Page 59 of Wilde Hearts

“You know, they do have other things on the menu besides the Reuben, Colt.”

I smiled. “I love that sandwich.”

She chuckled, and it was nice to see her not shooting daggers at me for once. Too bad her friendly expression would be gone once we started talking.

Her smile slowly faded as she drew in a deep breath and exhaled. “So…where do we start?”

I sat back. “From the beginning.”

Lifting her brows, she asked, “The beginning? That’s going back a long, long time.”

My chest felt heavy, knowing I was about to revisit everything with my brother. Not to mention, my stomach was starting to feel sick. Maybe lunch wasn’t such a great idea.

“Not that beginning. The beginning of when we first started dating.”

She looked confused. “Okay…”

I slowly drew in a calming breath. “When I told Grady I was going to ask you out, he got very upset with me.”

A surprised look appeared on her beautiful face. “Why?”

“He accused me of trying to take you away from him.”

Ensley slowly shook her head. “But we were just friends. There was never anything romantic between us.”

“He thought that by us dating, you wouldn’t be hanging out with him as much. He said I was jealous of your friendship, and that was the only reason I was asking you out.”

“Was that true?”

I drew back as if she’d slapped me. “Of course it wasn’t true, Ensley. I’d liked you for as long as I could remember. Was I jealous of your relationship with my brother? I don’t think so. I might have envied him because he got to be around you so much, but I was never jealous.”

“He never told me any of this.”

“I’m not surprised because we worked it out. But I won’t lie and say that things between us weren’t…different after that. I did ask if he had deeper feelings than friendship for you, and he said no. But a small part of me always thought maybe he did, and that was why he was so angry with me.”

“Colt, I swear, Grady never once made it seem like he wanted anything more than friendship.”

“Maybe that was because he knew you didn’t want anything other than friendship.”

She chewed on her lower lip.

“Anyway, after about a year of us dating, things were pretty much back to normal between Grady and me. He seemed to be totally okay with our relationship, and I didn’t think twice about it again. Then, a week before he took his own life, we were in the barn together. He was bitching about our dad pressing him to get more involved with the business. Grady didn’t share much about his dreams with me, but one thing I knew without a doubt was that he didn’t want to be a farrier.”

Ensley nodded. “He didn’t. He wanted to be a pilot.”

I smiled. “He was taking flying lessons, but he didn’t know that I knew. My mom and dad didn’t know, but I did. For as long as I can remember he would tell me he was saving every dime he made hauling hay and whatever other ranch work he could pick up.”

“Did you know he wanted to be a pilot?”

Nodding, I replied, “Yeah. I did. When he was little, I think around five, he used to play with his planes and tell us about all the places he’d go once he grew up and could fly his own plane. My father thought it was cute…for a few years. But as Grady got older, I think Dad realized he actually might leave to pursue something else. He pushed him harder than I think he should have to be a farrier. Made Grady feel guilty for wanting something other than what our father wanted for him. It was a constant argument between them—and between Dad and me. I’d ask him to lay off, and he’d get angry with me. He wanted Grady to follow in his footsteps, and I just wanted Grady to be happy. I knew being a farrier would never make him happy.”

“Grady never told me any of this. I never realized Jacob pressured him so much.”

I sighed. “I don’t think my father realized it, either.”

Ensley’s eyes filled with sadness. “Do you think that’s why he…”

Tears pricked the back of my eyes, and I had to really concentrate on keeping them at bay.