Branded as Trouble. Delores Fossen

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СКАЧАТЬ be on bed rest,” his mother reminded him.

      “So are you,” Roman reminded her right back.

      Hell. He had to stop this snapping. Roman didn’t want to drag Tate’s mood down to his own shitty level.

      “You want to take a nap?” Sophie asked him when Garrett and Tate headed out. His mother finally left, too.

      “Sure.” That was a lie. Roman just wanted a moment so he could steel himself up for the rest of this visit. Six weeks. It suddenly felt like an eternity.

      Sophie smiled, kissed his cheek. “My advice? If you need a place to escape, come to the guest cottage. That’s where my office is and there’s plenty of room. There’s enough office space for you, too. Temporary office space,” she added.

      “Thanks. For both the offer and the temporary part.”

      “I know this isn’t easy for you, but it’ll be nice to have you around.”

      “So Garrett won’t have to courier all the paperwork from the ranch that I need to sign,” he commented.

      “That, and we love you. You didn’t forget that, did you?”

      No. It was the one thing that had given him any sort of anchor. Especially after Valerie had left. Roman took hold of her arm, eased her closer. Well, as close as he could, considering her huge belly, and he brushed a kiss on the top of Sophie’s head.

      “I love you, too, Prissy Pants,” he said.

      Because it was an old childhood nickname that she hated, it got the exact reaction he expected. Sophie punched his arm. And she was good at it, too. It stung like hell. He’d obviously taught her the right way to punch.

      “You know I can always smother you in your sleep, Quick Zipper,” she fired back.

      Ah, good one. Roman hated it as much as she did Prissy Pants. He hadn’t always hated it, though. Once he’d thought it was cool that the other teenagers had considered him, well, a guy-slut who got a lot of action. But after he’d knocked up Valerie, the label just made him feel like a guy-slut who should have been more careful.

      Sophie’s gaze went to the window where Roman saw Garrett and Tate heading for the barn. “Can Tate ride?” she asked.

      “Yeah. He’s had lessons.”

      Lessons. That made him wince, too. He was an eighth-generation Texan from a long line of ranchers. It seemed a little like nails on a chalkboard to realize that his son hadn’t grown up riding. Maybe he could change that. Since Tate was going to have to move schools, anyway, maybe Roman should buy a place in the country where they could have horses.

      Sophie put the gift bag on the desk, and even though he didn’t actually see her look inside, she must have gotten a peek of the condom. “Did Vita expect you to need that while you were here?”

      “Who knows with Vita.”

      She made a sound of agreement. “Because Vita gave Mila a condom, too, along with some mumbo jumbo about there being some big changes in her life.”

      Judging from Sophie’s tone, she thought this was all connected. It was, but the only connection was in Vita’s warped mind.

      “Mila and I aren’t hooking up,” he assured his sister. “I don’t hook up with virgins.”

      “Good.”

      Well, he hadn’t expected that. Roman had always gotten the feeling that Sophie was trying to matchmake Mila and him.

      “Despite what Mila thinks right now,” Sophie continued, “she’s not the casual sex type. And she shouldn’t have sex with some guy from a dating site just because she no longer wants to be a virgin.”

      Since Roman could see himself in the dresser mirror, he knew he made a face. “Is that what she’s doing?”

      Sophie made a face, too. One of disapproval. “She’s considering it. Mom gave her these dating sites, and Mila said she was going to use one of them.”

      Roman had to do a mental double take. “Why would Mom give Mila anything about a dating site? It was Mom who was asking Mila about them.”

      “No. That was Mila’s fantasy dating sites.” She stopped. “How’d you know about that?”

      “Mom has zero whispering skills, and it wasn’t as if I could get up and walk somewhere else. They were talking about it right after my surgery.”

      Sophie nodded as if all of this was crystal clear. It wasn’t. He motioned for her to continue with her explanation.

      “Before I started seeing Clay, Mom looked up some regular dating sites for me. Those are the ones she gave to Mila, though I can tell you from personal experience that it was a sucky ordeal. Anyway, Mila gave Mom the sites for fantasy dating, but I’m hoping Mom will decide against doing those.”

      So did he. On both counts. A woman shouldn’t have to risk a “sucky ordeal” for her first time, and he didn’t want to think about his mother having fantasies of any kind.

      “I plan to talk to both of them about it. Now, you go ahead and get some rest.” Sophie gave him another kiss and walked away.

      Well, rest had been the game plan, but Roman wasn’t sure that would happen now. If he tried to nap, he was certain the only thing that would be going through his head was the conversation he’d just had with his sister.

      Crap.

      Why did he even care a rat’s butt about this? His mom and Mila were grown women. And plenty of people used dating sites, even strange ones like those that catered to the fantasy experiences. One of his business associates had found a site that catered to men who liked threesomes. Then foursomes.

      Since it was obvious he wasn’t going to get any rest, Roman used the French doors in his room to go into the backyard. As a teenager, he’d used them to sneak in and out of the house, and he was sort of doing that now. He wanted a moment to himself. And he got it. No one, including any of the hands, was around. Not a surprise, really. On a nice spring day like this, there was plenty of ranch work to do, and Garrett and Tate would have gone out through the other side of the barn once they’d saddled up.

      The stitches in his side were still letting him know he wasn’t completely healed, so Roman kept his steps light as he walked across the yard and to the corral where he spotted two palominos. Probably some of the new horses that Garrett had mentioned he’d just bought.

      His brother had certainly made this place successful. Roman had the proof of that in the financial reports that Sophie sent him each month. Not just for the ranch, but for Granger Western, as well.

      The bottom line was they had plenty of money.

      But then, they always had. They hadn’t done anything to get that seed money started. They could thank their ancestors for that, but his siblings had certainly built on that, and built big. Roman had done the same with his rodeo promotion business, but he never forgot that it wouldn’t have been possible without those silver spoons they’d all been born with. Most of the time, though, people forgot about all the hard work that it took СКАЧАТЬ