True love? No matter what he believed in, he couldn’t let her go around spouting ridiculous fairy tales like that without poking fun at her. Will crossed his arms in front of his chest and propped one hip against the counter opposite his sister. “I believe that you believe in it.”
She gave up all pretext of being embarrassed and dropped her hands to her hips. “Will Weston! I know that you know—” She broke off when she saw his smile grow. “You’re teasing me, aren’t you? You’re a terrible big brother.”
“I’m the best.”
“The best what?” Wyatt stood in the doorway, and Will raised a brow to hear his normally taciturn older brother join in the conversation.
“The best big brother, obviously.”
He’d said it with a chuckle, but Wyatt was impossible to tease. Instead, he just glanced between Kelsi and Will and gave a noncommittal “Hmmmm.”
But their sister wasn’t done. “Will’s saying terrible things about me, Wyatt.”
“I’m sorry.” Wyatt’s expression didn’t change. “You want me to punch him?”
Will burst into laughter, and swore he even saw his brother’s lips twitch. “You’re welcome to try, old man!” Wyatt was four years older, at thirty, and Will never missed a chance to rib him about it. “But how about you come help bring dinner out to the masses?”
“We’re having pizza again,” Kelsi chimed in, and then stuck her tongue out at Will behind Wyatt’s back.
“Oh. Yay.”
Will snorted at Wyatt’s bland tone, and handed him three warm pizza boxes. Kelsi came over to try to help, but Will hip-butted her out of the way and jerked his chin at the stack of paper plates. He picked up the rest of the pizza boxes and followed his brother out of the kitchen, leaving Kelsi sputtering in his wake.
“Pizza again?” Dani’s complaint nearly matched her twin’s. They might be identical, but Dani’s cropped hair and lounge wear proved that the sisters did their best to appear different. Still…
“Sometimes it’s uncanny how much you too sound alike.” When Dani stuck her tongue out at Will—exactly the same way Kelsi had—Will laughed and dropped the pizza stack on the table in front of her.
“If you got anchovies on at least one of these, I’ll forgive you.”
“I know.” Will whisked the second pizza out of the stack. “You always do.”
Dani’s ice-blue eyes—the only thing that all the Westons shared—snapped with something between exasperation and humor, and she took the box over to one of the booths. Since their family had expanded with the addition of Shane and Jake, they’d gotten too big to all sit together at their Monday family meals. Especially when it was Will’s turn to cook, which meant pizza. But they all still gathered in the same cluster of booths, and teased and laughed and caught up.
That’s what family did, after all.
After the prayer, everyone began to bicker over which pizza they wanted, and Will was happy to stand back and watch. Their family was huge, it seemed, but he couldn’t be happier than when he was surrounded by their craziness. Wade was the oldest, and managed the entire River’s End Ranch, the family business they all worked for and hoped to own stakes in one day. Then came Wyatt, who’d discovered at a young age that the Ranch’s horses didn’t require conversation, and was happy to oblige. Or as happy as anyone could tell with Wyatt. Wes was next at twenty-eight, and seemed to always be smiling. Will—the next-youngest—used to tell him it was because Wes was trying to make up for Wyatt’s lack of humor, but he admired them both equally. The four of them had grown up pushing and shoving and helping each other, and Will knew he was lucky to have them.
It was their younger sisters, Kelsi and Dani, who gave them the biggest headaches, though. And their cousin Jess had lived with them for years, after her parents died. Now, with two of the girls married, the brothers had less to worry about—as Wes often joked, they were Shane and Jake’s problem now!—but family was still the most important thing in the brothers’ lives.
True love. Hah. Will didn’t quite snort, but it was close. He saw in-love couples all around him, sure, but just because you found a perfectly nice person to spend the rest of your life with didn’t mean you went around forsaking your family. Luckily, the Westons were the kind of family who welcomed everyone…they didn’t lose Jess and Kelsi—they welcomed Shane and Jake. Yeah. That’s how it was supposed to work.
“What are you looking so serious about?”
Wade was sipping a root beer when he moved to prop his hip against the same table Will leaned against. At thirty-two, he was the most level-headed and responsible of the Westons, a personality flaw that made him about as opposite from Will as two brothers could be. “Nothing important. Why?”
“Just wondering if you were thinking about that aquatics manager you were supposed to be hiring.”
Ah. Will should’ve guessed that Wade would give him grief about that little fact. “It’s taken care of, big brother.”
“What’s taken care of?” Wes ambled over, talking around a big bite of pizza, and handed Will a plate with an all-meat slice on it. Will nodded his thanks; he and Wes shared an appreciation for the finer things in life, like grilled-meat selections.
Wade answered for him. “Mom and Dad sent Will an ultimatum.”
“About the aquatics staff screw-ups?”
Will ignored them and chewed. His entire family knew of his faults when it came to managing “his” staff, and treated them with varying levels of frustration or tolerance.
“He’s got ‘til the end of this month. They want to see a full week of no dropped shifts, no empty spots, and no pool closings or trip cancellations.”
The Italian sausage just wasn’t as good as usual tonight. Or maybe it was the sourness on Will’s tongue that made it taste that way. He tried not to be irritated that Wade sounded so officious, or that Wes was looking at him so pityingly.
“Man. That’s only a few weeks to get them all whipped into shape. Plus, you’ve got your own trips to run, so you don’t have time to…you know.”
Oh, he knew. Even if he had the time to sit in an office and manage paperwork, Will would rather chew off his own arm. Who wanted to be stuck in an office in front of a computer when there was the prettiest country on God’s green earth to enjoy? He started to pick off the sausage and leave it on the plate to give to Indy later. She at least understood him.
Wade—Mr. Still-Wearing-His-Button-Up-Shirt-To-Family-Pizza-Night—answered for him. Again. “Will and I sat down last month and decided that the best course of action was to hire a manager.”
“Well, that’ll work. Hope he can work under pressure. What happens if there’s a screw-up by the end of the month, and shifts are dropped again?”
From the corner of his eye, Will saw Wade make a slashing motion across his throat, and Wes blanched. Yeah, that’s right. Mom and Dad will cut me out. Some days, it didn’t seem like such a bad idea; if his parents didn’t think he was competent enough to manage even a portion of the Ranch, they’d remove him from the will, and he wouldn’t have to worry about all this paperwork and spreadsheets and whatnot. But then he’d think about all the hours he’d spent building the aquatics program, and the years he’d spent on the river and lake, and think of how much this place meant to him… and he knew that it was in his blood.
No, he owned part of River’s End Ranch just as much as Wes or Wyatt, and deserved his chance at it. But he knew his limitations, which was why he’d begrudgingly agreed to Wade’s not-at-all subtle hint to hire someone. But rather than giving his oldest always-knows-best brother the satisfaction of hearing that, he pushed away from the table.
“Where are you going?” Wade obviously wasn’t done talking.
“Getting more pizza,” Will said around the crust he’d stuffed in his mouth. “I figure you two are doing well enough carrying on my side of the conversation.”
“Oh, don’t get pouty.” Wes’s smile didn’t ease the sting of his teasing. “So what are you going to do?”
“I did it already.” Will had a new slice of carnivore pizza, determined not to let his brothers ruin this treat for him. “After we talked about it.”
It was kinda satisfying, the way Wade’s brows rose in surprise. Surprise, and maybe a little bit impressed. “You did? Any responses?”
Will snorted. “Yeah, and he’s showing up tomorrow. Elliot Somebody-or-Other.” Elliot Redfern, but he didn’t want to let his worry-wart of an oldest brother know that he wasn’t completely incompetent all the time.
“You’ve already hired a manager, and you don’t know his name?”
“Why bother?” Will asked around a big mouthful. “It’s not like I have to fill out his paperwork or anything.”
It was hard not to grin at the look of disgust on Wade’s face when he rolled his eyes. “Yes, you do! That’s the whole point! That’s why Mom and Dad put you in this position, Will. You’re head of aquatics! I shouldn’t be filling out that paperwork; they’re your employees. How are you ever going to learn…” He trailed off when he saw Will’s wide-eyed rapt grin and realized he was being jerked around. “You know this already,” he said in disgust.
“Yep.” Wade was easy to mess with.
“Hey, go easy on Will.” Wes didn’t like to see his brothers fight, but it was galling when he felt like he had to stand up for Will. “He knows what he’s good at, and sticks with it. Does a darn fine job of it, too. Sometimes I’m jealous that—”
“No.” Will cut him off. Jealous? Of him? Who hadn’t finished a book since high school, and who got headaches from trying to make sense of Wade’s scheduling software? “Just, no.”
Wes didn’t push him, and instead shrugged. “Well, you’ve already got a guy coming to take care of it?”
“Yeah.”
Wade was back to looking impressed. “I gotta say that I didn’t expect you to handle it so easily. Where did you—“
“Jace explained the Internet to me years ago, man.” Jace was his best friend outside of the Weston clan. “And it was hard to figure out where to post job notices. This dude’s coming in from Los Angeles. He knows it’s a four-week position, and that he gets paid regardless. Gwen has set him up with a room in the main house, and I’ve comped one meal a day.”
Wes began to chuckle. “Look at Wade’s face. You blew him away.”
“I’m not completely incompetent.” Suddenly the sausage pizza didn’t taste so bad anymore. Maybe there’d just been something wrong with that first slice. “And once this guy straightens out the staffing issues, I promise I’ll learn how to do scheduling or whatever. Or I’ll delegate.” Wade snorted. “Look, you guys are stuck with me, okay? I’m not letting Mom and Dad take away my stake in this place.”
That last bit came out sounding a little more fervent than he’d meant it to. So much for trying to convince his family he didn’t care. Judging from the slightly pitying look in Wes’s eyes—an ice-blue identical to Will’s own—he knew the truth.
His oldest brother clapped him on the shoulder. “Good, because things wouldn’t be the same around here without you.”
Wes nodded. “Wade would get sick of all the free time he’d have if he didn’t have to bail you out of another catastrophe.”
“Oh, ha-ha.” But when his brothers started to chuckle, Will felt his lips twitching.
“Hey, Will!” Jess was snuggled up next to Jake, who looked like he was trying unsuccessfully to get Wyatt talking about something. “Does Indy still eat crusts?” She held up one of the two on her plate, and Will grinned.
“She’d love you forever.”
Jess snorted. “She does already. And I’ve told you to limit her bread intake.”
Will ambled away from Wes and Wade. “And I told you that she only gets crusts on pizza night."
“Which is like, what? Every other day?”
“Once a week. Maybe twice, tops.”
“Too much bread, Will.” Her exasperated tone told him she wasn’t serious about the scolding. “But she can have mine if she wants it, because I like spoiling her.”
Instead of answering, Will pursed his lips and gave a distinctive two-tone whistle that cut off all conversation in the café. He didn’t do it to gain his family’s attention, though; in seconds, the back door slammed and a streak of black-and-white fur hurtled through the kitchen to halt, quivering, beside him.
Kelsi shrieked. “Did you just let that dog into my kitchens?”
Will was already bent over, giving Indy her well-deserved snuggles and Jess’s crust of pizza. “Not your kitchens anymore, baby sister. And what Bob doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” He saw Shane drop a kiss on Kelsi’s brow, and she settled back into her booth with a frown.
As conversation picked up again around them, he realized she wasn’t ready to let the topic go. “Seriously, Will. I know it’s not your…” she waved her hand dismissively, “thing, but if the health inspector ever caught a Border Collie back there…”
“Fine.” He straightened, leaving a very pleased puppy thumping her tail against the tile. “I’ll teach her to open the front door instead.”
“You two can’t go a few hours without each other?”
“Kelsi,” he said in mock seriousness. “Our Monday night dinners are about family.” He saw a reluctant smile pulling at her lips. “And I can’t leave part of my family at home, can I?”
When she began to giggle, he smiled too. Family. It was the most important thing in the world to him, even if they drove him completely bananas sometimes. But he was willing to do just about anything for his family, and his place in it. Including hiring a complete stranger to do the job he couldn’t manage.
Starting tomorrow.
Wow. Idaho was a lot prettier than she’d thought. I mean, Idaho. That’s practically Canada, and to a girl raised in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Canada might as well be the ice planet Hoth, right? But gosh, the landscapes she’d seen as the small plane had flown northward were gorgeous; all distant snow-capped peaks and rushing streams and stretches of fir trees and bucolic clumps of cattle in the meadows. Surely someplace like this couldn’t actually be real? Ellie felt like she was flying over a movie set.
Frank, the pilot of the little Cessna, had been chatty, and Ellie had been able to ask as many questions as she wanted over her headset. He’d wanted to tell her about the history, but all of Ellie’s questions had been about the landscape; what kind of trees are those? What’s the name of those mountains? What’s the biggest town up here? He hadn’t laughed at her, but she could hear the smile in his voice as he answered.
It wasn’t until he was setting down on a small airstrip that reality really sank in. She was going to be here an entire month. An entire month stuck way up in the panhandle of Idaho, which might as well be a foreign country to someone used to saltwater swamps and ‘gators. But even the Lowcountry was a long time ago for Ellie; after the last four years in Los Angeles and three years in college up in Philly, she was more used to skyscrapers than mountains.
However, she had to admit that she was looking forward to some real cowboys. Her coworkers back at the Ritz had teased her, talking about how Idaho must surely be overrun with hot guys in jeans and boots. So far, she’d seen some at the airport in Boise that she wouldn’t mind looking at further. And Frank looked and sounded exactly the way she’d always assumed a cowboy would, down to his charming manners.
No, ma’am, she definitely wouldn’t mind a full four weeks of cowboys, even if it did mean being stuck in Idaho.
When the plane’s rotate-y things stopped spinning and Frank opened the little door to help her climb out, Ellie got her first real taste of Idaho. The fresh air was almost heady, full of pine and woodsmoke and scents she couldn’t even begin to recognize. When Frank rolled her bag over to her, she considered asking him, but t
hen her brain momentarily stopped working.
Strolling toward them was a man who looked more at home in Southern California than an Idaho ranch, but she discovered that she didn’t mind one bit. His dirty-blonde hair was a little too shaggy to be stylish, and he wore a pair of dark board shorts, a plain white tee-shirt, and flip-flops. Pretty much the exact opposite of a cowboy, but one she wouldn’t mind looking at for a while, either. Loping along at his side was a beautiful black-and-white collie, which he’d occasionally say something to, judging from his hand gestures.
Maybe she’d been standing there with her mouth open at the surprisingly handsome man, but she quickly snapped back to herself when Frank cleared his throat. “Looks like your welcome committee has arrived, miss.”
Him? He was the one who’d been sent to pick her up? Across the airfield, she saw a dirty pick-up truck, and had to guess that this good-looking not-a-cowboy was a member of the aquatics staff. If so, then she’d been hired to straighten him out, not gawk at him like a horny teenager. So she straightened her shoulders, hefted her carry-on bag a little higher, and got ready to introduce herself when he got close enough.
But he beat her to it. “Hey, Frank!” he called when he was still a distance away. “Who else you got on board? ‘Morning, ma’am, welcome to River’s End Ranch.” He dipped his chin respectfully when he welcomed her, but she could tell that his attention was on the plane behind her.
Thank goodness, because her knees had gone weak. Had she thought him handsome before, just talking to his dog? Well, when he smiled the whole world seemed to center on him. He had blue eyes about four shades lighter than her own, which reminded her of the froth on top of the southern California waves. Suddenly the sun was just a little too bright; surely that explained Ellie’s almost-overwhelming need to sit down.
“Howdy, Will. Nope, no one else on board. You expecting someone?”
A brief look of panic crossed that gorgeous face before fading to a look of chagrin. “Yeah, but maybe I got confused about his flight times. Nine p.m., maybe? My phone’s charging in the truck. I can drop him a message.”
Accidental Agent (River's End Ranch Book 3) Page 12
