LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter Two

      “Remember that time when we were kids and Mrs. Ragan found that rattlesnake in her mailbox?”

      Tanner Dempsey dragged his eyes up from the diner booth table to his brother, Noah, sitting across from him.

      “Yeah, I remember. We were all terrified to get the mail all summer. Why?”

      Noah grinned at him. “Because that’s the same look you’ve got right now.”

      Tanner muttered a low curse and resisted the urge to flip his brother off like he would’ve done that summer of Mrs. Ragan’s rattler. His eyes dropped back down to the small box on the table.

      A ring box.

      “I’m just saying what’s in that box is not going to hurt you,” Noah continued. “No snake is going to jump out of it. Or at least not a very big one.”

      Cheryl Andrews, owner of the Sunrise Diner with her husband, Dan, was making her way over with their lunch. Tanner quickly grabbed the box on the table. He definitely didn’t want word to get out around Risk Peak that he had a ring box. That would spread like wildfire.

      Noah was right. There were no rattlesnakes in the small jewelry case, just their mother’s engagement ring. The one their father had given her when he’d asked her to marry him nearly forty years ago.

      It was the ring he planned to present to Bree Daniels when he asked her to marry him.

      “Did it bite you?” Noah whispered with a laugh as Tanner slipped it into his pocket.

      Now Tanner did raise his middle finger, pretending like he was rubbing a spot on his cheek under his eye. He and Noah had been flipping each other off that way for so long that Noah immediately caught sight of the gesture and laughed.

      So did Mrs. Andrews. “I’m going to pretend like I don’t see you making rude gestures at your brother the same way you two have been for the past twenty years. I’d hate to have to call your mother down here to pick you up at your age.”

      “Yes, ma’am,” Tanner muttered, dropping his hand immediately. He wasn’t completely sure the older woman wouldn’t actually follow through on that threat.

      Tanner loved the town of Risk Peak, where he’d been born and raised. He loved it enough that except for the four years when he’d gone to college in Denver, he’d never even been tempted to leave. Loved it enough to have followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Grand County Sheriff’s Department. Might even decide to run for sheriff someday.

      This town had given him everything that was important to him, including Bree Daniels, the love of his life and hopefully soon-to-be fiancée.

      She hadn’t been born here like so many of the other residents. She’d shown up nearly eight months ago, broke, exhausted and hunted. When he’d caught her shoplifting at the town drugstore, stealing formula and diapers for twin babies who ended up not being her own, he would have never dreamed that she would become the woman he couldn’t live without.

      “Enjoy your meal, boys.” Mrs. Andrews set the plates down on the table in front of them. “Noah, it’s good to see you here.”

      Noah gave the older woman a nod. He didn’t tend to come into town very often, preferring to stay out at the ranch he and Tanner owned together. Noah had his own house on one side of the property and Tanner, with Bree for the past three months, lived in a house on the other side of the two hundred and fifty acres.

      Once Mrs. Andrews was gone, Tanner took a bite of his food. “Look, jackass, I only told you at all because Mom wanted to make sure it was okay with you that I use the ring. If you think you’ll want it for whatever unfortunate sucker you talk into marrying you, then that’s fine. I can pick out a different one.”

      Noah shoveled a forkful of the renowned Sunrise Diner meat loaf into his mouth. He was already shaking his head before Tanner even finished his sentence/insult. “Pretty sure marriage is not in the cards for me. So you go right ahead and use Mom’s ring.”

      “You might be a little closer to marriage if you would actually date anyone.”

      Noah shrugged and kept eating. Tanner didn’t push it. Noah had returned from his years as an Army Green Beret different than when he’d gone in. Stronger. Harder.

       Colder.

      His brother had never offered many details, and Tanner hadn’t demanded them, but Tanner knew Noah had seen and done things in his time overseas that had changed him.

      “So when are you going to ask Bree?” Noah said between bites.

      “I’m not sure.”

      “Because you’re trying to make it all romantic? You know stuff like that just stresses out your little brainiac.”

      Noah was right. Bree was a computer genius, but due to her upbringing—first within a terrorist organization, then almost completely alone and on the run—she wasn’t great at interpersonal interaction. Normal things most people took for granted, like a conversation or casual touch, were often a challenge for her.

      Tanner loved Bree because of this, not in spite of it.

      “I’m only planning on asking a woman to marry me once. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make it special. I want to take her someplace romantic.”

      Noah shook his head and continued his lunch. “You do remember what happened last time you decided you were going to take Bree on a romantic holiday and make things perfect?”

      Tanner rolled his eyes. “Considering I’m still recovering from my wounds and Bree barely made it out of that situation alive herself, yes, I remember it. And that’s the exact reason why I need to make the proposal romantic and special. Get back up on the horse so to speak.”

      Bree had missed out on so much in her young life. She deserved a little romance. Deserved to travel and see somewhere besides a small town

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