“No, it’s sure as hell not,” Rob said, gazing at her like she was wearing a halo.
“Watch the language, Robby.” Vidalia picked up her water and tilted it Kiley’s way. “Here’s to you, girl. You’re wise beyond your years.”
A car came rolling in a dust cloud up the driveway. Kiley’s stomach tied itself up in knots as soon as she saw who it was. Kendra got out. Tight jeans, cowboy boots, even a hat. Oh, she was trying to play the part, wasn’t she? To worm her way into this family.
“Hey, nobody told me there was a party,” she said, smiling bright and avoiding Kiley’s eyes. She came right to the table and found a spot next to Joey, who looked like he grew a foot taller as soon as she sat down.
No, Kiley thought. Not Joey.
* * *
Joey and Kendra left together when the day’s work was done. Kiley watched them go with a knot in her stomach the size of a grapefruit.
“I talked to him. Told him to watch his back,” Rob said. “He’ll be all right.”
He wouldn’t. Kiley knew he wouldn’t. She kept thinking about Dax, the big jerk, and how much trouble he was in over her sister. Kendra had destroyed the guy. She’d do the same to Joey. He didn’t stand a chance.
“Where are they going?” she asked.
“He’s taking her to dinner in Tucker Lake. Probably Haggerty House. It’s the best restaurant around. You ever been?”
She shook her head. “Dad wasn’t much for taking rowdy girls out to fancy restaurants,” she said.
“Your dad. He’s … away, you said?”
She lowered her head. Her dad was in prison. Why didn’t she just tell him? It wouldn’t take a lot of digging for him to find out.
But maybe she wouldn’t have to. Maybe she could convince her sister to get out of town and leave Joey alone.
“I can’t believe your family. The way they pitched in.”
“I’m still getting used to it myself.” She frowned at him. He smiled back, hauled the barn door open and then they walked side by side into it. “It’s the Brands,” he said. “I mean, yeah, my brothers would help me out anytime, but when Dad married Vidalia, we inherited her entire clan. Wade’s a freaking genius.”
“With cars and motors, you mean?”
“With lots of things. He wired the whole barn today. Look at this.” He threw a switch and the lights came on. “The guy’s gifted.”
Kiley looked down the length of the barn. Wooden stalls lined either side, ending about halfway down, and they smelled of fresh-cut lumber. “When will you start bringing in horses?”
He shrugged. “Just as soon as I get the fences up. They’re gonna need places to graze.”
“Which could probably get done in a couple of days, with all the help you have.”
He nodded, averted his eyes.
“I saw that,” she said. “Something’s holding you back.”
He met her eyes again. “I really don’t want my father’s money. I want to do it on my own.”
“And you don’t like my suggestion? To use it like a bank loan, and then pay it all back? And leave it to grow and then give it all to your kids someday?”
“What would you do?”
“I’m no expert on money, Rob.”
“You’re no slouch at it. You managed to wrangle a pile of it in cash to pay for your half of the ranch.”
She lowered her eyes. “I’ve gotta pay all of that back.” He waited for her to say more, but she didn’t want to, so she changed the subject. “Why are you so against using the resources you’ve had handed to you?”
He lowered his head, then lifted it again and looked her in the eye, nodded once. “You know what? I’m gonna tell you.”
He slung an arm around her shoulders, casual, friendly, but still being that close to him made her go warm right to her toes. He led her out the back door of the barn, flicking off the lights on the way, and then they walked together along the twisting trail that led down to the river. At the riverbank, he dropped his arm to his side, so she hopped up onto the boulder. He stood at the water’s edge and pitched a couple of flat stones, skipping them impressively.
“I was almost engaged just a little over a year ago.”
She felt her jaw drop, then quickly clamped it shut again.
He picked up another stone. “We’d been seeing each other for seven months. She lived two hundred miles from me, but I thought we were making it work. Managed to have at least one night a week together. Long distance relationship. I wanted more. So I decided to pop the question. To me it was obvious that’s where things were heading. I planned it all out, bought the ring, the whole nine. Got down on one knee, pulled that little black box outta my pocket and she looked at me like her eyes were gonna pop.”
“She was surprised?”
“She was horrified. And then she told me she was already married.”
“Oh no,” Kiley whispered.
“She said that she’d never meant to give me the idea she was serious about me. She said she’d considered leaving her husband for me once, early on, but the minute I told her my feelings about my father’s money, about wanting to make it on my own, she knew she never would. Her husband was a wealthy man. She liked being a wealthy woman. My family fortune was what drew her to me in the first place, she said. And then she liked me too much to break it off when she found out I didn’t plan to touch it.” He paused there for a moment, skipped another rock. “I decided then that I would make my own way, and that I’d tell women up front, you know if I ever got involved again.”
“That way you’d know if they were interested in you, or your money.” Kiley slid off the boulder to land on her feet in the grass, and walked up behind him. She didn’t mean to slide her hands up to his shoulders. It just happened. And she said, “That chick was out of her freakin’ mind, Robby. You’re worth so much more than money.”
He glanced down at her. “I wasn’t angling for pity.”
“That’s good, cause you’re not getting any. It was a lucky break, she said no. What if you’d married her and then found out what she was like?”
He grinned. “Since when are you the one who finds the silver lining?”
“Since I came back here. Since I came…home.” She took a deep breath and turned to look around her. Tall yellow grasses moved with every breeze, making the fields look like a rippling, golden lake. “I didn’t realize how much I missed it ’til I came back. There’s somethin’ about this place….”
“Yeah, there is. Vidalia says it’s magic. Says Big Falls chooses the people who belong here, and casts its spell on them so they never want to leave.”
“I almost believe that.” She sighed. “I wonder if it’s capable of spitting out the ones who don’t belong here and making them never want to come back.”
“You’re thinking about your sister now.”
She nodded. “She’s trouble, Rob. I love her, but she hurts people.” And then she lowered her head. “I haven’t always been much different.”
“But you are now.”
She lifted her head. “I am.” She looked up and found him staring down at her.
He lifted a hand to push her hair off her forehead, and his eyes locked onto hers. “I’m going to use the trust fund to pay for the mares and get my business started. But I’m paying every penny back.”
“Why are you telling me that?”
“So you know it up front. I’m not a billionaire. And I don’t ever want to be. I’m just a gentleman cowboy with a good credit score. Okay?”
She frowned at him, wondering why he’d even asked. “It’s fine with me.”
“Good. Now I have two questions for you.”
Kiley wondered if he was going to ask her about her own past now. She might have to tell him something. He’d shared his painful past with her, and fair was fair.
“Is it okay with you if we do the same with your end of the business?” he asked.
She blinked. “The same what?” And then she got his meaning.
“We spend what we need to get it up and running from my funds, and we pay it back once we’re turning a profit.”
She took a step back from him, shaking her head. It was exactly what she would have been planning if she had chosen him as a mark. She’d get him to fall for her and pay for everything, and eventually she’d figure a way to buy him out for next to nothing, and send him packing.
Was this some kind of test? Was fate playing games with her, to see if she was really serious?
“Well?”
She lifted her eyes to his, met them, held them. “I don’t want you to be offended, but I can’t. And I don’t want you to ask me why or try to talk me into anything. I just plain can’t.”
He thinned his lips, but he nodded.
“Caleb offered me a job in the law office. I have two weeks to decide. So I can use that to get my end of the biz up and running if I have to.”
“Okay. If that’s what you have to do.”
“It is.”
God, that felt good. She sighed in relief and felt lighter, an involuntary smile tugged at her lips. “What was your second question?”
“Way more important, actually,” he said. “I’d very much like to kiss you again. Would that be okay with you?”
“More than okay.” She answered too fast, almost before he finished talking, and the words came out kind of croaky and hoarse.
She blinked up at him, and he smiled, then slowly curled his arms around her waist, and lowered his head. She let her eyes fall closed as his lips met hers. Then she curled her arms around his neck and stood on tiptoe to get a little closer. His lips nudged hers apart, and the sweetness that was filling her veins turned molten. He hugged her tighter, held her closer, kissed her more deeply. Her heart started pounding in her ears, and then she started shaking.
He lifted his head away, smiling down into her eyes.
“I hardly know what to do here,” she said.
“You don’t have to do anything. There’s nothing either of us have to do. We’re gonna take things as they come. Nice and easy. No pressure, no hurry. I just…I need honesty.”
She nodded. “I get that. And I don’t blame you. I just… I still need time.”
He looked right into her eyes. “Just don’t let me fall too hard before you hit me with a deep dark secret that’s gonna ruin it, okay?”
She blinked at him, stunned because it was almost like he was predicting the future. “Okay.”
“Okay. Come on inside. We’ll hit the net and I’ll show you the mares I’ve got my eye on.” He put his arm around her again, and they walked back toward the house.
Things were good. Things were so, so good. She could make it here. She could be the kind of woman a man like Rob McIntyre deserved. She could build a business, earn her money honestly, pay back the people she’d wronged. She could make a life she was proud of.
Unless her sister ruined it all.
Chapter Eleven
* * *
Kiley came down from her morning shower looking cool and pretty in a pair of pink shorts and a sleeveless white button-down blouse. She’d pulled her still-damp hair back into a ponytail that was curling as it dried. But her eyes looked sleepy.
Rob was already up, had made the coffee, and filled her a mugful when he heard her coming down the stairs. “Good morning, beautiful.”
“Ha. I look like I’ve been rode hard and put away wet.” She bit her lip, took the mug. “That’s a horse-related saying, not a sex-related saying.”
He laughed softly and leaned back against the counter. She sipped her coffee, and he saw her noticing that he’d fixed it the way she liked it, with an overdose of cream and sugar. “So you didn’t sleep well?”
“Tossed and turned all night, in spite of the brand new bed. I keep thinking about the people I’ve hurt, the people my sister’s hurt—”
He liked the sounds of that. “You have a conscience.”
“I know.” she admitted it as guiltily as if he’d said, “You have bad breath.”
“A conscience is a good thing, Kiley.”
“Not when you’ve done the things I have. And my sister—”
“You’re not responsible for cleaning up her messes. They’re not your doing.”
She sighed and said, “I can clean up one of her messes, though. One I helped perpetuate.”
He waited for her to go on. She looked at him for a long moment, and then sighed heavily and said, “Okay here it is. I’m gonna tell you. That guy, Dax Russell? The one who was looking for me?”
He nodded. “He was actually looking for your sister, though. That was her photo he was showing around.”
“Yeah.” She took a deep breath. “I got his contact info and called him. We met at a little café in Tucker Lake yesterday.”
“Alone?” He almost barked the word, then held up a hand and said, “Sorry. Go on.”
“He showed me the photo. Told me it was taken a couple of weeks ago. I told him she was dead, and it about broke his big old heart.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about his big old heart, hon.”
“He had tears in his eyes, Rob. I think he’s actually a decent guy. And then I came back and there she was, alive and well.”
“And you think you need to track him down? Tell him the truth?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know yet what she’s running from. But I think he can be trusted. At the very least, I have to try to get his money back for him. She conned him out of a bundle. Told him it was for a kidney transplant.”
“He um…he was in love with her?”
“I think so. And he borrowed the money from the race track he runs for his father. She told him she’d have it back to him in just a couple of days. He’s a nice guy, he really is. His father’s gonna find out and he’ll lose his job, and he just…he doesn’t deserve all that.”
He nodded. “So what do you want to do?”
She looked him in the eye. “I want to get into her room at The Long Branch. See if I can find Dax’s money or anything that’ll tell me what the hell she’s running from and what she’s up to in Big Falls.”
He blinked, thought of something, and couldn’t believe he’d thought of it. It was devious, and sly, and dishonest, and totally not him. And then he said it out loud. “It’s Sunday.”
“So?”
He told himself to shut up and kept talking anyway. “Sundays are gigantic, high-calorie combination lunch-dinners out at Dad and Vidalia’s place. Right after church, which Vidalia never misses. She cooks enough to feed an army, which is fortunate because we are the size of one. The whole family’s invited, and this week that includes you and your sister.”
“Oh my God. Rob, I don’t think she should be there. She’s wrapping her tentacles around your family and—”
“And therefore will not be in her room this afternoon. And the saloon will be empty.”
She looked at him like he’d sprouted horns. “You mean, you’d let me into her room?”
He tilted his head. “She has the only key. I lost mine while I was living there, had to take the extra one, and as far as I know, no one’s had another copy made yet. So we’d have to…sort of…break in. Somehow.”
“Shoot, I can pick that lock in under ten seconds,” she said. Then she widened her eyes and clapped a hand over her mouth.
It’s okay, he told himself. She’s a reformed master criminal. Sort of.
“The guys are coming out to help me build fence this morning,” he said, to get them off the subject of breaking and entering. Even though, technically he was part owner of what they were breaking into.
“Did you do it? Did you buy the mares?”
“Thanks to you, I did. They’re coming this week.” He was as excited about that as a kid a few days from summer vacation. He had been ever since he’d made the decision to use his father’s money. The way she smiled, he got the feeling Kiley was excited, too.
“That’s gonna be amazing.” Her smile froze, then
wavered and died.
“What? What’s wrong?” he asked.
She heaved a big sigh, sipped more coffee. “I feel so lucky right now. To be here, in this place, with you. It’s like life gave me a do-over.”
“And that’s a good thing.”
“Unless I screw it up. I’ve got so much more to lose now than I had before. The beginning of a whole new life. A whole new me.”
He went to her, took her cup away, slid his hands around her waist, and leaned down to kiss the tip of her nose. “You can’t screw it up. You can only keep moving forward, one step at a time, making your life better and better with every one you take.”
“And yet I’m starting to tangle you up in my family drama. And it’s not you, Rob.”
“You let me worry about what’s me and what’s not, okay?” Then reluctantly, he stepped away from her. “I’ve gotta get busy. I’ll have Jason and Joey make our excuses to Vidalia for not making the big meal today. We’ll probably have to promise to show up next week, though.”
“Okay,” she said.
She walked him to the front door. He stood there a second, and then figured what the hell, and swept her into his arms for a big kiss that reassured him he was doing the right thing. Even though he was also doing everything he’d sworn not to do. And he just wasn’t thinking about the breaking and entering, either, but about letting himself fall for a women with a heart full of secrets.
Yet, he didn’t feel as if he had much of a choice in the matter. And she was trying to turn over a new leaf. She hadn’t told him everything. Not yet. But it was a start.
A good start, he hoped.
* * *
Kiley spent the morning pulling one item after another out of the smaller barn and stacking them outside. She uncovered an old fish tank she figured was worthless, but there was a very old-fashioned wooden high chair she thought had to be valuable. This stuff wasn’t junk at all and never had been.
It was funny how her father had spent all his time here running various games and cons on people to get money, never even taking advantage of the treasure trove right under his nose.
Oklahoma Moonshine (The McIntyre Men #1) Page 13
