Oklahoma Moonshine (The McIntyre Men #1) (16 page)

Kiley looked at Rob, then at the old, rust-colored vehicle. “Seriously?”

“It would make a great project car.”

“Are you sure you’re not just trying to help out a broke girl?” she asked with a smile. “Cause you guys have really done
enough.”

Wade grinned at her. “You won’t think that after you see what I’m gonna do with it. Actually, I’ve got a ten-year-old Wrangler at
the shop I’ve been trying to sell. I took it in place of cash for some work I did last year, and it’s still sitting there. Runs great, moderate
mileage. How about a trade?”

She frowned and looked from Wade to Rob. “That wouldn’t be fair. The El Camino is half Rob’s.”

“It’ll be fair enough if you let me drive it from time to time,” Rob said. “I’ve seen this Wrangler. Take the deal.”

She smiled at him, and her heart got all bouncy and happy again. “Okay, I’ll take the deal.”

“Sweet,” Wade said. He reached across the table to shake on it.

“We need to hoe out that smaller barn next,” Rob said.

“Vidalia and I are gonna poke around in there after lunch.”

“What are your plans for the smaller barn?” Bobby Joe asked.

“It’ll be a haunted house in the fall,” Kiley said. “Next year I’m gonna grow pumpkins and a corn maze. This year we’ll
have to settle for the spook house and hayrides. We just have time to get it ready, too. And if the antiques sell like Vidalia thinks they will, I’ll
have some money to fund it.” She glanced Rob’s way. “With my half, I mean.”

Bobby Joe sent Rob a loaded look. Rob held up a hand. “I know, Dad. I know.” Then he said, “Kiley, I can’t take half the proceeds
from the antiques.”

“Why not? They’re half yours.”

“May I say something?” Bobby Joe asked.

Joey said, “Since when do you ask first, Dad?”

“Since never.” He set down a big yellow ear of sweet corn and said, “Robert, imagine for a moment you make a great success of this horse
ranch of yours.”

“He’s absolutely going to,” Vidalia said.

“I have no doubt. So let’s say you do. You raise beautiful thoroughbreds.”

“Quarter Horses,” Rob corrected.

“One day you get married.” Every single one of them looked at Kiley when he said that, and she felt heat flood her face. But Bobby Joe kept
right on talking.  “And you have a son. And you raise him up, and you work together on the ranch. By your side, he learns how to run it, how to
raise horses. And then one day, you decide you want to retire. And you say to him, ‘son, this beautiful place, this business I’ve built with my
own two hands, it’s all yours now.’ And he says to you, ‘No, thanks. I don’t want it.’”

Rob picked up a napkin and wiped his mouth.

“You’d be hurt, that’s what,” Vidalia said. “Cut right to the quick. You’d feel like your life’s work had been
judged and found lacking. You’d feel like the gift you worked so hard to give your son had been rejected, thrown right back in your face. And you
would bleed, Robby. You would bleed just the way your father bleeds when you refuse to use the resources he worked so hard to provide for you. You act like
his wealth is something dirty.”

“It’s not like that. Dad, come on, you know it’s not like that.”

“I do. I know.  You just want to make it on your own.”

“Exactly.”

“I’m just starting to wonder what I did it all for. Was my life’s work a waste of time? You won’t touch a dime. Jason is pretty
much doing the same,” he added with a look at his eldest son.

“I’ll take their shares,” Joey said, grinning.

Everyone rolled their eyes at him. He just shrugged and took another bite of his hot dog. 

Rob pushed his plate away and he looked at Kiley. “What do you think about all this?”

She blinked at him, shocked to her core that he’d want to know her opinion on it. “I understand how you feel, Rob. I kind of chose to reject my
dad’s line of work too.” She shrugged then.  “I understand how you feel too, Mr. McIntyre.”

“Bobby Joe,” the man corrected.

“Bobby Joe. But really, I don’t know why it has to be such a big problem. The solution’s obvious enough to me.”

Everyone stopped eating. They were riveted, even Joey set down the final two inches of his hot dog bun.

“Well, spit it out girl. Don’t keep us in suspense,” Vidalia said.

“Yes, spit it out, girl,” Rob repeated.

She smiled at him, because he’d used Vidalia’s exact inflection. “Use the money your dad put aside for you like a loan. Get yourself up
and running, and then when the ranch starts showing a profit, pay it all back with interest. Sock it away someplace and then later, when that someday comes
and you have a kid, you can pass it and all the guilt that goes with it right on to him. Or her. And if they do the same, and their kids do the same, your
whole family will always have access to a fortune to fund all their dreams and projects, forever and ever. Amen.” She took a drink from the beer on
the table and set it down. “It’s not rocket science.”

“No, it’s sure as hell not,” Rob said, gazing at her like she was wearing a halo.

“Watch the language, Robby.” Vidalia picked up her water and tilted it Kiley’s way. “Here’s to you, girl. You’re wise
beyond your years.”

A car came rolling in a dust cloud up the driveway. Kiley’s stomach tied itself up in knots as soon as she saw who it was. Kendra got out. Tight
jeans, cowboy boots, even a hat. Oh, she was trying to play the part, wasn’t she? To worm her way into this family.

“Hey, nobody told me there was a party,” she said, smiling bright and avoiding Kiley’s eyes. She came right to the table and found a spot
next to Joey, who looked like he grew a foot taller as soon as she sat down.

No, Kiley thought. Not Joey.

Joey and Kendra left together when the day’s work was done. Kiley watched them go with a knot in her stomach the size of a grapefruit.

“I talked to him. Told him to watch his back,” Rob said. “He’ll be all right.”

He wouldn’t. Kiley knew he wouldn’t. She kept thinking about Dax, the big jerk, and how much trouble he was in over her sister. Kendra had
destroyed the guy. She’d do the same to Joey. He didn’t stand a chance.

“Where are they going?” she asked.

“He’s taking her to dinner in Tucker Lake. Probably Haggerty House. It’s the best restaurant around. You ever been?”

She shook her head. “Dad wasn’t much for taking rowdy girls out to fancy restaurants,” she said.

“Your dad. He’s … away, you said?”

She lowered her head. Her dad was in prison. Why didn’t she just tell him? It wouldn’t take a lot of digging for him to find out.

But maybe she wouldn’t have to. Maybe she could convince her sister to get out of town and leave Joey alone.

“I can’t believe your family. The way they pitched in.”

“I’m still getting used to it myself.” She frowned at him. He smiled back, hauled the barn door open and then they walked side by side
into it. “It’s the Brands,” he said. “I mean, yeah, my brothers would help me out anytime, but when Dad married Vidalia, we
inherited her entire clan. Wade’s a freaking genius.”

“With cars and motors, you mean?”

“With lots of things. He wired the whole barn today. Look at this.” He threw a switch and the lights came on. “The guy’s
gifted.”

Kiley looked down the length of the barn. Wooden stalls lined either side, ending about halfway down, and they smelled of fresh-cut lumber. “When
will you start bringing in horses?”

He shrugged. “Just as soon as I get the fences up. They’re gonna need places to graze.”

“Which could probably get done in a couple of days, with all the help you have.”

He nodded, averted his eyes.

“I saw that,” she said. “Something’s holding you back.”

He met her eyes again. “I really don’t want my father’s money. I want to do it on my own.”

“And you don’t like my suggestion? To use it like a bank loan, and then pay it all back? And leave it to grow and then give it all to your kids
someday?”

“What would you do?”

“I’m no expert on money, Rob.”

“You’re no slouch at it. You managed to wrangle a pile of it in cash to pay for your half of the ranch.”

She lowered her eyes. “I’ve gotta pay all of that back.” He waited for her to say more, but she didn’t want to, so she changed the
subject. “Why are you so against using the resources you’ve had handed to you?”

He lowered his head, then lifted it again and looked her in the eye, nodded once. “You know what? I’m gonna tell you.”

He slung an arm around her shoulders, casual, friendly, but still being that close to him made her go warm right to her toes. He led her out the back door
of the barn, flicking off the lights on the way, and then they walked together along the twisting trail that led down to the river. At the riverbank, he
dropped his arm to his side, so she hopped up onto the boulder. He stood at the water’s edge and pitched a couple of flat stones, skipping them
impressively.

“I was almost engaged just a little over a year ago.”

She felt her jaw drop, then quickly clamped it shut again.

He picked up another stone. “We’d been seeing each other for seven months. She lived two hundred miles from me, but I thought we were making it
work. Managed to have at least one night a week together. Long distance relationship. I wanted more. So I decided to pop the question. To me it was obvious
that’s where things were heading. I planned it all out, bought the ring, the whole nine. Got down on one knee, pulled that little black box outta my
pocket and she looked at me like her eyes were gonna pop.”

“She was surprised?”

“She was horrified. And then she told me she was already married.”

“Oh no,” Kiley whispered.

“She said that she’d never meant to give me the idea she was serious about me. She said she’d considered leaving her husband for me once,
early on, but the minute I told her my feelings about my father’s money, about wanting to make it on my own, she knew she never would. Her husband
was a wealthy man. She liked being a wealthy woman. My family fortune was what drew her to me in the first place, she said. And then she liked me too much to
break it off when she found out I didn’t plan to touch it.” He paused there for a moment, skipped another rock. “I decided then that I would make my own way, and that I’d
tell women up front, you know if I ever got involved again.”

“That way you’d know if they were interested in you, or your money.” Kiley slid off the boulder to land on her feet in the grass, and
walked up behind him. She didn’t mean to slide her hands up to his shoulders. It just happened. And she said, “That chick was out of her
freakin’ mind, Robby. You’re worth so much more than money.”

He glanced down at her. “I wasn’t angling for pity.”

“That’s good, cause you’re not getting any. It was a lucky break, she said no. What if you’d married her and
then
found
out what she was like?”

He grinned. “Since when are you the one who finds the silver lining?”

“Since I came back here. Since I came…home.” She took a
deep breath and turned to look around her. Tall yellow grasses moved with every breeze, making the fields look like a rippling, golden lake. “I
didn’t realize how much I missed it ’til I came back. There’s somethin’ about this place….”

“Yeah, there is. Vidalia says it’s magic. Says Big Falls chooses the people who belong here, and casts its spell on them so they never want to
leave.”

“I almost believe that.” She sighed. “I wonder if it’s capable of spitting out the ones who don’t belong here and making them
never want to come back.”

“You’re thinking about your sister now.”

She nodded. “She’s trouble, Rob. I love her, but she hurts people.” And then she lowered her head. “I haven’t always been
much different.”

“But you are now.”

She lifted her head. “I am.” She looked up and found him staring down at her.

He lifted a hand to push her hair off her forehead, and his eyes locked onto hers. “I’m going to use the trust fund to pay for the mares and
get my business started. But I’m paying every penny back.”

“Why are you telling me that?”

“So you know it up front. I’m not a billionaire. And I don’t ever want to be. I’m
just a gentleman cowboy with a good credit score. Okay?”

She frowned at him, wondering why he’d even asked. “It’s fine with me.”

“Good. Now I have two questions for you.”

Kiley wondered if he was going to ask her about her own past now. She might have to tell him something. He’d shared his painful past with her, and
fair was fair.

“Is it okay with you if we do the same with your end of the business?” he asked.

She blinked. “The same what?” And then she got his meaning.

“We spend what we need to get it up and running from my funds, and we pay it back once we’re turning a profit.”

She took a step back from him, shaking her head. It was exactly what she would have been planning if she had chosen him as a mark. She’d get him to
fall for her and pay for everything, and eventually she’d figure a way to buy him out for next to nothing, and send him packing.

Was this some kind of test? Was fate playing games with her, to see if she was really serious?

“Well?”

She lifted her eyes to his, met them, held them. “I don’t want you to be offended, but I can’t. And I don’t want you to ask me why
or try to talk me into anything. I just plain can’t.”

He thinned his lips, but he nodded.

“Caleb offered me a job in the law office. I have two weeks to decide. So I can use that to get my end of the biz up and running if I have to.”

“Okay. If that’s what you have to do.”

“It is.”

God, that felt good. She sighed in relief and felt lighter, an involuntary smile tugged at her lips. “What was your second question?”

“Way more important, actually,” he said. “I’d very much like to kiss you again. Would that be okay with you?”

“More than okay.” She answered too fast, almost before he finished talking, and the words came out kind of croaky and hoarse.

She blinked up at him, and he smiled, then slowly curled his arms around her waist, and lowered his head. She let her eyes fall closed as his lips met
hers. Then she curled her arms around his neck and stood on tiptoe to get a little closer. His lips nudged hers apart, and the sweetness that was filling
her veins turned molten. He hugged her tighter, held her closer, kissed her more deeply. Her heart started pounding in her ears, and then she started
shaking.