Read Online A Ballad for Her Cowboys by Luxie Ryder - Free Book Online

doing this? Let it go before we both do something we regret.’
    Seth couldn’t heed the warning. The cost seemed too great. ‘Come on Aiden. You know her as well as I do. Stop telling yourself how you think you should feel and be honest. You know she wants to be more than just friends.’
    ‘Don’t you get it? It doesn’t matter what you or I think. She says it’s all she wants. If she’s lying to herself, then there is nothing we can do about it.’ He bent down, retrieved his hat from the dirt, and banged it against his thigh to shake off the dust. ‘I’m tired. I’ve had enough of this shit. Just let it be, okay?’
    Seth watched him walk away, his guts churning with the desire to yell at Aiden that he could let it be if he wanted, but Seth made the decisions for his own life. But he didn’t say a thing. After a few more minutes, when he calmed the hell down, he followed Aiden back to camp.
    The tension between Aiden and him didn’t ease all the next day. They worked side by side through the morning and late into the afternoon, neither of them doing much more than grunting an instruction at the other or passing tools and equipment when requested. By the time they walked silently into the bar to meet Misty, Seth’s anger simmered away just below the surface, ready to erupt if Aiden so much at looked at him again.
    She joined them as usual, taking her seat before she seemed to catch the strained atmosphere between them. Seth suffered a huge pang of guilt when her pretty face told him how confused she was.
    He wrapped a strand of her silky hair around his fingers and gave it a little tug. ‘It’s been a tough day.’ He wanted to explain even if she hadn’t asked.
    ‘Are you guys still in the mood for supper? We can do it another time if you want?’
    ‘Wild horses wouldn’t keep me away. I can’t speak for Aiden though.’ Seth smiled at Misty, ignoring the murderous glare he got from his friend. Misty turned to Aiden, ignorant of the real reason behind the strange vibes emanating from them.
    ‘Are you coming over, too?’
    ‘Bank on it.’ Aiden didn’t even bother pretending he was speaking to Misty. His gaze locked with Seth’s and held it until Misty stood and blocked their view of each other.
    ‘Let’s go then,’ she said, heading for the door without checking to see if they trailed behind her. Even she knew on some level that they followed her anywhere without question. Seth wondered why he was the only one who could see the bond formed between them. Sex wouldn’t ruin their relationship. It would make it complete.
    Misty chatted without pause as they walked the mile from the bar to her home. Since she had the pair of them around to escort her to her door every night, she’d stopped renting a car.
    Lost in his own thoughts, Seth walked at her side, happy to let Aiden fill in the rare pauses she left in the conversation. He felt guilty about his anger towards his friend, but what in the hell did Aiden expect from him? Seth hadn’t had the love and support of a stable family like Aiden. His mother abandoned him at birth and he didn’t know to this day who his real father was.
    His childhood spent being sent from one stranger’s home to another. Sometimes, the families were kind people who just wanted to love someone—but other times, he found he was no more than a means of making money and at the mercy of couples who didn’t know how to care for a child.
    His last foster home, when he was fourteen, had been in a small town a few miles outside of Lambert’s Creek. That’s where he met Aiden at school and he’d been his shadow ever since. The years he spent growing up there had been the happiest of his life, especially after Kate and Brian Orton legally adopted him. But when they died in a car crash just after he turned eighteen, he found himself alone again and Aiden became his only family.
    He inherited a small amount of money from them, but didn’t do anything with it for a while.