Rustler's Heart (A Kinnison Legacy Novel) (24 page)
Read Rustler's Heart (A Kinnison Legacy Novel) Online
Authors: Amanda McIntyre
Tags: #Book 2, #The Kinnison Legacy
He swaggered toward the door, and then glanced over his shoulder with a parting, impish grin.
“Good Lord,” she muttered and finished her drink.
“Mind if I offer a piece of friendly advice?” Dusty spoke, his focus intent on the pilsner he polished.
Aimee hopped off the stool and slid into her jacket. “You mean about Steve? Yeah, I know a player when I see one, no worries.” She tugged her purse over her shoulder. “But thank you for keeping an eye on a girl.”
A slow smile crept over the bartender’s face. “He and his buddies live a few miles down the road. They come in a couple of times a week to play pool. You okay to drive home?”
“Yeah, I’m good. Thanks, Dusty.”
“Come on back anytime.”
Aimee smiled. Unless she was with someone, the chances were slim. She stopped at the end of the bar and turned to him. “Say, listen. Maybe you can help me out with something. You said you know a lot of folks around here?”
He shrugged. “Seems eventually, they all come through here. I’ve got the only jukebox and bar for miles around.”
She chewed her lip and wondered whether it was wise to inquire openly about the stranger on the ranch. What could it hurt? The worst thing she’d possibly find out was that he was married, recently divorced, or engaged in some bitter custody battle over his kids. She took a breath and charged ahead. “I was wondering about something…someone, actually.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Well, I stopped to get directions at this place up the road. Looks like a giant ski lodge down in the valley…south a little ways, just off eighty-nine.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I’m guessing you mean Last Hope Ranch. Fine looking place. Jed Kinnison, God rest his soul, and those three boys created quite a cattle business down there. Hard workers, all of them.”
Aimee swallowed. “There’s more than one?” She tried not to sound giddy. “I only met one of them. He’s got dark hair, intense, kind of bossy.” She gave him a half smile. “Very bossy.”
“Yeah, that’d be the oldest of Jed’s boys—Wyatt. I heard Dalton and Rein had left on their annual sales trip.”
“Sales?” she asked, her mind simmering still on the old-fashioned name of Wyatt.
“Yep, Last Hope is one of the last working cattle ranches in these parts. Has been for as long as I’ve been around. Every winter they sell off some of the herd to feedlots down in Iowa and Missouri.”
“But Wyatt isn’t involved in…the sales?” Bartenders were a lot like beauticians, Aimee discovered. Get them started and they could dish on about anybody.
He chuckled. “Not Wyatt. No, he prefers to stay home, keep an eye on things at the ranch. Kind of a loner but a nice enough guy. Quiet. Now you take his younger brother, Dalton. There’s a social guy. You’d like him. Flirts like hell, loves to dance and kid around, but he has a good heart. The boy would give you the shirt off his back. They all would. Jed raised some real fine men.”
“Sounds like you have a lot of respect for them.” Aimee adjusted her purse and started to leave, her attention drawn momentarily to the loud ruckus going on in the back room.
Dusty glanced toward the sound, sighed, and waited for the noise to settle before he spoke. “Jed, rest his soul, did lot for this community. Rein is the third of Jed’s brood. His nephew that came to live with him when his folks were killed. Now there’s a guy with a head for business. He helped me get this place back on track after I hit a rough patch. Jed raised the three as brothers, left himself quite a legacy in these parts.”
Aimee smiled, even more curious why it was she’d never heard any of them mentioned by her peers at school. Still, she supposed teachers and ranchers didn’t necessarily run in the same circles, unless of course they taught their children. Which left a question burning in the mind of any red-blooded, single woman. Were any of them married? That was a question for her friend, Sally. “Thanks, Dusty.”
She waved a quick good-bye and hurried to her car. The snow had slowed to intermittent flakes by the time she climbed in and turned on the ignition to warm it up. She glanced at her watch and realized she had just enough time to get home and register for the online poetry class she promised Sally she’d take. Aside from her duties as End of the Line’s elementary music teacher, Sally moonlighted as an online instructor through Billings Community College. She spotted the map on the seat, picked it up, and thought of Wyatt’s sincere concern for her safety. True he hadn’t smiled much…at all, in fact, but his gaze was kind, if not tinged with a puzzling look that made her want to know more about what he’d been thinking. Still, in the entire time she was alone with him, she never felt threatened, as she had around Mr. Metallica in a public bar.
Aimee tucked the map into the console between the seats and eased her car out onto the main road. For as early as it was in the evening, she could’ve shot cannon down the street. Like a scene from
It’s A Wonderful Life
, the store fronts were dark, in contrast to the festive holiday wreaths waving in the wintery challenge of the wind. Small white lights dotted the branches of the dwarf trees along the businesses, twinkling with each northerly breeze. A twinge of melancholy hit her. She missed not being at home with her parents, especially this time of year. She wondered at the wisdom in accepting a job in a place so remote that it was truly worthy of its name—End of the Line.
She glanced down at the map and remembered the encounter earlier with Wyatt Kinnison. An interesting man and a challenge if ever there was one, if what she’d heard about him was true at all. Then again, she’d never backed away from obstacles before. Maybe there was more to why she was there than she’d considered. After all, it was the season of miracles.
Growing up the daughter of a father who was a distributor for a New York Magazine Publishing firm, Amanda usually had her nose stuck in the latest issue of Vampirella or a Hitchcock Mystery book. An artist first, her penchant for creating started at an early age with crayons and colored pencils and much of what she learned makes her a ‘visual’ writer. A renaissance woman, she has worked in the corporate world, written a weekly newspaper column supporting Fine Arts in our schools, loves to travel, do research and perhaps her greatest achievement—raised four kids.
Amanda has been referred to as a "true artist in the writing realm' and her zest for life inspires her "character-driven" stories. Her passion is to take ordinary people and place them in extraordinary situations, delving into the realm of potential and possibility as she watches them become the heroes and heroines of their own stories. She counts herself fortunate to be able to do what she loves, aspires to stay fresh and unique to her voice and listen to her readers. A member of RWA, and a multi-genre hybrid author, her work is published internationally, in audio, in e-book and in print. She currently writes sizzling contemporary and erotic historical romance.
Learn more about Amanda and join her social networks, newsletter, and street team at:
http://www.amandamcintyresbooks.com
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