by Tina Leonard
“Anyway,” Sierra said, “back to my homicidal brothers, I’ve got one at the ranch taking care of your herd. Hope you don’t mind.”
He glanced at her, stunned. “Which brother?”
“Actually, all three of them. Luke, Cisco, and Romero. Although I don’t think Cisco will hang around long.”
“Santana didn’t mention this.”
“He doesn’t know.” She met his gaze with piercing eyes. “And until I figure out how to tell him, you’re not going to tell him, either.”
“Why can’t you just tell him? They’re grown men. No need to hide.”
“They came back to work for you.”
His brows rose. “Instead of going to find their destinies on some remote island or desert, they’ve decided to return and work the family ranch that’s no longer theirs?”
“That’s it.”
“Why did they tell you instead of Santana?”
“I asked them to come back, just for a couple of months. It’s going to be Christmas soon. We need to be together during the holidays. It’s normal for families. Didn’t you know?”
“So your brothers are running the ranch for me right now?”
“I told them you needed the help. We’re stranded here for who knows how long.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Well, ranch life doesn’t wait until you show back up in your Jaguar.”
“Range Rover.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Thank you for sending them over,” he said, thinking he now had four brothers to get through if he was ever going to—
To what? Kiss this wild woman? Date her? They were so different from each other he shouldn’t even be thinking what he was thinking. Not about her soft lips, her big eyes, her delicate body, the sparks she threw off when she lit up with her harebrained schemes—
“That’s good. Nice to know. And your secret’s safe with me. Although it won’t be a secret much longer, once we get back. Now get out.”
Sierra looked at him. “What?”
“Get out of my car. Please.” Nick really, really wanted her to go. If she didn’t, he couldn’t be held responsible for not tasting those lips.
He’d be royally screwed if he did.
“Why?” Sierra demanded.
“Because you’re bothering me. I’m trying to work. It’s the first time since I’ve met you Darks that I’ve actually had utter silence. No barking dogs, no scrawny tie-dye-haired woman sassing me, no wedding gown ridiculousness—”
She gasped. “You don’t mean that!”
“Out of the car. Time is money, and you’re taking up time I could be working.”
“It’s all about money for you, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is. Goodnight.”
She got out, peering back in at him for a second. “If you get tired of being a frozen freak, there’s space for you in my room.”
It was so tempting he wondered if he was stupid to pass it up. “Your brother would take a chunk out of my hide.”
“Don’t be a boring chickenshit, Nick Marshall.”
No one in any boardroom would have ever called him such. “We discussed your homicidal brothers, didn’t we?”
“For the record, my room has two beds. I wasn’t seducing you, dork.”
She slammed the door, drawing a wince from him. His car had never been treated with anything but the softest touch. Then again, what did it matter? The thieves had left his car axles perched on cinder blocks, a well-practiced maneuver to get wheels on and off with a minimum of fuss. She was right: the car was just metal and glass.
She was beauty and sass.
He wasn’t going to tell her the truth about her birth parent records. That job he’d assigned to her brother, his foreman.
I’m an asshole like my father.
He told himself Sierra really did have homicidal brothers, but that wasn’t why he needed distance.
She might not have been attempting to seduce him, but if he went into her room, he damn sure would be hard-pressed not to seduce her.
He’d keep her secret, though. Just like he was keeping his.
He settled back down in the seat, and told himself to go to sleep. The door opened again, but he didn’t open his eyes. Damn it, had these people never heard of texting? They could reach him faster that way, and with a whole lot less bother to him.
“If you get out,” a raspy voice said, “we can fix up your car and get you at least to the nearest town.”
He jumped. The man looked perfectly fine, in an overgrown, flannel-wearing sort of way. “I have a service coming tomorrow, thanks. Do I know you?”
“I’m Miss Sugar’s brother.”
“Ah.” Nick got out of the car reluctantly, and the man closed the passenger-side door. Nick glanced at the truck the man drove. There was a stack of tires haphazardly thrown in the back, very visible thanks to the spotlight on the top of the man’s truck emitting enough light to blind angels. “Are those my tires?”
“Could be. I just buy them when they come my way.”
Nick approached the truck bed. Those were his tires, high-quality, expensive tires that weren’t anything like the stacks of tires beneath. Great, just great. He was the victim of a scam, and Miss Sugar was the chief con artist. “You’re Miss Sugar’s brother, you say?”
“I am. Name’s Sid.”
“What’s going on?” Santana asked, coming out of the diner. “That light on your truck is shining through the whole damn—are those your tires, Nick?”
“Yes. He apparently doesn’t have my wheels, though.”
“Doug Weathers probably has those,” Sid informed them. “He buys ’em, no questions asked.”
“He doesn’t want them,” Santana said, stunning Nick. “I ought to report this establishment for preying on its customers.”
“Hey!” Sid drew his girth up. “I didn’t know these were his tires!”
“Hit the road, or I’m calling the law.”
“Sheriff’s my cousin!” Sid exclaimed.
“Then I’ll call the Better Business Bureau and a few other places. News stations, for one,” Santana said. “Go.”
“Try to do a man a good deed, and this is how I get treated,” Sid said. “Fine. Sit out here and freeze your stupid citified carcass.”
He drove off, highly indignant. Nick looked at Santana. “Is there a reason I didn’t want my tires back?”
“Wait for it,” Santana said, and Nick was surprised to see Sid stop his truck in the middle of the icy street. He got out, hustled to the truck gate. Opening it, he tossed the four tires Nick had claimed were his into the street.
“I don’t want any trouble,” Sid called to them. “And I’d appreciate it if you don’t mention this to my sister!”
He got in his truck and drove off.
“Wow. Did you know he would do that?”
“I knew sense would eventually kick into his meaty brain. Let’s go in and get some coffee. Miss Sugar’s just set some out fresh, which I was coming to tell you when I saw you had company.”
Nick wondered if Santana knew that Sid wasn’t the only company he’d had. They tossed the tires into the back of the Range Rover and went inside Miss Sugar’s.
She had coffee and fresh biscuits on a table for them. “Hope you slept well!”
“Thank you, Miss Sugar.” Nick shook his head and sat across from Santana, who seemed unconcerned about anything but hot coffee. “The ways of small towns elude me just a bit.”
“You think?” Santana asked drily.
“You’d be just as awkward in my world.”
“More.” Santana bit into a biscuit. “I wouldn’t even try to fit where you come from.”
Nick wondered why he was bothering to try to fit into the Darks’ world. Frankly, small town life probably wasn’t going to work out for him. Thanks to the internet and cell phones and good roads, he could run just as much of his business from Star Canyon as he would normally—outside of the lunch and dinner meetings.
But he didn’t have to do those to make business happen. He’d just done them out of a sense of…loneliness.
“So, just a word of caution,” Santana said. “I wouldn’t let my sister talk you into anything else.”
Nick’s gaze shot to meet Santana’s. He wondered if he had guilty stamped on his forehead. “Like?”
“Running for town council.”
Nick laughed. “No, really.”
Santana shrugged. “She will. Or something else civic-minded.”
“I don’t have time.”
“You have nothing but time. And you’ll want to make her happy. Everybody always does. Sierra has that effect on people.”
Nick looked at him warily. “I’m a committed bachelor.”
Santana laughed. “Join the crowd.”
“No, I really am. I know you and Emma are, um, close.” He hesitated at the quick glower on Santana’s face. “But I’m not interested in Sierra, not like that. We’re like sand and water, we’d mix and make a soggy mess.”
Santana looked at him. “All I said was everybody wants to make Sierra happy. How did this get to be about you and Sierra hanging out on beaches?”
Nick sipped his coffee. “Just making sure what we’re talking about.”
Santana’s face was practically stone, looking very much like the homicidal maniac Sierra had mentioned. “You’ve got a thing for my sister,” he said, his tone stunned.
Nick held up a hand. “Absolutely not.”
“You poor bastard. She’s already got you under her spell. Well, good luck with that.”
Nick blinked. “I don’t need luck.”
“You will. Oh, you will.”
But then Emma walked in, looking fresh as morning sunshine. Nick noticed Santana change from stone man to a man with a smile—however small—on his face, and thought he wasn’t the only poor bastard in Star Canyon.
Misery loved company, and there was plenty of that to go around.
Emma sat down, and Santana poured her some coffee. “Nick got his tires back.”
“Really?” Emma looked at Nick. “No wheels, though?”
“Not yet,” Santana said. “But I expect we’ll have everything we need in the next thirty minutes to get us back to Star Canyon.”
“I got a text from Jenny,” Emma said. “She said there was all kinds of snow dumped in Star Canyon. But since your brothers are home, one of them is running by to get Joe from her. It might have been Cisco.”
Santana stilled in the act of biting a biscuit. He put it on his plate. “Why are my brothers at the ranch?”
Sierra joined them at the table, her hair standing straight up. Nick wondered how he could think a wild girl like this would ever fit in his world. She would stick out at cocktail parties. Other wives would stare at her. Eclectic didn’t fare well in the world he lived in, not this kind of eclectic which was actually a polite way of saying eccentric.
“What?” Sierra asked Santana. “Why is your face frozen like you just bit into something gross?”
“Our brothers came back. They’re at the ranch right now.”
“I know.” Sierra nodded. “I was going to tell you, but I found out last night. When I walked past the fireplace room, you were sacked out.” She looked at Nick. “So, you’re no good at keeping secrets.”
“You knew?” Santana howled at Nick.
“Don’t get me involved.” Nick raised his hands. “I’m going to borrow Sierra’s shower. See if you can work your magic and get my wheels back. I don’t think I can hang around you Darks much longer. Jeez.”
He stomped off, not about to get caught in the middle of a Dark family fracas.
Sierra followed him to her room, closing the door behind them.
“I didn’t tell him. Emma did.”
“I know. She just told me.” Sierra looked at him, and he wished desperately there wasn’t a closed door separating them from the rest of their companions.
“Well, get out. I can’t shower with you in here.” He glanced around the room, seeing only one double bed. “Hey, you told me there were two beds in here.”
She shrugged.
“Are you coming on to me? Because if you are, I want you to know I don’t want you to,” he said, digging deep for resistance.
“Just came in to get my purse.” Her gaze was laughing as she picked it up and went out.
Nick went straight to the shower, turning it on cold.
• • •
Emma went straight home to relieve Jenny of pet sitting duties, glad to be away from Santana. What exactly had happened between them on that short journey?
She found her friend sobbing into a pillow on the sofa. “Jenny! What’s wrong?”
“One of the lovebirds died!” Jenny wailed. “I’m a failure as a pet aunt!”
“Oh, Jenny.” She hugged her friend. “Don’t cry. You’re upsetting Gus and Bean. And me. My birds are very old. They don’t live forever, you know.” She and her father had picked them out together for a birthday present for her the year after her mother had died. She’d been seventeen. The birds were a sweet reminder, but she had the clinic, and that was a permanent link to her family.
“Nothing’s ever died on my watch! I had to take it out and put it in a little baggie, then wrap a dish towel around it, and put it in a shoe box. The ground’s too cold to bury anything right now, and I didn’t know if you’d want to do it yourself.”
“Jenny, you’re a wonderful pet aunt. Please don’t cry.” She got her friend a tissue as Gus and Bean flailed at their feet for attention. “Hello, fellows. Are you trying to make Aunt Jenny feel better?”
“They’ve been so good.” Jenny sniffled into her tissue. “Even Princess has been good and cuddles with me all the time. She used to be sort of unimpressed with me, but we really bonded. I thought we were all doing so well! And I was eating you out of house and home, reading a little case law, and watching some old Alfred Hitchcock TV shows. And then—”
“Don’t think about it anymore.” Emma patted her friend’s arm. “Jenny, there’s no one I trust more with my animals than you.”
“Thank you.” Jenny sniffled again. “How was the trip?”
“Strange.” Emma didn’t know what to think about anything that had happened. “It’s like we were on this really weird adventure to find an old dress, and wound up finding out a lot about each other instead. Maybe too much.” And maybe too much about themselves. After their recent lovemaking, she felt certain she and Santana shouldn’t be so awkward with each other. But he’d been totally remote after he’d left her room that night.
I’m not going to think about it. I can’t guess what was on his mind. If he wants to talk, he can find me.
She got up. “I’m going to get some hot tea. I’m bringing you some, too. You’re staying here for the night, okay? The roads aren’t good at all.”
“Thank you,” Jenny said, still not cheered. She padded after Emma into the kitchen, and the dogs followed, not about to let Emma out of their sight. “Is the dress beautiful?”
“In an old-fashioned, sort of sad way.” Emma smiled. “Yes, it’s lovely. But the story that went along with it was sort of a testimony to love that never happened.”
“Well, that won’t happen to you. Santana’s on the case.” Jenny giggled, and Emma was glad to see her smile, even if her opinion wasn’t close to being right.
“Cisco, Romero, and Luke came back.”
“What?” Jenny got up on a bar stool at the island, watching her set a kettle on. “Why?”
“What I’ve been able to learn from Sierra—who was so sick while we were gone that I’m not sure how much she actually knew and what she was making up—is that they took a crazy road trip. But they’re back for the holidays.”
Jenny’s eyes went wide. She tossed the tissue into the trash. “Maybe they decided military life wasn’t for them?” She sounded so hopeful.
“I don’t know that they decided that, exactly.” She set two teacups between them. “M
y guess is that they’ve decided to wait until after Christmas to make big decisions.”
“You know,” Jenny said, her voice soft, “I’ve always had kind of a thing for Cisc—”
Knocking on the door startled them. “I’ll get it,” Jenny said, sliding off the stool. Gus and Bean went nuts barking, so Emma couldn’t hear who it was, but her heart leaped inside her. Maybe Santana had come by with Joe, and maybe those strange moments between them were nothing more than worry over Sierra.
She was stunned when Nick walked into the kitchen, followed by Santana. Her gaze met Santana’s, surprised.
“Jenny, this is Nick Marshall. Nick, one of my dearest friends, Jenny Wright. Have a seat, please, everybody. Would you like some hot tea?”
To her surprise, Nick nodded. Santana moved his large frame onto a bar stool.
“If it’s no trouble,” he said courteously.
“It’s not. What brings you two out? Last I saw you, you were heading to check on your new hands, Nick.” Emma got out more tea bags and a couple of mugs for the guys, pulling the kettle off the stove once it started to rumble.
“Sierra left,” Santana said, and Jenny and Emma both fastened their gazes on him.
“Left?” Emma asked.
“Town. We were wondering if she’d mentioned anything to you.” Santana watched her as she poured tea for everyone.
“Not a word.” She got out some cookies from Mary’s bakery and put out dishes and napkins. “Why would she leave?”
“She said she could now. That she had the freedom to leave me and Nick to our own devices. That the ranch was in good hands.”
Emma was dumbfounded. “What about the wedding store?”
“She left me with a leased space she’s got practically ready for business.” He sighed, staring down into his tea. “Not to mention the storeroom full of crap she’s been stockpiling since the beginning of time.”
Santana took a deep breath. “I realize she’s in pain. I know everything’s that’s happened has hurt her. It’s hurt all of us.” He held up a hand. “Nick, this has nothing to do with you,” he said, forestalling Nick’s words, whatever he’d been about to say. “This isn’t any easier on you,” he told his cousin. “You’ve tried to be fair with us.”