Oklahoma Moonshine (The McIntyre Men #1) (8 page)

He forgot about the squirrel and the books, and carried his heavy find very carefully back down the folding stairway, which was not easy.  Once he got
it into the living room, he wrapped it up in one of the donated blankets and carried it out to his truck. He knew a glass repair place in Tucker Lake.

He caught himself thinking of the big reveal, and how thrilled she would be. He pictured her practically bouncing with joy when she saw the window in place
for the first time, and caught himself smiling so hard it hurt.

No
, he told himself.
No, no, no. Don
’t even start. She
’s not the girl for you, Robert McIntyre. Not even close. She’s confused by the notion of honesty. She poisoned a guy to get this place, don
’t forget.

When he came back inside, she was curled up in the brown recliner, wrapped in a blanket, and sipping a cup of hot cocoa. He could smell the chocolate, and
the sandalwood scent of one of Selene’s herbal shampoos. Kiley had draped a towel between the chair and her head, in deference to her wet hair.

“I made you a cup of cocoa, too,” she said. “It’s on the kitchen counter.”

She poisoned a guy to get this place, don’t forget,
his brain repeated. Unnecessarily. It wasn’t like he’d forgotten.

He looked at the mug on the counter, then at her. She blinked her big blue eyes at him.

She didn’t really
poison
the guy. She just made him puke for a little while. It
’s not like she killed him or anything.

He picked up the mug, and she smiled with her full lips and said, “Did you scare away the big bad squirrel?”

“Not only did I scare him away, I found his point of entry and devised a plan to repair it.” He tried to think of a reason she might want to
make him sick, like that poor slob at the auction, but he couldn’t come up with a single one. So he decided to trust her.

As a matter of fact, it felt so good to just decide to trust her that he thought he was going to make it his practice. Just decide to trust her, and give
her some time to learn to trust him back, so they could work this place together and make both their dreams come true.

She smiled at him, watching as he sipped his cocoa.

Selene and Edie were having breakfast at the Big Falls Diner, at a table right beside the giant “Big Falls’ Big Future”
thermometer—the red was almost a third of the way to the top—when a very large, sandy-haired stranger came in. He swept the interior of the
place, the way you do when you’re looking for someone. Selene guessed he didn’t find them, because he turned his attention to Rosie,
who’d hustled behind the counter to wait on him. “Welcome to Big Falls,” she said, knowing, just as any local would, that he wasn’t
from here. “Can I help you?”

He turned his phone her way and said, “I’m looking for this woman. Have you seen her?”

Rosie, whose hair matched her name and always would, thanks to Miss. Clairol, had been running the diner for as long as Selene could remember. Everyone in
Big Falls loved Rosie, and Rosie pretty much loved everyone in Big Falls. But she didn’t seem too enamored of the stranger just yet.

“I’m Rosie, and I run this place. You are...?”

He seemed to be fighting a giant case of impatience and not winning. “I don’t mean to be rude, ma’am, but it’s important that I
find her and I’m short on time. Do you know her or not?”

“Funny how folks always preface rudeness by saying they don’t mean to be rude.”

“Do you know her?”

“Can’t say that I do.”

“You didn’t even look at the picture.” His voice was taking on a little too much anger, and Selene was on her feet before Edie was. You
didn’t come to Big Falls and give one of its favorite residents a hard time.

Still Edie managed to get ahead of her before she got to the front counter. They flanked the stranger. “Is there a problem?” Edie asked, her
voice soft and charming.

Selene couldn’t have cared less about diplomacy. “Yeah, like maybe you have amnesia and forgot what manners are?”

He turned all the way around, putting his back to the counter. “I haven’t forgot anything. I’m looking for this girl.” He held up
the phone. Behind him, Rosie put on her glasses and came around front to look for herself. All three women looked at the photo, then they looked at each
other, and then they looked at the man.

They all spoke at once. “Never saw her before.”

“No idea.”

“Not a clue.” 

He made a sound halfway between a growl and a sigh, turned, and stomped toward the door.

“Hey, wait,” Selene called, pulling out her cell phone.

He looked back and she snapped a pic, smiled and said, “Have a great day, now.”

Completely perplexed, he left.

Rosie took off her glasses and let them dangle from the excessively blingy chain around her neck. Selene bet her grandniece Cora had got it for her.
“You girls gonna call your mamma or am I?” she asked.

“I’ll put the family on alert, Rosie,” Edie said. “Thank you for not saying anything.”

“Psssh.”

“The big guy really seems to have it out for Kiley, doesn’t he?” Selene asked. “His aura is sparking like the fourth of
July.”

“It’s just as well we Big Falls’ folk know enough to mind our own business, and stick together when outsiders come snooping
around,” Rosie said. “I’ll see what I can find out about this gent through the grapevine.” She lowered her voice to a
conspiratorial whisper. “I can put Cora on it. That girl can sniff out truth like a bloodhound.”

Selene smiled. “Doesn’t even matter that the Brand family PIs are out of town. Thanks, Rosie.”

 “You think he’s dangerous, Selene?” Edie asked.

“He’s pissed off, and he’s a little bit panicky,” she said. “I don’t know about dangerous. I didn’t get
dangerous.” 

“But pissed off and panicky seems close enough to me,” Rosie said, giving them each a long, serious look right in the eye. “You girls be
careful.”

Rob was flipping eggs when his phone made its text sound. The sound he’d chosen for this particular sender was a series of Morse code beeps. The
females of the clan had sworn not to text the whole family at once unless it was an emergency. For example, last week’s discussion of who was
bringing what to Vidalia’s Sunday after church meal. That exchange had gone on for forty minutes.

He tipped up the frying pan to slide his perfect eggs onto a waiting english muffin that was already dripping butter and a slice of seriously sharp cheddar
cheese. His mouth watered.

“That smells
so
good.” Kiley came into the kitchen, carrying her cup of coffee which, she’d told him ten minutes ago, was all
she ever consumed in the morning. Her hair looked like the feathers of a very angry
chicken.

For some reason, his brain registered her appearance as the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. He was on a slippery slope where Kiley was concerned. It
was the damnedest thing, how he’d vowed that he would never, ever,
ever
get involved with a dishonest woman again, and yet here he was,
being drawn irresistibly to one.

Something felt hot near his elbow. He jerked it away from the still-blazing burner and remembered what he was doing. Turning off the burner, he set his
plate on the little round kitchen table that had probably been in some Brand woman’s house at some point in recent history. Then he sat down and
picked up his fork.

Kiley came right up to him and looked over his shoulder. “Is that cheese melting out the sides?”

“Yeah. Sharp cheddar. Local, even.”

A noisy rumbling sound came from her stomach.

“Excuse me!” she said, pressing a hand to her tummy. “That was rude. Stomach growling like a cougar.”

He set his fork down. “You said you weren’t hungry.”

“Well, yeah, before I saw
that
.”

He got up smiling, stepped aside and said, “It’s all yours, Kiley.”

“Oh, no, no that’s not what I was angling for.”

“Yes, it is.”

“No, it isn’t. I’m not gonna eat your breakfast.”

“I’m already making another one.” The eggs were still on the counter, burner still hot. He turned it back on, set the pan above the flame
and cracked two more shells. Then he dropped another muffin into the toaster that somebody had apparently bought brand new just to bring over here last
night.

He owed his family big time. The meddling bunch of sweethearts.

“Well...if you’re making more anyway,” she said, and she sat down.

“I am.” His eggs started to sizzle, and he turned to watch as she picked up half a muffin with an egg on top and bit in. Perfectly cooked
yellow yolk dripped down her chin. She dragged her forefinger through it and smacked her lips. “Mmm,” she said with her mouth full. “
Mmm
!”

“You’re welcome. And Kiley, when you want little favors like this, all you have to do is ask. We’re partners and we’re roomies.
Doing nice things for each other oughtta be our norm.”

She chewed, washed the bite down with coffee, nodded at him. “So I’m just supposed to walk out here and say, ‘That looks great. Would you
make me one?’ instead of politely waiting for you to offer?”

“Instead of manipulating me into offering. See the difference there?”

She shook her head. “Just seems like bad manners to me. How about I just state here and now that any time you make this particular breakfast,
I’m in.”

He could not argue with her logic, so he put the eggs away and retrieved the cheese. He was slicing another serving when his text went off again.
He’d forgotten all about it.

“All right, all right, just a sec,” he told the phone. He put the cheese away, buttered the muffin that had popped up, topped it in cheddar,
and flipped his eggs. Kiley watched him the whole time, but looked away when he met her eyes. “What’s-a-matter, Kiley? Never see a man cook
before?”

“My dad cooked all the time. He just didn’t seem to enjoy it like you do.”

His senses went on alert. She’d told him precious little about herself, other than her sister’s recent death, which was too raw a topic to
really try to discuss. He tried to act casual, dropped his eggs onto his muffin, turned off the burner, carried his plate to the table and sat down.

“So your dad did the cooking?” he asked.

She looked up fast, like she had only just realized what she’d said. “Who’s texting you?”

“Family.”

“They the only ones who ever text you?” she asked.

“No.” He tipped his head a little to the left. “Mostly. That particular text tone, though, that’s theirs.”

She got the joke, and smiled a real smile. “They can probably get to be a lot. I mean, being that there are so many of them.”

“They can. I love ‘em anyway.”

“I could tell last night. Just the way you are with them. And those women. Holy smokes.”

“What about them?” he asked.

“They’re like…I don’t know. Unreal. Smart and kind and gorgeous and….” She tipped her head sideways and said,
“They’re like what I imagine when I try to  remember my mom. And like what I envision when I think about who I want to be.”

He was gonna have to remember that compliment and share it with the Brand half of the clan. They would appreciate it. “You close with your family,
Kiley?”

Her smile turned false. She picked up her second half muffin, took a big bite and shook her head left and right to answer his question without saying a
word.

That was okay, he thought. She’d tell him about herself when she was ready. There was no hurry.

Some little voice in his head insisted that there was a hurry. That he was in danger of getting a little bit too fond of her, maybe already was, and she
was still keeping a whole lot of secrets. He could see them in her eyes, and everything in him wanted to know everything about her.

He ate in silence for a while, waiting for her to pause between bites, and then he decided it couldn’t hurt to try to nudge her just a little bit.
“I don’t even know where you’re from, you realize that?”

“Yes you do,” she said. “I’m from here. Oh, hell, look at the time. I gotta run. Busy day!” She got up, took a big gulp of
her remaining coffee and ran right out the front door, finger combing her hair on the way.

He’d pushed too hard. Miss Kiley Kellogg was a mystery to him. Maybe that was what was so attractive about her. He’d always had a curious mind.

His phone bleeped. He picked it up this time, frowning to see that Selene had texted him a photo of a WWE wrestler… or someone who looked like one.
Frowning, he read the message that followed.

Dude was just in diner. Flashed pic of Kiley. Asked if we knew her. Rude, impatient, angry
.

A rush of protectiveness pushed him up out of his chair, and his brain went dark and beamed out the message:
That guy gets within a mile of Kiley and I
’ll kick his oversized ass back where he came from
.

He tried to tell himself it wasn’t an overreaction, even though a part of him knew it was.

He was from Texas and he lived in Oklahoma, two places where it was still okay for men to be protective of women. Besides, she was his business partner,
and he hoped, his friend.

Who was he kidding? He hoped for a lot more than friendship.

Her dilapidated car had already gone bounding away down the road, out of sight, and he wished she’d told him where she was going so he could make
sure she’d be safe.

He hurried through the rest of his breakfast and threw the dishes into the sink for later attention. It occurred to him that this guy must know something
more about Kiley than he knew himself. It would be an invasion of her privacy to give him the third degree. But that didn’t mean he might not
volunteer something before Rob kicked his ass out of town.

Once he found him, but finding him wasn’t going to be a problem.

In Big Falls, there were two kinds of people. Locals and tourists, coming for a meal or a beer at The Long Branch in between visiting the ghost towns
nearby. The big guy was neither, and would be as noticeable as the stripe on a skunk’s back.