Silver River Romeo (Western Cowboy Romance) (Rancher Romance Series #1) (10 page)

              “How did they find out? Did Hank tell them?”

              “We had to go to a lawyer’s office for the reading of the will,” Emma informed him. “I think my dad actually already had some buyers interested in the ranch--”

              “I know he did,” Cole said grimly. “I saw a few different people over here looking at it.”

              He heard Emma sigh and felt her slender shoulders get tense in the circle of his arms.

              “Hey,” he said, tilting her chin and giving her a quick kiss. “It’s yours now. Tell me the rest.”

              “Well, everyone in the room was pretty shocked,” Emma said, giving Cole the understatement of the year. She’d sworn she’d felt the temperature drop ten degrees from the frozen shock in that poor lawyer’s office that day.

              “Who was there?” he asked.

              “My dad and my mom. my uncle, Charlie, and his wife. And, Aunt Dorothy and her two kids. It was the first time we’d all been in a room together in five years so it was a little tense and awkward anyway. But then, when the lawyer said Grandpa Hank had left me the ranch...oh, everyone was furious. I felt terrible for that lawyer. They kept making him repeat himself, like it was his fault or something. Then, once they realized he wasn’t making a mistake. they all turned on me.”

              “What did they say?” Now Cole was the one getting tense.

              “Well, nothing in the office,” Emma stated coldly as she remembered that day. “But once we were out, they all came back to my dad’s place and we had a huge family fight. It was awful. They accused me of sucking up to Grandpa Hank, of stealing their inheritance.”

              “Your parents didn’t say anything?” Cole demanded.

              “At first, they tried to,” Emma said. “But they sort of got shouted down. And then dad just got madder and madder the whole time the argument was going on. In the end, I was happy to get out of there.”

              Emma remembered the look on her dad’s face as the evening wore on. Suspicion had grown in his eyes until he’d finally said, “What did you and your grandfather talk about on all those phone calls?”

              “Nothing,” Emma had said, defended herself. “We just...we just talked. I never asked for this!”

              The evening had disintegrated even further after that. Finally, her mother had called the evening to a halt when Emma burst into tears.

              “I’m ashamed of you all for treating her this way! I’m sure that she’ll see how silly this all is in the morning!” But the following morning hadn’t been any better and soon, even her mother was no longer on her side.

              “Just over a ranch,” Cole said, shaking his head when he saw tears well in Emma’s pretty blue eyes.

              “And the money to run it,” Emma said shyly. “Grandpa sold all his stock and put it in an account for me at the bank with all his savings. He wrote me a letter and put it in the safe deposit box he had. He said he wanted me to inherit a clean slate and run this ranch the best way I could. I’m not doing such a great job.”

              “You’re doing fine,” Cole said, giving her another kiss on the forehead. “Don’t ever let any hard-headed cowboy tell you different.”

              “I’ll be sure not to,” she said with a grin.

              Later that evening, after a few more demonstrations of just how wonderful Cole McKenna could be when he tried, Emma sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed.

              “Hey, now,” Cole said, reaching out and wrapping his arm around her waist. “What makes you think I’m done with you?”

              “I don’t know,” Emma said with a grin as she disentangled herself from the grip of a very determined cowboy. “Maybe it’s the sound of your stomach growling. Didn’t you say you missed lunch? And I know for a fact we both missed supper.”

              “I can do without food for a good cause,” he assured her.

              “Well, I can’t,” she declared as she hopped down and began dressing. “There’s got to be a pizza place somewhere in this town.”

              “Sure is,” Cole said with a languid, satisfied stretch. “And I reckon I’m in just about a good enough mood to take you there, sweetheart.”

              “My hero,” she said, clasping her hands to her heart before pulling a soft cotton tee shirt over her head and yanking her boots on. “Now, as much as I hate to say it, get dressed.”

              They were halfway through the long drive to the pizza place when Emma said, “What did you mean you were jealous? Don’t you like ranching with your brothers?”

              “I do,” Cole said, trying to think of the best way to explain the situation. “It kind of goes back to what you said the day we met.”

              “What I said?” Emma asked when he fell silent, clearly expecting her to remember.

              “You asked me what I did.”

              “Oh. Oh, Cole,” she answered embarrassed by her attitude back then.  “I didn't mean anything by that. It was a silly question. It was before I understood how many people it takes to run a successful ranch.” She put her hand on his thigh, feeling really bad her uninformed question had caused him any kind of worry.

              “Well, but it summed up the problem” admitted Cole. “ I don’t want to run Silver River. I want a ranch of my own. Marshall and I butt heads like a pair of stubborn goats.”

              “What about Darrell?”

              “Darrell isn’t really worried about it. He likes ranching, and he knows that he’s not going to have it better on another ranch. I think he’s the only night shift rancher I know of, actually. But what he really loves is the rodeo. He ranches because it’s in our blood but he rides because he loves it and that’s the difference. I don’t love trying to run Silver River. That place is never going to be mine. It was meant for Marshall and my dad was only trying to be fair leaving it to all of us.”

             
“And there’s nothing you can do?” Emma asked.

              “Not really. I couldn’t sell my share to anyone outside the family and I don’t think either of my brothers are interested in buying me out...even if they had the money to do it, which I don’t think that they do.” Cole shrugged and patted Emma’s leg. “No point in worrying about things we can’t change, right?”

              “I guess not,” she acknowledged. To change the subject, she perked up her tone and said, “I thought you promised me pizza.”

              “We’re getting there,” he said with a laugh. “Good things come to those who wait.”

             “So, it’s good pizza then?” She asked hesitantly.

              “It depends on the day,” Cole said honestly. “But it’s pretty hard for pizza to be bad. Even when it’s not exactly good.”

              “I don’t know about that,” she said dubiously as she scooted closer along the bench seat in his old truck and rested her head on his shoulder.

              When they finally reached town and ordered their pizza, they went to a booth in the far corner and sat down. Emma looked at the table top, a little self conscious somehow. She’d just spent a few hours in bed doing wicked things with that man, and the memories of what they’d done made her feel shy.

              “Hey,” Cole said, reaching over the table and tilting her chin so she met his eyes. “Are you all right?”

              “I’m fine,” she said with a self deprecating laugh. “It’s just...it’s a little odd to be sitting here waiting for pizza with you right now.”

              “Why?” he asked.

              “Well,” she hesitated her speech, “ because of...of what we were just doing.”

              The blush that spread over her face was so charming, he wanted to pull her against him, but the table between them prevented that.

              “Just think of it as a backwards date,” he suggested.

              “Is that what this is?” she asked quietly. “A date?”

              “I’d like for it to be,” he said honestly. “But it doesn’t have to be if you don’t want it to be. It’s up to you, Emma. I won’t push for anything you’re not ready for.”

              Tears welled in her eyes at the sincerity in his words and in his eyes, but luckily she was saved from making a fool of herself by the arrival of a waitress with their pizza and side order of bread sticks and marinara. When the waitress left, Cole looked at Emma again.

              “Have I already pushed you too far?” he asked, hoping to God that she was going to say no. He really didn’t want her regretting their evening of making love, and not solely because he wanted to repeat it as soon as possible either. It had meant a lot to him, much more than it had ever meant with any other woman and he wanted her to feel the same way about him.

              “No!” Emma said quickly. “No, Cole, not at all. I loved every minute of what happened tonight and I wouldn’t take it back for anything!”
So much for playing it cool
, Emma thought to herself as she stumbled to a stop and reached out to take a piece of pizza. Cole caught her hand instead and raised it very briefly to his lips. Emma melted.

              “So,” Cole said a few moments later, snagging his own slice of pepperoni pizza and covering it with red pepper flakes. “Tell me something about yourself.”

              “What kind of something?” Emma asked after swallowing her bite of pizza. Cole had been right. It wasn’t good, but it was also far from bad.

              “Anything,” he said open-mindedly. “What did you want to be when you grew up when you were a kid?” It wasn’t his standard date conversation, but he would lay money that Emma had been an adorable kid and he wanted to know everything he could about her.

              “An interior designer,” she said, to his surprise.

              “Why?” he asked.

              She laughed her pretty laugh and said, “I was convinced that it would be just like playing with my dollhouse and I couldn’t imagine a more fun thing to get paid for.”

              “You had a dollhouse?” Cole asked with a smile.

              “Oh, yes!” She responded with a glint in her eyes. “ It was one of those that you could build from a kit. I got it second-hand, already built but all my allowance went toward personalizing it. I probably played with it much longer than I should have, actually,” she admitted a little sheepishly.

              “Do you still have it?” Cole didn’t remember seeing it, but after what had happened earlier he probably wouldn’t have noticed a herd of elephants in her living room.

              “No,” she said, trying to keep her voice light and casual. “My mom donated it to charity when she cleaned out my room in my freshman year of college.”

              Cole tried not to wince visibly. It wasn’t the worst thing a parent could do, and every parent got rid of their children’s toys at some point or another probably but he still hated that it had happened to Emma like that. The more he heard about her family, the more he wanted to step in and protect her from them.

              “What about you?” she asked. “Cowboy?”

              “Marine biologist,” he answered promptly.

              “Really?” She stopped with her pizza slice halfway to her lips and stared at him. “A marine biologist?”

              “Sure thing,” Cole said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “I love to swim. I like fish. It seemed pretty perfect to me when I was a kid.”

              “What stopped you?” she asked.