One Night Rodeo (18 page)

Celia frowned. “Eli? Really?”

“You know how Eli is always so reserved? He lit into Hank and Abe, angry like I’d never seen. He’s the one who told them about Marshall Townsend, Kyle.”

“I didn’t expect Eli would do that.”

“It just got worse. Tanna called to ream my husband. So did Devin, who snapped at them both to grow the fuck up, be happy and thankful that Kyle, one of the greatest guys he knows, ended up with Celia. Then Fletch called because Eli was pissed off enough to share with him what the Lawson brothers had done.” Lainie lowered her voice. “We decided to wait a few days before dropping by. Janie would’ve come too, but she’s about to pop.”

Celia let go of Lainie’s hands. “I’m glad you’re here. But to be honest, I don’t wanna talk about my brothers anymore, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I wanna see my darlin’ niece.”

Harper and Bran returned with Brianna, who said, “Mamamamamama,” and tried to throw herself out of Harper’s arms.

“Come here, kiddo, and say hi to your auntie Celia and your uncle Kyle.”

Kyle said, “Whoa. That sounds weird.”

Celia held her hands out for Brianna, but she shook her head and buried her face in Lainie’s neck.

“So, Kyle, you gonna show me your place and tell me how the hell you ended up with it?” Bran asked.

“Sure. We’ll both need a beer. Maybe a lot of beer.” Kyle kissed Celia on the cheek before he and Bran went outside.

“I’m ready for the tour,” Harper said.

Lainie shifted Brianna. “She’s about to fall asleep. Got any place I can sit down?”

“Just the kitchen. The living room furniture was nasty. We’re repainting and stuff before the new carpet and furniture come next week.”

“I’ll catch up with you guys in a minute.”

“I’m dying to hear about you and Kyle,” Harper said after Lainie went into the kitchen.

Celia gave her the short version of their courtship and marriage because that’s all there was.

Harper shook her head. “No wonder I hadn’t heard from you. I thought you were mad at me.”

“Why would I be mad at you?”

“I don’t know. It seems ever since I married Bran you’ve been distant.”

“Just because of distance, Harper.” Celia dropped her voice. “Family stuff has been dogging me for a lot longer than this last blowup. You know that. And you and Bran were newlyweds. You didn’t want me crashing at your new house and dragging you to Buckeye Joe’s to get your drink on.”

“You don’t have to be knocking back a beer next to me in person to talk to me, Cele.”

“True. But it is more fun.” She grinned. “I’ll take you on the nickel tour.”

Harper got a huge kick out of hearing Kyle’s reaction to the two pink bathrooms.

Lainie entered the bedroom with a sleeping Brianna. She laid her on her back in the middle of the bed and they all tiptoed out. “She’s down for at least a half hour.”

“You guys want a beer or coffee or something?”

“I’d love a cup of tea,” Harper said.

Celia hadn’t played hostess before. She didn’t have any dessert-type thing to serve with the coffee, which would probably get her kicked out of the ranch-wives club.

Tea in hand, Harper tugged her into the living room. “Tell me what you’ve got planned for this space.”

Feeling a little shy, because she had no decorating expertise, Celia showed the paint colors. Talked about the furniture. The carpet. Rearranging the space. “Kyle didn’t want anything too girly.”

Lainie and Harper exchanged a smug look.

“What?”

“Ignore him. Especially since you already have two pink bathrooms. Put whatever colors or patterns in here you want.”

Celia couldn’t tell them she probably wouldn’t be sticking around and didn’t want to saddle him with stuff he hated.

Yeah, that’s why you picked everything
you
like. Because you can’t wait to leave it behind. For Kyle’s next wife.

“Speaking of bathrooms…Lainie, could I convince you to take out these stitches?”

“What happened?”

“Run-in with a rogue steer. The doc in Vegas said to leave ’em in a week, so do you mind? Bein’s you’re a medical professional and all?”

“If I don’t do it, you’ll do it yourself, won’t you?”

“Probably. They itch like hell.”

“Come on.”

Celia couldn’t help but stare at the angry red mark. Good thing they hadn’t taken wedding pictures with the Bride of Frankenstein scar.

Lainie looped her arm through Celia’s as they walked back to the kitchen. “You’re really done with barrel racing and Kyle’s giving up bull riding?”

“It wasn’t a hard choice—we’ve both been disillusioned in the last year. We were just talking about how happy we are not to be hitting the blacktop.”
She looked at Lainie. “I think Tanna’s getting to that point too. Although she’s winning, she’s tired of competing. She’s ready to settle down, but she’ll never come out and say it.”

“It’s not PC to admit the appeal of home and hearth, is it?” Lainie asked.

Celia shook her head. “I find it interesting that the girls Harper and I went to high school with, who were lucky enough to attend college, got married right after college graduation. They became housewives and mothers without ever holding down a real job.” Her gaze moved between Lainie and Harper. “Both of you guys have jobs outside being ranch wives.”

Harper’s eyes turned thoughtful. “Are you afraid you’ll get bored being Kyle’s wife?”

Never
. “No. But what if I need something else?” Celia had to stop and think. Was she addressing this now and laying the groundwork for their inevitable divorce? So Harper and Lainie could say they saw it coming early on?

“I don’t see Kyle as the type to fault you for that.”

Celia sighed. “Do you think the guys are out there talking about this stuff?”

“Chances are high they’re discussing cows,” Lainie said.

“Cows?”

“Yes, cows are a major topic of discussion. All the freakin’ time,” Harper complained.

“But Hank and Abe have complained that all Janie and I talk about is babies,” Lainie pointed out.

“And Bran reminds me that if we have Renner and Tierney over, all we talk about is the Split Rock Ranch and Resort.” Harper’s eyes twinkled. “So maybe we oughta talk about one thing that’s always on our minds. Sex.”

Lainie frowned. “I think I hear Brianna.” She scooted out of the kitchen.

Talk about abrupt. Was Lainie uncomfortable talking about this because Hank was Celia’s brother? Or because Lainie had been with Kyle during that summer she’d traveled the circuit with Hank and Kyle?

Harper leaned forward. “Spill the juicy details, Cele. You and Kyle.”

“The man is amazing in bed. Like gold-medal amazing.”

“I bet that was on the plus side of you deciding to marry him, huh?”

Celia spun her coffee cup around. “Believe it or not, Kyle and I didn’t have sex until after we were married.”

“Seriously?”

“It truly was one of those we-looked-at-each-other-and-everything-just-fell-into-place type of moments.” She grinned. “So the fact he has the mad bedroom skills is a serious bonus.”

She dropped the subject when Lainie returned with Brianna. Although it kept popping into her head that her husband had had sex with Lainie. Kinky sex. She was starting to wish she didn’t know the backstory between her new husband and her brother and his wife. She wasn’t jealous. Okay, she was jealous, but how did she bring it up with him?

So…Kyle, is there anything that you, Hank, and Lainie
didn’t
do together that you wanna try with me?

Brianna held out her arms for Celia and thoughts of various threesome positions were forgotten. She kissed her niece’s head, the coppery ringlets tickling her nose. Brianna had her mother’s hair, but her eyes were exactly like Hank’s.

Celia wandered to the window and looked out, but didn’t see Kyle or Bran anywhere.

Maybe they really were out in the pasture talking about cows.

Kyle took Bran into the barn and they sat across from each other on the ATVs.

“So you and Celia? I ain’t surprised. You’ve wanted to tap that for a long time,” Bran said.

“No lie. Always made me feel like a fuckin’ pervert.” Kyle grinned. “Still makes me feel like a pervert when I think of all the raunchy stuff I can do with my sexy wife any freakin’ time I want.”

Bran laughed. “Ain’t that the truth.” He sipped his beer. “I just gotta throw this out there. Hank and Abe were wrong. And you get props from me for not knocking them both on their asses. I had to stop Harper from goin’ over there.”

Kyle couldn’t help but smile, thinking about sweet-mouthed Harper marching over and giving the gruff ranchers what for.

“They’re good guys, but they’ve treated Celia like she was eleven long after she ain’t been eleven. We all kinda did it too, up to a point, but never like her brothers did. And it pissed me off how they threatened us with bodily harm if we ever touched her. Took her a long time to see herself as an attractive girl—woman—and not as a tomboy. I hated that we played a part in that.”

Kyle was glad he wasn’t the only one who’d seen that. “Me too.”

“Hank and Abe will come around. They already have, according to Lainie, but I guess I don’t blame you and Celia for needing some time to cool off.”

“We sure as shit got plenty to do around here to keep ourselves occupied.”

“How shocked were you to find out Marshall Townsend was your father?”

“Ask me when the shock wears off. It’s like I’ll wake up and find it’s all a damn dream. I went from saving as much money as possible to buy my own place to inheriting a place complete with cows, horses, a house, and barns.”

“Why do you think your mom didn’t tell you?”

“Who the fuck knows? I gotta be honest, I’m too pissed off at her right now to be civil, so I’ve warned her to give me some time.” Kyle shook his head, thinking back to his most recent conversation with his mother and her insistence on explaining things. “I’m pissed off at him too, even though he’s dead. He looked me right in the goddamn eye that night at Cactus Jack’s. He fucking talked to me and never said a word about any of this.”

Bran frowned. “Wait. You mean that time a bunch of us went out in Rawlins a few years back when Hank and Lainie were dating?”

“Yeah. He approached me. Babbled some drunken bullshit, but nothing like,
Hey, I’m your father, lemme buy you a drink and we’ll talk
.” Kyle counted to ten. “In the fourteen years since he learned the truth about me, he never tried to get in contact with me. Then he has an attack of conscience on his deathbed and reaches out?”

“Man, that sucks. But at least he done right by you by leaving you this place.”

“I guess. It’s just weird. All those years growing up, I’d wondered who my father was. I imagine you did too, since we’re the only ones of our group
who grew up fatherless. But I’d always wondered if I looked like him. Or if he had kids besides me. If maybe he’d died. Or maybe he was famous.”

“I had those thoughts a time or two myself. I asked my grandma about it and she was always honest, as much as it pained her. She said my mom hadn’t been sure who’d impregnated her because she’d been with lots of guys. So I let it go.”

“I thought I’d let it go too, but then this comes from out of nowhere.”

“He didn’t write you a letter, or anything explaining it?”

Kyle wondered how he could talk about this without coming across as sounding ungrateful. “No. A warning would’ve been nice. Christ. All those years I helped you guys out on your places? It was like I was playing. I really had no fucking idea how much work is involved in raising cattle.”

“And you haven’t gotten to the fun parts yet. Two months of limited sleep and frigid nights tracking down an angry mama and sickly calves. Or hot summer days when I literally fall off the rake or the baler because I’ve been on the machine for sixteen hours straight. Or when you haul cattle to market and lose your ass, but why is steak twelve bucks a pound in the grocery store?”

“I ain’t really bitching, you know. I’m just overwhelmed.” Kyle grimaced and drained his beer. “And a damn greenhorn.”

Bran laughed. “You got yourself a mighty fine ranch hand in Celia. She ain’t gonna steer you wrong. She knows more about ranching than her brothers ever gave her credit for. But if you have questions, Kyle, for chrissake, don’t have too much pride to call me, okay? You know I ain’t the type of guy to make fun of you or make you feel like an idiot for askin’.”