To Have a Wilde (Wilde in Wyoming)

by Terry, Kimberly Kaye

  “Was that Marty?” Patricia asked, her gaze direct, and Sonia was unable to hide her surprise.

  “You always roam when you’re on a call that’s important. Kinda figured it was Marty,” she replied in answer to Sonia’s unspoken question.

  “Oh, man, am I that predictable?” Sonia groaned as she accepted the coffee Patricia offered, hedging on whether or not she wanted to confide in her assistant.

  Although she didn’t want to share the news with anyone before it was a done deal, Patricia was different. She and Sonia not only shared a working relationship, Sonia valued her as a friend, as well.

  “Okay, but you absolutely can not tell any of the crew just yet,” she stated, grimacing after taking a sip of the coffee. “Remind me to clean that pot out,” she groused, and laughed at the impatient look on her assistant’s face.

  “Okay, the Kealohas have tentatively agreed to a second season of the show!” she said, and laughed outright at Patricia’s look of astonishment.

  “Are you surprised I got them to agree?” she asked smugly, around the lip of the cup.

  “Uh...that would be a yes!” Patricia responded immediately, and just as quickly Sonia saw her pale cheeks bloom with color at her outburst.

  “Hey, I’m not sure how to take that!” Sonia set the cup down, the coffee not settling well in her stomach.

  “I’m batting zero here, kiddo! I did not mean it that way,” Patricia said, and groaned.

  “I’m just surprised that they agreed so quickly.” Patricia retracted, sitting down in the gray utilitarian chair in front of Sonia’s desk. She crossed her legs and took a sip of the coffee. Immediately, she made a face, too. “I guess I need to go back to making your coffee for you. This sucks,” she complained, and Sonia threw her a grin.

  “Seriously, I understand your concern, Pat. But it’s all good,” she said, a confident smile on her face as she looked at her assistant.

  “So the relationship—on a business level,” Patricia hastened to tack on, “is going well?”

  Sonia shrugged, bringing the awful coffee to her mouth only to hide her expression. “Yes, it’s going well. Of course, we haven’t gone over the new contract yet, but the family has agreed to a second season.”

  “All of them?” Patricia asked, her voice tilting up at the end, in question.

  Sonia turned to face her assistant, one brow raised. “Am I missing something here, Patricia?” Although she kept her voice level, Sonia caught the look of embarrassment that crossed Patricia’s face.

  “Oh, gosh, I didn’t mean that in any bad way! Yeah, I’m really screwing up here today! I was...just wondering how everything is going with you and Keanu. Look, I’ve been working with you for a while, Sonia. It kind of hurts me that you don’t feel comfortable enough talking with me about what’s going on.”

  “Okay, and just what do you think is going on, Pat?” Sonia asked, infusing a casualness into her tone that she was far from feeling. No doubt she probably came off sounding like a bitch, but at the moment, Sonia didn’t care.

  Patricia looked at her directly, stood and planted her hands on her hips. “I’ve been with you for a while, young lady. So, I’m more than aware of how you think. And right now,” she said, her voice softening, “you’re thinking the world is on your shoulders. But it’s not. Well, it doesn’t have to be. You know you can trust me, Sonia. What’s going on?” she said, and Sonia sighed.

  A smile turned up the corners of her lips, even though the last thing she wanted to do was smile.

  “I’m sure the Kealohas are all on board. Even Keanu,” she began, not sure how to voice something she hadn’t really figured out herself.

  As perceptive as Patricia was, Sonia knew she’d probably already guessed that she had developed feelings for Keanu, so she plunged ahead.

  “I think I’ve fallen for Keanu. And I don’t know that I have objectivity when it comes to how to approach him in business. Everything is crazy for me right now. And I think I might have made it worse,” she began in a rush, and once she did, she told Patricia how she felt. She stopped short of telling her of the kiss they’d shared. Barely.

  As soon as she unloaded her fears in one rush, she waited for the relief to come.

  It didn’t.

  Instead of feeling as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, curiously, depressingly, she felt as though her burden had just gotten heavier. She shrugged off the feeling. She had a tendency to keep her feelings to herself; outside of her parents she rarely confided in anyone what she was feeling.

  “I’m sure it will all work out, Sonia. Trust your instincts,” Patricia said as she walked to her desk.

  Sonia was opening her mouth to speak, to try to take back the disclosure, but she closed her mouth. Biting the corners of her mouth, she reminded herself that it was easier to go forward than trying to go back. Besides, if she had to trust anyone with the admission, she knew no one was more trustworthy than Patricia.

  Chapter 7

  “Good job, men. Let’s call it a day—you all can take off for the night. See you on Monday,” Key told his crew, while dismounting from his horse and removing the thick cowhide leather gloves from his fingers before rubbing his hands together.

  He arched his back to relieve the pressure that had built up from not only the day but the entire week. Despite the pain in his back from the hard work, it was a pain he’d gladly endure as it helped, minutely, keep his mind on work and off Sonia.

  He grunted low in his throat and then placed the gloves into his back pocket, grabbed his hat from the ground and jammed it back on his head.

  It had been a long day of mending fences, a thankless but needed job that Key, like most who worked on the ranch, considered one of the most tedious.

  When he’d relieved Ailani, his ranch foreman, of the duty, the look of surprise on the young woman’s face had been enough to bring a slight smile to Key’s mouth.

  “Hey boss, no need for that, I can handle the fences. Not much else on the agenda so pressing that I can’t handle this task. Bane can oversee the cattle run scheduled this afternoon instead,” she’d said, referring to her assistant. She was already in the middle of making one of her infamous lists to organize the day.

  Key had held up a hand, stopping her. He knew that if he didn’t, Ailani would keep going, assuring him until she turned blue in the face that she could handle it all. He shook his head. The young woman reminded him a lot of himself and his brother when they were her age, not that they were that far apart in age as she’d grown up right alongside him and Nick.

  By ranch industry standards Ailani was fairly young to hold the position of foreman, at the age of twenty-eight. But, she was the best damn foreman they could have wished for. Her father had been the foreman for the ranch for many years, working the Kealoha from the time Keanu’s father had bought the ranch as a young man, over forty years ago, until last year when Ailani’s father had retired.

  Ailani had not only grown up on the ranch, she’d worked it from the time she was in her teens. She had attended the University and studied agriculture but soon after had returned to the ranch. She’d worked as her father’s assistant, and no one could or had accused her of getting the job because of who her father was.

  When her father was prepared to retire, there hadn’t been any question as to who would take his place.

  And the Kealohas had made sure everyone knew the promotion had been legit.

  Although they’d been younger when the affair had occurred between Nick and Ailani, Nick and Key made it a priority that the entire crew was on board, and it hadn’t been easy. It never was in the male-dominated industry of ranching, and they didn’t want any hint of nepotism to taint their decision so she’d had to prove her worth.

  Any thoughts of unfair promotion for the few who were so inclined to thi
nk that way flew out the window with the hard work and dedication Ailani put into the job.

  “Ailani, I’ve got this. Besides, you got the job, remember?” he joked, and she laughed, punching him in the arm, the casual gesture highlighting their years-long acquaintance. He laughed. “Besides, I want to do the fencing,” he’d said, and she’d laughed again, blush covering her café-au-lait-colored skin.

  As he leaned to the side to stretch the tight muscle at the center of his back, he grimaced. He’d thought, at the time he’d switched duties with Ailani, that the hard work would keep him too busy to think of Sonia and what had happened...what was happening between the two of them. But it hadn’t.

  Instead, due to the tedious nature of the job, he’d had his mind cleared to think about her and their situation.

  He began to prepare his horse to mount, then paused, turning toward his men.

  “Y’all have a great Fourth and be careful out there,” he began, his gaze going over the small crew. “For those of you who have the day off, make sure you’re extra careful. Don’t want to hear about anyone doing anything...stupid this year,” he admonished, and Rue, one of the youngest of his men, burned bright red.

  The young man ducked his head and nodded toward Keanu in deference. “Yes, sir,” he said, taking the mild rebuke in stride. Several muffled laughs met Rue’s words and he flipped off one of his buddies who’d laughed.

  Key ignored the laughter as well as the rebuttal, taking it all in stride. Working with men...that was all a part of the game.

  Every year he gave a briefing to his men whenever the Fourth came around. He typically gave the younger ones the afternoon off, as it seemed to be one of their favorite holidays. Although for the younger men and tourists around the island the Fourth was highly anticipated; for Key, his brother, father and the senior ranchers, it was just another day. However, at night they usually put on a miniature fireworks display.

  The Fourth of July was a busy time for tourists on the island, and in particular the small town close to the Kealoha Ranch. The small island got most of its income from tourists and the ranch business as well as the fruit orchard his family helped to maintain.

  Although he and Nick had lived their entire lives on the ranch, they were close with their outside community, having gone to elementary through high school with most of them, as well as attending the university with those who had stuck around the mainland after graduating from high school.

  “Hey, boss, I’m supposed to head out with the family this weekend, is that still going to be okay?”

  Key turned to face one of his young ranchers, Bane. As Ailani’s assistant, Bane was one of the men who usually stayed around when others were given time off. It worked for him, particularly as he, like Ailani, lived on the ranch.

  However, the young man had recently gotten married to his high school sweetheart and started a family, his youngest just a newborn, his oldest only two years old. Key had allowed the small family to live in one of the cottages on the ranch. Bane’s parents hadn’t seen his newborn son as they lived on one of the neighboring islands, and were coming up for the holiday.

  “No problem, Bane. As long as you get your mother to make me some of her famous haupia coconut pudding,” Key asked, and Bane laughed along with him. Bane’s mother once worked on the ranch in the kitchen, cooking for the men. During the holidays she would always make Haupia coconut pudding, a cultural tradition, and would set aside a heaping portion for Key.

  “You bet, Key, no problem. She’ll love to!”

  Key clamped him on the back, “Good thing, man. Have a good one,” he said, and for a moment felt envy for his friend.

  Married with children was the way most of his friends had gone, early on. While some had gotten married right out of high school, those who’d gone to university had waited until after acquiring their degree.

  He and Nick, at the ripe old age of thirty, were two of the oldest in their age group to still be single.

  Key doubted that would ever come for him, the whole married-with-children thing. Happily ever after and everything that came with it wasn’t high on his list of things he believed in or a state he aspired to find himself in.

  “Oh, shoot, man, almost forgot.” Bane turned as he was preparing to leave and, leaving his horse tied to the post, jogged back over to where Key was standing.

  Key frowned as he watched his friend dig a note out of his back pocket and hand it to him.

  “What’s this?”

  Bane shrugged, turning to go. “Don’t know. One of the stable boys handed it to me, asked if I could give it to you today. Came from one of those Hollywood folks,” he replied, giving the generic name they all gave the crew from the show.

  “Why in hell didn’t he just give it to me?” Key grumbled, but flipped open the paper to read the contents.

  His jaw tightened, a contemplative look coming over his set features as he read the note.

  Let the games begin.

  Chapter 8

  Key marched his way through the formal dining room, his booted feet hitting the wood flooring, the sound echoing and rebounding off the walls loudly in the quiet house.

  Didn’t appear that anyone was home, which was a good thing. After the day he’d had, he wasn’t in the mood for idle chit damn chat.

  Would like to meet with you to discuss our agreement. On a personal level. Anytime, anywhere...

  Sonia’s message on the note he’d been given days ago was firmly stamped in his brain. Since then, he’d made it a point to ignore her until he figured out her game. He wasn’t in the mood to make a dumb-ass mistake with a woman.

  He made his way toward the kitchen and tossed his hat on the large granite counter before throwing open the refrigerator and grabbing a bottle of beer.

  He’d worked the men on the range hard, as they’d spent the greater part of the past two days mending fence. It was a job he usually allowed the foreman to oversee, using the hands to help fix the miles of fence, but this time he’d taken on the task himself.

  And if he had his way, he’d spend the remaining days the film crew were to be at the ranch on that task, as far out of reach as possible. After his last explosive meeting with Sonia, he didn’t trust himself to be alone with the woman. He didn’t trust himself not to make good on his last promise to her. After reading the note, he didn’t know which was worse, his decision to use her in order to find out what she knew, if anything, about his family, or her apparent need to use him.

  Anytime, anywhere... The last line in the note echoed his mind. He tightened his jaw and yanked open the fridge.

  He was in the process of grabbing another beer when Nick sauntered into the room. Damn, he was hoping to have the house to himself for longer than ten minutes. He eyed his brother warily over the neck of the bottle, but otherwise ignored his presence.

  “Looks like the crew is doing a good job of fulfilling their end of the bargain, don’t you think, bro?”

  “Man, don’t even go there,” Key replied tightly. “And don’t think I don’t know you’re responsible for that little setup this morning,” he finished.

  Nick threw up his hands in feigned defeat. “I don’t know what bug crawled up your ass, but I’m sure Mahi has something that’ll fix you right up, bro,” he said, and laughed at the single-digit salute his comment garnered. But when Key continued to ignore him, his face set, the smile slipped from his twin’s face.

  “Hey, seriously, I don’t know what you’re talking about, Key!” Nick exclaimed, his thick brows pulling down into a frown once he realized Key wasn’t exactly laughing back.

  “Aw, come on. You’re not even going to give me a clue?” he cajoled, shoving his body away from the column he’d been leaning against and making his way toward his brother.

  When Nick reached out to grab the beer on the counter,
Key ignored him, opening the refrigerator door again to replace the one Nick had filched.

  Key didn’t give his brother a glance, simply popped open the bottle and threw back his head, allowing the dark amber to slip down his throat. What use was it, anyway, he thought—it wasn’t as if Nick would admit he’d been the one to throw him to the wolves.

  “Family first, Nick. Always. Setting me up like that? That was bullshit.”

  “Okay, seriously, what the hell are you talking about?” Nick asked, all signs of humor completely gone from his blue-eyed gaze as he stared, frown in place, at his brother.

  “Dinner will be ready soon, boys, make sure you’re washed up!” When their housekeeper, Mahi, bustled inside the room, he broke the tension and Key leaned back against the counter, his eyes closed, and polished off the beer.

  “What is going on in my kitchen, boys? You know I do not tolerate any foolishness. You two had better not be fighting again!” the old man admonished. His words brought a ghost of a smile to Key’s face. Although both he and his brother were long past the age of being “boys,” Mahi was as much like family as their own father, as neither twin remembered a time the elderly man hadn’t been around.

  He’d begun as a stable hand but, after realizing he wasn’t able to keep up with the job, their parents had invited him to come and help take care of the boys. He still referred to them as “boys” whenever he was irritated with them.

  “So, you want to tell me what the hell is wrong with you?” Nick asked, coming to stand less than two feet away, not wanting Mahi to overhear them.

  “You’re seriously telling me you don’t know?”

  “Hell no. What gives?”

  Key sighed, his gaze going over his brother’s, looking for signs of humor.

  He’d been wrestling with the contents of the note he’d been given earlier. After he’d read the contents, he’d at first been amused, before realization dawned on him. He’d tracked down which stable hand had given Bane the note, and from there it hadn’t taken long for him to find out who’d given the boy the note. Assuming it had been Sonia, he’d been surprised to find the note had come from his brother.