horse, and even if she did, she wasn’t sure she would count herself among the Piney ranks. Their expensive videos, weekly television series, multiple books and vast selection of Pine Method merchandising struck her as a bit over the top.
“Did you tell him you’d just come from Australia?” Luke asked, driving with one hand while he polished off the blondie with the other.
“I did.”
“Did he go all ‘G’day’ and ‘Down Under’ on you, dialing up that fake charm? Honestly, he acts like he thinks we’ve never seen an Aussie before.”
Luke was a fine one to talk about being an overbearing flirt. Before the rodeo accident that ended his bull-riding career, Tess would have clocked Luke in as possessing more ego than both Pine brothers combined. “I think he’s married. Did you know that?”
That seemed to surprise her brother. “I didn’t. Wouldn’t surprise me, though—the ladies seem to go for him, and he must pull in a pretty paycheck. I haven’t seen her. Now that I think of it, I barely see him.”
“And yet you’re sure he goes all Aussie on everyone.” This was a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Or at least, it would have been before—for the old Luke. She was rather impressed with the person her twin brother was becoming lately. Luke—formerly a confirmed and rowdy bachelor who couldn’t imagine any life outside of the razzle-dazzle of the rodeo circuit—had settled comfortably back in their hometown and was getting married to his high school sweetheart. This was not only good news, but offered Tess a convenient excuse to come home from halfway around the world.
“Have you ever met an Aussie before Cooper Pine?”
Luke grunted. “’Course I have. A few were on the bull riders tour. Dated a few sheilas, too.”
Tess knew enough Aussie slang to find the term for females ridiculous in Luke’s Texan drawl. “More than a few, I imagine. All of that being over now, of course.”
“Of course.”
“Because Ruby knows how to make you pay if you get too friendly with any of those Pineys who might be lining up near home.”
“Ugh, what an awful thought. Not Ruby—but a bunch of screaming fan girls scaring the herd. No one wants him and his crazy brother to put up a Buy Your Show Tickets Here billboard.” Luke pulled onto the road that led up toward the Blue Thorn Ranch. The familiar scenery began the slow, peaceful seep into Tess’s soul. The house with its sprawling front porch. The barn. The green of the pastures with the ever-growing herd of bison silhouetted against the blue of the sky. Home. For now or for good? I’m still too hurt to know that yet.
“Still, anyone’s got to be an improvement over Larkey, right?” The ranch’s former owner had caused serious trouble for their oldest brother, Gunner Jr., as the Bucktons had fought to keep the Blue Thorn Ranch from the clutches of a shady land developer awhile back.
“You’d think,” Luke replied. “Can’t say as I’m sure yet. For a brother act like the Pines, we’ve only seen Cooper. Hunter hasn’t shown up yet—so I’m taking that as a good sign.” Hunter was the dominant brother of the pair, if the advertising was to be believed.
Of course, the advertising also made both brothers look very single and available. They presented themselves as rugged bachelors, which made the information about Cooper’s “little lady” a surprise. Was the omission privacy or just careful marketing?
“He seems nice enough.”
Luke glared. “You been here, what—all of an hour? And you’ve decided our closemouthed new neighbor is ‘nice enough’?”
Tess put the snarky remark down to soon-to-be-groom stress and hauled herself out of the pickup to take in the glorious sunshine that only the Blue Thorn Ranch could offer. For better or worse, she was home.
* * *
Cooper placed the bakery bag down on the kitchen counter. “Glenno,” he called to the longtime employee who had managed his house no matter where he lived, “what time is it in Alice Springs?”
“Seven tomorrow morning,” came Glenno’s voice from inside the pantry. The kitchen of this place was large but outdated. Cooper made a mental note to himself that he was going to have to push out the back wall to make a dining room big enough for his plans.
Plans he’d have to reveal sooner or later. He could do it now, while his brother Hunter was back home taping a special Outback segment before their next set of Pine Method tour dates. Sure, it’d be the coward’s way out to tell Hunter his plans while the man was halfway around the world, but he’d chickened out all the other times Hunter had been close by. He knew he needed to get it over with...but Sophie’s birthday was tomorrow and he had no desire to spoil the celebration by igniting that particular bomb today. Or was he just making excuses for himself again?
“Hunter’s up,” Glenno said as he came out of the pantry with a bag of onions, “if that’s what you’re thinking.” The man had always been so much more than just a cook or house manager—he was a wise part of the family. He was also the only other person who knew Cooper’s plan. For the hundredth time since renting the ranch, Cooper wondered how long it should stay that way.
“He called half an hour ago,” Glenno added. He smiled as if that were a trivial detail, as if the strain between Hunter and Cooper was simply a ripple on a much larger pond. For a man continually dragged around the world in the wake of his famous employer, Glenno was the happiest man Cooper knew. “At home in his own skin everywhere,” Hunter used to say.
The