After the Sunset (20 page)

I nodded.

“Say it.”

I smiled into the hollow of his throat. “Rand Holloway loves me.”

“Yes, I do.” He hugged me tight. “You’re my whole life.”

I fell asleep naked and sticky, wrapped in the strong arms of the man I loved. There was no better thing in the world.

Chapter 11

H
E
WAS
surprised. Whatever Rayland Holloway had expected on the Red Diamond was not what he found. Breakfast had surprised him. I cooked, Rand made coffee, Tyler joined us, and so did all the unmarried men. The married men rode in from their houses that were built on Rand’s land far enough away to give them privacy. In the two years I had been there, Rand added Tyler’s house, and Mac’s, since he was foreman, and Tom’s, who had come to Rand with a family, and his cousin Chase’s as well. Chase had met a woman in Winston, and because he and his wife were an interracial couple, it had been hard to find an apartment in town. So Rand had built them a house. All married men, he said, got houses. I thought Everett’s might be next if he ever got his act together.

But Tom and Chase rode in, and they, too, greeted Rayland and Glenn when they reached the house. Everyone checked on me, winced at the eye, surveyed the cast on my leg, and said in various ways that they were glad I was okay.

“Can’t have nothin’ happen to you, Stef.” Tom grinned at me. “I like my boss the way he is now. I ain’t ready to have him back how he was.”

Tyler had taken his brother and Glenn all over the ranch that morning, and Rand had shown him the website and the orders that came through at all hours, and showed them by webcam the efficient office in Dallas that handled Rand’s business, introduced them to his sales manager, June Thomas, his accountant, and the other ten people who made certain that no one ever had to wait to buy beef from the Red Diamond.

“Congratulations again on the Grillmaster account, Rand.” June smiled at him.

She was a very attractive woman who a lot of men made the mistake of thinking was only a pretty face and not a scary-smart financial shark. Her smile was predatory.

“Thank you.”

“We look forward to doing much more business with you.”

“Which is appreciated,” he assured her.

“Give Stefan my regards,” she told him since she couldn’t see me across the room.

“Yes, ma’am.” He smiled at her because he appreciated that, too, that she included me as she did every other wife and every other husband of the people she did business with. I was Rand’s partner; it was polite to hope I was doing well. In her mind, there was no difference, and my cowboy liked that about her so much.

Rand had to survey his ranch as he did every day, and Glenn and Rayland had ridden out to watch him, see the operation up close, and get a feel for the land. I checked my email and got a nice message back from my boss at the college. She told me to of course take the day, take Tuesday, and rest, and if I needed Wednesday as well, to simply let her know. I messaged her back that I would be in the next morning, but that I appreciated her concern. By the time lunch rolled around, I could tell from seeing the looks on Rayland’s and Glenn’s faces that the two men were overwhelmed with being on the Red Diamond. When Zach showed up, I watched them interact from the porch.

Zach was as tall and handsome as the rest of the Holloway men, but where the others had blue eyes, his were a lovely golden brown. From the little I could overhear, he was pissed that Glenn had used his need of Rand for selfish purposes. There was yelling and shoving, and Rand and Rayland had to break the brothers up. I was going to walk over to the fence when the profanity started flying, but Tyler showed up with May, and so I let them handle it instead, staying where I was, stretched out on one of the Adirondack chairs, my feet on the coffee table. I would have never done it inside the house, but on the porch it seemed perfectly acceptable.

“Everybody come on up here. I have something to say.”

I sat up from my slouch as they all came clomping up the front steps, cowboy boots making a lot of noise, as Rand led them to me. He stepped around in back of me, hands on my shoulders.

“Oh my God,” May gasped, crossing to me, sitting down on the loveseat, grabbing my hand. “Sweetheart, what in the world happened to your eye?”

“Mom,” Rand said, and her eyes lifted from me to him. “Wait a sec, okay? Uhm, Zach, this here is Stef. Stef, Zach.”

He was really the worst at introductions. He just basically said everyone’s name, and that was it. “Nice to meet you.” I smiled.

Zach seemed very interested in me from the way he was studying my face. “Same here.”

“Okay so.” Rand squeezed my shoulders. “Mom.”

Oh no.

“Wait.” I turned my head to look up at him.

“I know Rayland’s my biological father. Dad told me when I turned eighteen. I’m real sorry I never told you, but I was mad for a piece, and then by the time I worked through that, I just didn’t have the heart to bring it up. Forgive me.”

I turned to look at May.

Silence.

She just sat there, speechless, with her mouth open. As I checked everyone, I saw that Rayland had turned to stone, Tyler was holding on to the porch railing, Zach looked like a deer caught in the headlights, and Glenn, I was pretty sure, was going to be sick.

“That was fuckin’ brilliant,” I said, turning in my seat to look up at the man I loved.

He shrugged, shoving his hands down into the pockets of his jeans. “I ain’t much for grandstandin’, you know that. Sometimes the best thing is to just spit things out.”

I knew that. “Yeah, but Jesus Christ, Rand.”

And then all hell broke loose.

“You knew?” May screeched at her son.

“Your son?” Glenn roared at Rayland.

“Jesus,” Zach breathed out, and the look on his face was hard to distinguish.

“You knew?” May’s voice was increasing in decibel level.

“Your father?” Tyler barked at Rand.

I got up because I didn’t want to sit there, and I needed to talk to my best friend. I missed Charlotte. Walking into the house, I grabbed my cell phone off the coffee table in the living room and called her. And because it was her, and because I had permission from Rand, which I had gotten that morning before we went down for breakfast, I broke the news to her about her brother.

“I know,” she sighed.

My turn to be shocked. “What?”

“Yeah, Daddy told me when I turned eighteen. He wanted me to know, and if Rand ever told me, or didn’t, he still wanted me to know.”

“And?”

“And what? Rand Holloway and I have the same mom, and we grew up with the same dad, and so that makes us brother and sister. No one is ever taking him away from me, and even when I’ve wanted to kill him, I still claimed him as mine.”

Of course the news had changed nothing for Charlotte.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“Oh, Char, that was not your secret to share.”

“I should talk to him. Maybe I’ll come early before the weekend and see you both.”

I grunted.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“I saw the video, you know. I will smack you when I get there.”

“Somebody already did.”

“What does that mean?”

When I told her about Gil Landry and his sister and Glenn and how her cousin wanted to open a restaurant, she had me go back to where Gil hit me.

“I’ll kill him!”

She was feisty, so she would try. “Rand already broke his nose.”

“Oh, awesome. Put him on the phone!”

But when I went outside, I saw that Rand was no longer on the porch. When I looked, I saw him down by the large corral, leaning on the fence, and both Tyler and Rayland were with him. Rand had his arms crossed on the second rail down, forehead pressed to the wood. Rayland was standing close, closer than I’d ever seen them, and I could tell he was doing the talking.

“How about talking to your mom?” I offered Charlotte.

“Good,” she said softly, and I could tell that the emoting of the moment was finally catching up to her.

When I offered May my phone and told her who it was, she snatched it from me and retreated into the house. I was left with the same stunned group of people I had left a half an hour before. They were sitting in silence, and I didn’t want to intrude. Before I could turn to walk back into the house, there was throat clearing.

I turned to look at Zach.

“Do you think that, uhm, Rand would allow me to stay here with y’all?”

“Sure,” I said softly. “But are you sure you’d be comfortable doing that?”

His eyes searched mine. “I think so.”

I turned to look at Glenn. “I know that Rand will help set you up in your restaurant if that’s what you want to do. He—”

“No,” Glenn interrupted, taking a seat beside me, his knee bumping mine as he leaned forward. “My father and I are doing that together. Yesterday on the drive here, he fired me as foreman and told me to go start a restaurant or something.”

I smiled at him.

Zach gasped.

“It’s so like him.”

“It surely is,” Zach agreed. “He didn’t tell you it was a good idea. He just threw you off his ranch, but he’s gonna give you the money to start a restaurant, the same restaurant you’ve been talkin’ about for the last four years.”

“Yep.”

“Christ.”

“That’s how he works.”

“It is,” Zach agreed. “He really is a son of a bitch.”

“You could probably have my job as foreman,” Glenn said to his brother.

“Not on a bet,” Zach chuckled. “After I sell my ranch, I’m gonna come back here for a spell and work until I figure out what’s next. And maybe bein’ here will spark somethin’.”

“Maybe,” Glenn agreed, his voice hoarse as he leaned back, his shoulder against mine.

The three of us were quiet, watching the three men down by the large corral. Tyler was yelling, but I couldn’t hear about what over the wind. Rayland was pointing at Rand and then patting his heart as he roared back, and my cowboy looked like he wanted to crawl out of his own skin. I stood up, moved to the porch railing, and yelled for him.

When his head turned, I waved for him, and he started toward me without a word to the other two men.

“What do you need, Stef?” Glenn asked me. “I can help you if you need something.”

“Nope, only Rand,” I told him as the man reached the porch steps and his eyes were on mine. “Your mother’s in the house.”

He nodded, but didn’t leave, instead crossing to me and stepping close. His hand lifted to the back of my head as he leaned in and pressed his lips to my forehead.

“Everything will be fine,” I promised.

He nodded before he left.

“That was nice.”

I turned to look at Zach.

“You knew he needed a break, and so you gave him one without him lookin’ like he needed it.”

Exactly.

He gave me a slight smile.

I walked back over to them, taking my seat beside Glenn. When he turned to look at me, I didn’t look away.

“I might be confused about who I want, but not what I want.”

“I know,” I patted his knee, leaning back, putting my feet up on the table, stretching out my legs.

After a minute, he put his feet on the table beside mine, and after another minute, Zach did too.

“All we need is some beer,” Glenn sighed after several long minutes.

“We haven’t even had lunch yet,” Zach told him.

“We could drink lunch,” I suggested.

Everyone agreed that my idea was amazing, but none of us moved. It was quiet out on the porch. The sky was gray, it looked like it might rain, and that crisp fall smell was in the air like a mixture of burning wood, wet earth, pine, and rain.

“This ranch feels like a home, Stef,” Zach said after awhile.

“It really does,” Glenn agreed, head back, eyes closed.

“Does your arm hurt?” I asked him.

“Some. How ’bout your leg?”

“Some,” I teased him.

He smiled, but didn’t open his eyes.

“So are you okay about Rand?”

Deep make grunt from him. “Rand Holloway ain’t my brother. The only brother I got is sittin’ to my right. He’ll always be what he is, my cousin I can barely stand… and that’s all right.”

Zach reached out and patted Glenn’s leg, which pulled another grunt from the man.

“I’ll come home for a bit after I get the ranch sold, and help you get the restaurant going.”

“I appreciate that. Maybe you’ll wanna stay and help me, you never know.”

“Nope,” Zach agreed, leaning back, pulling his hat low across his forehead. “You never do know.”

I watched them, sitting there together, Glenn looking like he was asleep, Zach staring out into space, and wondered why they just couldn’t say they were sorry for yelling at each other earlier and hug it out. But Zach stating he’d help and Glenn accepting was apparently as good as it got.

Tyler and Rayland walked up toward the house, and both men dropped down onto the sturdy chairs. They looked exhausted.

“So,” I said to Tyler.

“You might have told me,” he muttered.

“I had no idea until May told me while I was at the rodeo.”

“And that there’s another thing.” Tyler turned on Rayland. “What the hell were you thinkin’ lettin’ your boy’s partner get up on that damn horse? If you knew what Rand was to you and you knew what Stef was to him—what in God’s name were ya thinkin’?”