Learning To Love (Contemporary Cowboy Romance) (Carson Hill Ranch series:Book 1) (8 page)

             
That was all it took. The iron cage Casey had locked his heart into on the day his father had decreed this marriage broke apart, freeing him to finally see the creature fate had put in front of him. He sat up suddenly and took Miranda’s soft face between his weathered, work beaten hands and kissed her lips, letting the warmth of her mouth ignite the part of him that had kept her at arms’ length, burning away the emptiness he had sentenced himself to.

             
Miranda stiffened at the abruptness of his unexpected kiss, but immediately relaxed as the feeling of his mouth on hers erased all tension in her body. She placed her hands over his and returned his kiss eagerly, delighting in the feeling of desire that built in her, a feeling she’d never experienced before with Mike. When his mouth parted hers gently, she was surprised by the sensation of his tongue playing across hers, awed by his reaction as much as hers. Too soon, he pulled away, still holding her face softly as he spoke to her in earnest.

             
“I am so sorry,” he began, his embarrassment evident even in the darkened room. “I don’t know what came over me, I just knew I had to kiss you.”

             
“That’s all right,
Mr. Carson
,” she teased, answering him tentatively, shocked by how hard it was to slow her heart beat and quiet her breaths.

             
“It’s Mr. Carson again, is it?” he teased. “I hope you don’t go kissing every Mr. Carson on the place like that. There’s quite a few of us, you know.”

             
“Only the ones who throw themselves at me,” she shot back in jest.

             
“My name is Casey,” he answered. “I want to hear you call me Casey.”

             
“All right…Casey. And I’m Miranda. Miranda Billings.”

             
“And I’ve made a decision. I want you to become Miranda Carson. Today, if we can.”

             
“Today?” Miranda asked, blinking her eyes in surprise.

             
“Yup. I know all I need to know about you,” he answered confidently.

             
“And what do you think you know about me?” she asked skeptically, leaning back and crossing her arms. “Apart from the way I kiss, I mean.”

             
“I know your favorite flower is a hyacinth,” Casey began, sitting up and taking her hands in his. “I know you have a sarcastic sense of humor. I know you’re good to my father and would never say a cross word to him. And I know you’re capable of killing a man if he hurts someone you care about. That is all I need to know about you to be sure I want to marry you.”

             
“I never said my favorite flower was a hyacinth,” Miranda whispered, still too dazed to argue.

             
“No, but you wouldn’t have sewn it into my forehead if you hated it. You were only joking, but it would have been your mark. Like Zorro. A flower petaled Zorro.” Casey smiled at her, really seeing her for the first time.

             
“I’m not even sure it’s actually legally possible to get married today,” she answered. “Besides, don’t these things take time? Aren’t I supposed to be courted and wooed first?” She batted her eyelashes at Casey coyly, making him laugh even harder, before turning serious again. “There’s also the matter of clearing your name. There is still an unsolved murder here, and word is spreading that you’re the one who shot Thomas.”

             
“That we can easily prove, we just need to get our hands on Jack. I’m sure he’s long gone by now,” Casey mumbled angrily.

             
“Actually, no, he was picked up as a person of interest when someone else came forward and said you two had been the ones arguing that morning.” Casey smiled at the news. “But, you need your rest and I need to go downstairs to meet with your dad. He does love his meetings, doesn’t he?”

             
“Oh, yeah, but you’ll get used to that. And it’s weird, but I’ll sit in that office of his anytime he wants me to if it will keep him off a horse or out from under the hooves of the herd. He’s pretty spry for his age, but even he forgets from time to time that he’s in his seventies.”

             
“Wow, that’s quite an age difference between him and his kids. Were you guys all surprise babies?” Miranda asked, embarrassed to be butting in on the family business.

             
“Oh no, he just married late. I guess that’s some of what’s driving his little shenanigans with trying to marry us off. He doesn’t talk about it much but when he was young, this farm was barely hanging on. There were plenty of times they almost lost it to the bank, and it sure didn’t have anywhere close to the acreage it has now. He worked himself like crazy to not only save it, but to also protect it for the next generation. He met Mom when he was in his forties, I think, and she was a good bit younger.”

             
The more Miranda heard about the inner workings of the family business, the more intriguing it sounded. There was a sense of history here, something she could never have as someone who’d lost everyone, everyone but Gracie, of course. It was more than just romantic ideas that kept her thoughts with the Carsons, but more about the feeling of looking for something she’d never even known she’d lost.

             
“Your dad wants to talk to me about the cattle drive, for some reason,” she began, looking to Casey to see if he might know why. “I think he has plans for me!”

             
“Are you thinking about going?” he asked hopefully, sitting up taller and placing a pillow behind his back.

             
“I can’t say it’s something I’ve ever dreamed of doing,” she admitted, looking kind of sheepish. “but it sounds like it might certainly be an adventure. I would really just worry about being in the way, or making someone have to stop working to take care of me.” She looked at Casey pointedly, letting him know her remark was directed to him.

             
“If you’ve ever seen anything like cattle drives in the Old West...it’s a lot like that, but it’s also completely not like that. Sure, we still sleep outside and we take our meals out of the ‘chuck wagon’, but that chuck wagon is a four-wheel drive rolling mini kitchen. There’s a follow-behind vehicle for emergencies that meets us at different points along the way, and one of the trucks that meets us at each checkpoint even has fold out shower stalls. We do take turns getting a shower, depending on what day it is, because you’re right...we’re there to work, not to have a vacation. But it’s nothing like the olden days when you might die of a scorpion sting because there was no way to get help.”

             
“I think it would be an awesome thing to do as a family, gathering your kids and taking off for a few days...”

             
“Um...days? The cattle drive is about two weeks long,” Casey said, cringing as he waited for her reaction, which was sure to be loud and screechy.

             
“Oh. I didn’t realize it took so long. Well, I’m sure it will be interesting at the very least.”

             
“It will be and if you’re going, I’ll make sure you enjoy yourself,” he offered, but in a concerned way, not a provocative way like most other guys might have meant it.

             
“Oh, no, you don’t, Mister! You’re not going anywhere on that leg! How can you possibly drover cattle for two weeks in a cast? The trip is only three weeks away. There’s no way you’ll be healed enough to go.” Miranda’s eyebrows knitted in concern, picturing Casey being thrown from a horse or crushed while trying to navigate the trip on a broken leg.

             
“Hey, I appreciate your concern, but I’m a Carson and I have a job to do. Even if I have to drive a truck or cook the food, everyone pitches in around here. If you can’t do one job, someone’ll be sure to step up and find you another one. Speaking of which, how are you keeping busy since you got here?” he teased. “There’s plenty of stalls out there that need shoveling.”

             
“There will be time for shoveling horse poop after I am done dealing with your crap,” Miranda shot back sarcastically. “Now you need your rest,” she said, rising from the bed. “I’ll be back later to check on you.” Casey grabbed her hand as she started to leave, turning her around to face him.

             
“Thank you, Miranda. For helping me, and for staying. I really mean that.” He looked so little-boy-lost, her heart froze in her chest for a beat. She leaned down and kissed his soft mouth, letting her hand come to rest on the warmth of his scruffy cheek. She stood up and left, smiling to herself.

             
Bernard hung up the phone and looked out one of his office windows, noticing the group of five kids following behind their teacher in a cluster, headed off to do something no-doubt science related in a field somewhere. He was thrilled to see that Gracie no longer hung back behind the four rowdy boys like she did when she first arrived but was right in the middle of the fray, pushing and shoving as much as any other ranch dweller. It was amazing what change a few weeks of sunshine, fresh air, and farm life had done for the quiet girl who’d seemed so lost, so out of place when she arrived.

             
“Boys! Come in here a second!” Bernard called out when his two oldest sons passed his office door. “I was just about to come outside and tell you.”

             
“What’s up, Dad?” Carey asked as they both settled into the chairs facing the older man’s desk. Casey leaned back and stretched out his injured leg, glad to be in a walking cast now and enjoying the easier mobility it brought him. Maybe he wouldn’t be stuck driving a rolling grocery store during the drive, after all.

             
“That was the county district attorney on the phone. Jack confessed!” he yelled, smiling broadly. A weight had been visibly lifted from his shoulders at the news that his son would be free of this shadow over him.

             
Carey threw an arm around Casey’s shoulders and congratulated him. “So this means Casey can go on the drive now?”

             
“Wait, what? You two weren’t going to let me go?” Casey demanded, hearing this news for the first time.

             
“Not us, son, the prosecutor. He agreed to let you stay on the ranch because...face it...where were you gonna go out here? That’s why they didn’t bother locking you up while they sorted this out.”

             
“Well, that, and plus the fact that you own the largest family-owned ranch in this half of the state, right?” he shot back, wondering if money had changed hands over his not having been arrested.

             
“No, son, nothing like that. They just knew there was no evidence of wrongdoing on your part. The only reason they were able to keep Jack so long is that he had warrants out for his arrest and had failed to check in with the parole office every time he went out on the drives. It was just a technicality, but it was enough to keep him locked up until this was underway. But, enough about that. Sometime later today, we need to talk about the logistics of who we’re placing in what roles next week.”

             
They agreed to meet later, and the twins went off in search of lunch. Casey’s heart danced a little when he entered the kitchen with the second wave of hands and found Miranda, elbow-deep in cleaning a pot leftover from the first lunch wave. He tapped her on the shoulder but before he could speak, Cook barked, “Don’t you even think about taking that one! She’s the only one around here who doesn’t mind getting her prissy fingers a little dirty when giving my pans a good scrubbing!”

             
The other helpers in the kitchen shot pretend looks of rage in Cook’s direction before laughing out loud. “We just knew you’d give Miranda the scrubbing duties if she did it better than we did!” They doubled over, patting Miranda on the shoulder as they did to let her know it was all in good fun.

             
“In that case,” Cook bellowed, “get her outta here. These two can take over. ‘Course, it’ll take the two of them to equal the work of one Miranda!”

             
Miranda wiped her hands on a dish towel and threw it over her shoulder, accepting the plate Casey held out and following him to their usual spot on the back porch, where they’d been eating lunch together recently. Between these stolen lunch dates and the few times they’d been able to spend the evening sitting together in the rocking chairs on the front porch, there wasn’t enough time in the day to just get to visit and get to know each other. But the times that she did get to spend with Casey, rocking side by side and holding hands, she knew it was something she could see herself doing for the rest of her life.

             
Casey took her plate from her hand as she settled on one of the steps, then handed it down to her before joining her. He took a long drink of his sweet tea before starting to eat. “Been busy today?” he asked around mouthfuls of food, something Miranda didn’t mind because time was of the essence during all the mid-day meals. It was eat and talk or eat
or
talk, which explained the atrocious table manners Bernard had hoped she would fix in all of his men.

             
“Not terribly busy, mostly just pitching in here and there. I helped Gracie with the stalls this morning, just to catch up with her a little bit. I feel like she’s always on the go out here,” Miranda said with a laugh between forkfuls. “But it warms my heart every time I see her out riding or even doing some mindless chore other kids might complain about. She had the chance to ride on the back of the hay truck the other day and call out to the driver to let him know if anyone fell off the back, and you’d think she’d been given the job of driving it instead of just sitting there!”

             
“Wow, that’s a real testament to what the other guys think of her,” Casey explained, pride showing through in his voice.

             
“Why do you say that?” Miranda asked, alarm rising in her tone.

             
“Because that’s not a real job,” Casey admitted, smiling weakly as he explained. “No one’s going to fall off the hay truck and even a guy somehow managed it, the hay truck only goes about fifteen miles an hour. The guy could just run and catch up to it. It comes from that old phrase, you know, ‘He just fell off the turnip truck!’. They just want her to feel included around here, and...well...word kind of got out about what almost happened to her back in New Jersey. The guys just want her to feel safe and needed, but more importantly, it’s a way to keep an eye on her. Nothing can happen to her if she’s busy doing something under their big brotherly watch.”

             
Miranda was speechless. She knew that many of the hands here at the ranch were the children and even grandchildren of former ranch hands at Carson Hill, but to know that they truly felt like a family left her speechless. She teared up a little bit at the knowledge that some fifty burly cowboys were looking out for her sister, protecting her in a way Miranda had not been able to.

             
“Hey now! What’s wrong? Why so sad?” Casey asked, brushing Miranda’s hair back from her face. She started to cry for real when he noticed, so he slid closer and held her to him as she let out some of the emotion that had stayed firmly locked inside her since getting on the bus that had brought her here.

             
“I’m fine,” she sniffled. “Really. It’s just so great the way these guys care so much. They’re so busy, most people wouldn’t want a surly thirteen-year-old underfoot. It’s really special that they would go to the effort to watch out for her. Like the way you watch out for me.”

             
Casey held her and rocked slightly, murmuring his agreement. He lifted her chin with a gentle finger and looked down into her eyes. “That’s what our family means to us. It’s what you mean to me.” He bent down and kissed her softly, feeling her melt into him as another piece of the anger and pain that had kept her at arm’s length slowly broke off and fell away.

             
“Oh, geez, I’m so sorry,” he said, sitting up and looking around. “I have to get back. I had no idea what time it was. I’ll find you sometime after dinner, okay?” He stood up to go and offered her his hand to help her up, then quickly kissed once more before running back through the kitchen toward the barn, leaving both of their plates on the counter top as he passed. Cook beamed when he called a brief “thank you for lunch” to the kitchen staff, and the surprised woman then looked to Miranda and nodded her approval. Miranda laughed quietly, watching as more and more ranch hands stood up and left the kitchen in a far more orderly way than she’d ever seen, most of them stacking their plates near the sink and mumbling a quick thanks as they passed.

             
“I don’t know what kind of witch power you have over him, honey, but I’ll take it!” Cook said, causing the younger ladies to openly laugh. Miranda just returned their smile and gave an exaggerated sway of her hips as she walked the length of the kitchen. She stopped at the door, turned, and shot them a knowing look, only making the three women laugh even harder at her antics.