Free Ride 'Em (A Giddyup Novel) by Delphine Dryden

garden behind the main house. Restoring that was a project for another time, apparently.
    When Mindy made her actual last heavily laden trudge from the parking lot, Lamar and Diego had left the fire pit. Robert had departed long since to start on dinner. The sun was lowering, and Mindy was starving. She collapsed on one of the benches and watched Ethan and Logan mortar the final two capstones into place.
    Ethan slapped his trowel down next to the mortar bucket with a weak but triumphant “Yaaaay.” Then he slumped dramatically backward, sprawling on the landscape fabric.
    “Gotta finish cleaning up.” Logan poked his leg with his toe. “C’mon, man.”
    Ethan lifted his head only enough to shake it. “Fuck that. I’m taking a break. Or joining a stronger union.”
    “Ugh. Mindy.” Logan gestured toward the trowel, then glanced at his brother. He seemed to be taking a moment to evaluate his approach before he looked back at her. “Will you please take that and rinse it off before it’s ruined? There’s a faucet and hose on the front side of the house to the right of the stairs behind the bushes.”
    She knew she should just do it. Part of the penance. But he’d asked so politely instead of just telling her, because he hadn’t wanted to order her around in front of Ethan. It left her an opening she couldn’t resist. “Naaaah. I think I’m about done here, if you don’t mind. That last trip from the parking lot wiped me out. Gonna sit for a few minutes and chill until Robert rings the dinner bell.”
    “Ohhhh,” Ethan said from the ground, “there’s subtext . So much subtext. You two, seriously. Hey, Mindy, I hear you’re working as a landman now? How’s that going for you?”
    Sigh . “Oh, it’s awesome. How’s that whole vet thing?”
    “Stellar. Gets me all the chicks.”
    As one, Logan and Mindy said, “Gross, dude.” They glanced at each other and then away again, quickly.
    Ethan lifted his head, stared at them each in turn, then lowered it again, lacing his hands behind his neck. “Speaking of gross, or actually of being officially not gross . . . bro, did you finally get that Health-vana problem sorted out?”
    Logan coughed. Mindy’s ears pricked. She had a current clean bill of health on the app herself. Did Logan have an unpleasant secret?
    He blushed—or it might have been the result of too much afternoon sun and labor. “Ethan. Not okay. Boundaries.”
    “What? Health is important.”
    “We’re with somebody I know in a . . . professional context. That isn’t . . . you don’t just . . . no. I mean, yes, I got it sorted out. But you don’t go implying . . . I mean, now I have to—”
    “I don’t need to know,” Mindy hastened to reassure him. “No big deal.”
    “It’s this app where you can—”
    “I know, I know. I have it. Because, you know, a lot of play parti—private clubs, they . . . aw, fuck.” Private sex clubs. Really professional topic of conversation. For super-professional grown-ups. She might as well have strolled through the barnyard in nothing but a corset and heels.
    Ethan propped himself on his elbows, grinning. “Oh, do go on.”
    She shot him a look. “You’re a terrible human being. You didn’t seem this terrible growing up. I have negatives all the way down. So there.”
    “I do, too ,” Logan said. “I had a password issue with my clinic. My results weren’t getting updated. My brother”—he gave Ethan more than just a toe-nudge—“is just being a dick. He needs to learn to exercise some damn restraint.”
    Ethan shrugged, then eased his long, lean body up from the ground with unexpected grace. “I could teach you a thing or two about restraint, as you well know.” He didn’t seem sorry at all. In fact, he started whistling as he picked up the trowel and sauntered off toward the front of the house.
    Mindy was so used to a situation where her face was on fire and others were calm. It was intriguing to see Logan—toppy, confident