Hope Against Hope: The Hope Brothers Series by Honey Palomino

would want is for you to pull out on his account.”
    “I know. I was just telling you how I feel,” he said, laying a hand on my knee.
    “I see,” I replied, staring down at his hand. It was such a casual gesture, and yet my body was responding so strongly to it, that I almost couldn’t breathe.
    “Georgie,” he whispered. I couldn’t look back at him. I felt his eyes on me, and I felt like if I looked at him one more time I would surely melt.
    “Yeah?” I asked, without looking up at him. He wasn’t about to let me off the hook.
    “Georgie.” His voice was more demanding now, which only served to shot even more shocks of pleasure right to my gut.
    I gave in, raised my head, and when I met his eyes, I thought I would die at the look in them. Beau’s blue eyes were always soft and gentle, but this time there was something else there - desire. I couldn’t deny it, and why would I? Because I was terrified? That was a good enough reason, wasn’t it?
    I didn’t know what to say. Or, how to respond. I sat silently, looking at him, and when he slowly began to inch towards me, I froze. When his lips met mine, they were soft, yielding, warm. His touch was heartbreakingly gentle and delicate.
    And then it was over. As fast as it had begun.
    He pulled away and I looked up at him again.
    “I don’t know what’s happened, Georgia, but I can’t stop thinking about you,” he whispered, his gentle eyes peering into mine questioningly.
    “Oh,” was the only word that escaped from the hurricane of feelings that were storming inside of me.
    “I reckon the last thing you need is another Haggard brother giving you grief,” he drawled, as my stomach dropped. “I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut.”
    “You Haggard boys have trouble keeping secrets, don’t you?” I said, a grin spreading over my face. Was I flirting? Had he really just kissed me?
    “I reckon we do,” he said, laughing as he sat back on the porch and took a drink of his beer. I was grateful for the respite from his intense energy and I looked around for the horses, who had wandered off to the back of the property and out of sight.
    “We’d better get the horses,” I said.
    “Sure, sure,” Beau said, standing up and downing his beer before walking down the porch steps.
    I hesitated, enjoying the view his tight Wrangler’s provided. What was it about Wrangler’s that turned the sight of a man’s ass into an instant fantasy?
    My hands flew to my lips as I followed him.
    Did Beau Haggard really just kiss me?

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

    “Finn, we gotta talk.”
    “Aw, fuck,” my little brother replied. He was shoveling shit out of Moses’s stall when I walked up. He loved that horse more than almost anything. “This doesn’t sound good.”
    “It’s not,” I replied, leaning against the wall of the barn. Finn threw the pitchfork on top of the pile of manure in the wheelbarrow and began wheeling it out of the barn. I followed him, second guessing myself the whole way.
    Maybe I was wrong. Surely, I was wrong. Hell, I’d better be wrong, or Lee was going to be in some serious shit this time.
    I was half-afraid that putting it into words would make it real, and so I had finally come to the conclusion that I would talk to Finn, and Finn alone. Nobody else knew Lee better than the two of us.
    “Well, spit it out, don’t just stand there like a mule with his tail caught in the door.”
    “What?” I shook my head, grinning at my little brother. He was growing up into a good man, and I was real proud of him. He walked a pretty straight line, and was always the first to help our folks out when they needed it. And he was filling out too, I noticed. His biceps bulged under his shirt as he easily emptied the heavy load onto the pile.
    “Why don’t you have a girlfriend yet?” I asked.
    “There aren’t too many girls in this town, Beau,” he replied.
    “Are you kidding? There’s lots of them.”
    “Let me put it another way, Beau.