Page 2 of Winning His Wager
And her? Well, she’d just made a bet with Fletcher Tyler two hours ago. And here she was.
“No. It’s a five-bedroom, plus a few other rooms that were used for different things years ago. We all had our own rooms, once I was old enough for school or so. I am in the last room at the end of the hall. I will clean it. You are to stay out of my room. The rest of the house is all yours, but…I like my privacy.”
“I see. That’s where you grow the good stuff, isn’t it?” Dylan shot him a grin. He just glared.
Dude totally needed to loosen up. How had Charlotte survived dating him? Talk about seriously unfun. “I am just joking. I know you grow the happy weed in the back forty or something. Don’t all you Tylers do that? Poophead Dad has implied as much, you know. Tyler guys are criminals and druggies and just too wild to be controlled. Brawlers and seducers of innocent young women, that was just the last time I heard him warning my sister about your seriously delicious brother.”
Her father was definitely not happy with having Benjamin Tyler as a future son-in-law. Her father had Tyler-itis, Dylan thought. And, well, there were a lot of hot, beautiful Tyler men running around in Masterson and everything. Dylan did have seven beautiful sisters her father was trying to protect from rogue Tyler hotties.
Well, six now. Far too late for Dusty.
Ben already had snagged Dusty. It was driving her father crazy: Tyler Hot Guys—one, Arthur Talley—zero.
“In here.” He almost stomped off. Dylan bit back a laugh. He was going to be a lot of fun to play with. Fletcher Tyler always was.
It took her a moment to follow.
She was too busy just drinking in the feel of his house. It was ahome. It even kind of felt like it. With just one guy living there, how was that even possible? The way her father acted, the place should be littered with drug paraphernalia, beer cans, and girly magazines. No sign of a girly magazine anywhere. Maybe he had good internet.
“You need a dog around this place. Why don’t you have one? I thought all good cowboys had their dogs. Do you at least have a cat? A pet goat?” Dylan followed the cowboy in question down the hall. “I’ve always wanted a pet, but we never had one. Mom was afraid, I think. I’d love a puppy someday, for sure.”
There were family photos on the wall in the hallway. It was really cool that he had them up and everything. She looked closer—that was her sister Dusty in some of the photos, right next to Dusty’s bestie forever, Fletcher’s baby sister. “Don’t all bachelor pads have bare walls and cobwebs?”
Well, there were a few cobwebs, but the dude had just hired a housekeeper. That was to be expected at first. She would take care of those—as soon as she found a ladder—this week.
“Do you ever stop talking?”
“No. I have been told my questions have questions for their questions. It’s kind of just the way I am. I drive my father—and I suspect Darcey—crazy. It’s what Dylan Brown is known for. Well, Talley, I guess. It is still taking me a while to get used to the Talley part, you know.” Since her father had kept his family and herfourbeautiful older sisters a secret while he and her mother hid Dylan and her three younger sisters away in the witness protection family and everything. Drama—her family was just so much drama. Hard for her to keep up. “So where am I going to sleep? Do you snore? I really hope you don’t. I mean, how thick are the walls in this place? And we really need to talk about…Char. When she visits, do I need to spend the night at the inn? I really don’t want to hear anything naughty going on. That would be entirely too awkward. How often does Char stay over?”
Her cousin must seriously be a glutton for punishment. She’d heard Charlotte had dated him for at least a year. Talk about torture. Fletcher just kept glaring, standing right there in the entrance to his hallway and everything. No, Dylan just didn’t see the why…
“I am not sleeping with Charlotte. She doesn’t sleep over at all.”
Dylan wasn’t certain she believed him. She’d seen him and Charlotte together, after all. If Charlotte was in town, Fletcher was nearby. The two were almost inseparable. Everyone could see that.
“Well, I at least had to ask. Are you sleeping with anyone? I mean, not because I really care or anything. But if I am going to run into a half-naked townie in your hallway, I probably need to know. I mean, can we say awkward?”
He led the way into a large bedroom that had pink, white, and teal plaid walls and a big, four-poster double bed. It was a nice room—and she knew exactly who it had once belonged to.
“You won’t. You are here in this room. It was my sister’s. She still has a few things here, but you can box them up and put them in the room next door.” He motioned to the few personal items that remained. This had been her sister Dusty’s bestie’s room, no doubt. There were even pictures of a young Dusty on the wall. Dylan looked closer. Then-Dusty so looked like Dorie did now. Her youngest sister looked very much like their older sisters Dusty, Darcey, and Dixie. No denying that.
Dylan looked like a little kid next to them. Even Dorie, at nineteen, looked older. It was rather irritating, but she was getting used to it.
“I can just stay in there?” The room next door had been a bit sparse when she’d walked by. She could be settled in there in minutes. All she had was one bag, a cardboard box, and a backpack. Dylan had learned how to packlightyears ago. That whole moving around in search of adventure thing, after all.
“It was mine as a kid. I don’t want you in there.”
“Rude much? I am on to you, you know. You are going to try to make everything as difficult as you possibly can. So I will quit, and you will win the bet, and take all my pennies.” Dylan leaned forward and looked up at him through her bangs. “It just isn’t going to happen, Fletchie-kins.”
He scowled down at her, looking very much like a pale-haired version of Ben. Dylan actually likedBen. She didn’t like his younger brother at all. Still, theotherTalleys got all the good stuff around here. Her branch was just kind of the leftovers.
Darcey had had a flaming hot affair with superhot, supergorgeous Martin Tyler years ago.
Dusty now got superhot, superawesomeBen Tylerforever.
Dylan got leftover Tyler dude, Grouchy Cowboy Fletchie.
It was just the way it was.