Oklahoma Moonshine (The McIntyre Men #1) (21 page)

“You forgot?”

“It didn’t work. I didn’t get you to give me any money. You bought half the ranch instead. Believe me, that was not my plan.”

He rolled his eyes. “It was a lie. And things started up between us and you still didn’t tell me.”

She blinked at him. “I…I’m sorry.” He lowered his head, and she closed the distance between them, put her hands on his shoulders.
“No, I mean it. I’m sorry. Rob, I’m trying. I am. I’m afraid I’m just not very good at this.”

He hadn’t responded. Not in any way. Dejected, she dropped her hands to her sides. “Maybe I’m trying to be something I’m
not.”

“What, honest?”

“You really know how to ruin a great breakfast, you know that?” She sent a regretful look at the muffin, sitting on its plate atop her blanket
on the bed. The coffee was still clutched in her hand. You couldn’t have pried it away with a crowbar. “I’m gonna take a shower.”

“Kiley, don’t. Don’t brush me off this way. We need to talk about this.”

“No we don’t. You’ve got to decide whether or not you can accept me for who I am. Not who I’m trying my ass off to become, but who
I am, right now, right here.”

“How the hell can I do that when you won’t
show
me who you are?”

“I am showing you,” she said. “I know it took me too long, but I’m showing you now. I opened up to you last night. And you backed
away, just like I knew you would. Face it, Rob. You’re too good for the likes of a Kellogg girl.”

He put his hands on her outer arms and stared down into her face. “Then why am I falling in love with one?”

“Falling in love…?” The muffin and the coffee chose that moment to launch their escape attempt. She clapped a hand over her mouth, ducked
beneath his right arm and ran for the bathroom.

Kiley leaned against the gate post at the end of the driveway. Tonight, she and Rob were having that dinner with her dad and Kendra, which they’d put
off for two more nights. The dinner wasn’t happening at the ranch, but rather at The Long Branch. She was more nervous than she’d ever been in
her life. Her father was better than her. Her sister was phenomenal. And Kiley was the screw up, the one who hadn’t inherited the family gift. And
she was going to try to outcon the two best cons she knew.

She was terrified.

So she pushed it from her mind, because this morning was special.

Two posts stood tall on either side of the driveway, with a big sign suspended in between. The sign was a rectangle, but it had a fancy border burned into
its face. And inside that border, deep gouges in the wood formed a western sort of font that spelled out HOLIDAY RANCH.

Rob’s whole family had gone in on it, had it custom made as a ranch-warming gift, as they’d put it.

Rob stood across the driveway from her, leaning on the opposite post, watching the empty road as intently as she was. He was wearing a Stetson. He hardly
ever wasn’t these days.

They hadn’t talked any more about their relationship. She didn’t know if he regretted what he’d said to her or not. Or if he’d
meant it in the past tense. He hadn’t touched her again, hadn’t kissed her. She was aching with longing.

The Stetson looked good on him. She kind of loved it on him.

“I think I’m as excited as you are,” she said, just to say something that was honest.

“This is a dream come true for me,’’ he said, dragging his eyes off the horizon to look her way.

She didn’t think he could stop himself from smiling if he tried. For a second she glimpsed the little boy he must’ve been once, and her heart
did some odd kind of flip-flop in her chest. She just wished his eyes weren’t shadowed by the weight of the mess she’d brought crashing into
his life. The poor guy.

“I’m glad I get to be a part of this,” she said. “Whatever else happens.”

His face turned serious. “I’m glad about that, too.”

The rumble of a semi-truck reached her ears, and she swung her head around. “Here they come!” She just barely restrained herself from bouncing
up and down and clapping her hands like a little girl when the ice cream truck stops near her house.

Rob stood up straighter and pushed the hat back on his head. Then he shot across to her side of the driveway.

The truck rolled through, clearing their sign with two feet to spare, she noted with relief. They ran along beside the blue livestock trailer, trying to
get glimpses through its portholes.

Big brown eyes with thick paintbrush lashes here, a pink, twitching nostril there. A flash of shaking mane.

The truck swung around past the corral, kicking up a dust cloud, and then began backing up to its gate. Rob ran ahead to open it.

A minute later the driver got out, went around to the back, opened the trailer door and vanished inside. Kiley was almost holding her breath when the first
young mare, cream colored with a paler mane and tail, came light-stepping her way out of the trailer and into the paddock. She was followed by another, her
coat deep red-brown, and then another. Kiley kept thinking that every horse that came out was the prettiest, until the next one emerged.

Rob went to close the gate as the driver folded up the ramp and closed the trailer doors once again.

Eight mares pranced around the corral, manes and tails wafting in the blissfully cool breeze. Rob had told her the proper names for their colors when
he’d shown her their pictures online. The blue-gray one was a blue roan, the black and white, a piebald. There was a palomino, a chestnut and a
beautiful dark bay. But the most impressive of all was the dominant white, who was living up to her name. Their hooves raised up a dust cloud around them.

“God, they’re beautiful.”

Rob nodded and rested his head on top of hers just for a second, watching the mares prance.

“Got some papers for you to sign,” the driver said.

Rob went around to the front of the truck with the driver.

Kiley watched the mares dance as they began to settle down. Their movements slowed and they started exploring their surroundings.

She loved it here. This place, this moment, she loved it. She wanted this to be her life. And she was trying to do the right thing. It was probably as
likely to fail as to succeed, but she was trying. She hoped Rob could see that. It had hurt when he’d asked if she was working with her family. But
she knew she couldn’t blame him for it. She was a crook. She’d told him she was a crook. She’d played him.

But she’d changed. She was doing the right thing now, the good thing. The thing Vidalia Brand-McIntyre or one of her daughters would do.

She wanted to be a good person. And dammit, once she’d decided that, real clearly in her mind—it had cut loose inside her like a west coast
mudslide. She couldn’t stop it. It was challenging, and it was exciting, and it felt good. Trying to be a good person, doing what felt like a good
thing, it filled a dark cavern inside her with honey-gold light, revealing a cave made of diamonds.

It felt like salvation.

At least it had, right up until Rob had learned who she’d been before.

It was heartbreaking. He was pulling away from someone who didn’t exist anymore. And in the process, letting go of someone who might just be
wonderful.

Or, you know, doing ten to twelve in Folsom.

She heard the rig’s door slam, and then it growled its intentions and rolled back the way it had come. Rob watched it go, then came back to the
corral. “Let’s see how they like their new stompin’ grounds.”

“They’re gonna love it.” His joy was contagious. She had never been so glad to be right where she was. She stopped worrying about what
was to come, just put everything out of her mind except this amazing moment. They walked together around the corral, to the fence line that ran from the
back of the stable, through a rolling meadow with shade trees, a small woody lot, and plenty of grasses and wildflowers. The river snaked its way right
through it.

Kiley followed Rob around to the back side of the corral, where it intersected the meadow, and he opened the gate.

The mares knew exactly what to do. The white mare went first, prancing like a ballerina into the meadow, then broke into a full-on gallop for about twenty
yards. She stopped and stood, just looking. The others trotted into the meadow one by one. Some explored, some went down to the river, and one began eating
immediately. “Look, look at her. The blue roan, she’s so beautiful.”

“She’s one of my favorites.”

“And just look at
her
,” Kiley said, watching the white mare checking things out. And then she reared up and cut loose a loud whinny
that drew immediate attention from the other seven.

“You get the feeling she’s telling them who’s gonna be in charge around here?” Kiley asked.

“No question in my mind. Reminds me of Vidalia.” He glanced down at her. “And you.”

“Me?” She shook her head. “No way, I don’t want to be in charge of anybody.”

“You know what you want, and you do whatever it takes to get it,” he said.

She stared at him hard. “That used to be true. It’s not true anymore.” She took a deep breath, looked him right in the eye and told
herself to let him see her.

He leaned on the corral fence. He only could’ve looked more the cliché if he’d been chewing on a piece of hay. “I knew there was no
ring. I knew it right from the start,” he said.

“You did?”

He nodded. “I don’t know if anyone’s ever told you this, but you’re a terrible liar.”

Tears welled up and she automatically blurted, “Dad considered it my biggest flaw.”

“I’m glad you’re a bad liar. People who are inherently honest usually are.”

“They are?”

“Yeah.”

“So if you knew, then why did you buy in with me?”

“I wanted the place anyway. Wanted to get it without dipping into my inheritance if I could, and you seemed like the perfect solution. Besides, I
thought you were cute and sweet and kinda sexy, and I loved your ideas about Holiday Ranch.” He took a deep breath. “I knew what I was getting
into. Decided to take the risk. So…if you’re feeling guilty about tricking me, don’t.”

“Why are you telling me now?” She hoped it wasn’t the beginning of a long goodbye.

“Because we’re going to fight about this later, in front of your family. I don’t want you to start thinking anything I might say then is
real.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Have you told me everything now?” he asked. “Is there anything else you haven’t—“

“Everything,” she said.

“You sure? You never killed anybody?”

“No!”

“You ever put anyone in the hospital? Kidnap their babies? Abuse their children?”

“No! God, what do you think I—”

He turned them around and, pressing her back to the side of the barn, stared hard into her eyes. “Have you, Kiley Kellogg, ever kicked a dog?”

“Have I…what?” Her heart was beating faster. The way he was looking at her, oh, God, and snugging his body right up against hers. She
could hardly catch her breath.

“Kicked a dog,” he repeated. “Or any innocent animal. I can’t abide animal cruelty. That’s a deal breaker right there.”

“No,” she whispered in a voice rubbed with sandpaper. “Never.”

“Good.” He kissed her then. She didn’t think he was gonna stop, either. She hoped not. She’d had enough of feeling cold and alone
and longing for him to touch her again.

 She was drunk right then. On him, on the taste of him, the scent of him, the intoxicating velvety brush of his lips over hers. She’d been so
sure she’d lost him.

He kept on kissing her as he walked her off the barn wall and sideways, through its door. They stepped into cool darkness, the smell of oats with molasses,
and hay, and new lumber. Still kissing, they fell into a pile of fresh hay, stacked loose in an alcove. It prickled her arms and her legs, but he’d
grabbed a brand new horse blanket from a rack on the way past, and he spread it beneath them and moved her onto it.

The kissing went on. Not just her lips, no. He dropped kisses like a strand of pearls along her jawline, and into the hollow beneath her ear, sending
shivers all the way to her toes, unbuttoning her shirt while he was at it. She realized it and tried to decide whether she was supposed to be unbuttoning
his, but thinking was way beyond her scope just then. His lips trailed down one side of her neck, and curved around into the ultra-sensitive well at the
front of her throat. She thought her body was going to melt into a puddle of pleasure.

Her blouse was gone. Bra, too, a second later. And then he was kissing her breasts and she stopped wondering anything, except how she could feel this much
pleasure and not die from it.

And then she stopped thinking even that, because they were all wrapped up in each other, naked skin to naked skin, the most delicious friction there was.

It was two hours before another thought was able to gel inside her brain. And that, just a vague awareness, really, that what she felt for Rob was bigger
than anything she’d ever felt in her life. Bigger than she knew she was capable of feeling. It was massive, infinite, all encompassing. It was…

Oh my God, was it love? Was this what love felt like? Could that be what this was?

What if she loved him?

Rob spent the afternoon getting the stalls ready for the mares. Kiley had come out to join him. He was trying to keep things light between them, but it
weighed on him heavily that their plan was going down tonight and might not work.

He didn’t want to see her arrested for her crimes, not when she was trying so hard to change. And he didn’t want to see her family steal from
Big Falls. Partly because he loved the place and everyone in it. But mostly because he didn’t think Kiley would ever forgive herself.

He didn’t know anything for sure beyond that.

“God, it smells good in here,” she said.

She looked right at home in a stable. It was that strawberry blond, sun-kissed, country-girl look, he supposed. “It’s the grain.” Rob
inhaled. Every breath smelled like molasses. “I put a little bit in each stall. I want them to love it here.”