by Gayle Eden
All that happened though was that she glanced away and Rio murmured something about the lab, which he had apparently rescued as a pup, and she had adopted.
At length, Jesse looked back at him, her color a bit high. “You should get Skye’s cell number and pick her up tonight. She’s damn good on that motorcycle but it’s supposed to thunderstorm again.”
He unclipped his cell from his belt, asking for it, putting it in his phone contacts. Afterwards, Jesse explained she had come to get some things Kane offered to give them for “props.” They had a cowboy theme wedding coming up. They were old lanterns and the like that his grandfather kept amid a ton of antiques in the barn loft.
Rio responded, “He mentioned it. They’re crated and setting inside the barn doors.”
Both men offered to help load them in the truck. This time, Carter deliberately lagged behind so that Rio, arms loaded, walked beside her. He purposely crowded Rio too. So, that at the truck, his brother had to lift and place his crate in there—and in the process brush against Jesse, who was shifting them against the cab.
Yep, Carter thought, moving back a few steps. Jesse flushed and Rio stilled at one point when his brother’s bare stomach collided with Jesse Vaughn’s hand. She turned to step around him the moment he took a step forward to grasp a leather harness strap that flopped over.
Her, “sorry,” came out in a shaky breathless laugh.
Rio’s deep, “No problem,” was as taut as a bowstring.
Interesting too—when she had finally noticed Carter again and rattled off she hoped she would see him around and then got in the truck, Rio’s jaw flexed. He detained her after the lab was loaded— she was in the cab, her seat belt on—asking about an old horse she apparently kept grazing on the Vaughn place, one she’d had since she was a little girl.
After she’d pulled out, Carter headed for the house. He was anxious to see Skye again. He’d call her before he got his much-needed shower. He wasn’t much for nightclubs but he figured she went there because her brother worked there.
It didn’t much matter where he was with her, as long as he was.
He’d tell her he would be gone for a couple weeks. Which— in the whole scheme of things, wasn’t ideal. He had to make a good impression tonight so he wouldn’t lose ground while he was gone.
He’d let one relationship fall apart by absence, and not calling—not making a woman a priority. Admittedly, Steph was likely going to cheat eventually, but he had no illusions about his lack of attention once he got in a relationship. This thing with Steph woke him up. All the relationships he’d had, the easy to attract girls thing, was easy. He was always restless. Sustaining a relationship took more than good looks and a good paying job. He was thirty-five. He wanted to settle, and yeah—have a family.
Whoa. He mentally laughed, easing down in a rocker, accepting a chilly beer that Rio offered before taking his own to sit on the steps. He was getting way ahead of himself.
Half the beer consumed, he glanced over seeing Rio take the tail of his shirt and wipe his face with it. Carter asked, “Shouldn’t we get one of the rooms ready for Willow or something? They’re pretty dusty and bare.”
“I told her that. She’s bringing everything from Delany’s. Her bed and all that—teenage stuff. She asked if we had satellite.”
Grunting at that dry delivery, Carter offered, “You’ll find some common ground. Teach her to ride, and let her learn what you do—working with animals.”
“Yeah.”
Eyeing that absent gaze Rio was doing between his booted feet, the expression, Carter realized that from the time he was born, Rio likely hadn’t felt wanted by his mother, or their father. Their grandfather was probably the first one to make him feel that. He didn’t know a lot about Rio, or how he discovered his gift, but whatever people thought of him, they respected and trusted him on some level. Likely, that absolute confidence Rio showed when he was around animals.
“The reason I stayed away had nothing to do with you, or your being here, Rio,” Carter tried to explain, “I didn’t know you existed when I left and Dad getting killed right in the middle of our trying to understand why Mom and he were divorcing— was a lot for a kid to handle.”
“You don’t owe me anything,” Rio muttered, downing a long drink of beer.
“Maybe not, but Mother taking me with her gave me opportunities. I guess Kane staying here gave him stability and time to heal. No matter where you are in life growing up, you miss having a Dad. He was shit for a husband, but I would like to hope he would have been a decent father. “
“I never had either, so it’s a moot point.”
“I don’t know anything about you but the rumors,” Carter admitted. “When Grandpa told me and then you moved on the land here, I could have—acted more like a brother. I wasn’t much of one to Kane, as to that. Maybe, it was easier cutting off ties because I missed him, and this place.”
“JC came to see me, every time he was off the ranch,” Rio revealed. “He always told me who I was, and that I had a home here. He gave me money for books. He had picked me up once, taken me with him to a big ranch—the first time I saw an abused animal. Not on that one, but we were passing a long stretch of ramshackle houses. He claimed it was infested with meth addicts and the like. There was something moving in the ditch and we stopped, found it was a litter of pups. They’d been poisoned. One was alive. We took it with us. After that, I would just… always be in the right place at the right time. I didn’t have anywhere to keep them, so he took some here. Eventually, he told me to go to the shelters and help. Then, I met this ex Vet who was a cop. He was training a K-9 unit. It just evolved into a profession. Animals are always easier to deal with than people are. They are instinctual. Everything is honest, fear, loyalty, gratefulness. They want to survive.”
Carter let that hang there, and then observed, “You’re a lot like him, Grandpa.”
“I wish.” Rio stood and swept his gaze over the landscape. It was starting to rain again. His gaze came to meet Carter’s. “He was the best example of a man with integrity I had. He knew my demons. How easy it would be to go down the wrong road and lose myself. I was headed there a few times, but his hand always guided me back.”
“I’m glad.” Carter watched him walk across the porch toward the door. “Why aren’t you dating Jesse Vaughn? There’s a tension between you two that is pretty damn obvious.”
Rio stopped so abrupt it was telling. He didn’t look at Carter as he said, “Mind your own business.”
“I do. That don’t stop me from being curious. She’s attractive, interesting, and has a damn good sense of humor. Sense of self too. Which I can tell you from personal experience, is rare.”
Rio had his hand on the doorknob, already pulling the door open. “I’ve got my hands full, dealing with Willow’s moving in right now.”
“That sounds like something in a long line of excuses.”
His brother didn’t answer.
Carter got up and went in to shower.
****
“I’m coming to pick you up,” Skye listened to Carter’s voice over her cell phone. It was laying on the vanity while she finished her makeup.
“Jess told me. I live in a barn. You can’t miss it.” She applied some gloss and then picked up the cell, liking the sound of his low chuckle. “Around the side there’s a smaller door than the double ones.”
“All right.”
She grabbed her leather jacket, a stylish burgundy hued one that was thigh length and had a suede block design in the back. She wore knee high boots, in the same hue, and snug black low-rise pants, a blue and black silk blouse. After tucking everything in her jacket pockets she would need, she headed down the smooth board stairs.
He spoke “Getting in the truck now. It’s raining like a bitch out here.”
“I hear it. Tin roof.” She also heard the muffling as he apparently set the phone down. “Drive carefully.”
“Yep.”
She clic
ked off and navigated by the converted to electric post lantern that she kept on in the barn. There were shapes of supply boxes in the shadows. The place smelled like spice and pumpkins from all the wedding candles. She was glad for a few days off.
Opening the side door, kept dry via an overhang, she looked out at flashing lightening, listening to thick pouring rain—thinking about her brother and hoping he wouldn’t pull his big brother, over protective act. Not, that it wasn’t instinct, but he never had a quarrel with the Crofts.
She worried about Rayne. He worked in the club, but he was a loner. He bore the marks of his somewhat dark past in the tattoos that covered his arms, and torso. He looked like a biker slash metal head, but there was nothing surface about what Rayne gravitated to. He had been betrayed and used by their Mom. He had paid the price. Few let him forget it.
Headlights arched over the landscape. She suspended her thoughts; watching Carter pull in, then get out—with an umbrella.
His height was emphasized as he came to her and put an arm around her shoulders. Smelling wonderful, feeling wonderful, he steered her to the passenger side and opened the door.
Once she was in, he offered, “Give me your key, I’ll lock up.”
“Just pull the door closed. Jess sometimes comes down to work.”
He went back, closed the door, and soon was joining her in the truck, umbrella tossed behind the seat.
Her gaze swept his nice jeans, boots, up his torso to the green and black shirt he wore. Nice, very nice.
Backing, his arm along the seat, his lime gaze touched her before he said, “You look great.”
“Thanks. So do you.”
He turned and they headed out, his truck, mud splashed because the road wasn’t paved. Once out on the main road, she told him where the Edge was. The storm was sustained under the soft music wafting from the CD. If it was his taste, she could dig it, since it was one of her favorites.
The scent of her perfume mingled with his skin warmed cologne. She had missed an intimate atmosphere about dates. Skye was conscious of his size and brawn, of his handsome face. The overall potency of being with someone who was that kind of man’s man.
“You’re quiet,” he teased while stopping for a red light.
“Just relaxing,” she lied and glanced to find his lime eyes regarding her.
“I take it, you go to the Edge to see Rayne?”
“Yes. He’s not been back in town a lot He comes, but it’s not his favorite place.”
They reached the club, and found a spot in the crowded lot. Before going in, Carter sat behind the wheel, regarding her in a way that Skye knew he was going to make some sort of statement.
What he said was, “I’ve decided to move back to the ranch. I can still work at what I do, as far giving a few demos for the companies I contract with. I have to leave town Monday, settle things. I brought my stepsister with me, Kelly. I haven’t had a chance to talk to her about her plans yet.”
Skye listened as he filled in why Kelly was with him. He reached over for her hand, lying idle in the seat, and while his thumb brushed her fingers, offered, “I don’t know where tonight will take us. I know where I’d like it to.” His grin fluttered her stomach. “We’re getting to know each other.”
“Yes.” Her gaze scanned his face. He really was different. Upfront, and honest, as far as she could tell. “I’m glad you’re moving back.”
“Me too. I just don’t know how to put what I’m trying to say…”
Her brow rose.
He held her gaze a beat longer. “I want to see you when I get back. Is that okay?”
“Yes.” She smiled tingling from his touch.
He leaned and kissed her. It was semi open but not intimate or long. Sweet and sexy though, Skye thought. When he parted, his face stayed close, those eyes shimmery light between his dark lashes. He murmured, “Better go in or I’ll be making out with you in a truck.”
“That’s not as unappealing as you think.” She whispered back, and when he leaned up, got out.
“Skye?”
She was aware of Carter exiting, coming round the front of his truck while she took a few steps and hugged her brother. Music throbbed from the club. The rain beat down hard, so Carter followed them as they walked to a niche where Rayne and the others took smoke breaks.
“You remember Carter?”
Rayne and Carter shook hands—sizing each other up, Skye thought, Rayne being as tall as Carter but dark in looks and definitely distinct with his tats and in a black T-shirt, jeans with studs, and black boots. Her brother’s body was powerfully muscled and ripped. He wore his black hair tightly back in a long tail.
Take away the tats, a few piercings and cut his hair, she mused, and he looked just like Brice Salinas.
They were conversing easily enough—Rayne offered condolences, asked about his brothers, and what Carter had been up to. Carter gave answers, then asked about the club—and when the subject went to general stuff, sports, music, whatever, they laughed a bit, talked easily. She was relieved.
“You working tonight?” she asked Rayne.
“No. Hung around to see you.” His silver eyes had a hint of violet in them under the dimmer lights. “If it’s not his scene…” He glanced at Carter, and then to her, “I’d skip the crowd tonight. Maybe try Shakers, about a mile down.”
“Thanks.” She looked at Carter in question.
He gazed down at her, grinning. “I’m easy. Long as I’m with you.”
Flushing, she saw Rayne’s brow quirk, but his lips did too. He hugged her again and offered, “I’ll come to see you next week. You can cook for me.”
She laughed. “I will. Be careful.”
“Nice to see you again,” he said to Carter after nodding. “Take care of her.”
“My pleasure,” Was Carter’s response.
After her brother left, they got back in the truck, and headed to Shakers. It was a restaurant and club, but more laid back.
Seated, ordering, and then eating, they were having a drink when Carter mused, “Rayne still has a lot of demons chasing him.”
“Not as much as before. He’s a loner, for the most part. It’s not easy to find someone, even a friend, who doesn’t know about our past and situation. The town doesn’t care that Rayne was only seventeen, and manipulated into that mess that got him time. To them, he’s just…well; you’ll see it when you’re around.”
“It’s good, that you two are close.”
“He’s always been my anchor.” She confessed, “We were left to fend for ourselves a lot. Rayne always had to look out for me. Some of the places—when we slept in the car, were terrifying. When Mom took us with her, the whole culture was menacing. Drugs, guns, a lot of fighting—rough people. People stoned and predatory too. He was knocked around. He had fight in school a lot. Aside from what Mom got him mixed up in.”
Carter rocked his glass that held jack and coke. His gaze moved over her face thoughtfully. “What got you into staging weddings?”
“I’m a closet romantic,” she professed smiling. “That, and when I was going to school—arts and drama being my interest, I did some stuff on the side to make money. Rayne was footing the bills, and I wanted to help out.”
“What kind of stuff?” His eyes were smiling.
“Actress, at a haunted house. Did props, and some appearances at Bachelorette parties. But I realized many young students weren’t traditionalist. They were doing their own wedding themes, so I jumped on that—had a lot of plans that thankfully Juda and Jesse didn’t think were crazy.”
His brow cocked. “You danced?”
She chuckled. “Why do guys always latch onto that? Sure. I did dancing. Not nude.”
He was outright grinning.
Skye shrugged and finished her daiquiri. “It paid well.”
“I dated a girl who did hula in this tiki bar on the beach.”
“Yeah?” Sky was interested. “I did some of that too. The tips are great.”
He chuckled. “She ended up married to a really conservative guy. She was actually—conservative.”
Skye confessed, “I only dated two men since coming back. Both were—mistakes.”
“How’s that?”
“One worked at O’Malley’s. he knew all about our past. He—expected sex about five seconds after we got in the car. I called Rayne and got a ride home. Second guy, he had potential, but he was still mixed up with an old girlfriend. She texted him every hour. I didn’t want to have any part of that; we are through but still friends, bullshit. He was back with her after I told him not to call anymore.”
“Before that, before moving here?”
“Yeah. A few guys. Nothing that lasted, obviously. I was always conscious of where I’d come from. I had things to work through. Guys ask about your parents, and saying my Mom’s doing time, just don’t make for an unbiased beginning.”
Carter nodded.
She excused herself and went to the restroom then checked her makeup. Returning, she nodded when he asked if she was ready to go.
They drove awhile before he invited, “Want to come to the ranch. Talk? I’m not ready to end the night.”
“Sure.” She wasn’t sure, but she wanted time with him.
The storm was in a lull when they pulled in at the ranch. Lights from the front rooms lit the porch. He led her inside.
Skye loved the place, the rustic look, and the warm scents, the comfortable old antiques in the great room. The mellow wood floors and well-worn leather furnishings.
A fire crackled in the fireplace. He went to fix coffee, so she hung her jacket up and walked over to look at the portrait above the mantle.
Tread on the stairs above sounded before Kane came through the doorway, stopping abrupt at seeing her. He had a book in his hand and looked fresh showered though the scruff on his craggy cheeks revealed shaving was skipped. In sock feet, worn Levis and flannel shirt, he looked the modern rancher at leisure. Handsome in that rugged way, his eyes a more leaf green.
He murmured, “Sorry. Didn’t know anyone was down here.”
“I’m Skye.”
“Sure. I remember you.” He nodded and smiled slightly. “So, you had a date with Carter, right?”