Short-Order Sheriff (River's End Ranch Book 1)

by Kirsten Osbourne

  “I’m glad, because I can’t imagine ever wanting to leave this place.” And he had a feeling that before too terribly long, he’d be willing to do just about anything she asked.

  Steve stopped at the table then. “Are you guys getting dessert?” he asked.

  Shane looked at Kelsi. “You want dessert?”

  “Yeah, I want dessert, but I want to take it to the living room. We’re going to watch some blood and gore.” Her whole face gave away her excitement as she looked up at Steve and announced their plans.

  Steve flinched. “I’ll make sure to stay away from the living room on my way out tonight. I don’t know how you can watch that crap!”

  “It’s a learned taste. One you should work on learning immediately! How will you ever teach your children to love blood and guts?”

  “I’m not married. No kids on the way. What do you want for dessert?”

  Kelsi grinned. “I’ll take some huckleberry pie, please!” She got the same dessert every time. Why would she waste calories on an inferior dessert?

  Shane looked at her. “Huckleberry pie? I know it’s supposed to be an Idaho thing, but is it really any good?” He’d never tried it, even though he almost felt guilty for it. Huckleberry pie was practically synonymous with Idaho.

  She blinked at him. “A piece of warm huckleberry pie with a single scoop of vanilla ice cream is worth fighting a battle for. I promise if you order it and don’t like it, I’ll finish it for you!”

  “You’re so kind. So why don’t I order a different dessert and have one bite of yours?”

  “You want a bite of my pie?” Kelsi frowned for a moment. “Fine, but when you realize I got the better dessert, you still don’t get to eat mine.”

  Shane shrugged. “Whatever. I can live with that.” He turned to Steve who was waiting patiently, obviously used to Kelsi. “I’ll have the cheesecake with caramel sauce please.”

  As Steve walked off, Kelsi leaned forward as if to impart a great secret. “You’ve been out-ordered.”

  He laughed. “Everything is a competition with you, Kelsi.”

  “How many siblings do you have?”

  He wasn’t sure what that had to do with anything, but answered anyway, “I have a sister who is five years younger than me.”

  “Aha!” she said triumphantly.

  “Aha? What does that mean?” He felt like she was speaking in riddles.

  “That’s why you think I’m competitive. You didn’t have five siblings breathing down your neck playing Monopoly, Yahtzee, and every other game known to man! You didn’t have a twin you were trying to walk faster than! You didn’t have to worry about who lost all their teeth first, because you always knew it would be you. Me? I wasn’t noticed unless I was the best at something! So…I’m the best darn waitress and café manager in my whole family!”

  Her brother, Will, walked up to the table. “Dani said you finally dumped Donn The Dork.” He was looking back and forth between her and Shane as if he wanted to say something.

  “Hi, Will. It’s so good to see you! It’s been ages!” Kelsi said with a smile, wishing he’d go away. Her brother Will was her favorite and the one who frustrated her the most, all at once.

  “I know! Since our weekly Sunday night dinner last night when you stole the last piece of huckleberry pie from me. I think your exact words were, ‘You touch my pie and you draw back a bloody nub, and you know I’ll do it!’ Weren’t those your words?” He turned his attention to Shane. “And if it isn’t the sheriff who’s had the hots for my baby sister forever. Not letting any grass grow before you move in now that Donn The Dingleberry has moved away?”

  Shane met her brother’s eyes. “Would you?”

  Will shrugged. “Probably not, but then, I’m not moving in on your little sister.”

  “Is this the big speech, warning me to be kind and loving and not take advantage of her, from all of you? Or can I expect three more visits along the same lines?” Shane wasn’t going to back down. He was doing nothing wrong. Taking a woman in her mid-twenties to dinner in a public place was not a crime in any law book he’d ever read.

  “Oh, we wouldn’t want to deprive you! You’ll talk to all four of us within the week, I’m sure. We’re not committing crimes, Sheriff. Just making sure you know how precious our baby sister is to us.”

  Kelsi had heard enough. “Hey, Will, oh favorite brother-of-mine?”

  “Yes, Kelsi?”

  “Back off! I’m twenty-four and can handle myself. I’ve been doing it for years, so go away!” Kelsi’s face was more determined than Shane had ever seen it.

  Steve walked toward their table with the two desserts, but when he saw Will, he turned and walked straight back to the kitchen. Shane frowned as he watched.

  Will glared down at Kelsi. “I’m your big brother. It’s my job to make sure men in your life treat you with the respect you deserve.”

  Kelsi got to her feet, her short frame looking tiny in comparison to her brother’s huge bulk. She went toe to toe with him, her neck cranked back so far it looked to Shane like it would hurt. He leaned back in his chair to watch the show.

  She stabbed her finger into the middle of Will’s chest. “I will fight my own battles, and I will make my own mistakes. You will back off and take all our muscle-bound idiot brothers with you! I’m not putting up with this for another minute. Do you hear me? I will make your life miserable if you keep this up, Will Weston! I’m not afraid of any of you, and I know all the right stuff to mix into your food to have you sitting in the bathroom for three months, because Grandma Kelsey taught me. Remember?”

  Will took a step back, amazing Shane. Had she really just backed her brother up that way? He needed some popcorn, because this show was better than any movie.

  Steve came back toward the table. “I’m going to call Wade to come kick you both out if you don’t keep your voices down!” he hissed at the siblings. He carried two pieces of pie and a piece of cheesecake. He shoved one piece of pie at Will. “Go eat that and sweeten up your mood.” The other piece of pie was put in Kelsi’s hands. “Your bill is on your account. Go watch your slasher movie.” He handed the cheesecake to Shane. “Get her out of here.”

  Shane blinked a few times, surprised an employee of the ranch would talk to two family members that way. He stood, throwing enough cash on the table for a tip, knowing he needed to get her out of the restaurant fast. He could feel the eyes of everyone in the room staring at them.

  Will turned and walked away with his pie in hand, leaving the restaurant entirely.

  Shane took Kelsi’s arm and pulled her from the restaurant, his pie and a fork in his other hand. “I want you to tell me what they charge you for the meal, because it’s my treat, not yours.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s my family’s business. And Will may be my favorite brother, but I’m going to kill him if he tries to interfere with my life. I will poison him. I will slit his throat in his sleep. I will blow up his car!”

  Shane shook his head. “Now if something happens to him, you’ll be the first suspect! You don’t make death threats to the local sheriff. What are you thinking!”

  “Oh, you know as well as I do I wouldn’t really kill him. I’ll just make him very uncomfortable for a very long time.”

  Shane shook his head as he pulled her toward the family living room. How had he so quickly become embroiled in one of the famous fights between the Weston siblings? They were all known for their hot tempers and loyalty toward one another. They could say whatever they wanted to each other, but let an outsider even look at one of them funny, and the whole clan would descend on them, en masse.

  He pulled her into the living room, a room that was for both family and guests, and was relieved to see it was empty. “Sit down and eat your pie. Where are the movies you picked for me to choose from?” He wanted her temper to calm before they moved much further, and he was sure pie was the answer. With Kelsi, there always seemed to be a sweet answer to everything. She treated
chocolate as if it was medicinal.

  She sat brooding as she watched him dig through the movies on the end table beside the couch. He chose one, Student Bodies, a spoof on the slasher movies of the seventies, and stuck it into the DVD player, before sitting down beside her with remote in hand.

  “Now, where’s my bite of huckleberry pie?” he asked, looking at her and reaching out to rub a bit of huckleberry from the corner of her mouth with his thumb. He popped the thumb into his mouth, licking it clean. “Pretty good.”

  Kelsi was surprised by how much she wanted to kiss him. Instead, she scooped up a bite of the pie with her fork and fed it to him, watching his eyes close as he chewed. “You’re right. You out-ordered me.”

  “I know,” she said, taking another bite of pie for herself.

  “Can we get another pie sent in here?”

  Kelsi laughed. “The kitchen won’t be doing any favors for Will or me tonight. They hate when we fight in the restaurant. The chef says it puts people off their food, and we Westons should stay away completely.”

  Shane was glad she was laughing again. “Okay, tell me about this movie we’re about to watch.” He was sitting at the end of the couch, and she was in the middle, sitting close to him. She pulled a quilt from the back of the couch and covered them both with it, moving a bit closer to him.

  “It’s one of my favorites. It’s really a spoof on all the other slasher films. You’re going to love the breather!”

  “The breather?” he asked.

  “Just watch. I can’t tell you about it or you won’t want to watch it!”

  He started the movie and finished his cheesecake, putting his arm around her shoulders after he’d set the cheesecake plate on the table. He drew Kelsi closer and felt her rest her head on his shoulder, and he sighed contentedly. Happiness may be ranch and family to her, but to him, it was finally being able to date her and have the right to put his arm around her.

  He watched her more than he watched the movie. She buried her face in the blanket or turned her face into his shoulder during the scary parts, which surprised him. He knew she’d probably seen the movie a bunch of times. The third time she hid her face, he paused the DVD.

  “Why are you scared? I thought you’d seen this?”

  Kelsi frowned up at him for a moment, wondering if she should just tell him the truth or pretend it was something else. Finally, she shrugged, deciding the truth was the easiest. “If I pretend I’m scared, I get to touch you more and bury my face in your shoulder. If I act all blasé like I’ve seen it a million times, which I have, I can’t pretend to need comfort from you.”

  He blinked a couple of times in surprise at her honesty. “So you’re using the scary movie as an excuse to get closer to me?”

  She shrugged. “It’s working, right?”

  He laughed softly. “Does that mean you want me to kiss you?”

  “I wouldn’t have gone out with you if I didn’t.” Kelsi believed in honesty above all else. A little subterfuge was fine and dandy, but outright lies weren’t her style.

  He turned toward her. “Now? Cuz I can kiss you now. Or I can wait.” He was nervous, and it surprised him. He’d spent so long thinking about her that actually touching her was nerve-wracking for him.

  She grinned at him. “Here’s how I see it. We don’t know how strong our attraction really is until we kiss. I mean, we can think we’ll have all this electricity between us, but kiss and find out we’re just meant to be friends forever. Or we can kiss, and there could be magic. We need to see if we have the magic to know if we should go out again, so I think we should kiss now. Get it over with. You know?”

  “Get it over with? You want to get our first kiss over with?” Shane shook his head. “This night just keeps getting more and more romantic.”

  “The fight with my brother was pretty great…and the movie is awesome, of course…but yeah, I’m not so good with romance. I do memorable really well, though!”

  “You do have a point there. I don’t think I could forget tonight if I tried.” He sighed. “All right. Let’s get the first kiss over with, but if it’s not perfect, it’s because I feel put on the spot, so then I get a do-over.”

  “You’re already making excuses and asking for a do-over?” She rolled her eyes. “Just kiss me already!”

  “No pressure, though, right?”

  Kelsi had enough of his nonsense at that point, so she grabbed the front of his shirt in her hand and pulled him down toward her, planting her lips on his. If the mountain wouldn’t kiss Mohammed…or something like that.

  For a moment, Shane was too shocked by her abruptness to respond, but then he decided he liked it too much to care who had initiated the kiss. His arms wrapped around her and he pulled her closer, deepening the kiss.

  When she pulled back a minute later, her eyes were glazed. “Now that, my friend, is a kiss.”

  “Friend?” he asked, one eyebrow raised. “I don’t usually kiss friends that way.”

  “Glad to hear it,” she managed to say, though her heart beat out of control. “Maybe we should watch the rest of the movie.”

  “Why? You didn’t like it?” Had she not felt what he had during the kiss? Had she found it lacking somehow?

  “I liked it too much. Stop distracting me from my slasher spoof.” She turned back to face the television, sitting up straight this time, not putting her head on his shoulder. Never had a kiss made her feel the way that one did. What was it about good ol' Sheriff Shane that made her stomach feel as if butterflies had taken up residence there?

  Shane pushed play on the remote and put his arm back around her shoulders, straightening the blanket covering them both. He’d passed the “kiss test” he didn’t know he’d be taking...not that he could have studied for it. Was she always going to leave him confused and reeling?

  Chapter Three

  Shane watched the clock the following morning, looking forward to the moment when he could see Kelsi for lunch at the café. They’d only shared the one kiss the night before, but it had knocked his socks off. He had a feeling she’d felt the same.

  He completed some of the paperwork he’d put off the day before, and when it was finally time to go to lunch, he grabbed his hat and hurried out the door. He was nervous about seeing her, worried she might have decided going out with him had been a mistake. He’d waited for her for so long that he was ready to take their relationship to the next level, but he was sure she wasn’t yet. She would need time to get used to the fact that they belonged together.

  When he arrived at the café, it was still too early for the lunch rush. He’d deliberately timed it so he could have ten or fifteen minutes before the other customers swooped in for lunch. Sitting in the same booth he had used the day before, and most days for the past four years, he waited until she came out of the kitchen to greet him.

  Liz, the only other waitress on duty that day, knew better than to wait on him, as Kelsi always took care of him herself. She did acknowledge him with a nod, though, as she continued filling the salt and pepper shakers.

  Kelsi walked toward him with the usual bounce in her step. “Hey, you!” she said as she slipped into the booth across from him. She was wearing a knee-length black skirt, a white sweater, and the same red cowboy boots she’d worn the night before. He wasn’t sure what it was about those red cowboy boots, but every time he caught a glimpse of them on her, he couldn’t help but grin.

  “Hi!” It didn’t feel awkward seeing her at all, as he’d been slightly worried it would. “How’s Dani doing with the cooking?”

  “She’s mad at everyone, and if I don’t hire someone within the next week, she’s going to glue my hair to my pillow and put shampoo on my toothbrush.” Kelsi rolled her eyes. “Always the same threats. I’ll find someone as soon as I can, but it probably won’t be tomorrow. It’s not like we have a huge metropolis to pull from!”

  Shane reached out and took her hand in his, not caring if Liz saw them. The waitress was the only other perso
n in the front part of the café with them. “What are you doing on Saturday night?” His thumb brushed along her palm.

  “I want to go for a hike Saturday afternoon. Do you want to go? I asked Will, and he said he’s sick of hiking with me.” Kelsi frowned at him. “You’re not sick of hiking with me yet, are you?”

  Shane frowned. “We’ve never hiked together, so I couldn’t be sick of hiking with you. Why do you say yet?”

  Kelsi shrugged. “Everyone always gets sick of hiking with me eventually. I usually have to bribe my siblings to go.”

  “What do you bribe them with?” he asked, intrigued. Surely not money, because they were all equally wealthy. It had to be something good though.

  “I offer to make Dani’s bed for a week. With the guys, I’ve offered to cook their next Sunday night dinner here at the café. We take turns hosting Sunday dinners, but they all have better things they'd rather do.” She hated cooking too, but if it got her a hiking partner on occasion, it was worth it. It really wasn’t safe to hike alone in the wilderness, and a good portion of the ranch was just that.

  “Your family does Sunday night dinners?” With all the gossip in town about their family, that was one thing he’d never heard.

  She nodded. “We always have. We had them with Grandma Kelsey and Granddad Wilfred when I was little, and then as the boys grew up and moved to their own houses across the highway, we kept having them, because it’s the one time every week when we all get to sit and talk.”

  The very idea of a weekly dinner with her boisterous family made him shudder. “So why does everyone get sick of hiking with you?”

  “Oh, they think I take too long looking for signs and taking pictures. And something about how they hate my choice of topic.” She shrugged, an innocent expression on her face, but he had a feeling whatever she was hiding wasn’t so innocent.