The Divine Creek Ranch Collection Volume 3

by Heather Rainier

  “How are Boone and Richard doing?”

  “They just got home, too. We’re fixing to eat. What are you up to?”

  “I just got home. I wanted to…” …tell you I need you.

  Kendall waited for a few seconds and then spoke up, his voice laced with concern. “You okay, babydoll?”

  Just tell him. Say the words. I need you.

  She couldn’t do it. Kendall and his brothers were struggling, trying to get their ranch up and running. They were entrenched in life in Divine, and she was in San Marcos. If she told him that, she knew he’d drop everything and be there inside of three hours. That wasn’t fair to him or his brothers, who were still working full-time at that other ranch. Suck it up, sister. You have decisions to make.

  She wouldn’t bother him with her job decisions because she knew it was simply a choice of where to start looking. She’d just tell Kendall about what was going on with Frank. He’d help her see the big picture, and she’d move on. Talking to him could provide a jumpstart of sorts. She’d always been able to rely on him.

  * * * *

  Kendall Warner sat down with his ice-cold beer and propped his boots up on the coffee table. It had been a long, hot day, but all that was forgotten as he held the cell phone to his ear. He welcomed the sound of Maya Daire’s sexy, whispery voice even though it inspired a hardening erection he couldn’t expect her to do anything about. He didn’t welcome the words he knew were coming.

  Don’t say it, babydoll.

  “You’re my ‘go-to’ guy, Kendall. I know I can trust you to tell me what I should do.”

  If I did, you’d be living here with us. You’d be lying in our bed right now while I made love to you and my brothers watched, waiting their turn.

  He pictured her like that and suppressed a groan. He could see her clearly, her long, golden-blonde hair spread across his pillows, her beautiful, curvaceous body naked and resplendent on the sheets. Her blue eyes glittered with desire as she reached for him. His cock punched at his fly, demanding action.

  Kendall glanced at his older brother, Boone, who watched him with a knowing look on his face. It was Kendall’s younger brother Richard’s turn to cook supper, and he’d been banging around in the kitchen until Kendall’s phone rang. The kitchen was now quiet, since he’d told them it was Maya calling. In the last couple of months, both his brothers had developed a greater interest in these calls.

  “Is everything all right, Maya?” Kendall prepared to have his heart ripped out.

  She was calling him for advice about dating again. Or she was calling to tell him she was dating someone new. He was glad she had returned to the land of the living or at least partly living. It had been a year since her husband Morgan’s death, and as a young widow, Maya was trying hard to get back in the swing of things.

  “Frank Reeves has been asking for more than just a date. I went out with him last night, and when he brought me home he wanted to stay over.”

  The thought of her loving someone new made his chest burn.

  “How do you feel about that?” Kendall asked through gritted teeth, trying to sound normal as the Neanderthal inside him beat his chest ineffectually.

  Frank Reeves was an aging jock with a superiority complex who had been Morgan’s business partner. Kendall had never liked him, and it didn’t sit well with him that Maya had gone out with the asshole.

  Boone propped his boots up on the coffee table and stretched loudly. In answer to Kendall’s question to her, he muttered, “Feel like kicking your pussy ass, Kendall, that’s how I feel.”

  Kendall saluted Boone with his middle finger.

  It had been Kendall’s intent to give Maya time to mourn before sharing how he’d always felt about her. When had he gotten himself into this role as her love-life advisor?

  About eight years ago, when I became a fucking pushover where my best friend’s wife was concerned.

  He thought back to the times she’d called on him as her “go-to” guy. He’d given the blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty advice on every subject relating to the human male, with Morgan reaping all the benefits.

  He’d had a hand in selecting lingerie colors and styles. She’d e-mailed him with a picture of herself shot from the rear. Along with the picture was the question, “Do these jeans make my ass look enormous?” He had no idea why she thought her sweet little derriere was enormous. It was perfection. He’d e-mailed her back an appropriate reply.

  His all-time favorite as the “go-to” guy was her asking him if guys really cared whether a girl swallowed cum after a blow job or not.

  Maya had even talked to him about feeling ready to start a family. He’d imagined her beautiful body ripe with his child. He should’ve felt guilty for that, or jealous of Morgan, but that hadn’t been the case at all. He would’ve been happy for both of them if she’d gotten pregnant. Jealousy had never entered the picture, and Morgan had never acted threatened by Maya’s continued closeness to Kendall since becoming friends in college.

  Then Morgan had been killed in a freak auto accident. Kendall’s role as “go-to” guy had taken on a different quality as she’d mourned. Over the last couple of months their conversations had concerned her getting involved socially again. It was right about that time that Boone and Richard had begun taking a more focused interest in her.

  “I don’t want him like that. I think Frank’s…okay, and he was supportive after Morgan’s accident, but I have the impression he’s becoming impatient. He didn’t leave happy last night.” Her silken voice held a note of hesitancy. “If he pulls that again I think I’m done with him. I was actually a little scared when he left so angrily.”

  Her words and her tone got Kendall’s attention. “You’re scared of him? If that’s the case, you need to stop seeing him now. Don’t give him the opportunity to hurt you. I’ve never liked the smarmy bastard, but I was glad you were feeling up to dating again. If the guy scares you, cut him loose.”

  He’d just lied to her. If Kendall had been in the area, Frank Reeves never would’ve had a chance at dating her. Kendall noticed Boone’s demeanor had changed, and the kitchen had grown quiet again.

  “I didn’t mean to get you all riled up.”

  “If Reeves is scaring you, I want to do more than get riled up.” He wanted to get in the truck and go get her.

  “Maybe I’m making too big of a deal out of it. He did stop when I asked him to—”

  “Stop what? What did he do?” Kendall saw red and sensed it when Richard came to stand behind the couch to listen and Boone sat up at attention.

  “Kendall, calm down. It was no big deal. He was trying to get my top undone. Feeling me up. You know.”

  “Anyone who dates you should treat you like a lady, Maya. Do you need me to come teach the bastard a lesson?” Please say yes.

  She was silent for a moment, and then said, “That’s him on call-waiting right now. I’ll let it go to voice mail. No, I don’t need you to come teach him a lesson, I need—” He thought he heard a hitch in her breathing.

  Say me. Please say you need me.

  “Maya?” He could picture her sitting in her living room all alone, looking like she needed his arms wrapped around her.

  “Never mind. Listen, don’t mind me. I’m not going to see Frank anymore. I’ll call him back and tell him we’re through. It’s just hard, Kendall. It was a year ago yesterday. I–I have…regrets, and it’s making me oversensitive. I’ll be fine.” She sounded anything but fine. Forlorn was more like it.

  “Maya, I can be there in three hours.”

  “No. I’m a big girl.”

  They spoke of other, safer topics for a few minutes, and then he ended the call, dissatisfied and hungry. But not hungry for supper. The hunger he’d always felt for her burned in his belly. If she knew how her voice on the phone affected him, how her velvety tone caressed his neural pathways, she’d…what? Freak out? Laugh?

  Boone sighed heavily and said what was on his mind. “Bro, how long are you goin
g to torture yourself? If she’s dating again, you need to act on whatever it was she told you before some other unworthy asshole comes along and steals her away permanently. You got mail.” Boone nudged it to him with the heel of his boot on the coffee table.

  Richard shifted quietly behind Kendall and said, “Someone’s giving our girl a hard time?”

  “Yeah. Frank Reeves.” God, how Kendall wished she was their girl. That had been the topic of recent conversation as well.

  “Is he the peckerwood who drives the Jag?” Boone asked, scrubbing a hand over the short beard on his jaw.

  “That’s the one. He tried to take advantage of her last night. She said he’s gotten pushy, wanting more attention than she’s willing to give.” He lifted a letter written on heavy stationery from the stack to open first. The return address was a law office in Austin. “Shit. What now?”

  He sliced open the envelope with his pocketknife as Boone sat forward and Richard hovered nearby with his arms crossed over his massive chest.

  Richard asked, “Is it about the claim on the house?”

  “No, I heard from them this afternoon,” Kendall said as the contents of the heavy envelope fell into his lap. They had been in limbo, waiting to hear from their insurance company regarding the pile of broken lumber that currently sat where the old JWB Ranch house had once stood.

  “What did they say?” Boone asked. “The storm was last month, and they sure are taking their sweet-ass time.”

  “Our policy has a wind exclusion because of the history of storms in our area. It won’t cover the loss at all.”

  “Thank God we hadn’t sunk a lot of money and time into renovating it yet,” Richard said.

  They’d lived on the Rockin’ C Ranch with the other ranch hands after hiring on with Chance and Clayton Carlisle and had only made the ranch house livable enough to move in to a few months before the storms had hit. Their focus had been the land and saving practically every penny they earned for good breeding stock. The house had been in sad repair, and they’d originally planned to fix it up a little at a time while living in it. Between their jobs and caring for the land and livestock, the last two years had been long and hard.

  “And for the fact that we weren’t home when it happened.”

  Home for the last month had been the old foreman’s house on the Divine Creek Ranch. Angel, Joaquin, and Teresa Martinez and their two children had vacated it the year before when their new house was finished. The present ranch foreman, Ash Peterson, his wife Juliana, and their baby boy were living in her home while their house on FM 709 was under construction.

  Grace Warner had come to the guys when she’d heard about the rickety, old ranch house being destroyed in last month’s straight line windstorm and had insisted they live in the unoccupied foreman’s house while they rebuilt.

  Boone added, “At least the outbuildings and livestock were mostly unharmed.”

  Boone and Richard still worked full-time at the Rockin’ C Ranch outside of Divine while Kendall worked full-time on their spread, the JWB or Jack Warner’s Boys Ranch. The JWB butted up to the Divine Creek Ranch along the creek for which it was named.

  Kendall had begun working full-time on their place the year before. Their plan had been to each come back full-time to the JWB as it began to turn a profit as a cattle ranch. It was slow going, but they were patient. The JWB was a beautiful piece of land and well worth the effort.

  Kendall was content in almost every area of his life, save one. The phone call from Maya had only served to bring his loneliness to mind. He could handle having to rebuild their home. He couldn’t handle the thought of rebuilding a house, only to knock around in it alone.

  A cover letter and another sealed envelope with familiar handwriting on the outside fell into his lap. He opened the cover letter and quickly scanned the contents. Trepidation grew in his heart as he slit the second envelope open.

  “It’s a letter from Morgan,” he murmured as the old ache surfaced in his heart for his dead friend. Morgan had been killed in a hit-and-run automobile accident a year and one day ago. Boone and Richard withdrew to the kitchen and left him to read in private.

  Kendall,

  It must feel weird to hold this letter in your hands right now. That means I’ve been dead for a year. It feels weird to write it, too. Sorry for your loss, dude.

  You’re my best friend and Maya’s as well. That’s why I’m reaching out to you. By now, Maya should be moving on with her life, and I needed to make some things right for her sake. Being the nice guy that you are, you have no idea what I’m talking about.

  I know you loved her. I know the day I married her had to be the most painful day of your life. But you stood by me the whole time without a word of complaint. It would’ve killed me if I’d been in your shoes, but you’ve stuck by us and been the kind of friend we’re both grateful for.

  If you’re able, will you go to her? Will you tell her you love her and do whatever you must to get her to admit she loves you as well? I know she loves you. I knew it when I married her even though I was sure she loved me, too. I think she wanted us both and couldn’t ask for what she truly wanted. Do whatever you have to do to convince her and give her what she needs.

  You’re going to think I’m a freak for saying this, but I think you’re the missing part of our marriage. I wish we lived in a culture where poly relationships were accepted. If I had chosen a different, less public profession and lived in a smaller town it might have been an option for us. I’ll never know.

  Worst-case scenario, Frank Reeves will try to get involved with Maya. Please don’t allow that to happen, Kendall. I think he harbors an attraction for her, and something has been off about him lately. Tell her whatever you have to. Show her this letter if you think it will help. But keep her out of his hands.

  Please go after her and take care of her, before some unworthy bastard beats you to her. Love her for both of us. You’ll be a lucky man if you do.

  Sincerely,

  Morgan Daire

  PS: I hope by now you’ve made something of that shithole you call a ranch house. Maya deserves a palace.

  Kendall felt like he’d been poleaxed. There was a date stamp from the law office on the outside of Morgan’s envelope. They’d received it roughly six months before Morgan’s death, evidently with instructions for when to mail it to Kendall, if necessary. He found it unsettling that Morgan’s words mirrored Boone’s of just moments before.

  “Damn, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Boone commented as he handed Kendall another beer.

  “Heard from one is more like it.” Kendall handed Boone the letter. Boone sat down and read with Richard looking over his shoulder. Kendall sat on the couch in shock.

  If he had the chance for a do-over with Maya, would he let her slip through his fingers again? Hell no. Boone handed him the letter, and Richard sat in the recliner. This involved more than just him. It concerned the two of them as well. Maya Daire’s new social status had been the topic of conversation for weeks. Living in Divine and getting to know his cousins had changed the way he thought about relationships, just as it had for his brothers. If she’d loved both Morgan and Kendall was there a chance she could find happiness with the three of them?

  Richard gazed at Kendall through piercing, pale eyes and asked, “You going after her?”

  “Yes.”

  Kendall sensed their reactions in their body language. They both looked ready to charge through the front door and climb in the truck.

  The three of them wanted—no, craved what their cousin Jack had with his wife, Grace, and Jack’s distant cousins, Ethan Grant and Adam Davis. They wanted a woman to love and to share. Kendall smiled and looked at them both.

  “Do you think lightning can strike twice in the same place?”

  “Of course,” Boone replied. Richard remained silent on the couch, but nodded.

  “Well, let’s see if it’ll strike three times.”

  Chapter Two

  M
aya sat on the couch with the stack of mail in her hand as she laid her phone aside. Something about Kendall’s soothing voice always made her feel better, especially since Morgan’s death, but before then, also. He’d talked her off more ledges than she could recall, some small and some larger than he probably realized.

  She finally reached for the envelope and opened it.

  Another one.

  After helping his mother deal with the sudden death of his father due to a heart attack, Morgan had decided to write Maya a series of letters to help her in the event she had to deal with his death. His mom had been totally unprepared to handle tying up his father’s loose ends and making financial decisions that would affect her livelihood. Maya was grateful for every letter she’d received, both as a tie to him and because she’d been in a fog those first few months and had needed his counsel on many occasions.

  Her heart clenched with the pain of Morgan’s loss for a moment, and she waited for the buried-under-an-avalanche feeling that always accompanied these letters. Each time one came, her emotional response to it was not as bad as with the previous one.

  This time she only felt like skipping supper and going straight to bed. The last time, she’d wanted to stay in bed for a week. Steeling herself, she tore open the envelope. A small key fell into her lap. She lifted the cover letter from Morgan’s attorney and close friend and read it.

  The key was to a safe-deposit box at Hill Country Bank and Trust in San Marcos. In the letter, the lawyer apologized for the delay in getting the key to her. Somehow the key had been placed in the wrong envelope, and she should have received it much sooner. It had only recently been discovered in the envelope with the final letter. Laying the key aside, she carefully opened the envelope and slid the enclosed letter out.

  Lovely Maya,

  This is my last letter. The reason for that is not because I’m tired of writing them. That would be like getting tired of making love to you. If it was the only way I could be there for you, I’d go on for years with letters, but I can’t back up what I’d write with action.