He pulled out his phone, tapping on the most recent all-inclusive clan text and sent one out. “I have news to share. Can anyone spare a few minutes this afternoon?” he typed.
The replies came so quickly, in such abundance that the phone almost vibrated right out of his hand.
* * *
Vidalia Brand-McIntyre’s OK Corral didn’t open until later, so they had the entire saloon to themselves, and Robert wasn’t surprised to see the whole fam-damily had gathered. Vidalia’s youngest, Selene, met him at the batwing doors, and clapped an arm right around his shoulders. “We’re taking bets,” she said, all silvery blond hair and mystical pale blue eyes. “Mom says you’ve fallen in love. Dad thinks you’ve decided to move back to Texas.”
“And what do you think?”
“I don’t think things, I know things.” She gave him her most mysterious smile. “And what I know is that you are about to step out of the shadows and into the light.”
“That’s so vague, it has to be right,” Joey said, sending her a teasing look.
She shrugged. “He’s becoming his own man. And there’s a beautiful stranger helping him do it. Specific enough for you?”
Joey blinked twice and looked at Rob. Rob just shook his head. “How do you do that, Selene?”
She winked, then moved aside to let the rest of the family greet him and try to guess what was up. Vidalia and her firstborn, Maya, came out of the kitchen bearing platters stacked with sandwiches, and set them on the table. “Caleb has a lunch meeting with a client, Robby,” Maya said. “But he says he already knows your news and he wouldn’t give me so much as a hint.”
“He’s only known for a few hours, if that helps,” Rob said.
He looked around at the huge family his father had dragged him and his brothers into. It hadn’t been a choice on their part. The Brands were like a Venus fly trap. You got close enough, they just wrapped their sticky arms around you and held on. There wasn’t any escaping it. Kind of like Big Falls, itself. And while they seemed overwhelming and meddling at first, once Rob had relaxed into their warmth, he’d found himself wondering how he’d ever got by without it. It was cold out there in the world.
Vidalia’s daughter Melusine and her husband Alex Stone were out of town on a job. They were both PIs with their own lucrative agency. The others were all gathered around, taking seats at the table. Maya had her 4-year-old twins with her. Kara and her husband Jimmy, Big Falls chief of police, had brought their son Tyler. Edie and Wade hadn’t reproduced yet, and Selene and Corey probably never would.
Rob’s father was behind the bar, drawing tall glasses of beer from the taps and lining them up on the bar top. His older brother Jason came in behind him with two giant white sacks bearing the Sunny’s Bakery logo on them, and grinning like he’d just won the lottery.
Something was up with Jason. He’d been altogether too happy lately. And if he kept frequenting Sunny’s place, he wasn’t going to fit his jeans anymore.
Everyone gathered around the pushed-together tables and started passing the food. Vidalia caught Rob’s eye and said, “You gonna keep us in suspense ’til dessert, Robby?”
Rob winked at his stepmother and said, “I’ve done something kind of drastic, and I want you to know before the grapevine gets hold of it.”
He had their attention. His dad sipped a beer, but everyone else was quiet, watching him, waiting.
“I bought the old Kellogg Ranch at this morning’s tax auction.”
“Hot damn! That’s a gorgeous spread,” Selene said, smiling at him. Her husband Corey nodded his agreement.
“Are you gonna run cattle?” Vidalia asked.
“Horses.”
Lots of questions were asked all at once. Rob held up his hands and noticed his father was the only one not animated and inquisitive. “I need to tell you the rest. I took on a partner.”
“That’s ridiculous, you’ve got plenty of—”
“I know, Dad. Hear me out on this. I wanted to buy it on my own, without any of your money. I wanted to start from scratch, just to see if I could do it. And I’d saved up enough. But that wouldn’t have left me any extra for buying stock and getting the place up and running.” He saw the hurt in his father’s eyes, and the way Vidalia leaned closer to him, slid an arm around his waist, and said something soft into his ear. He nodded, but he still looked wounded.
Rob went on. “Then I met someone who also wanted to buy the place, and only had about enough for half. So we threw in together. She wants to—”
“She?” Vidlalia’s head came up, and her eyes sparked with interest.
Selene said, “Mysterious stranger. Told you so. She’s beautiful, too, right?”
“Who is she?” Maya asked. “Someone local?”
“Her name is Kiley.”
“Wait, wait, you don’t mean Kiley Kellogg?” Vidalia asked.
“Yes, Kiley Kellogg. She grew up there.” It was really tough to get a word in with the way his family loved to interrupt. “She’s got this plan to use part of the land to do holiday-themed stuff for kids. Hayrides and pumpkin patches, corn mazes and a Christmas tree lot. I figure there’s plenty of acreage to do both. I agreed to let her name the place Holiday Ranch, and she agreed to let me live in the house.”
Vidalia was frowning, the wheels behind her eyes turning.
Maya said, “When do we get to meet her, Robby?” She was always friendly, supportive and strong, the heir apparent to the matriarchy of the Brand-McIntyre clan.
“I thought I should tell you first. She’s got no family, other than a businessman father who’s out of the country, and frankly, I think she could use one.”
“Businessman father,” Vidalia muttered.
Maya sent her a look, then exchanged one with Selene, Edie, and Kara. The Brand women tended to speak without words all the time. It was damn uncomfortable for the men of the tribe, who never seemed to learn the unspoken language of the women. Rob thought maybe the women liked it that way.
“So you’re moving out of your room above The Long Branch?” Jason asked. He’d already moved out himself. His fixer-upper outside of town had once been a blacksmith’s forge. That left Joey as the only owner still occupying one of the six guest rooms on the second floor of the saloon.
Bobby Joe said, “I wish you’d have come to me first, son. I may not know much about ranching, but I know about business.”
“Believe me, Dad, I’m gonna have plenty of questions about running a business before long. And there’s no one else I’d want to ask.”
His father nodded, but still seemed less than excited for his middle son.
Then Jason broke the tension by saying, “I haven’t seen you this animated about anything since you came here from Texas, Rob. And I’ll tell you what, anything that shakes you out of that morose state you’ve been in this past year and a half is something I’m for.”
He nodded, then said, “It’s like the dark shell I’ve been wearing just cracked and fell away.”
“That’s what it seems like, looking at you,” Joey said. “But I’m not sure it was the ranch that cracked you.”
He sent Joey a “shut-the-hell-up” look, then got back on topic. “I’m gonna head out there in the morning. Got a few calls to make today. Get the electric turned on, stuff like that. But I knew there’d be talk around town, and I wanted to tell you first.” He glanced his dad’s way. “We’re gonna need to hire more help at the saloon, Dad. I’ll try to keep up until we can find someone, but—”
“There are enough of us to pitch in ’til we find a new hand,” Maya said. “Shoot, I can sling drinks with a twin on each hip when the chips are down.”
He didn’t doubt it one bit, although her twins were too big to need carrying on her hips anymore. “Thanks, Maya.”
Vidalia snapped her fingers. “There were two Kellogg girls. Twins. Kiley and….another K name. Kelly?”
“Kendra,” Rob said, but his heart had contracted at the rest of her revelation. “
She died recently, Kiley said. She didn’t tell me they were twins.”
All the suspicion left Vidalia’s eyes, and she lowered them and whispered, “Oh, that poor child.” She reached across the table and closed her hand over Rob’s. “Then you’re right to help her. That is what you’re doing. Don’t try to say different. You McIntyre boys have your father’s big, soft heart. You just be careful Robby. The way I remember it, the Kelloggs were… ” She stopped there, searched for the word, and finally settled on, “…troubled.”
He didn’t like the sounds of that, but he wasn’t going to ask for more. A year and a half ago, before coming to Big Falls to be with his father when they’d all thought the man was dying, Rob had made a conscious decision to be completely honest with everyone in his life and to involve himself only with people who could return that honesty. To him that meant not prying or snooping or gossiping to find out about Kiley Kellogg. The honest way was to simply ask her.
Kara said, “You know that place is gonna need a good scrubbing before you can move in.” She wiggled her eyebrows and looked around the table at her sisters.
Edie picked up on her message. “And furniture. And dishes. And towels and bedding,” she added.
“And pizza and beer,” Selene put in, elbowing Joey and grinning as he nodded in wholehearted agreement with her.
Vidalia nodded. “Fortunately, we’ve done this sort of thing before. No point waiting for morning, either. I have a friend at the power company and she’ll switch you on like that,” she said with a snap of her fingers. “So we can get started tonight. We’ll meet you out there around seven, Robby. Don’t you worry. You’ll be right at home in no time.”
“I um—wasn’t worried.”
Chapter Four
* * *
The big boulder was right where it had always been on the bank of the Cimarron River. She was sitting on top of the rock where she’d been for hours. She and Kendra used to jump off into the river. There was a nice deep spot, perfect for swimming, that you could hit if you pushed off hard enough.
Somehow, they had managed to hit that deep spot every time. Never once had they landed short and broken a leg in the shallows. How they’d done that was beyond her, because it looked almost impossible from her grown-up perspective. They just hadn’t known any better, she guessed.
She was glad Robert wouldn’t be coming tonight. She wanted one more night alone here. And this night was perfect.
The sun had gone down, and the sky was starting to come alive with stars, a handful at a time. As she sat there on top of the boulder, hugging her knees to her chest, a lone bullfrog croaked once or twice. And then another one joined in, and then some crickets started chirping along. It got noisier as it got darker. And when the fireflies came out, it was purely magical.
She reached into her coat pocket for the leather pouch she’d been carrying with her ever since she’d left the city. There was a plastic bag inside, and inside that, were Kendra’s ashes. Holding the leather in her palms, she said, “We were supposed to do this together. We were gonna come down here and pool our funds and buy our home back. We vowed it when they took us away and Daddy went to prison. Remember? I don’t know how you could leave me like you did.”
Kendra had left her long before she’d died. They’d left each other, really, gone their separate ways, fallen out of touch. Kiley hadn’t heard from her in a year, when she got the news of her sister’s death along with her ashes, by mail.
“I’m gonna live a good life, Kendra. The kind of life we’d have had if Mom had lived. And I’m gonna do it for both of us.”
She looked at the pouch, thought about opening it, tearing the plastic and pouring her sister’s ashes out right there in the place where they’d been happiest. But something stopped her. Doubt, that’s what it was. Doubt that this whole thing was gonna work out for her. Doubt she’d get to stay. Doubt that she even had it in her to make an honest living and not have to con people to get by. If it all fell apart and she had to go, it would be easier if she could take Kendra with her.
Nodding, she tucked the pouch back into her jacket pocket. Maybe she’d just give it a few days or even a few weeks. Make sure this dream come true was for real, and sustainable, before she committed. After all, her plans had not included a partner. A co-owner.
“There you are.”
She turned and saw Rob McIntyre standing in the wildflowers a few feet away. She hadn’t heard him coming. The river was far enough from the house that she hadn’t even heard his truck arrive. “Oh, hey. I thought you were waiting for tomorrow.”
“I planned to.” He lowered his head, smiled. “I guess I was too excited to wait. Same for you?”
“Yeah.” She slid down off the boulder, landed in the grass, started toward him. “You been in the house, already?” She thought about her clothes and sleeping bag and all her other stuff, still in the upstairs bedroom just as she’d left them this morning. She’d expected to have more time to get her things out of there.
“Yeah, briefly, looking for you. I didn’t get far though. My uh...my family is here. Part of it anyway.”
“Your family?” His great big, giant-sized family? She lifted her eyebrows.
“Apparently there’s a tradition of swarming new homes with buckets and mops and pizza and beer.”
Her lips pulled into an involuntary smile. “Pizza and beer sounds good.” She sighed, took his arm, turned him around, and started back across the meadow. “They’re at the house now?”
“Vidalia and two of the girls are. Kara and Selene. I’m told more are on their way.”
She’d been thinking she’d have to tell him tomorrow that she had nowhere to stay. She hadn’t quite perfected the story as to why, or what had happened to her former living arrangements. His family being there was actually good. It would give her more time to come up with a believable tale.
“They must be really nice.” She tried to remember if she’d known any of the Brands during her childhood. She was sure her father had—he’d known everyone in Big Falls. But she couldn’t remember Vidalia or any school friends by the name of Brand. If the sisters were all Rob’s age or older, then they were older than her. Maybe she’d missed them all.
Besides, they wouldn’t be apt to recognize her, not after all these years.
But what if they did? And what if Vidalia knew her father had been a con-man who’d left a lot of angry residents behind? And what if she knew he’d ended up in prison, and that she and Kendra had finished out their childhoods in foster care and grown up to be as crooked as their father before them?
“Are you okay, Kiley?”
She looked up at him quickly. “Yeah, why?”
“You looked a little sad when I first came out, is all.”
“Deep in thought. Not sad. Just imagining all my dreams for this place. And you know... I did have a few problems crop up today. Nothing I can’t handle though.”
“Anything I can help with?”
She smiled up at him. “I’ll let you know.” Then she pointed. “Oh my gosh, look, more of your crew have shown up.”
The house was in sight now. Another truck had pulled in, and his brothers were piling out of it. She recognized Joey, and could tell even from a distance that the other one must be Jason. God, was every male in the McIntyre line gifted with leading-man genes? They looked it. A mini-van was right behind the truck, and two women got out of that one. No one was empty handed. One was blond and carrying a stack of familiar flat boxes.
“Is that the pizza you mentioned?” Kiley asked.
“Looks like.”
She smiled. “Hot damn. I think I’m gonna like your family, Rob.”
* * *
Kiley wasn’t used to this sort of...involvement was the best word, she supposed. She’d have called it meddling, except that Rob didn’t seem to mind his entire family showing up to clean his house without being asked. For her, it felt like an invasion of privacy. But she couldn’t very well say so. None of them, in
cluding Rob, knew she’d been staying there.
At least, not until Selene with her impossible corn-silk hair and glacial blue eyes, said, “Robby, it looks like someone’s been squatting in one of the upstairs bedrooms.”
Kiley averted her gaze. They were all sitting outside on pickup tailgates and front steps, eating their pizza while fireflies danced to the country music wafting from the radio. They’d been cleaning for a while already, and she hadn’t had a chance to slip upstairs yet.
Rob asked, “Really?”
“Yeah, there’s a sleeping bag and some food up there. I left it alone, in case it was one of yours.”
Rob was looking at her. Kiley could feel his eyes on her. So she said, “I’ll go take a look,” and dropping her pizza slice onto a paper plate, she got off the top step where she’d been sitting and hurried inside, through the kitchen to the living room and up the stairs.
She paused at the top to push a hand through her hair. Dammit, she should’ve moved her stuff. She’d overslept, then had to rush to get to the auction, then returned all eager to talk to Kendra, and maybe spread her ashes down by the river, and kind of got lost in her memories down there. But she should’ve moved her stuff first. Practical matters came before emotional nonsense. Practical matters included keeping her cover intact. These people had to believe she was the woman she was pretending to be. The starry-eyed, innocent but ambitious entrepreneur with a slight crush on her business partner. The nostalgic local girl, reclaiming her childhood home. She could never let them see the real her. A penniless con artist sleeping wherever she could find a spot, while trying to figure out a way to con Rob out of his half of the ranch.
Because that was what she had to do. Clearly. Gaming him out of enough cash to pay for this place was supposed to have been her last con ever. She’d really meant it when she’d told herself it would be. But she’d never intended to take on a partner who owned half the place. This was her home.
Oklahoma Moonshine (The McIntyre Men #1) Page 4
