Over the Edge (16 page)

“That’s the way it sounds. I found papers amongst our ma’s things that said Pa owned land near Rawhide. I came to get it. It’s my inheritance.”

“Your ma knew Gavin Kincaid had another family?” Rafe frowned deep. “She knew when she married him that he already had a wife?”

Heath slammed his chair back to the wall and lunged to his feet. “You say a word against my ma and I’ll beat you until you can’t open your mouth.”

Heath couldn’t win, but Seth could see clear as day the boy meant every word.

Seth found himself wishing he could go down into the cavern. It was quiet down there. He could hear himself think. He looked at the door to the outside and wondered if anyone would miss him. He wouldn’t be gone long. A day or two.

“Julia! I didn’t hear you come in. Come and meet Callie!” Audra came down the stairs, guiding Seth’s wife. He had a wife.

Maybe he needed more than two days. A week maybe, just until his brain settled around being a married man with a child.

Then he saw how white Callie’s knuckles were as she gripped the railing. He hurried to her side just as she got all the way downstairs.

“You doing okay, honey?” He wished he could remember her. She was really pretty.

Callie glared at him.

Kinda scary, though.

Callie was diverted from that betraying coyote Seth Kincaid by the sight of Connor sitting on a redheaded woman’s lap.

Callie darted toward her baby. Well, she darted for one step. Then the pain slowed her right down.

Connor saw her and gave a friendly shriek. His arms and legs started pumping in the air as if he could fly to her if he just tried hard enough.

She limped her way across the room.

The redhead stood up and said, “Hi, I’m Julia Kincaid. I guess we’re sisters now. Take my chair.”

Callie had to sit down on the chair or collapse on the floor, so she took the stupid chair, though it rankled to be in need of so much help. Then the redhead set Connor on her lap. Callie slid an arm around Connor’s fat tummy and her aching heart eased to feel the weight of him.

Seth started introducing everyone.

“We’ve got a lot to do,” Rafe said, cutting Seth off, “before we can sit down and get to know each other.”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed in a way that made Callie wonder how well the brothers got along.

“Got orders for us, big brother?” Ethan asked in a drawl.

“Yes, that snow yesterday was a warning. We need to get the ranch weathertight. We still have a couple herds that need to be moved to winter grassland. I need to get a line shack built, and we’re gonna have to get Heath settled somewhere. We may have to build on to one of the cabins.”

“Have I ever told you my big brother is really bossy?” Seth said to Callie.

“I don’t remember you mentioning it. But I figured it out without a word from you.”

“Don’t build on to any cabin for me. I’m not staying.” Heath showed no interest in obeying Rafe, which, Seth had to admit, made him like the boy a little more.

Rafe glared at Heath. “Sure you are.”

“You can’t tell someone how to live, where to live, and what to do with their own money.” Callie stood, took a step toward Rafe, and squared off in front of him.

“Sure I can. When I’m right and he’s wrong.” Rafe didn’t give Callie a pat on the head, but his words came way too close.

“How about, instead of acting like a tyrant, you have a conversation with the brother your worthless father abandoned and cheated.”

“Hey!” That came from everyone in the room who was more than two years old, except Julia and Audra. Callie thought she had some allies there.

“My pa was a lot better to us than he was to these guys,” Heath snarled.

“Callie, you never met Pa. You don’t need to go and say—” Seth’s words got drowned out by his brothers, who had a thing or two to add.

Heath came around the table as if he wanted a fight. Callie could accommodate the little grouch in the normal course of things, but the last couple of days had taken their toll.

Seth stepped in front of Heath. “Don’t you lay a hand on my wife.”

“You think I’d hit a woman? That’s the kind of coward you think I am?” Heath shoved Seth, and small as he was, he managed to make Seth back up.

The shouting continued. Callie stayed in the middle of it until she was hopeful no one was going to let fly with a fist. Then she turned to look at Audra and Julia. Audra watched the chaos and wrung her hands.

“Troublemaker.” Julia gave Callie a look so dry it oughta’d been served with a glass of water.

With a jerk of her shoulder, Callie patted Connor’s little bottom and went to stand by Julia. “You’re not the first to say so. But I call ’em the way I see ’em.”

“They’re not ready to admit that yet.” Julia scooped the little toddler girl out of her chair. “This is Maggie. She’s my niece and my sister and . . .” Julia paused and frowned at the little girl with the wisps of white blond hair, who bounced happily in her arms. “She might be my cousin too, or maybe my sister-in-law. I know there was something else, but sometimes I lose track.”

“Close family, huh?”

“He might’ve died
here
but he
loved
us.” Heath stuck his chin forward as if daring someone to take a swing.

“You have no idea.” Sounding tired, Audra slipped between the warring Kincaids, took the baby out of Ethan’s arms—as well as taking her out of the middle of the fight—and came back to stand shoulder to shoulder with her sisters-in-law.

“What do you think we ought to do about them?” Julia asked.

“How old were you when I was born exactly?” Heath demanded of Seth. “Your pa must’ve been real unhappy about you to take off like he done.”

“Why, you little worthless pup!” Seth stepped forward. Ethan caught his arm.

With a shrug Callie watched the war dance before her. “You got a bucket of cold water?”

Julia snickered.

“I’m not having that mess on my kitchen floor.” Audra swayed gently with the baby while she considered the situation.

“So why’d Seth leave you anyway?” Julia asked Callie. “What’s the matter with him, do you think?”

Nosy woman. “He was real sick.” Callie studied Seth. “He’s acting pretty sane right now, though. It makes sense he’d be worked up about this mess.”

Callie looked down at Connor, who was watching his father behave badly. He didn’t seem upset by it; the little one was fascinated. Probably taking notes on how to be a wild man. She’d had enough. “Sorry for the racket, baby boy.”

She patted his plump little diaper, then lifted two fingers to her lips and blasted an ear-piercing whistle.

Everyone turned to glare at her.

Dead silence reigned.

It was a skill of which she was mighty proud.

“Since I started this, I’ll end it.” Callie earned herself the simmering temper of four Kincaids. “You can all pretend like your pa loved you best if you want. But the truth is, he betrayed every one of you. And now you can stand here and fight about nonsense, or you can enjoy getting to know your family.”

Heath snorted.

“Now, there’s no sense talking about getting money,” Callie went on. “Near as I can piece together, there isn’t any. This ranch and everything on it was built more by the Kincaid brothers than their pa. Did your father leave you with a lovely home and lots of money?” Callie arched a brow as she looked at Heath. “Because if he did, then it’s fair for you to go gather up all those riches and share it with the Kincaids here.”

More silence.

Heath finally said, “Pa didn’t leave us nuthin’. He rode off one spring to sell his furs. He never came back.”

“That must’ve been the year he died.” Rafe shoved his hands into the back pockets of his pants. “He rode in here, sick with a fever. He died. He died . . .” Suddenly Rafe frowned and looked at the newcomers. “He told me to take care of his son and his wife. I thought he was out of his head.

“He meant you.” Rafe’s voice echoed with regret and his shoulders slumped. “He wanted me to find you. I couldn’t make sense out of it. His wife—our ma—was long dead. I thought he was just raving or dreaming of a woman’s gentle hand. I’m . . . I’m sorry. I think he even meant the fur money to go to you. He said something about selling it, using it to care for his wife. I hadn’t seen him for almost a year. I know now that all that time he was gone, he was with you, that even before Ma died he was with you. But after, he barely even lived here. He stopped in from time to time.”

“He wasn’t with us that much, either.” Heath crossed his arms, almost as if he wanted to hold back the words he had to say. “He’d leave for weeks at a time. Ma, well, Ma had grown up in the mountains. She could provide for us better with a skinning knife and a Winchester than most people can with a general store and a herd of cattle.”

“Did she cry?” Seth asked.

Callie never was much of a crier. From Seth’s tone, she suspected he wouldn’t think fondly of her if she took up the habit.

“Never saw her shed a tear,” Heath said.

“So, since there’s no money to be had here,” Callie said to Heath, “it looks like you’re gonna have to take your inheritance out in land and a roof over your head.” She then turned to Seth. “And since Heath’s new to the family and so am I, I want him. I want help getting you through your nightmares. It wears on a body after a while.”

Ethan patted Seth on the back. “So true.”

Callie gave Connor a big hug. “How many bedrooms does your cabin have?”

Seth sighed long and hard. “Not enough.”

Heath looked at Callie. “So when do we have this house-building party?”

“Right after the breakfast dishes are washed,” Rafe said. “And then I’ve got a line shack I want to put up before the snow flies.”

“Too late for that. The snow’s already started.” Seth looked out the window. “But we won’t let a little blizzard stop us. Let’s hit the trail.”

Chapter
15

Seth hadn’t gotten a minute alone with his wife since . . . he paused. Had he
ever
gotten a minute alone with her? At least when she was fully conscious?

And since Seth couldn’t remember being married, it really was
never
. Which was maddening when he considered he’d not only
married
her, he’d undeniably made a
baby
with her.

He’d really like to remember that part.

They’d been two days building on to his house.

He saw his chance to actually speak to his wife alone when Callie stepped outside with a basin of wash water.

“Let’s get packed up.” Rafe was being his usual tyrannical self. “We leave at first light for the line shack.” Issuing orders to Seth, Ethan, and Heath. Even though they were all men. By the amount of work he did, Seth even counted Heath . . . mostly. Men with functioning brains, Seth even counted himself . . . mostly.

Seth exchanged a look with Ethan, who had his usual phony grin on his face. He was probably daydreaming, ignoring Rafe. A quick glance at Heath told Seth the kid had already learned the skill of pretending to listen to Rafe while his mind was elsewhere.

When Rafe turned around to pick up an axe, Seth jabbed an elbow into Ethan’s arm and jerked his head in Callie’s direction.

Ethan looked at Callie, quirked a genuine smile, and waved Seth toward her. Rafe kept talking.

Seth slipped away just as Callie rounded the side of the house, out of sight of General Rafe. Seth came up behind her as she tossed the water out of the basin. Seth snagged her wrist. Startled, she squeaked and dropped the shallow metal pan.

He laid his hand over her mouth and whispered, “Quiet. Rafe’ll hear you and come drag me back to work.”

She nodded. She’d been issued a few too many orders in the last couple of days, it seemed. Seth left the basin behind when he pulled her away. He was careful to keep the house between him and the next orders.

He whispered the question that burned the worst. “Why’d you have to ask Heath to stay with us?”

He loved being this close to her. He couldn’t get over how pretty she was with her snapping black eyes and the brilliant shining black of her hair. Even her temper drew him. He got the impression that when she was mad, she might be a wild woman. Almost as wild as him. The little thrill of fear was exciting enough that he considered prodding her to make her show him the full extent of her wildness.