by Gayle Eden
His free hand was scooping back bangs that would fall right back down again. He leaned against the facing, glanced at the painting, then at the two of them. “Something wrong?”
“No.” Kane waved him in. He said after a bit, “Carter is going to work the ranch. Stay here, after he settles things in South Carolina.”
Dark eyes touched Carter. Rio pushed away and seated himself on the leather sofa. “Wouldn’t have anything to do with Skye Cassel would it?”
Carter grinned. “It might.”
“Thought I saw you leering at her at O’Malley’s.”
Carter told the story of nearly wrecking her, then inviting her to join him, and being turned down.
“I’m sure you’ll wear her down.” Rio took a long drink of coffee. “Just don’t play games with her. She’s had nothing but a shit life growing up here, and made what she has in spite of it.”
“I’ve always been straightforward,” Carter retorted. “I generally have relationships. Unlike you two, who won’t commit.”
“So. How’d it go with Brice?” Kane asked to cut some of the tension. Also, not wanting to go there.
“Good. I guess. Delany says Willow can stay here. I don’t have much choice but to agree.”
“She’s your daughter. You want her, don’t you?” Carter asked.
Rio supplied. “She’s older than I was when I made her. Sure, I want her. I just don’t know what she expects from me as a father now. She’s nearly through with school. She’s going to college right after.”
“Maybe, just to get to know you,” Kane supplied. “Few can say they do.”
Rio’s black brow arched. Skin tightened over his high cheekbones. “I don’t recall people asking anything about me to my face. They all made assumptions. Fair enough, I guess. I’m not father material. Not like the stepfather she has.”
Kane looked at Carter then back at Rio. “We’re her uncles. None of us are perfect. She’ll get used to us. Maybe Kelly will hang around; keep her from being the only female on the place.”
After a moment, Rio stood to leave. He said in parting, “Life on the ranch won’t be the same with a teenager here.”
Once he had gone, Kane exchanged a dry grin with Carter, who said, “This might be fun.”
Kane uttered as he left, “The old man would have gotten a kick out of it. Me and you, playing uncles. Rio with a daughter. But Carter? Watch those digs. Rio is slow to speak, but he’s not one to take shit.”
“He was the one handing out advice. I just thought I would point out how hypocritical that is. I am not in love with Skye. I barely know her. But after you told me about Jesse, I don’t see why Rio chooses sex over substance.”
“Same reason I do.” Kane grunted. “It’s less complicated.”
Carter said behind him, “That’s too damn easy. Breezing through life like that, not having to give anyone more than the physical. But…thanks, for asking me to stay, brother.”
Kane did not dispute that.
He had—in so many words.
Chapter 4
“Why do you keep muttering, I must be nuts?” Jesse Vaughn laughed at Skye, in the midst of hanging spider webbing on the barn rafters. It was a massive structure, soaring two hundred feet, but the main space was used strictly for the weddings. This one was Halloween themed, so there were goblins, witches, and lots of black spiders, and bloody limbs.
Beyond the barn was cleared land where her brother Juda built a house that he had thought to live in with his wife and kid. The wife did not work out. He would only get to see Marc in the summer. Life sucked sometimes.
Take herself, for instance, Jesse had never planned to be the old maid living with her brother. Thank God, Skye came back and gave them something to get excited about. This theme wedding business was a heck of a lot more exciting than her legal secretary work, and Juda’s 12-hour factory shifts. Not, that Juda hadn’t had other dreams too.
He’d always wanted to build things. Houses. They’d grown up in a cramped old trailer and he’d drawn all kinds of houses, taped them to the scratched up walls…
“I told Carter I’d be at the Edge this Saturday night,” Skye cut through her thoughts and climbed down off the ladder, and started digging through a box of bones they would scatter around amid tombstones.
“I don’t think that’s nuts. He’s single, handsome.”
Skye muttered, “Not the kind who usually shows an interest in me.”
“Everyone dates an Ass or two.”
Skye started scattering bones. “It’s not that, and you know it.”
“You have to stop thinking certain people are too good for you, Skye.” Jesse meant that seriously. “You’re not your mom, or your past. You’re a successful business woman.”
“Yeaaah,” Skye uttered.
Jesse finished and began creating the aisle with hay bales and pumpkins. As she worked, her honey streaked hair flopped in its ponytail. Though a blond, she had more peach freckles than her red headed friend did. She kept a year round healthy tan though, that helped distract from them.
“You should do it. Go out with him. If only for the sex.”
Laughing, Sky retorted, “Yes. And that is coming from someone who should have humped Rio Croft a long time ago.”
“Not my fault. I’m invisible to him.”
Joking aside, Jesse certainly felt that way. There had been times she had spent hours on the ranch when he was there working with Kane. Or, hanging out and riding with Kane. Nada. He spoke to her. Their eyes met. He got plenty of sex elsewhere, if rumors were true.
That’s what you get, Jesse mused, when you were nothing more than the girl next door in looks. In, I am a great friend. In, I’ll just live life like a nun if I can’t have you—
“Blood.”
“What?” She looked up from setting the last pumpkin.
“We need more fake stuff.”
“Okay.” Jesse made a call to her brother—who was up to his armpits busy with the sound effects and headless horsemen props. When she was done, they went outside into the fall sun.
The landscape was beautiful. They had a soda and sandwich under a colorful maple.
“That’s the way it should be. Just sex.”
Jesse eyed her. Skye had on a T-shirt and old sweat pants and sneakers like herself. Her hair was in a clip. The day before wedding prep was always crazy. She knew Skye like few did, thanks to their business partnership and quick blooming friendship. For all Skye seemed confident, and for all her success—she would always carry those childhood scars.
Jesse knew about scars too.
“I don’t know Carter that well, but if anyone is willing to take you at face value, it would be him. Why don’t you just relax and enjoy whatever it is.”
“I will.” Skye admitted, “I can’t help myself.” She sighed and tossed the empty can in a trash bin. “To be honest, I get pretty sick of having to watch my step because of the past. I’m as human as the next woman.”
“Hear hear.”
Finished, they walked back inside and got back to work.
Eventually, it was quitting time. The whole area was decorated and ready for the next day ceremony. Purple and orange lights glowed before they shut them off, and ghouls wafted down from the rafters.
Skye had living quarters above, accessed behind a faux wall via stairs, and Jesse would go up to the house—likely work all night on the next event.
Before leaving, Skye asked her, “How come you don’t just ask Rio out?”
Jesse shrugged. “I might, one of these days.”
“You should.”
She left without retort and walked the moon lighted path to the house. She and Juda had their own issues. Sure, it would help if sometime, in what seemed like the million years she had carried a torch for Rio if he would show some interest in her. She had been an overachiever in school, a good hand to call on working cattle—friends with most everyone around. She had been the easy to be around kid, and was good with whatever s
he turned her hand to do. She was pretty but not a knockout, healthy but not perfect. She liked her tawny eyes, not the coppery hue of Juda’s, but they were often commented on.
She had also been abused when younger.
No one knew that secret, but Juda.
She’d worked hard to overcome it, and worked on herself. She lived a filling life. Sometimes, she had questioned if her attraction to Rio was because he worked miracles with creatures who had suffered. He seemed to understand them. He certainly communicated, and more often than not, healed them. However, in her core, Jesse knew it was that half wanting everything a woman who was healthy should, and half fearing that the darkness was still a part of her. She did not want pity. She had spent her whole life hiding those early secrets, so she would never have to question if people were around her —because of pity.
“That you, Jess?”
“Yeah.” She answered her brother who had called from the porch. Her chocolate lab bounded down to greet her and walk the rest of the way with her.
Juda met her with a cup of pumpkin spice coffee. They sat on the steps a moment.
She looked at him, deep bronze skin, coppery eyes, rich oak hair that he kept in the military cut, and a very handsome and well-muscled man. A tattoo covered most of his right upper arm and shoulder. She had one too, covering scars on her back. He was a man who should have had the family he hoped for…
“What went wrong, Juda?” She looked away and then up at the full moon.
He sighed, knowing what she meant. “We’ll never know. Grandpa wasn’t the type to talk about it, any more than he was willing to admit Dad was—what he was.”
Jesse murmured, “The town will always think our Mama died of accidental drowning and that Dad passed from pneumonia. So many secrets. I guess they’re better than the truth.”
Jess felt his arm go round her, strong and steady.
He said, “It had nothing to do with Marta leaving me, Jesse. We are not—flawed like him. We’re not perfect, but Marta left because I withdrew, after my stint in the military. I left her—emotionally.”
Jesse looked down and then leaned her head on his shoulder. “Skye is hooking up with Carter Croft on Saturday.”
“He’s a croft. The father aside. They are pretty solid.”
“She’s acting like it’s just a sex thing.”
He snorted, amused.
They stood to go in, Jesse yawning. She heard her brother mutter, “We could all use some of that.”
Laughing and heading toward the bath once inside, she told him, “You would get no shortage if you’d pay attention to all the women panting after you. Love you, bro.”
“You too, Jesse.” He called seconds later, “Jesse?”
“Yeah.” She stood at the landing in the dark, tired from a long day of work.
There was a scuffing sound. He was at the bottom of the stairs.
“We’re good people. We’re not tainted, nor do we possess some kind of bad blood. Life is not perfect for anyone. I married Marta at a bad time. I wasn’t able to communicate what I had felt and seen to her. And she was a young woman, ready to take on life—not deal with someone—like me, then.”
“I know. I just sometimes wonder if the things not said in that old trailer we lived in, somehow…”
“Grandpa was a good man. Grandma was good too. He couldn’t handle the guilt and living with the truth of everything. It was better to live with pretense.”
“I think Skye and Rayne are strong. They always faced everything head on, even the worst things. She does, every day.”
“I agree, Jesse. But, you are just as strong. You’re well thought of. Though, you think guys don’t ask you out for other reasons, truth is, you likely intimidate them. Hell, you do everything well, not just your previous job at the law office, but out working cattle or training horses—and the wedding business. Whatever you do. Men know you are confident. So…”
She laughed softly. “Thanks. I think…”
He chuckled. “Get a bath. You stink.”
Jesse went to do just that.
* * * *
Skye lay awake, even though the next day would be madness—and the day after too, when they had to dismantle, clean, and prep for the next wedding.
The full moon shone through a large window and spilled over the open living area, its saffron radiance lighting on the antique bed she lay sleepless in. Clad in flannel jammies and T-shirt, her heat source was a standalone unit. She had plenty of down quilts to snuggle under.
She wanted Carter Croft.
He excited her.
She hadn’t dated but twice in nearly that many years. Both were disasters. A guy like Carter, despite his broken engagement, would be swarmed with offers should he stay.
There were a lot single females in the area—without her baggage and past shame.
“Stop it, Skye,” she whispered and crawled under her covers. “If all you get out of it is a physical thing—well—that’s more than you’ve had in a long time.”
Not many men wanted to date her. Not even new to town ones, once the gossips got to them with the (bad) family history—currently still playing out—since her Mom was doing time.
Sighing, she shut down the stream of thoughts and let her tired body relax.
For once, she wanted a real date, a real relationship, without having to deal with her….well—baggage.
Chapter 5
Carter was muddy and sweaty, despite the mild day. It had rained Saturday while they did the ranch chores. In ratty jeans, well-worn cowboy boots, a shirt that had seen better days, he headed back to the barns and saw to the sorrel he’d ridden, before ambling out to where Rio leaned on a rail fence— observing a half dozen rescued horses sniffing and milling around each other.
Some were scarred, many still rail thin, but when Rio crooned, their ears pricked up, and they looked at him, calming any jitters they had previously displayed. Near Rio’s booted feet were two large dogs, one was missing an eye. The horses were ordinarily kept in a pasture across the river.
Carefully Carter reached his hand down for the dogs to sniff, seeing caution in their moving closer to Rio. There were other animals around—some back near the stream and Rio’s old camper that weren’t quite ready for human contact yet—animals that Rio worked with every day.
Looking up as his half-brother tuned and watched him stroke the dogs, Carter noted Rio wore an open blue flannel shirt—no sleeves, and old jeans that just barely clung low on his hips.
Rio offered, “They’re almost ready for adoption.”
“This one, he’s pure bred?”
Rio nodded to the German Shepard. “Yes.”
Straightening, Carter fished out a cigarette and offered Rio one. When he had accepted, they rested on the fence, smoking in silence. A pickup was spotted coming up the drive.
Idly watching it park, and then seeing a woman climb out of the driver seat, Carter vaguely recalled Jesse Vaughn having dark blond and honey streaked hair. She held the door while a chocolate lab jumped down. It bounded right for Rio. After glancing over, watching Rio greet it, rub its ears, and ignore muddy paws up on his thighs, he observed Jesse approaching.
Her hair was a dash of sunlight in an overcast day, slightly wavy, fluttering from her shoulders on breath of fall breeze. She walked with ease and confidence, and was displaying a slightly wry smile while observing the lab and Rio.
Carter noted the grown up changes; attractive tawny eyes, freckled and tanned skin. Her face had symmetry. A kind of fresh prettiness. She was dressed in a chambray shirt—open, showing a dark tank underneath, low-rise jeans with muddy hems, as they came over the heels of her cowboy boots. Carter put her height at five seven.
“Jesse,” he greeted her with a grin as soon as she had stopped— and dragged her eyes from Rio, as if by sheer will.
“Carter. Good to see you.”
“You too. You were just a kid in pigtails when I left.”
She laughed. After calling the la
b to sit and he obeyed, she declared, “You grew up nicely. JC used to show pictures of you around. Particularly, when you were playing football, making the papers, down there in South Carolina.”
“It got me in collage.”
“What are you into now?”
Carter told her, liking the way she listened and retained that smile, but reading her body language—knowing what he did, conscious that she was aware of Rio. His half-brother still leaned against the fence, shirt-flapping back, looking at ease. He was observing her too.
“How’s Skye?” Carter asked not so subtly.
“Looking forward to the weekend.” She winked at the double meaning. “We’ve had three weddings in a row, all different themes.
“And Juda—how’s he doing?”
“Great. He’s coming out to ride with Kane this weekend. I think he’s craving some male company after working with me and Skye.”
“I’d say he’s lucky.” Carter flashed a full smile. “You look like a ray of sun in a gloomy day—and Skye…”
“Yeah.” Jesse laughed. “She’s glad you two ran into each other—well, poor choice of words, since you almost literally did. She’s looking forward to seeing you.”
“Glad to hear it,” Carter drawled.
He started a general conversation about the weddings, amused as she relayed things with easy humor—a little disgruntled that Rio didn’t put himself out to join the conversation—or comment.
He witnessed her gaze stray to Rio a half dozen times while she talked. At one point, a horse came over and nudged his shoulder, and Rio was half turned, rubbing its head, not able to see her long look at his bare muscled chest and stomach.
Rio was a good-looking sonofabitch—at the moment, grubby and mussed, the inky hair wind tossed, but she couldn’t seem to stop looking.
Maybe he was more aware because of what Kane told him, so when Rio turned back around, and their eyes met and held, Carter thought lightening should have streaked out of the sky.
The tension was there. It was pretty damn hot, too.