“I need to find a restroom and clean up,” she said, looking at her scraped palms. “Meet you inside.”
* * *
When Kiley Kellogg walked into the crowded firehouse, every head turned, Rob’s included. Not only was she new in town, and therefore a subject of great interest to the locals, but she was also beautiful in a fresh-faced, innocent way that made you want to trust her.
If she could lie without it showing in every cell of her body, Rob thought, she’d be dangerous.
Joey, who had arrived and found him while Kiley had been freshening up, said, “Hubba, hubba! Who is that pretty little thing?”
“That’s my new business partner. We’re going halves on the ranch.”
Joey’s eyebrows reached for the sky. “For real? Since when? I just saw you twenty minutes ago, and you said—”
“I know what I said. Things changed. I think she’s looking for me. Come on, I’ll introduce you. Uh, soon as you roll up your tongue, close your mouth and wipe the drool off your chin.”
Joey blinked and looked his older brother’s way. “Oh, yeah. Sorry.” Then he grinned. “You calling dibs, though? ‘Cause if you’re not—”
“I’m calling off limits,” Rob told him. “If I’m gonna be in business with her, I don’t need that kind of complication, Joe. Sorry.”
He started meandering through the crowd toward Kiley. She spotted him, smiled brightly and he tripped over the floor. Those eyes of hers, so blue you could paint the sky with them, had the impact of a wrecking ball when they locked onto his. No wonder Joey’d reacted the way he had.
With his brother on his heels, he made his way through the crowd to where she stood. She had a white paper Big Falls Pharmacy bag sticking up out of her purse. “Did I miss anything?” she asked.
“Not a thing,” Rob told her. “Kiley, this is my brother, Joey. Joe, Kiley Kellogg.”
“Kellogg? Like in ‘the old Kellogg place’?” Joey asked, offering his hand.
She took it and shook once, smiling. “I wish I could say, ‘as in heiress to the Frosted Flakes fortune,’ but no, you got it right. I lived there as a kid. Just never got the place out of my system.”
Joey’s smile widened. He liked her, Rob could tell. And what was not to like? She was a charmer.
There was a vat of coffee on a long folding table on one side of the room, and people were constantly making their way to or from it. It was surrounded by styrofoam cups and several cream and sugar bowls. There was one of those Big Falls’ Big Future fundraising signs right beside the table, with a plastic cylinder for donations, already half filled with bills. The remainder of the table was taken up by a wide selection of pastries. A Sunny’s Bakery sign was taped to the wall behind them, and there were stacks of flyers and cupcake shaped magnets with the bakery’s phone number on them, taking up the two inches between the edge of the pastry trays and the edge of the table.
Smart businesswoman, that Sunny.
The auctioneer took to the front of the room, and people began to quiet down. “I think it’s best you do the bidding for both of us, Rob,” Kiley whispered.
“Why’s that?” Joey asked before Rob could respond.
She smiled. “Because the locals will realize that it’s a lost cause trying outbid a McIntyre.”
Rob frowned, not the least bit comfortable with that. He hadn’t thought of it before, or he’d have got someone to come in and bid on his behalf, just to keep things fair and upright. He was big on fair and upright. They were part and parcel of honesty. And honesty had been his thing ever since Paula…but he wasn’t going to think about that just now.
“Look we’re gonna get the place either way, right?” Kiley asked, looking up and directly into his eyes, resting one hand on his chest right where his heart started beating faster. “So why should we pay more than we have to?”
“She has a point,” Joey said.
Kiley sent Joey her laser beam smile. “Of course I do. When you grow up poor, you learn to find advantages where you can. It’s not the kind of thing I expect a man like you to understand, Rob, but maybe you could just trust me on this? Just this once?” Someone bumped her, or something, because she stumbled closer, her chest pressing against his for a second, and her other hand closed on his shoulder to hold on, as she cast an irritated look behind her.
Rob didn’t see anyone back there, though. And she didn’t move away, despite the fact that there was room to.
“Besides,” she said, her breath sweet and minty. “If I’m wrong, then people will bid anyway. No harm done.”
“All right,” he said, fully aware that his brain had shut down and his mouth was on auto-pilot. “I’ll do the bidding. But you’d best not take this as a sure thing, Kiley. I don’t want you all disappointed if we don’t get the place.”
“You’re so sweet,” she said.
Then she stepped away from him, removed her small warm hands from his body, and took a careful look at the people around them, her eyes turning sharp and interested. “Do you know if anyone else plans to bid on the place?” she asked.
He looked around too. “Most of these folks are locals. Probably just here out of curiosity.”
“And for the free goodies,” Joey put in. “But hey, that guy’s new, front row, left of center. You know him, Rob?”
Rob looked where Joey was focused and spotted the stranger, a short man, heavyset, with male pattern baldness ringed by super dark hair. He wore an expensive suit and was sipping coffee from a foam mug.
“Never saw him before.”
“He’s a lawyer,” Kiley said. Her tone had an edge to it that he hadn’t heard before. Not so much sweet southern twang anymore.
Both guys shot her a look and Rob asked, “You know him?”
“Nope. But I can smell ‘em a mile away. He’s here to bid for some client or other. I’m gonna keep track of him.”
Before Rob could reply, Kiley was moving away from him, weaving her way to the front of the room toward the stranger, and the next thing he knew she was squeezing herself right in beside the man.
The stranger shot an irritated look her way, and she beamed up at him, blinking those baby blues and saying something to him.
The guy smiled at her, almost visibly melting.
Joey elbowed him. “Holy crap, those eyes of hers oughtta be certified as deadly weapons.” Then he frowned, and shot his brother a look. “What do you know about her, anyway?”
“Not a damn thing,” Rob said. “Just met her last night.”
“And you’re gonna go into business with her? Robby, are you sure this is a good idea?”
It was seeming like less of a good idea with every minute that passed, but the auctioneer banged his gavel, and the Kellogg ranch was the first order of business. Within a few seconds, that lawyer standing beside Kiley Kellogg was raising his paddle. Every time Rob bid, the stranger bid a little bit higher. Three others started bidding too, but as the price went up, they dropped out one by one.
Rob knew they were getting close to Kiley’s maximum. The alleged lawyer was looking down at a cell phone every few seconds, probably texting with his client, and it didn’t look as if he’d got the “quit” message yet.
And then Kiley looked down, which made Rob look down too. In between elbows and arms, he saw her rummaging around in that white pharmacy bag of hers.
“What the hell is she—”
Joey elbowed him. “Rob, it’s your turn. Bid or you’re gonna lose it.” Distracted, he raised his paddle, and the auctioneer recognized him and kept on barking. When he looked up again, Kiley was glancing back at him, and she flashed him a thumbs-up sign.
What the hell did that mean?
He looked at the man who stood on her right, sipping coffee from his white foam cup while looking down at his phone screen. Nodding, the fellow raised his paddle once more.
The bidding went on, back and forth, just between the two of them, three more increments up. Rob was raising the price by smaller and smalle
r amounts, which probably signaled to the other fellow that he was getting close to his limit. The guy smelled blood. He wouldn’t quit.
And then suddenly, the fellow spun around and shouldered his way to the aisle. Once clear of the bystanders he broke into a run, disappearing into the hallway where the restrooms were.
“This is it!” Joey said, and he grabbed Rob’s wrist and lifted it, paddle and all.
The auctioneer accepted his bid, then asked for others, but of course there was no one there to give them. Bert, the auctioneer, glanced down at Kiley, and said, “Is he coming back, ma’am?”
“I surely don’t know,” she said. “He muttered, ‘too rich for my blood’ and then ran outta here like the devil was on his tail.”
The auctioneer shrugged and said, “Going once, going twice,” and then he banged the gavel. “Sold!”
“Holy shit,” Rob said.
Joey clapped him on the back, grinning, then he hugged him full on. “Congratulations, Rob! You did it! You got your ranch.”
Kiley sent him a gorgeous, innocent smile, and sauntered toward the exits, shoving her little white drugstore bag further down into her purse on the way.
Rob wasn’t entirely sure, but he thought maybe he’d just made a deal with the devil.
Chapter Three
* * *
An hour later, Kiley was in the fire chief’s office, which had been commandeered for concluding auction business. Four folding chairs surrounded the chief’s desk, all but two of them occupied. A handsome man sat behind the desk, but he got up, smiling when Rob walked in.
“Congratulations on the ranch,” he said, coming around the desk to shake his hand and clap him on the back. “I think you made a really good purchase today.”
“Thanks Cal. Meet my new business partner. Kiley Kellogg, this is Caleb Montgomery,” he said. “Local lawyer and my stepbrother-in-law. If that’s a thing.”
“Business partner?” Caleb looked surprised.
Kiley dropped her big duffle bag onto the floor beside her to free up her hands, then shook Cal’s. He was looking at her in a friendly, but extremely curious sort of way, and then back at Rob.
The two women in the folding chairs stood as well, looking like opposite ends of the same coin, one, a stranger to her, was tall, painfully thin, with black and silver hair cut very short. The other was the short, round, bubbly Realtor, who wore her bright red hair in a shoulder length, Texas Big sort of style.
Rob continued with the introductions. “This is Mrs. Terwilliger, Big Falls Bank and Trust,” he said, introducing the thin one. “And I think you already know Betty Lou Jennings.”
“I do,” Kiley said. “Hello again, Betty Lou.”
“Hello, Kiley. I’m so glad this worked out for you two.” She smiled as if she meant it.
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Terwilliger,” Kiley said to the banker, but that lady didn’t crack a smile.
They all took their seats, Rob pulling his folding chair up close to the desk.
“First things first,” Caleb said, “Do you have the payment?”
“I came prepared,” Rob said, and he handed over a certified check for his share. He’d run across the street to the bank while other items were being auctioned.
“Me, too.” Kiley, the only one still standing, hefted her duffle bag up onto the desk and unzipped it.
Blinking at the bag full of banded bills, then at Kiley, Mrs. Terwilliger arched her brows over her silver rimmed specs. “Cash?”
Kiley blinked at her. “Cash is still legal tender in Big Falls, isn’t it?”
“Certainly, I just....just a moment. I’ll be right back.” She crossed the office and left the room.
“Gee, she acts like she’s scared of it or something,” Kiley said. There was a warble in her voice, and she bit her lip. Wouldn’t do to show nerves. But she sure didn’t need people poking around trying to figure out where she’d got all that cash.
“She’s probably not used to seeing that much money all stacked up in one place. Then again, who is?”
“Bankers are, that’s who.” But she smiled at him, regaining her sense of elation. Her dream was coming true after all. Well, sort of. She hadn’t dreamed about a partner, other than her twin sister.
Mrs. Terwilliger came back in with the auctioneer, Bert Rowe, right behind her. Dour-faced, she returned to her chair, and nodded at the duffle on the desk. “Mr. Rowe is going to count the cash and sign off on the amount, Miss Kellogg. And then I’ll ask Mr. Montgomery to do the same. This protects both of us from any....”
“Shenanigans?” Kiley asked with a smile.
Betty Lou giggled and said. “That’s as good a term as any. I’ll count it, too, if you all want.” Her voice was as high and happy as a bluebird’s song.
“Even better,” Mrs. Terwilliger said as Bert took the duffle off to one side of the room and began to count out the stacks.
While he did that, Caleb shoved documents at them, and they both signed several of them. Betty Lou, who informed Kiley proudly that she was not only Big Falls’ one and only realtor, but also the town’s one and only public notary, witnessed their signatures and certified them with her handy little notary stamp.
Finally, all was said and done and they had a receipt and a copy of the deed. “We’re sending the paperwork in today,” Betty Lou said. “You’ll receive a deed with your names as owners just as soon as all the paperwork processes through. As a rule, that should take two weeks. If it goes longer, you call me and I’ll look into it for you.”
Kiley lifted her brows. “You will?”
“Sure I will, hon. I help facilitate a lot of these county tax auctions. I’m on a first-name basis with most of the pencil pushers in charge. Oh, almost forgot the best part.” She opened a briefcase and pulled out a set of keys for each of them. “Congratulations on your new ranch,” she said. Then she quickly yanked two more documents from the case and handed them each one. “I grabbed some Change-of-Address forms from the Post Office, just in case you need ‘em.”
Kiley stared at Betty Lou and wondered why the woman was being so nice. What did she have to gain from it? Her commission on the sale was already a done deal. She didn’t have to do anything extra to earn that. So what was she up to?
Betty Lou Jennings would bear watching, that was for sure.
* * *
As they stepped out of the firehouse into the bright, late-morning sun, Rob turned to Kiley and held out a hand. “Congratulations, partner.”
“Thanks, partner.”
Her small hand was completely enclosed by his bigger one. It gave him a shiver of something sort of primal.
“So…um…are you…heading out to the ranch now?”
She was stammering a little. Maybe the contact was having the same kind of impact on her. “Probably not until morning,” he said. “I need to pack up all my stuff. But first I have to break the news to the family. Caleb won’t say a thing without asking me first, but that Betty Lou loves to gossip.”
“I know she does,” she blurted, then sort of gnawed her lip in that way she had, and averted her eyes, and he could hear her unspoken “Oops.” She quickly found a new subject. “Your family, huh? You mean your father and your brothers, right? But Joey already knows, he was here.”
She was looking around as if she’d only just noticed Joey was missing. Then she spotted him, waiting in his truck. He waved her way, and she waved back.
“My brothers know. I haven’t told Dad yet, because that means telling his wife Vidalia, and her five daughters, the youngest of whom is my half-sister Selene, and their five husbands, and—”
“Holy smokes. That’s a lot of family.”
He nodded and they started walking together back toward his truck, which was parked near his brother’s. Both vehicles were tuned up, souped up, lifted up sources of male pride. Joey’s was green and Rob’s was red. Both were Fords. The McIntyres were a Ford family. “It is,” he said. “And there’s my mother, down in Texas, and h
er new husband, too. How about you? Where’s your family?”
Smiling, she lowered her head. “Dad’s...out of the country. He’s a businessman. Kind of an...investment broker. Mom died when I was three.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
She shrugged. “I don’t really remember her.” Something passed through her eyes, but it was so brief he couldn’t tell what it was. It felt awfully sad, though, and awfully big. “Kendra was my only sister.” Then she took a deep breath. “Your brother’s waiting to congratulate you. And I’ve got stuff to do, so....”
“Okay.” But he didn’t turn away. Just kept looking at her, oddly reluctant to leave. “You want to meet me at the ranch tomorrow morning? Take a look around as owners for the first time?”
Her smile returned, brighter than the Oklahoma sun. “You bet I do.”
She trotted away from him, around a corner and out of sight. Within a few seconds he heard the sound of a very sick engine coughing to life like a chain smoker first thing in the morning.
Then he headed to Joey and the pickups.
Joey leaned out his open window, and said, “Going back to The Long Branch?”
“Nope. The Corral. Gotta call a family meeting, fill ‘em in before the Big Falls grapevine does.”
“Good idea. Vidalia’s sure to whip up some kind of mouth-watering lunch, or brunch or something.”
“You ever think about anything but your belly, kid brother?”
“Rarely, big brother. Rarely.”
“I don’t know where you put it. Hollow legs, I guess.”
Grinning, Joey started his engine. “You might as well send a group text.”
The group text feature was overly utilized by the Brand half of the Brand-McIntyre clan and had taken some getting used to. There were three groups. One with the entire family included, one with just the females, and one with just the men, which he still wasn’t sure the women knew about. He, his dad and his brothers had been added to the other two groups, and as a result, he’d had to set his phone permanently to vibrate. Otherwise, the chimes would’ve been as maddening as the bells of Notre Dame had been to Quasimodo.
Oklahoma Moonshine (The McIntyre Men #1) Page 3
