Already Home by Vicki Lewis Thompson Read Free Book Online

front of him. Probably one of the ranch hands coming back from town. Could even be Jack.
    Wyatt’s gut tightened as he thought about his half brother. He probably should have alerted Jack that he was coming, but he knew exactly why he hadn’t. He’d been afraid Jack would tell him to stay away.
    Wyatt had shocked the hell out of him the previous summer by dropping by the ranch to introduce himself. He’d shown up without warning that time, too, not sure until he’d knocked on the ranch house door that he’d go through with it. Realistically, he should have expected Jack’s chilly response.
    No doubt Jack hadn’t believed him at first. He would have believed Rafe right away because the two men looked so much alike, both having inherited their mother’s dark hair and eyes. But Wyatt and Rafe were fraternal as opposed to identical twins, and Wyatt had ended up with his dad’s sandy hair and gray eyes.
    Eventually Jack had seemed to accept that Wyatt was his half brother, but he’d remained suspicious, as if Wyatt might want to cash in on the financial success of the paint horse breeding operation at the Last Chance. No, and hell no. Wyatt had a profitable wilderness trekking company based in San Francisco and wasn’t the least bit interested in Chance money, but Jack couldn’t know that.
    The money issue wasn’t the biggest reason for Jack to be prickly, though. Finding out that the mother who’d abandoned him had subsequently married a successful businessman and raised two more kids couldn’t be an easy pill to swallow. Worse yet, she’d kept Jack’s existence a secret from her second family until last year when the divorce from Wyatt and Rafe’s father had apparently loosened her tongue.
    Hiding the fact she’d had a kid thirty-odd years ago was pretty radical, even for his mother. But it wasn’t totally out of character. Diana had always been evasive about her past, as if she was ashamed of it. She claimed that she’d been through hard times and nothing more needed to be said. Yeah, well, she’d put Wyatt and Rafe through some hard times as they tried to deal with a completely self-absorbed mother.
    The taillights disappeared again as the rain redoubled its effort to drown this part of the country. Wyatt had years of experience handling every kind of weather, and he’d be damned if he’d end up in a ditch this afternoon and have to call the ranch for help. That wouldn’t improve his rep any.
    And he wanted his rep to be solid, wanted Jack and everyone else on the ranch to think of him as a competent outdoorsman, even if he wasn’t a cowboy. Maybe he and Jack would have things in common other than the obvious connection of having the same mother. Wyatt liked the idea of being related to a rancher.
    He’d always felt out of place in the circles his parents preferred. Rafe, with his business degree and his talent for investing, fit right in. Not Wyatt. He’d taken up hiking and camping as a teenager to escape charity balls and gallery openings.
    Jackson Hole had some of that high society element going on, especially within the Jackson city limits. But the little town of Shoshone about ten miles from the ranch was definitely more Wyatt’s style. A collection of small businesses and a single traffic light at the only major intersection—that was urban enough for Wyatt.
    If he chose to, he could relocate his company here. Adventure Trekking could operate as well—or maybe even better—from the Jackson Hole area as it did out of San Francisco. If he lived here, he could spend time at the ranch and get to know the Chance family. He had a feeling he’d fit in with them better than he ever had with his own family.
    But before he made any drastic changes, he needed to find out if Jack had mellowed toward the idea of Wyatt’s and Rafe’s existence. Jack’s resentment could be a major obstacle to Wyatt’s plan. The guy had obviously been hurt when Diana had left him, but in Wyatt’s opinion, Jack