The Rancher's Secret Child by Brenda Minton

Author:Brenda Minton [Minton, Brenda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-02-02T19:34:40+00:00

Chapter Ten

“Wake up. We’ve got to roll.”

The words penetrated Marcus’s sleep-fogged brain. He covered his head with a pillow. “Go away, Alex.”

He brought his arm up and peeked at his watch. Five in the morning. His alarm would go off in an hour. Since he hadn’t slept much last night, he wasn’t even thinking about getting up an hour early with his brother, who obviously believed the saying about the early bird getting the worm.

“Out of bed.”

“I don’t like worms,” Marcus muttered. “You go get all you want.”

“Town’s flooding, you slug. Get up. We have to get stuff out of the café before the creek reaches it.”

That got his attention. “My house.”

“Yeah, I know. If you hurry, we can make a loop and go by your place before we head to town.” The door closed.

Marcus could still hear the rain. As he headed down the hall a few minutes later, he could also hear Marissa and Alex in the kitchen. They were whispering, and even without seeing, he knew they were cuddled up and talking all sweet to each other. He couldn’t decide whether to be disgusted by the display or find it amusing and cute.

He was disgusted. That was what he decided when he walked into the kitchen and they were standing close, arms around each other.

“Too early in the morning to subject me to this.” He poured himself a cup of coffee. “I thought we were in a hurry.”

“We are in a hurry.” Alex filled a thermos with coffee.

“We should check on Essie.” Marcus sat down to pull on boots. When he looked up, Alex and Marissa were sharing a look. “Did I say something funny?”

“No, not at all.” Smirking, Alex tossed him a granola bar. “Let’s go.”

Marcus headed out the door ahead of his brother, shrugging into a jacket as he went. He pushed his hat down on his head as he hurried across the yard to Alex’s truck. It took his twin a few minutes longer, standing in the doorway of the house kissing his wife.

Jealousy. It came out of nowhere. Marcus had never been jealous of his brother. Well, maybe once or twice, when school had come easy to Alex. Or when he’d managed to talk his way through anger instead of fighting with their father. But when it came to women, no, he’d never been envious. The two of them wanted different things. Alex had a more settled personality. He wanted the minivan and family vacations.

Marcus had been telling himself for as long as he could remember that he didn’t want those things. It was easier to shut himself off than to open up and be rejected. Or to open up and think about hurting someone.

When Alex finally climbed behind the wheel of the truck, Marcus had settled his emotions. He refilled his insulated mug with coffee from the thermos and gave a quick shake of his head at the silly grin on his brother’s face.

“What?” Alex grinned because he knew. And he wasn’t at all ashamed.

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