Renegade Hearts (The Kinnison Legacy Book 3)

by McIntyre, Amanda

  “Really?” Rein pushed up the brim of his hat and looked at her. “Like what am I thinking, right now?”

  “That you wish we were back home in bed.”

  “Hey,” Dalton said with a wave. “Did you all forget I was here?” This little foreplay between the two of them was not making things any easier.

  He’d spent the week taking an inordinate number of cold showers and purposely pushing himself around the ranch, even rebuilding an old John Deere tractor that’d been sitting in the shed for decades. Just to keep his mind off her. Nothing had helped.

  “I assume the woman in question Angelique?”

  Dalton’s head snapped up. “Who told you?”

  She snorted. “Really? Like no one at the barbecue noticed that only you two were missing?”

  Actually, he’d thought with so many people around that maybe no one would’ve have noticed. Dalton blew out a sigh.

  “Listen, are you feeling restless, big brother?” Liberty asked.

  He held up his hand to stop her. “Yeah, and I don’t think I want to get into this.”

  His sister planted her fists on her hips. “Advice from him but not from me?”

  “I wasn’t asking for anyone’s advice.” Dalton stood and planted his hat back on. “I’m going to take a ride. Is the bike gassed up?”

  Rein nodded.

  “Hey, wait a sec. Can I just add something here?” Liberty interjected.

  Dalton’s shoulders slumped. “Sure, fire away. Just don’t tell me what I should be doing to get her attention.”

  “Oh,” Liberty said with a shrug, “okay, then, never mind, darlin’.” She turned on her heel and faced Rein. “Sally’s bringing out a couple of kids this afternoon. Will the new horse be ready?”

  Dalton shifted from one foot to the other, debating whether or not he needed or wanted Liberty’s opinion. Maybe he was the crazy one. Okay, maybe it wouldn’t kill him to hear what she had to say, being a woman and all. “Okay, say I wanted to, you know, get her attention. Angelique’s been through a lot and I don’t want to--”

  “Scare her off? Let her know how you really feel?” She faced him with a soft smile.

  “Yeah, I guess.” This was new territory for him. Women as a whole, not so much, but developing a relationship with one? He was stumbling around in the dark. All he knew was that without her there was a void, and when he was with her, like this weekend, he didn’t feel confused or out of place.

  “Let me ask you this, are you sleeping?” Liberty asked.

  “Barely.” Dalton sighed and looked away. There was no use in fighting it. Seemed like half the town knew about the two of them, even though they’d decided they wanted to keep things simple, low-key for now.

  “Restless, I think we’ve established. Are you eating?”

  Dalton threw her an exasperated look. “Is there a point to this?”

  Liberty folded her arms over her chest. He had to admit living the country life had transformed her from a guarded Vegas nightclub dancer with an attitude to a woman at ease in her husband’s flannel shirts and a pair of torn-up jeans. Her hair she now wore long in cinnamon-colored braids. The only evidence of her former life was her tongue piercing and he’d never questioned why she still had it. The only thing that hadn’t changed was her bossy attitude. And he kind of liked that about her.

  “You’re in love with her,” she stated primly.

  Love? Come on. True, she was kin and so he’d give her that. And she’d married his brother, okay, but how the hell could she make such a determination after only, what? A couple of random questions? He waved off the notion. “I think maybe you’re getting ahead of things.”

  Liberty cocked her dark eyebrow--the universal unspoken language women have of stating they are right and you are an idiot.

  Dalton’s gaze swung to Rein, who stood, walked over, and draped his arm over her shoulder in alliance. He closed his eyes. “I’m thinking you’re both full of shit, that it’s way too damn early for that…but let’s say, for the sake of my sanity, that is the case. If someone doesn’t feel the same, then isn’t it better to wait until, you know, everyone’s on the same page?”

  “And if everyone followed that rule, waiting for the other person to speak up first, where would we be?”

  He hated like hell that what she said made sense. Given the assumption that the reason for how crappy he’d been feeling had something to do with…he couldn’t bring himself to think that he could be in love.

  “You think I should—assuming you might be right—tell her?” Accepting the possibility made him oddly less concerned about his mental state, at least. Course, if she didn’t feel the same, he’d maybe go with that idea he once had of moving to Oregon, becoming a smokejumper. Far cry from shoeing horses, but he and Hank had batted the idea around a few times.

  “I don’t think you’re going to know until someone speaks up and tells the other person how they feel.”

  Dalton needed to chew on this. “Yeah, maybe. I need to clear my head. You guys okay if I take off for a couple of hours?”

  Rein waved him off. “Liberty will help me.”

  Hell, yeah, like the two of them would get anything done. Liberty had given Rein the green light to start a family and, well, suffice it to say no place was sacred if the mood was right.

  Dalton raised a hand, leaving the two behind, needing to ride—to not think about Angelique or love or how amazing her skin smells. He shaded his eyes to the morning sun. A good day to get lost on the mountain curves, maybe take a dip in a cold mountain lake…which mystified him when, twenty minutes later, he found himself pulling into the Greyfeather’s gravel drive.

  ***

  Angelique heard the rumble of the Harley cycle and knew immediately who it was. She’d tried all week to let what happened at the cabin stay at the cabin, putting all her energies into work at the clinic, helping her aunt bake and freeze pies ahead for the fall festival in town. She’d taken evening rides with Emilee, soaked in long, luxurious bubble baths, but nothing had worked to keep him from causing her sleepless nights thinking of how it’d been between them. He’d been as open with her as Dalton could be, but neither had spoken of or promised anything beyond the idyllic weekend they’d spent in total privacy.

  A knock rattled the old screen door and she moved from the living room into the foyer. Her heart stopped as she spotted him standing there in faded jeans and scuffed boots, his black t-shirt molding to his muscled body. She noticed from his profile that he’d not bothered to shave yet. He turned then and looked at her, his gaze unreadable in his dark sunglasses. The man should have a warning label stamped on his forehead.

  “Good morning.” He tore off his glasses and those dark amber eyes held hers. He hooked his thumb in his jeans pocket. “Is Emilee around?”

  Her heart, already on a slippery slope, skittered to a stop. She took a steadying breath and licked her lips before answering. His gaze dropped to her mouth. She rested her hand on the door to steady herself. “She went to Billings this afternoon with her grandparents.”

  His head snapped up, his eyes flashing with an awareness that caused her fingers to ball into a fist. “Beautiful morning for a ride. May I ask what you wanted to see Emilee about?”

  He looked away and she held her breath. A million explanations paraded through her head—how she hadn’t known for sure the baby was his, how she’d been afraid that she’d ruin his life, that he’d had enough on his plate back then. None of them sounded worthy of forgiveness.

  He sighed. “To be honest, I came to see you.”

  “Oh?” she managed to squeak out.

  “I wondered if maybe you’d like to go for a ride?”

  She twisted the old hook dangling from the doorframe. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”

  He looked down at his boots and nodded. “Because you’re not interested?” He glanced at her, narrowing one eye with a quizzical look.

  She drew her teeth over her bottom lip, for
cing herself to stop when she noticed the corner of his mouth lift in a knowing grin. “If you must know, it’s that I am interested, not that I’m not…interested.”

  He scratched his brow and walked to the edge of the porch. He stood searching the horizon before turning on his heel and, in two strides, putting his face up to hers with nothing but the screen between them. “Maybe we should try something normal.”

  “Normal?” She wanted nothing more than to pull him through that screen and have her wicked way with him—or vice-versa. Stop, she mentally chided herself. Her resolve grew weaker each moment she stared into his handsome face.

  “Normal, meaning go for a ride. Stop someplace, maybe get a bite to eat. Talk about this”--he gestured from him to her-- “about us.”

  “There is no us, Dalton.”

  He shook his head. “Yeah, well I’m not making that same mistake twice.” He looked away, then challenged her with a steely look. “Unless you tell me right now you don’t feel a damn thing for me. Then, I swear to God, I’ll leave you alone.”

  “Dalton.”

  “Look, Angel. I don’t know everything, and that gives you the advantage. You know it’s a small town, you hear things, rumors—God knows I’ve been the flavor of the month from time to time.” He paused and released a sigh. “I heard that your marriage wasn’t the best, that you had your troubles.”

  He was trying to be polite. This was what she hated most about small towns. Gossip, rumors, hearsay--everyone always feeling the need to add in their two cents, poking their noses into other people’s lives. She drew back her shoulders. “That is my business.” She was ready to shut the door. Just walk away. God knows she didn’t need to invite more drama into her life. And what would he do, how would he feel if he knew she’d lied by omission—not telling him about Emilee or that her ex-husband wasn’t dead but very much alive in an Illinois prison? It was for his own good to let things end now, before things got more complicated. “I can’t.”

  He studied her face, blinking as though absorbing what she’d said or deciphering what she hadn’t. “Okay.” He nodded. “Okay,” he repeated, more softly. “I’ll see you around.”

  He walked slowly down the steps--head up, those broad shoulders straight--and never looked back. She’d hurt him and his pride. Probably lost her last chance at something she’d search for the rest of her life.

  “Dalton?” His name came out before she realized it. He glanced back at her.

  “Give me a minute.” She jotted a quick note and left it on the kitchen table, then pulled on her cowboy boots and grabbed her hoodie before slipping her purse over her body. Checking her phone battery, she closed the front door and found him seated on the bike, holding out a helmet to her. “You just happen to have an extra helmet?”

  The grin he gave her nearly turned her bones to liquid. “I took a chance.”

  “Where are we going?” she asked as she settled in behind him.

  “Guess we’ll know when we get there.” He started the bike, its motor roaring to life. “Hang on tight,” he called over his shoulder.

  She clamped her arms around him, snuggling close. “Like this?” she asked over his shoulder.

  He grinned. “Just like that, darlin’.”

  He took the curves with breathtaking speed, so much so that a time or two she buried her face in his shirt, squeezing her eyes until they reached a straight stretch of road. Once she got used to the nuances of balance and speed, she relaxed more. Comforted by the warmth of his back pressed to her body, she took in the beauty of the back roads he’d found, zipping through little wide spots in the road that she didn’t know existed in the mountains. Sometime later, he pulled into a diner at the edge of an old mining town, still trying to hang on with one or two tourist stops. They ate buffalo burgers at one of the sagging picnic tables on a scenic overlook behind the diner.

  “Are you having fun?” he asked, watching her over his frosty root beer.

  She hadn’t felt this free in such a long time. Well, not since their time at the cabin. She nodded. “It’s not quite as scary as it looks.”

  “You want to learn to drive? I can teach you.”

  She choked on her drink. “Uh, no, I think it might be wise to get a little more practice as a passenger first.”

  “Oh come on, this from a woman who rides wild horses like you do?”

  She smiled and ducked her head. “Maybe someday.” She looked up at him. “Yeah, this has really been fun.” Being with him, teasing each other, enjoying a beautiful day…it was more than she could ever imagine.

  “So, kind of a funny story,” he said, removing his glasses to rub his eye.

  She waited, smiling at how open he seemed, how at ease. This wasn’t the brooding, angry man she’d been used to seeing. He seemed genuinely…happy.

  “So, I’m talking to Rein and Liberty, who I think likes having a brother she can bounce her bossy ass opinions on. Anyway, she makes this suggestion.” He glanced away, looking out over the tops of the pines in the valley below.

  She waited and then chuckled. “Okay, I’ll bite. What was her suggestion?”

  He searched her eyes before continuing. Whatever it was, she could see him stalling. “Yeah. You don’t know this, but I used to have this dream about being a smokejumper. They’ve got schools out in Oregon—that’s where I thought I’d go.”

  Fear that he was gearing up to tell her he planned to leave settled cold in her stomach. She swallowed hard and laid the rest of her food on her plate. “You’re moving to Oregon? You haul me clear out here in the middle of nowhere to tell me that?” She started up from the table and he grabbed her hand.

  “No, I’m not, but I’m curious, would that bother you?”

  She pressed her palm to her forehead, letting his question settle in her jumbled brain. Hell, yeah, it would bother her. But she wouldn’t be the one to stop him from doing what he wanted to do. “Look, did Liberty suggest you move? Because, you know, I bet they have schools right here. I mean, look around you, nothing but trees for miles.”

  His mouth crooked in a smile. “No, Liberty didn’t suggest anything of the sort. Why would you think that?”

  She stared at him, lifting her arms to her sides. “Because you said that Liberty had suggested something to you.”

  “Oh, right.” He tugged her back to her seat. “Sit down, I’m getting to that.”

  Rattled, she took a calming breath as she settled across from him. “Ok, so you’ve thought about becoming a smoke jumper.” She wanted to ask him why he’d choose such a dangerous profession, but she feared she might never hear Liberty’s suggestion. “If you could just get to Liberty’s suggestion?”

  He swallowed hard and nodded. He looked visibly nervous, this guy who was afraid of nothing.

  “Okay, she said that one of us had to speak up, or, you know, the human race as we know it might end.”

  “Are you feeling well?” She studied his face. At this point, she had to wonder how he’d become the communications end of the ranch business ventures. “You do know you aren’t making a lick of sense?”

  He shook his head. “I have feelings for you, Angel.”

  The fear returned--not as before, but in a way that made her unsure she’d heard him correctly. That her mind was merely playing tricks on her. She wasn’t sure how or if she should respond.

  “Ideally, this is where you tell me that you have similar feelings…for me. If, in fact, that is the case.”

  He hadn’t let go of her hand, she realized. This was not like him at all. And while she wanted to play along, part of her had trouble accepting what she heard. “Dalton, I couldn’t have—wouldn’t have had spent the weekend with you had I not had feelings for you.”

  He nodded, seeming to accept that reason. “So a couple of questions--if you don’t mind?”

  She shrugged. “Shoot.”

  “Have you slept well this week?”

  “Barely.” She liked the feel of her hand wrapped in the warmth of
his.

  “Eaten much?”

  She frowned and looked down at her half-eaten meal, realizing it was the most she’d eaten all week. “Not really, my stomach has felt strange.”

  “Right! It was the same for me. Restless. Not sleeping, not eating. I thought I was losing my mind.”

  She wanted to empathize, but it was clear those same things occurred after Emilee was born, so it wasn’t as alarming as it seemed for him. “Okay?”

  He chuckled, but his eyes were locked to hers. “Liberty suggested that maybe I was in love. Me? Can you believe that?”

  She shrugged. “What’s so hard to believe? You deserve to be happy as anyone else, right?”

  He frowned and she willed him to just come out and say it—say the words she’d dreamt forever of him saying to her. “So, who’s the lucky girl?” she prodded him.

  He blinked. “You, of course. I honestly tried to fight it.” His gaze shot to hers. “No offense.”

  “None taken,” she answered quietly. Her heart pounded against her ribs. She was not about to cry and spoil this moment.

  “The more I thought about what she said, the more it made sense.”

  “Makes sense,” she uttered, her words barely a whisper. How many times had she played this moment out in her fantasies? Sitting atop a rundown mountainside diner at a dilapidated picnic table was not one of the scenarios she’d imagined, but it would do just fine.

  “So, there it is.”

  Her cell phone jangled and she smiled, seeing that it was her aunt. “Excuse me, it’s Aunt Rebecca. Do you mind?” She hated to ruin the moment, but her mom radar went on full alert. “Everything okay?”

  “We’re having a wonderful time. I wondered if you’d mind if we took Emilee to the American Indian Museum and then I might have promised her a new outfit for the first day of school. After that, I thought maybe we’d eat dinner here. That is, if you’re not too lonely at home without us.”

  She looked up at met Dalton’s steady gaze. “I’m actually out.”

  “Oh, I forgot Sally was taking some kids from the Billings teen home to the ranch today. Did she need some help?”