Dalton raised his eyebrows. “Meaning that Casper will wake up one day and have such remorse that he’ll try to make things right with his sons?”
She nodded. “They’ll never admit it out loud, but there’s still that boyish hope.” Her gaze encompassed his face. “You don’t have that same hope. And before you get defensive, the way you feel doesn’t make you callous. It makes you a realist. You’re different from your brothers, Dalton.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to ask how different.
“I know Casper has given you years of grief about that. Calling you…well, I won’t repeat it. Takes a stronger man to walk away from constant conflict. You did that.”
“According to some, that makes me a coward.”
“Bullshit.”
His gaze snapped back to hers.
“I’m a coward, for staying as long as I did after you boys were out of the house. I shoulda left him after you turned eighteen and moved out. I shoulda left him after Luke died when it became apparent we wouldn’t grieve our son together. The only reason I found the guts to do it at all was because of Brandt and Jessie. They deserved the happiness and love they found in each other.” She looked away. “I’ll admit I’m a big part of your dad’s bitterness. I felt staying with him was my penance for the way I trapped him into a marriage he didn’t want.”
They’d never talked about how or when his parents had met. “Have you talked to your counselor about how you’re still takin’ the blame?”
“Son, I willingly admit my part. Not all, but I’m not blameless.”
“I’m glad you’ve got your own life now.”
“There are times I miss the ranch.” She took a sip of water. “Did you miss it when you were traveling?”
“The people more than the place. Did I miss the work? No. Not because I’m lazy, but even the work dynamic changed when Jess and Georgia became involved. I did my own thing. Still got grief for it. Probably always will.”
“So how long will you be in Sundance?”
“No set time frame. A couple of things came up I need to handle. Truth is, I wasn’t looking forward to spending the entire winter in Montana. I hate the feeling of bein’ stuck. When it snows two feet at a time in the mountains, it’s unavoidable.”
“Would Rory Wetzler bein’ back in the area have anything to do with that decision?”
Dalton pushed his plate away. “Yep.”
She laughed. “That’s all I’m gonna get outta you?”
“Not much to tell.” He grinned. “Yet.”
“I see you haven’t lost the McKay charm in your world travels.”
His grin vanished. But his mother didn’t notice; she’d started picking up plates.
“So what would you like to do tonight?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I’m good hanging out.”
“What about going out? To a honky-tonk just up the road. Do a little dancin’. There’s a great band playing this week. You up for that?”
Dalton kept his shock in check. His mom wanted to go out dancing? Didn’t seem like her thing. Then again, she had a different life now and this was his chance to see her in action. Since he intended on taking Rory dancing soon, it’d do him good to brush up on his two-step skills. “I could be. Is your boyfriend gonna be there? ’Cause I don’t want you to ditch me in some strange bar so you two can suck face in the corner.”
“Dalton Patrick McKay! I would never do such a thing!”
He laughed. “Kiddin’, Ma. But I will need your help with something before I leave in the morning.”
Chapter Seven
Two knocks sounded on Rory’s office door.
She highlighted the section of proposed state regulations—easy to get lost in repetitive government doublespeak—and said, “Come in.”
Glennis, the receptionist, poked her head in. “Rory? There’s a man out front who’d like to speak with you.”
She frowned. “Why didn’t you just send him back?”
“Well, ah…I wasn’t sure…” Glennis’s cheeks grew flushed.
Why was the receptionist blushing? Then Rory knew.
Dalton.
“The man in question looks like Charles Manson? Don’t let the crazy beard fool you. He’s harmless.”
Glennis appeared startled. “This guy doesn’t have a beard. And he insisted you come out to the reception area.”
Not Dalton after all. Not an unusual request, either. Some men she dealt with believed their questions about certain programs would be less official if they weren’t asked in her office. Made no sense, but mindsets around here were off center anyway.
Rory pushed back from her desk. “Thanks, Glennis. I’ll handle him.”
“I wouldn’t mind handling him,” Glennis muttered.
She headed down the hallway, her brain still mired in processing the morning’s paperwork. She glanced at the man standing in front of the windows with his broad back to her. Not that she minded; his rear view was excellent. Dark Cinch jeans—which she preferred to Wranglers—a black wool vest worn over a crisp white shirt and a black hat.
“Sir? You wished to see me?”
He turned around and Rory froze. Good thing she’d locked her knees or she might’ve ended up falling to them.
It was Dalton. Without a beard.
Holy, holy, holy crap.
She’d always considered him a level beyond cute in that baby-faced way, with his dimpled smile, big blue eyes and full lips. This Dalton…goddamn. He defined hot and rugged man—all man.
“Rory?” he asked softly.
She managed to eke out, “You got rid of the beard.”
Dalton rubbed his fingertips over his face. “Yeah, well, it feels weird.” He laughed self-consciously. “Probably looks weird too.”
“God, no. It looks…” Fucking fantastic.
Why don’t you just blurt out what a hottie he is?
He raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to finish.
Flustered, she dropped her gaze and noticed he held flowers. She met his eyes again. “For me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He took a step closer. “To prove to you that I’ve changed.” His mouth brushed her ear. “So prepare yourself, darlin’. I’m gonna romance the hell out of you.”
“Here?” she whispered.
“Here, there and everywhere,” he murmured in that deliciously deep voice.
“Rory?” Glennis said somewhere behind her. “I’ve got an extra vase for those flowers if you need one.”
Rory had to stop herself from jumping away from Dalton like a guilty teen. “That would be great, Glennis.”
“If you wanna take Mr…?”
“McKay,” Rory inserted.
“Mr. McKay to your office, I’ll bring the vase to you.”
“Thanks.” Her gaze hooked Dalton’s. “If you’ll follow me.” She turned down the hallway. A few of her female coworkers poked their heads out as they passed by. Word spread fast in this office.
Dalton probably did that whole cowboy hat tip-nod thing that made women swoon.
I’ve changed.
Yeah, right. Rory whipped around to try and catch him in his charm-the-pants-off-every-woman-within-range act, but Dalton’s gaze was firmly on her ass. Nowhere else.
That shouldn’t have made her feel better, but it did.
Those big blue eyes met hers. “You caught me lookin’.”
No apology. No surprise. “Because you can’t keep your eyes off this sexy uniform?”
“It’s not clothes that make a woman sexy, Rory.”
She spun back around and cut through the copy center to reach her office. She’d intended to sit behind her desk, putting some space between them, but Glennis followed them in.
Talk about speedy.
Glennis set a vase already half-filled with water on the desk and handily plucked the flowers from Dalton.
Rory gave her an arch look at her uber-efficiency.
“I saw him with t
hose and figured someone in this office was getting flowers. It’s my job to be prepared.” She left and shut the door.
She started to open the door, but Dalton intercepted her. “Leave it closed.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to talk to you in private.”
Before she could ask what he wanted to discuss, the ooh pretty! side of her brain focused on the hunky man flesh within touching distance. Almost without thinking, she placed her hands on his face. His skin was so warm and smooth. And he smelled amazing.
“Damn you, McKay. You should’ve kept this good-looking mug of yours covered up under that ugly fur.”
“What? I shaved it because you said you didn’t like it.”
He’d shaved it off for her? Her fingers traced the edge of his strong jaw. His cheekbones. The dimple in his right cheek.
Dalton made a growling noise and Rory found herself pressed against the door by two hundred pounds of cowboy. “Deal is, you touch me, I get to touch you.”
“Hey. I didn’t agree to that deal.”
“It’s unspoken.” Dalton angled his head and placed a kiss on the side of her neck.
She should’ve demanded he stop after that first soft kiss. Or the second, placed on her neck below the first. She really shouldn’t have let him string hot kisses down one side of her throat and up the other side. She probably should’ve moved away instead of leaning closer when he started rubbing his smooth face against hers.
But it felt so good.
“Rory,” he murmured in her ear. “Have me for lunch.”
That snapped her out of it. “What?”
“Have lunch with me.”
Jesus. This man muddled her brain to the point he could make her hear things she wanted to hear. “Dalton. I can’t.”
“Too short of notice, huh?”
“It’s not that.”
Dalton eased back but his hands remained braced beside her head on the door. “Then what?”
“This is going way too fast for me. You show up at the Twin Pines and bully-kiss me into giving you my phone number.”
“Bully-kiss? Never heard that one before.”
“The night before last when we had supper at your place you used that bully-kiss tactic on me then too.”
“I didn’t use the bully-kiss tactic yesterday,” he pointed out.
“Only because you went to visit your mom and we didn’t see each other,” she retorted.
“I haven’t used the bully-kiss tactic today.” He grinned at her. “Not yet anyway.”
Her eyes searched his. “I’m serious. You just blow into town after three years and I’m supposed to take it on faith that you want to be with me? Especially after we hadn’t been on the best terms for several years before that? It’s only been three days.”
A fierce look entered his eyes. “If I’d known you were back after breaking your engagement I’d been here six months ago.”
Rory stilled. Dalton hadn’t brought up her broken engagement the other night so she wasn’t sure he’d known about it. “How’d you find out?”
“That you kicked that douche-fucker—who wasn’t good enough to date you, let alone marry you—to the curb? Sierra told me four hours after I left Montana. And I let her have it for keeping such a big fucking secret from me.”
Rory ducked under his arm and put distance between them. “I didn’t know you were so tight with Sierra.”
“I keep in touch with her because she’s the only McKay who never knew me during my growing up years, so she doesn’t hold a fixed opinion about me.”
“So you could keep in touch with her, but not me?” Crap. Why had she said that? “Did Sierra blab all about me?”
Dalton crowded her again. “Only if I asked. So I knew about your engagement. You were seriously gonna marry a guy named Dillon Doland?”
“He goes by Dil. Besides, it’s not the person’s name you fall in love with, but the person.”
He grabbed her upper arms and pulled her closer. “Were you in love with him?”
Given the jealous fire flashing in Dalton’s eyes, she was surprised how easily she manipulated the truth. “We had a lot in common.”
“Did. You. Love. Him.”
“Why does it matter now?”
“Dammit Rory, I can’t stand the thought…” Then Dalton’s hands slid up, framing her face as his mouth took possession of hers.
The kiss started out red-hot and spiraled higher from there. Every slide of his tongue against hers, every tiny suck, every nibble, every time he pulled back he made a low groan and dove into the kiss again. He read her reactions and adjusted accordingly with the perfect combination of passion and temptation. Making her crave more body-to-body contact, more…everything.
He slowed the kiss and backed off. “Didn’t mean to do that here, but I just wanted you to know.”
She rested her backside against the desk because her legs were jelly. “You wanted me to know that you intend to romance the hell out of me?”
“No.”
“Know what then?”
Before he could respond, the door swung open and Hannah walked right in.
Rory was relieved Hannah hadn’t showed up two minutes earlier and caught her and Dalton in a hardcore lip lock.
“Oh, hello,” Hannah said to Dalton’s chest, “I didn’t realize you had a visitor, Rory.”
Like hell you didn’t.
Dalton said, “I’ll leave and let you get back to work.”
The hungry way Hannah was eyeing Dalton annoyed the piss out of her. Rory set her hand on Dalton’s arm. “We’re still on for lunch, right?”
He didn’t miss a beat. “Of course. Is the Mexican joint still in business?”
“Yes. I’ll meet you there in…fifteen minutes?”
“Works for me.” He gave Hannah the cowboy nod before he walked out.
And lecherous Hannah cranked her head around—much like that chick in The Exorcist—to watch his backside as he ambled out.
“Was there something you needed, Hannah?”
“Just checking to see if you ordered additional office supplies for your new temporary position.”
Right. Hannah just wanted to let Rory know she could barge in any time she liked—regardless if she technically wasn’t Rory’s boss for the next few months. “No. I’m covered.”
After Hannah exited the office, Rory spent five minutes brightening her makeup before she drove the mile into town.
Dalton stood when he saw her and kissed her cheek. But he frowned when Rory sat across from him and not next to him.
“Did you get in trouble with your boss lady?”
“No. She’s just a snoopy bitch.”
“I figured as much. I didn’t order you a margarita because I wasn’t sure if you could have a drink at lunch.”
“Better not. Hannah will probably do a breath check on me when I get back.” She scrolled down the menu choices. “I’m so glad I don’t have to answer to her for the next three months while I’m in charge of a special project.”
“What’s the project?”
Rory looked up at him and grinned. “It’s a fulltime project, that’s what matters at this point.”
“Is this project a stepping stone to getting a fulltime position at the WNRC?”
God she hoped not. If anything it’d add interest to her resume so she could escape this job from hell. She hedged. “We’ll see. I gave notice at the Twin Pines. I have to work Saturday night but after that I’m done. One job.”
“Will you know what to do with yourself with only one job?” he teased.
“Probably not.”
“Luckily I’ve got some great ideas on how to keep you entertained.”
I’ll just bet you do. As Rory was about to point out that she wasn’t a source of entertainment while he killed time in Sundance, the waitress came by.
Rory ordered a pulled pork burrito and Dalton ordered a salad with spicy grilled chicken. “A salad in a Mexican restaurant? Real
ly?”
“I’m not used to eating this much. Between the junk food feast the other night and my mom cooking a triple helping of my favorite meal, which included cake, I’ve gotta watch it.”
“You look more…buff since I saw you last.”
“Logging will bulk you up in a helluva hurry.”
“How is your mom?”
“Really good. She dragged me to a hole-in-the-wall bar last night, where apparently she’s a regular. I got a huge kick outta seeing that side of her.”
“My mom is different since she and Gavin hooked up. Not in a bad way. She’s got that best friend, confidant, lover thing with Gavin. I’m happy for her because she deserves it.”
Dalton took her hand. “But?”
“But nothing. Although there is the teeniest part of me that is jealous.”
“Is that why you decided to settle for Dildo?”
“Dildo?” she repeated.
“Dillon Doland, your ex-fiancé. Dildo for short, from here on out.”
She laughed. Hard. “I forgot how funny you are.”
“I didn’t forget how beautiful you are when you laugh.”
“Dalton. Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” His thumb swept over her knuckles as his gaze roamed her face. “Tell you when Sierra told me you planned to marry someone else that I drowned my sorrows in a fifth of scotch?”
“You did?”
“Yep. For three nights in a row. You might find this hard to believe, but my fightin’ days ended after I left Wyoming. So it’d been a while since I’d picked a fight. But I found the biggest, meanest logger in the bar. You know how the rest of this goes—he beat the fuck outta me.”
Rory’s gut clenched. Not only at the mental image of him being bruised and bloody, but that he’d actually told her the engagement caused him to snap.
Don’t fall for it. He’s playing you.
“Don’t you believe me?”
“I just don’t get why you’re telling me this now.”
“So you know that the supposed fast pace between us and the way I feel about you…ain’t something that just happened in the last three days.”
Talk about being steamrolled. Before she could ask how he felt about her, the waitress delivered chips and salsa.
Redneck Romeo (Rough Riders) Page 7