Oklahoma Moonshine (The McIntyre Men #1)

by Maggie Shayne

  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 kn
ew 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?

  Chapter Fifteen

  * * *

  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.”

  “I’m pretty sure they already do.”

  “I was just getting ready to bring ‘em in for the night. Want to help?”

  “You think I came out here to do my nails?”

  He smiled and nodded. “Close the front door. Jeeze, were you brought up in a barn?”

  “Pretty much this very barn,” she replied. “We were forbidden to come out here, but we did anyway. The hay loft wasn’t full of junk like the rest of the place. We’d swing from the rafters, as a matter of fact.” She looked up through the open trapdoor into the barn’s second level as she said it. “We’d jump off the top of a mountain of baled hay up there. The old-fashioned rectangle-shaped bales. We’d use them like giant bricks to build a castle.”

  “You and Kendra?”

  Her smile wavered a little. Dammit, what a dumb thing to say. He knew there was tension between her and her sister. Hurt, betrayal. He couldn’t imagine one of her brothers doing to him what Kendra had done to Kiley. Twins were supposed to be tighter than other siblings, weren’t they?

  Quick, he thought, new subject. “I um…I want the mares to come when I call them, but I’ve gotta show ‘em what’s waiting when they get here.”

  “A girl needs a reason,” she said, and gave him the once over. His ego grew a size and a half.

  He led the way to the small tack room, then dipped into his feed bin and scooped a little grain into each of two pails. “Come on,” he said, handing her one of them. “Follow my lead.”

  He opened the barn’s back door, and they stepped directly into the meadow where the mares stopped munching on clover blossoms to look up at them, almost as one unit.

  “I figure if we let’em smell what we’ve got in these buckets, they’ll follow us anywh—”

  “Uh, yeah, totally unnecessary,” Kiley interrupted.

  The white mare came trotting right toward them, shaking her mane and blowing. She was high-stepping like a Rockette, and he thought he got the message. I’m the boss, not you. Now gimme that grain.

  She stopped right in front of him, head down, nostrils flaring as she caught the scent of molasses and oats. He held the bucket just out of reach as she went for it.

  The other seven had already gathered around to see what was going on and whether they could get themselves a taste of what smelled so good. Kiley backed into the barn first, holding her bucket out and staying ahead of them. The stalls were all open, and each one already had grain waiting inside, along with soft straw bedding and fresh clear water.

  “Which stall for which horse?” Kiley asked, whispering like she didn’t want to startle the mares.

  “Let’s let them decide.” He went all the way to the front of the barn, taking her bucket from her on the way, and set them in the tack room and closed its door.

  The mares didn’t follow at first. The white one just stood in the doorway, taking them in. She could smell the grain, though. And she wanted it. Then finally, she came in, hoofs clacking sharp on the clean concrete floor. She poked her head into one stall, then backed out and walked directly to the one dead center, right hand side. She went right into it and buried her nose in her grain. The others came in and picked stalls seemingly at random. He and Kiley closed the stall doors as the horses went inside.

  “Have you thought about names for them?”

  He nodded. “The Blue Roan is the prettiest. And she’s sly and clever. She was nuzzling the door earlier when I first came out. I think she smelled the grain and thought it was in here, unsupervised. I was gonna call her Kiley, but that could get confusing. What’s your middle name?”

  She was blinking like she had something in her eyes. “Louise.”

  “Okay. She’s Louise. Which means the dun has to be Thelma. They seem to be best friends.”

  He was joking, but she wasn’t laughing. She was standing in front of the stall, looking in at Louise to avoid his eyes. It got to her, him naming that magnificent animal after her.

  “What about the white?” she asked.

  “Lady Vee.” He said it with a firm nod. “She’s the boss of the entire herd. Definitely gotta be Lady Vee.”

  “For Vidalia. That’s perfect.”

  “So are you ready for this dinner?”

  “Still gotta change clothes.”

  “Mentally, I meant. Emotionally. It’s gonna be…intense.”

  “I’m trying to focus on The Long Branch’s amazing cook.”

  “Chef. He’d be offended to be called a cook.”

  * * *

  Two hours later, they were being shown to a table set for five as if they were guests in The Long Branch’s fancy dining room. The decor was Old West as interpreted by the TV show Gunsmoke. There were red velvet drapes with gold rope tie-backs, marking the transition from barroom to dining room. The Miss Kitty lookalike was not played by Vidalia tonight, but often was, and Kiley was dying to see her in the role. She showed them to their table, which was on the opposite side of the room from the player piano. The bartender, Rob’s older brother Jason, stood behind the bar in a white shirt with thin black suspenders and a bolo tie. He nodded as they’d walked in, but other than that, was giving them space.

  “I keep forgetting how amazing this place is,” Kiley said.

  “I do, too. It’s different being here as a guest instead of an owner.”

  “Yeah. That must be weird.”

  A young waitress dressed in a tamed-down version of saloon-girl attire, came to take their orders. She was new, and it struck Rob that he’d really been letting his brothers down in the running of the saloon. He was a full shareholder and wasn’t doing his part. He was going to have to talk to them about that.

  “Can I get you something to drink while you wait for your companions to arrive?”

  “I’ll take a beer,” Kiley said. “One of those from that local microbrewery with the funny name. You know, Rob, the ones we had at the house—” She stopped there, bit her lip and then said, “You know what? I’ll just have a sweet tea.”

  She was remembering how sick she’d been on that beer a few days ago. He saw the thought flit through her eyes almost as clearly as if it was flitting through his own head.

  “Same for me,” he said, and the waitress went away.

  Kiley smiled at him, was about to say something, and then looked across the room, and said, “Shoot, here they come.” Her smile died, her eyes turned cold, and she turned to watch her father and sister coming down the stairs and into the dining room.

  Her dad was a handsome man who turned women’s heads everywhere he went. His hair was still like dark honey, his eyes, still Newman blue. He came down the curving staircase slowly, his gaze sweeping everyone in the room. “The guys have been referring to them as Jack and Kendra Jones,” Rob said. “I don’t remember if you picked up on the alias.”

  “It’s an old standby,” Kiley muttered. “Here comes Joey. It’s on.
How’s my resting bitch face?”

  He glanced at her. She looked good and pissed. And yet, still beautiful. “Pretty convincing.”

  Then he rose as Joey, Kendra and Jack arrived at the table. He clapped his brother on the shoulder, and extended a hand to Kiley’s dad. “It’s good to meet you, Jack. I’m sorry it took so long.” This with an irritated glance at Kiley.

  She rolled her eyes and reached for her water glass.

  Her sister frowned her way, but quickly readjusted and beamed her bright, phony smile at Rob. “Nice to see you again,” she said.

  He nodded hello, and Joey pulled out a chair for Kendra, then took the one beside her. Jack sat down on her other side, taking the seat between the two sisters. “How are things going out at the ranch?” Jack asked, like he gave a damn.

  “Fine.” She and Rob both snapped the word at the same time, and he cleared his throat and said, “Couldn’t be better.”

  “Ah hell,” Joey muttered.

  Their sweet teas arrived, and the waitress asked about appetizers. Rob managed to keep his pissed-off demeanor in place the whole time, though it was an effort. They agreed on a couple of sampler platters for the table, and ordered their main courses, and Patty, the new waitress, scurried off looking worried. No wonder...she probably wondered how she’d managed to piss off the boss she’d only just met between drink and appetizer orders.

  “I need to use the restroom,” Kiley said. She got up, leaving her chair out, and hurried away.

  Kendra glanced at her father, and he gave her a very slight nod. “Me too. Excuse me,” she said, and she got up and went after her.

  Jack pursed his lips, then said, “I can’t help but notice things seem…strained between you and my daughter.”

  “Strained is a good enough word,” he said. “But like you said, it’s between me and your daughter, so—”

  “Sorry, sorry.” He held up a hand. “I shouldn’t pry.”