Hard Ridin' (4 page)

Jens gave him his attention. “Yeah?” The implications of Holden throwing his money into the mix started to spread in Jens. Two men interested in the same woman—in love with her—and both committed to helping her financially. If their money backed her, she’d be less likely to leave the ranch—and walk away from them.

Don’t I mean walk away from me?

“I couldn’t do that…” She twisted her hands.

“Yes, you can. We expand and your farm will have a much better chance at turning a profit.”

“You pay us a small cut in interest,” Holden spoke up.

Jens flashed a grin at his friend. Holden was no dumb farmer. He knew crops and cash. He also knew Jens. Without a doubt, Holden saw through Jens’s scheme. They’d hold her here and keep her from feeling she was getting a hand-out until she could decide which man she wanted.

“Shake on it.” Jens reached for her.

She pushed away from the four-wheeler and leaned toward him. Heat ebbed from her, capturing Jens’s length.

“This is my cue to leave,” Holden said.

“Wait!” Laurel wrapped her fingers around Jens’s arm and held him while she spoke to Holden. “We need to clear the air. That’s why I came here.”

“I don’t know if I wanna hear this.” Holden’s defensive posture was back—arms folded, legs thrown wide and head lowered as if ready to charge.

Jens caught Laurel’s gaze and gave her a short nod. Whatever choice she made, he’d have to live with it. If she chose Holden, Jens wouldn’t fight. He wanted her happiness, even if it was with another man.

His chest grew tight.

“I…” Laurel stared at her feet for a long minute. “I didn’t mean to hurt either of you and I’m sorry. The situation got out of control, and I was a coward not to bring it to order before now. But the last thing I want is to get in the middle of your friendship.” She looked from Jens to Holden and back again.

Holden let out a low whistle. “A might too late for that, isn’t it?”

“I hope not,” Jens said.

Suddenly, Holden cut a hand through the air. That vein bulged in his throat again. “What the hell are you asking here? Business aside, am I supposed to be happy that I’ve lost my girl to my best friend? It’s impossible not to feel betrayed.”

“I didn’t know you were seeing her, Holden.”

“Didn’t know… Yeah.”

“Holden, I don’t want hard feelings. We all need to live together. I’m gonna be here at your place often since Jens is helping me with the farming. Especially if I take you up on your offer to fund my farm.”

“Are you taking the offer?” Jens closed the slight gap between Laurel and himself, aware of the tremors racking her. God, he just wanted to pick her up, wrap her legs around his waist and bear her off to bed. He’d never even taken her to bed, and that was a goddamn shame. To do so now would bring Holden into bed with them—his memory and animosity would live between Jens and Laurel.

She may not want Jens anyway.
The end of our rope has come.

“What am I supposed to do? Treat you as a friend?” Holden’s acidic tone drew a noise of despair from Laurel’s throat.

“I hope we’ve always been friends.”

“Dammit, you know what I mean!”

“Laurel, what do you want?” Jens hadn’t meant to ask here, to bring it all out into the open between the three of them. He’d wanted to talk to her alone first. Yet they were all in the thick of this emotional tangle. They all needed to find a solution.

She swung her dark gaze to his. He studied the twist of her lips and the tears gathering in the corners of her eyes and thought he’d go back to merely existing if she turned him away. Plowing, planting, eating, sleeping. Until he’d met her, his life had been stuck in a rut.

“I… Jens, don’t make me answer that.”

His heart plummeted.

“Dating is not a good idea for me anymore. Not after the mistakes I’ve made. Holden and I had something good—at least I believed that. But when he didn’t stay in touch with me, it hurt. Then you came into the picture, Jens, and I spotted a ray of light. Now everything’s a wreck.”

Jens was losing her. She was slipping away.

She continued to sputter, each agitated word tumbling out with her tears. “I never expected Holden to come back and w-want me still.” She shivered, hands knotted at her sides. “I care about both of you—”

Jens grasped at that length of rope. He latched on to it and held on for dear life. The words burst out of him without thought. “Then you date both of us, Laurel.”

Holden jerked. “What?”

Laurel stared at him, her expression blank with shock. “Jens, what are you talking about?”

As Jens looked at his best friend and the woman he loved, he tried to make sense of the idea that had just popped into his head. It was unconventional—crazy. Let her date both of them and make her choice later.

The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like a good idea. He hated to see Laurel hurt—torn between the two of them. It was the same with Holden. They’d been friends for so long, they were closer than brothers. Jens didn’t want to contemplate the ache Holden was experiencing. Taking away that pain from all three of them was the best answer.

Wasn’t it?

Jens doffed his hat and laced his fingers with Laurel’s. “You say you don’t have an answer. I don’t either, and neither does Holden. But I care about both of you and don’t want to see you hurt.”

Holden stalked toward Jens and Laurel. If he’d had a six-shooter on his hip, Jens wouldn’t have been surprised to be called to a duel. Pistols at dawn. Except Laurel was the one who fired.

She tore her hand from Jens’s. “You’re talking crazy! I can’t date both of you!”

“Why not? You can’t stand there and tell me you don’t want Holden. I see it written all over your face, Laurel.” While the thought should have speared Jens with jealousy, it didn’t. He latched on to that—held it close.

Holden wore a smug expression of satisfaction, and Laurel’s eyes were hooded with want. Jens took both as confirmation that he was on the right track. Besides, in the past months, she’d looked at Jens in that very same way. No one could fake that, which meant he had a fighting chance too.

He slid his fingers up her arm to the crease of her elbow and thumbed the soft flesh there. “Look, sweetheart. I’m in deep. I want you. But I’m not willing to fight my best friend for you. And I don’t want to rip you in two.”

“But you’d—share me? That’s insane, Jens!”

“Why? I’d rather share than lose you altogether.” His voice cracked.

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing.” Holden bit off the words. He gave a violent shake of his head, as if to clear it of water. “What the hell happened to you while I was in Alaska, Jens?”

A short bark of laughter escaped Jens. He pierced Laurel in his gaze. “I fell in love, that’s what.” It was the first time he’d admitted it aloud. Witnessing the effect it had on Laurel was the most thrilling moment of his life. His heart jerked and sputtered out of control when her eyes filled with tears, and a tender smile brushed her lips.

She backed away. “I’ve gotta… I’ve gotta get out of here.” She jumped onto her four-wheeler, threw on her helmet and sped off up the hill, tearing up the turf and throwing shards of ice.

Ice that brought a pang to Jens’s heart.

Holden paced before the log barn five times at a fast rate and still couldn’t calm down enough to talk to his best friend. Jens watched his progress, a stoic expression on his face.

Finally, Holden stopped and kicked the field stone foundation. The warm brown rock didn’t budge—it had been here for a hundred years. He wished it were Jens’s ass he was kicking.

In fact, that wasn’t such a bad idea.

Clenching his hands into fists, he faced Jens. “What the hell are you thinking to suggest such a fucked-up, sick plan?”

“Why fucked-up? If we push her to choose, she walks.”

“Maybe she’d be better off!”

Jens hooked a thumb in his belt buckle—the one he’d won at last year’s rodeo for being the fastest calf-tier. “C’mon, man. You believe that? Is that why you were so pissed when you came home and found her—?”

“In your fucking arms?” He puffed his fury, sending a long plume of breath into the frosty air.

Jens held his own as Holden got in his face. Their chests bumped, but Jens was like a fucking brick wall—just as Holden was. They were well-matched, apparently in all aspects. Laurel certainly seemed to think so.

“If you really believed she was better off without you, then why did you come back and expect her to be waiting? Why didn’t you write or call her?”

Holden’s guilt ballooned. On the ship, he’d had little time to think about anything but safely working the nets. A minor slip could have cost him his life—or worse, a fellow crew member’s. And the few times they’d docked, Holden was ashamed to admit he’d gotten stinking, falling down drunk just to stop feeling the frigid spray of the sea.

“I screwed up, okay? It’s none of your goddamn business.”

“It’s my business now. Laurel’s hurting, and dammit, if I’d known all this time that you were the reason…” Jens dug his knuckles into Holden’s chest and shoved him back a few inches.

“You what?” Holden shot out.

“I woulda hunted you down on that fishing boat and busted your skull. She deserved better, Holden.”

The verbal blow struck Holden straight in the heart. She had deserved better, and he hadn’t remotely proved that. Now he’d probably lose her to Jens and smash their friendship to bits at the same time.

He kicked a heel into the dirt. “Fuck!”

“Yeah, feels like we’re all fucked. That was my point in suggesting she continue to see both of us. If we hem her in, pressure her for a decision now, she’ll leave. She’ll turn around and walk right off this farm in those sexy little cowgirl boots. I don’t want that to happen.” Jens’s voice broke.

Holden gave him a long, sideways look, and then tugged his hat lower. “I don’t either.”

“She leaves and she also gives up her dreams. She saved a long time for this endeavor, man, and I don’t want to see her lose the hope.”

Remaining quiet, Holden fought to get a grip on this whole arrangement. “So what do we do? I take her for day visitation and you take her for nights?”

“Well, I hadn’t thought about it that deeply, but yeah, sounds good to me.”

The more Holden considered it, the more the idea grew on him. He’d have a chance to win her back fair and square. To show Laurel just how serious he was, and how damn sorry he was for the past too. He’d have no trouble one-upping Jens.

“What happens as far as…the physical relationship goes?”

Jens shrugged nonchalantly, but his expression darkened. “That’s up to her. We’ll all play it safe, of course.”

“You think she’s going to agree to this? She was mighty pissed off when she left here.”

At this, Jens scuffed his knuckles over his jaw. “Yeah, she was. We don’t have much choice. We’re in this together, man. If you say yes, then we just wait for her to agree.”

“And if she dumps us both?”

“Then we’ll cry in our beers.”

Chapter Four

The country road pitched steeply downward and Laurel geared down. Her muscles ached from riding the four-wheeler for so long. She was almost out of gas, which meant she couldn’t run forever. Eventually she’d have to go home and face up to reality.

She was in love with two men.

And they wanted to share her.

Well, at least Jens did. A thrill rocketed through her body at the thought, and dark heat took up residence between her thighs. Contemplating it made her hot as hell. Jesus, having one hunky man in her bed was amazing. But two? She didn’t know if her heart would stand up to it.

She’d already lost herself to both of them. Her love for Holden was equal to that of Jens. In her mind, they were very separate, and she adored them for different reasons. Where Holden was rough passion, Jens was playful. She had to drag every thought from Holden, whereas Jens always asked Laurel what was on her mind.

God, what am I thinking? I can’t take both of them.

Then again, why not? No signatures were scribbled on a wedding certificate. She was free, and so were they. They’d never agreed to be monogamous, and that meant if she wanted to go pick up a guy tonight, she could.

Though, she’d never do that. Having two rowdy cowboys fist-fighting over her was enough.

She tried to picture what would happen if she were to accept Jens’s crazy offer. Jumping from man to man. Could they actually handle it? Could she?

What if she ran away—abandoned the farm and all her dreams? She could get her old job back at the hospital easily enough. Medical workers were always in demand.

The thought of being stuck in an office again, rather than out here in the open fields, closed off her throat. The weight pressed her down until she almost panicked.

Giving up the Ransom place meant she’d wasted all that money. Years of savings tossed out. For what? Because she was stuck between two men and she wanted both.

Selfish much?
Yeah, she might be. Monopolizing two handsome studs was sinful. But she could no sooner turn away from Holden than she could forget about Jens. Damn it all, she wanted them both.