by Jillian Neal
She detected a low murmured sound in the distance but couldn’t quite determine what it was just yet. Rocks pinged the underside of his truck muffling the sound, so Kaitlyn gave up and tried to prepare for meeting his family.
“You said you have two brothers and two sisters?” Why hadn’t she asked more questions before? She was about to meet these people.
“Yep. Luke, Austin, Natalie, and baby Holly.”
“How old is baby Holly?”
“Twenty-four.”
“Bet she’s sick and tired of being called baby, then.”
“Well, you two’ll surely get on just fine.”
Slowing the truck, Grant turned left off of the road. Tension mounted in Kaitlyn’s head. What if these people didn’t like her? What the hell was she doing here? Yesterday, she was supposed to become Mrs. Seth Christenson. A repulsed shudder worked through her. Today, she was with Grant on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. A low hum sounded in her good ear. Relax, Kaitlyn, just relax. Panic made hearing even more difficult.
Suddenly, a tall, wrought-iron sign came into view. Camden Ranch ~ Est. 1868, with what she guessed was some kind of cattle brand on either side. But it was the wording underneath the sign that brought breath back to her lungs and silenced the hum in her ear. Set your troubles down. You are home.
“That ain’t a good sign either.” Defeat resonated in Grant’s low drawl.
“What isn’t?”
He gestured beyond the sign where a cluster of beasts stood munching on grass. Having never actually seen a cow in real life she instinctively slid closer to Grant. Were they supposed to be that massive?
“They’re … very … large.”
“Them? Nah, they’re just over yearlings. They’re Dec and Holly’s. Problem is they’re not behind a fence. Best get you in the house so I can go to work.”
“How do you know they’re Holly’s?”
“That’s her brand on their back ends there. We all have our own brand. Makes things easier. But I bet I got some out and about where they ain’t supposed to be, too. My land’s on the back side of the ranch so mine run away from the entrance when they get spooked.”
Before Kaitlyn could think of more questions, they’d driven by the cows and were passing what looked like barns and a few other buildings.
The rapid rhythmic clicks of the emergency brake alerted her to a large farmhouse nearby. She’d been so busy taking in the sweeping plains and outbuildings she missed the house.
People spilled out the side door and down to meet Grant. A few of them had to be his brothers. They all looked similar, though he was by far the sexiest, more rugged with that intoxicating determination that resonated throughout any space where he existed.
“Let ‘em love up on you for a minute then I’ll take you to my house,” he offered apologetically.
Attempting to swallow down her nerves proved unsuccessful. Her voice shook. “They don’t even know me. Why would they love me?”
“’Cause they figure you’re here to stay.” He offered no further explanation before his booted feet landed in the muddy grass.
Chapter Twelve
“Finally,” Grant’s mother Jessie forced a hug on him whether he wanted her affection or not. “You scared me to death.”
“I’m sorry, Mama. I couldn’t call. Uh, this is Kaitlyn Sommerville. Well, she is ‘til I convince her to let me call her Katy Belle.”
Jessie rolled her eyes. “Well, come here, sweetheart. We’ll call you Kaitlyn until you tell us otherwise, since I know my son is a smartass. Cute, but occasionally obnoxious. Now, it sounds like you’ve had quite a night. Come on in. I’ve got breakfast on the stove.”
“So, she drove her car into your hitch?” Dec, Grant’s brother-in-law, inquired as Kaitlyn was ushered in the house.
“Yep. Right as she was running away from her wedding. Found out her fiancé was a cheating sonuvabitch. Hitch has a scratch on it, but don’t mention it to her. This’ll be a hell of a story if I make this all work out right.” Grant was tired of pretending away the Camden legend. He wanted to make it happen. He just hadn’t quite figured out how.
“Ah yes, well, I believe it was Mr. London himself who said the most beautiful stories start with wreckage.” Dec’s British accent spilled heavily into his tone.
“I’ll take your word for it.” He didn’t want to ask who Mr. London was. Dec was the genius psychologist on the ranch. Grant was perfectly happy just being a rancher. “You know you got stock out by the entrance gates?”
A solemn nod preceded Dec scrubbing his hands over his eyes. “Holly and Summer are out rounding them up. Wind took down most of our fence. I say this with all of the sympathy I can muster, grab some food and then hop in the skid steer. Austin just hooked up the auger.”
“Yeah, I hear ya. You been over to my side yet? Bet I got stock and corn to deal with.”
“We went after your stock first. Didn’t want them getting in what’s left of the corn. They’re penned up at Luke’s. Fences over there managed to stay upright for the most part, but we’ve got to get them back on your side soon. The hail was not kind to the corn. I’m sorry, man. Looks pretty rough over there.”
Defeat sank through Grant. He swore the earth itself drew his boots deeper into the wet ground. “I figured that.”
“No one’s got power and we’re welling it.”
“No water either?”
“Supposed to be fixed tonight or tomorrow.”
“Jay-sus.” Grant shook his head. “I brought her out here to try and convince her to leave all her misery in Lincoln, not so she’d have to haul in buckets of water.”
“Don’t give up yet.” Dec slapped Grant on the back. “Could be romantic. Candles, firelight, the whole deal. Women generally like that. They’re all perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, but most of them rather like being cared for as well.”
“’S’pose you would know, being a sex doctor and all.” Grant tried to feel encouraged, but exhaustion took a mighty blow to his weary frame.
Dec laughed. “Glad my work prior to becoming a rancher can help a brother in need.”
“In need don’t even begin to cover it. I can’t even think straight.”
Still chuckling, Dec nodded his understanding. “She agreed to come out here with you. That’s a good sign. Now, just wow her with your wild cowboy ways.”
“Yeah, I’ll get right to that after I clean up four dozen acres of corn.”
It would take them a week or more to get the ranch restored and him another two to clean up what was left of his corn—if he was even able to salvage it at all. So much for knee high by the Fourth of July. He hoped he had enough to replant next season. His family thought he was crazy when he’d wanted to diversify half of his land. Row crops always yielded more cash, especially corn, unless Mother Nature had a bone to pick with you. But a few years back, he’d tripled his money and had managed to add quite a sum to the family business accounts several years in a row. The past two hadn’t been as good, unfortunately.
“You know we’ll help you with that, right?”
“Ain’t your job.”
“The twister didn’t touch down here so it was just wind and hail damage. We lost a few early calves who got bogged, and several heifers. Luke’s trying to get all of them paired with other mamas. There’s plenty of work for everyone. Holly and I never would’ve gotten up and running as quickly as we did if you hadn’t helped me learn how to do all of this. I can help you clean up downed crops,” Dec informed him. He sounded mildly pissed off. “For now, you might want to rescue your newly-minted one-and-only from your mother, lest she begin planning your wedding.”
Grant grunted at the thought, but Dec was right. His mother being overzealous could have Kaitlyn running before he got a chance to tie her down. She was already skittish.
“Uncle Grant,” bellowed from Austin’s five-year-old son, J.J. “You’re back.” He tore off across the yard with Luke’s dogs, Bella and Bailey, runnin
g at his flanks.
“Hey, little man.” Grant caught him in mid-flight. “You helping Daddy fix fence this morning?”
“Yeah, it’s a mess. Mama and Aunt Natalie got most’a our calves. Aunt Holly’s rounding up the rest’a hers. Mama says you were bringing a girl back to the ranch. She says you’re gonna marry her. I told her you ain’t getting married ‘cause girls are gross, and they just boss you around all the time, and they ain’t good for nothin’.”
“Did your Aunt Holly hear you say that, J.J.?” Dec scrubbed J.J.’s sandy blond hair. “I’m betting she didn’t since you aren’t tied to a fence post.”
“She did hear me, and she and Mama yelled at me and made me clean out the horse stalls all by myself, and I didn’t get to go on the Gator neither. And now I have to help Memaw and Papa watch the babies instead a’ watchin’ the fight with you and Daddy and Uncle Luke on next Friday night.” J.J. sounded as if his list of punishments had included hot coal walking along with tar and feathering.
“Good. Now, let that be the last time you ever say girls ain’t good for nothin’, you got that?” Grant demanded.
“Are you two gonna yell at me, too?” J.J.’s huff of disdain had Grant and Dec hiding their grins. “I won’t say it no more, just please, tell Mama not to make me watch them babies.”
“I ain’t telling your Mama nothing. You talking like that, you better thank your lucky stars your daddy didn’t do more than keep you from watching the fight. He might’a tanned your back side.”
This had J.J. wiggling down out of Grant’s arms. “Did you bring a girl home or not?” He demanded as he sank down on the grass and let Bailey lick his face.
“I did bring a girl back to the ranch with me and you, mister, better be on your best behavior when she’s around.”
“What’s her name?”
“Kaitlyn.”
“There’s a girl in my class named Kaitlyn. She screamed when I tried to show her a lizard I caught on a tree by the slide. Girls scream too much.”
“Well, do your Uncle Grant a favor and don’t show this Kaitlyn any lizards just yet, okay? And don’t show her any of them bullfrogs you keep catching from the lake either.”
“She don’t like lizards neither?”
“Probably not.”
Popping up off the ground like a kernel of popcorn in a hot skillet, J.J. shook his head, “And you don’t think girls are good for nothin’.”
Before Grant could catch him, he scooted up the stairs and inside the house.
“You know, he’s probably got a frog in his pocket so if you don’t want him surprising Kaitlyn with it you better catch him.” Dec nodded towards the house.
“That boy is his daddy through and through. Austin deserves every one of his shenanigans.”
“Yeah, but Summer doesn’t.”
“Ain’t that God’s truth.” Grant headed in the house to locate Kaitlyn before his nephew gave her a lesson in pond creatures.
Bliss once again danced just under the surface as Kaitlyn sank down on the living room floor of what she assumed was Grant’s parent’s home to play with two adorable baby girls just managing to sit up on their own on a blanket. Twins. In that moment, Keith felt just a little closer. The fire roaring in the fireplace warmed her soul.
“You’re welcome to pick them up, but you have to pick both of them up. They don’t like to be apart. Luke and I had to put them back in the same crib.” Luke’s wife, Indie, explained.
“I think that’s probably normal. My mom used to say I was like that with my brother. I used to go everywhere with him. When you’re together from the first moment, it feels strange to be apart.”
“You have a twin brother?” Indie grinned. “My little sisters are twins, and they’re still always together like that.”
“Had. I had a twin brother.”
“Oh. I’m so sorry.”
Kaitlyn wished the shake of her head would rid her of the pain of her loss. “What are their names?”
“Dakota and Savana.”
“Oh, like the cities?”
“Nope, like the cars. Dodge and Chevy,” Indie pointed to each child in kind.
“Oh, uh, that’s … interesting.” Who named their kids after cars?
“For a while, we were worried she was gonna name ‘em Axle and Rod.” Grant’s deep voice stirred inside of Kaitlyn. Her focus immediately honed in on him leaning against the door jamb. “Indie’s Pleasant Glen’s own resident wrench-head.”
Kaitlyn started to scold Grant for calling Indie a name, but she sank her teeth into her tongue instead. She didn’t even know Indie, and she had no right to get on to Grant. This wasn’t her family. Grant wasn’t even her boyfriend. She just couldn’t shake the feeling of belonging here.
“You know it, and from what your woman was just saying, Grant Camden, it sounds like you need to offer to babysit so I can pull the hitch off of your truck ‘fore you go getting yourself arrested for kidnapping.”
“You told ‘em about all that?” Grant reached down and managed to scoop up both of his nieces at once. All of Kaitlyn’s reproductive organs performed some kind of country line dance she wasn’t even aware existed before that moment.
“Your grandfather told them everything he knew, but of course he didn’t know about Josh pulling us over.”
“She was trying to apologize to us for being here of all things.” Grant’s mother came into the living room drying her hands on a towel. “I told her not to worry about a thing, and that oddly enough, this is not the first time we’ve harbored a fugitive for one of our boys.”
“Damn, I nearly forgot Summer was on the run when they showed up here,” Grant sighed.
“You’re not ‘posed to say that word, Uncle Grant. Mama makes Daddy put a dollar in the cussin’ jar when he says it.” A little boy Kaitlyn hadn’t met yet appeared at her side. He turned to her with a mischievous grin. “And if he says fu …”
“Jahan James Camden, so help me, son,” Grant’s mother clapped her hand over his mouth. Kaitlyn couldn’t help but giggle. Grant just shook his head and gave her another one of those winks that she swore lit sparklers in her stomach.
“We call him J.J. when he ain’t in trouble,” Grant explained.
J.J. managed to escape his grandmother’s grasp. “You wanna see what’s in my pocket?” He leapt back to Kaitlyn’s side.
“J.J.,” Grant bellowed.
“It’s just a rock.” True to his word, J.J. produced a decent sized rock and dropped it in Kaitlyn’s palm.
“Thank God. I thought he was about to hand you a frog.” Grant brushed a kiss on one of his niece’s heads and Kaitlyn fought not to swoon.
“I used to catch frogs in the water traps at the country club when I was a little girl.” She told J.J. “Maybe later you can show me where you catch them.”
J.J. studied her speculatively. “You like frogs?”
“Of course,” Kaitlyn rather enjoyed the shocked look in Grant’s eyes.
“What about lizards?”
“I like them, too, but you have to be careful catching them. We don’t want to hurt them. They’re important, just like frogs.”
With a broad grin, J.J. turned to Grant. “Okay, Uncle Grant, I guess you can marry her, but you have to promise to still let me drive the Gator with you and we sometimes leave her at your house.”
Marry her? Certain she’d misunderstood the little guy, Kaitlyn fought to hear over the pounding of her own heart. “What did he say?”
“Nothing. He’s … being ornery. I need to get over to my house. Apparently I got fence to fix and corn to get off the ground. You hungry?”
“Oh,” she didn’t care for the irritated gloom in Grant’s tone. “I can fix us something at your house. I want to help.” Desperate to wipe the frown off of Grant’s face, she debated what to offer next.
“Nonsense. Breakfast is ready. Go make your plates. I’ll bring you all lunch wherever you’re working,” Jessie commanded everyone standing in her livin
g room. “And Grant, let your brothers and your daddy help you.”
Chapter Thirteen
Several hours later, Kaitlyn stood holding Grant’s hand as they surveyed the acres and acres of land that ran along the back of the ranch. Kaitlyn didn’t know much about farming or ranch work, but she was fairly certain the short stalks laying in rumpled heaps on the ground were supposed to be standing up.
“You gon’ fuss if I curse for about the next ten minutes?” he finally asked.
“No. That was New-Kaitlyn remember?”
“Right.”
“I’m so sorry, Grant. I didn’t know you had corn and cows. I never knew so many people’s lives depended on the weather.” She’d already watched him help his brother Luke dig graves for a few of his cows who hadn’t survived the storm.
“I got the bright idea to diversify a few years back. Thought if something ever went wrong with the stock we’d have a backup. Like I said, ranching’s a crap-shoot on a good day, and row crops usually turn a nice profit.”
“That’s really smart,” Kaitlyn offered feebly.
“Don’t look too smart from where I’m standing right this moment.”
“I can help you clean it up. Just tell me what to do.”
“Thanks, sugar. I gotta fix the fences before I mess with this. Gotta get my stock outta Luke’s pastures ‘fore they eat all his cattle’s grass.
Unable to hear him fully, she kept constant watch on his lips to understand him as he spoke. The wind robbed her of another opportunity to hear the low gravel of his tone, the tone she was becoming more and more addicted to hearing with every word he spoke.
“Will you look at me?” She prayed he wouldn’t ask why. It made reading his lips so much easier.
“Anytime, peaches. You’re my favorite thing to look at.” He turned to study her. “You okay?”
“I want to help. I know I’m completely useless. I’ve never been on a horse or even seen a cow before today. I don’t know why you all keep talking about Gators, but I’m assuming you aren’t referring to alligators. I have no idea what to do with corn that won’t stand up like it’s supposed to, but I want to help.”