Read Earth and Sky for Free Online Page A

Hunter, and there was no doubt in Hunter’s mind that his brother-in-law wasn’t kidding.

    “All this because of a bar brawl?”

    Hugh rolled his eyes and smiled a little uneasily. “We’ve been talking about it for a while and always said we’d wait until Danny was older, but I can’t do this anymore.”

    Hunter was stunned into silence. He kept looking at Hugh and back at the door through which Grant had disappeared and then back at Hugh.

    “You know I only married Lisa because I got her pregnant, right?”

    Hunter nodded. “Yeah, but I thought you loved her too?”

    Hugh shook his head. “The girl I was in love with was Izzie. Only she was way too young. She was fourteen then, so I couldn’t even get close to her. And by the time she was eighteen, she had other boyfriends and Lisa had taken a liking to me. I figured Izzie wasn’t interested in me, so I took what I could get. But I never really loved Lisa, although I swear I tried.”

    The men sat next to each other, mimicking each other’s posture and not saying anything for long, tense moments.

    “I told Izzie I loved her when we were sitting together in the other room.”

    Hunter looked up at Hugh. “You mean she never knew?”

    “Oh, course not!” Hugh answered. “I’ve been married to her big sister for ten years, Hunter.”

    “And how did she react?”

    Hugh shrugged. “She was nice about it but made it pretty clear she didn’t think we had a future.”

    Hunter cocked his head in understanding.

    “So you see I can’t stay. I’m sorry, man, but you’re going to have to find another foreman. Talk to Grant. He’s a good guy.”

    Hunter didn’t know what to say. Sure, they were shorthanded all the time and he was going to miss having someone he trusted completely to run the day-to-day stuff around the ranch, but it was more than that. Hugh leaving meant Danny was going to miss his father and Hunter was losing his best friend. He and Hugh had been as close as two guys could be since they were in elementary school, yet he’d never known about Hugh’s feelings for Izzie.

    They sat together in silence until the sheriff came into the waiting room with Grant and Izzie.

    “Okay, everything is settled. Delco wanted to press assault charges against Hugh, but Izzie countered by telling him that if he did that, she’d file charges against him herself, and there are plenty of witnesses who’ll testify that Delco slugged Grant without provocation, so I think he’s got nowhere to go. Wouldn’t put it past him to try other ways to give you a hard time, though, so be careful out there. I can’t really hold him, but we know he’s tried stuff like this before, so I’m afraid we might not get rid of him this easily.”

    All of them nodded in accord as the sheriff showed them out.

    “Since I’m the only one who didn’t even get a drink tonight, I guess I’m driving,” Izzie stated as she held out her hand to Hunter to get his keys. “Saddle up, boys!”

Chapter 5

    Hunter didn’t enjoy being in the house now that Hugh had packed his things and driven off. He often wished his sisters were more like other women and would just have a good cry from time to time, but they never did. Instead, Lisa ordered everyone around, and their mother seemed like she had lost the ability to smile. Not that she was much of a jovial woman at the best of times, but right now, Hunter could barely be in the same room with his mother and sister. Izzie seemed to feel the same, since she always found excuses not to join the rest of the family for dinner. At night, in the kitchen, Hunter and Izzie shared late-night leftovers for at least half of the days of the week.

    It was true they were busy. Izzie had taken on quite a few of Hugh’s foreman tasks, and Hunter had found the need to spend more time getting his hands dirty as well. Hugh’s were big boots to fill, after all. But they both knew anything was better than hanging around the house.

    They