Silver River Romeo (Western Cowboy Romance) (Rancher Romance Series #1) (12 page)

              Another long kiss followed and then she pulled back to start unbuttoning his shirt frantically. He reached out and yanked her dress up over her head so she was sitting on his lap wearing nothing but a bra, panties, and thigh high stockings. It was the stockings that had him groaning low in his throat and yanking her close.

              “Oh,” she gasped out suddenly, pressing her hands into his chest to gain enough leverage to push back and look into his eyes. “I love you too, Cole McKenna.”

              “Well, that’s good to know,” he said agreeably. “Because I’m about to do all kinds of things to you, sweetheart.”

              And he did. He had her right there in the kitchen with the back door standing wide open. Even though she knew no one was going to see, she felt a slight thrill at the freedom of it all. Once it was over, she leaned her head on his shoulder and caught her breath.

              “Wow,” she whispered. “I think I might even love you a little more now.”

              He gave a low laugh and pulled her to her feet to give her a gentle smack on the bottom.

              “I can’t blame you there,” he said with a smile. “Ready to get to bed?”

              “Always,” she purred, making his raise his eyebrows. It was good to meet a woman who wanted him as much as Emma did. It was especially good because he knew that he’d never get enough of her.

              “Cole,” Darrell called a few weeks later as Cole was about to ride out of the yard.

              “Yeah?” Cole asked, wheeling Sheriff around and facing his brother who stood framed in the light spilling from the doorway of the house.

              “Got a second? Darrell asked.

              “Not really,” Cole admitted. “I’m headed over to Emma’s. Her folks are coming in tonight and she wanted me to be there.”

              “This won’t take long,” his brother answered. “Come here.”

              Darrell didn’t give him time to answer before he turned and walked back into the house. Cole sighed and hitched Sheriff to the nearest post. “Be right back,” he said with a pat on the bay’s nose. “So, what’s up?” he asked as he stepped in and joined Darrell at the table.

              “You’re in love with Emma, right?” Darrell asked bluntly.

              “Yeah,” Cole answered as if it should have been obvious. Darrell had been there the day after he first spent the night with Emma and Marshall had had plenty of fun dragging the details out of Cole.

              “And she feels the same?”

              “Yeah,” Cole answered slowly. It really wasn’t like Darrell to...well...talk, really, but especially not about his personal life. “What’s with all the questions?”

              “Here,” was all Darrell said as he slid an envelope across his beaten up, more than second hand, kitchen table.

              “What is...” Cole found himself trailing off again as he opened the envelope. A thick band of bills lay nestled inside. “What is this?” he said, trying again. His voice came out almost hollow with his shock.

              “We’re buying you out,” Darrell said simply. “You aren’t going to want to stick around here much longer. I can tell you’re already getting antsy. You don’t want to leave us high and dry anymore than you want to feel like you’re mooching off of Emma. So, I’m buying your share of the ranch.”

              Cole was stunned by the swiftly summed up psychoanalysis, but also by the amount of money.

              “Where the hell did this come from?” he asked when he’d caught his breath. “Did you rob a bank, little brother?”

              “No,” Darrell said with a laugh when he saw that Cole’s question was at least half serious. “I’ve been saving up for a while. I don’t usually spend my winnings in the rodeos. And then there’s the money I get from Marshall in bets. And a lot of my share of the profits from here.”

Cole protested as he closed the envelope. “Darrell, I can’t take this.”

              “Sure you can,” Darrell insisted. “It’s in exchange for your third of the ranch. It’s not like it’s a present. And I promise that once I have two thirds, I won’t run Marshall off in nothing but a potato sack. I’ll at least send him away with a change of clothes.”

              Cole was so flabbergasted, he actually had to make sure Darrell was joking. “Are you sure about this, Darrell?” he asked, his heart threatening to leap out of his chest.

              “Yeah,” Darrell answered. “I always kind of thought you’d move on and find your own place. You’re different than me and Marshall.”

              “You’ve been saving all this time just so you can buy my share?”

              Darrell shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, pretty much. Didn’t you have somewhere to be? Something about Emma’s parents?”

              “Yeah.” Cole stood up and stuffed the money into his jacket pocket, then pulled it back out. “Hang on to it for me tonight, will you? I’ll take it to the bank in the morning.”

              Darrell nodded and then grunted in surprise when Cole reached out and pulled him close in a bone crushing bear hug.

              “Thanks,” he said gruffly. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

              “I’ll be here,” Darrell said, his own voice going rough. “See you later.”

              Cole rode for Emma’s ranch with his heart pounding in anticipation. The money to leave Silver River. The money to be an equal partner and not a burden to Raven Branch and to Emma. It was almost too much to take in and he tapped Sheriff’s sides with the heels of his boots to hurry the animal along.

              “There you are!” Emma exclaimed when he rode into the yard. “Oh God, I think I’m going to die.” She was wringing her hands so fiercely, her fingers had gone white.

              “You’re not going to die,” Cole said, taking her hands and rubbing circulation back into her fingers. “It’s all going to be fine. Emma, I’ve got the best news!”

              “Oh, really?” she began, but they suddenly heard the crunch of gravel in the driveway. “Oh no! They’re here!” She flew into the house and began filling glasses and putting food in serving bowls.

              Cole wasn’t quite sure what she needed him to do, but he was sure he hated her parents at just this moment. All he wanted to do was yell his good news to the world and now it would have to wait until later.

              Her parents exited the car slowly, looking over the ranch. The distaste on her mother’s face would have been funny if he wasn’t afraid it would hurt Emma deeply. Her father’s face was set in a scowl, with deeply etched lines to prove that this was nothing new.

              Cole walked over to the porch steps and held his hand out. “Hello,” he said politely. “I’m Cole McKenna. It’s nice to meet you.”

              The distaste on Mrs. Carson’s face melted away, but his smile did nothing for Mr. Carson.  “Hello,” he said gruffly, shaking Cole’s hand in a quick, businesslike way. “I’m Philip Carson. My wife,” he said, with a vague gesture to his left, “Amanda Carson.”

              “It’s a pleasure,” Amanda said, holding her hand out, as well.

              “Come on in,” Cole said after he shook her hand. “I know Emma’s got a big dinner planned for all of us.”

              He allowed her folks to walk in ahead of him, and he saw Emma catch her breath in a nervous gesture he recognized from the early days of knowing her. It killed him a little to know she had once been that nervous of him. He walked in quickly as her parents took their seats and wrapped his arm around her tense shoulders. She glanced up at him.

              “What do you need me to do?” he asked.

              “Can you put the potatoes in a bowl?” she asked shyly.

              “Sure thing, sweetheart.”

              Once everything was in place, Cole pulled Emma down into a chair so she would stop fluttering nervously around.

              “So,” Emma said. “How was the trip?”

              “Awful,” her father answered, stabbing into his meatloaf roughly. “I’d forgotten how god-awful far away this place is from everything important.”

              Emma swallowed hard and Cole said, “You can’t have it all. If you want nice views and less pollution, you’ve got to give up twenty-four hour pizza joints.”

              “No, thank you,” Amanda said decisively. “Emma, I thought you packed up some decent clothes.”

              She’d raised her voice at the end of her statement, but it clearly wasn’t a question. Emma glanced down at herself and Cole followed her gaze. She was wearing one of the dresses she liked to put on once the ranch work was done. She’d bought them in town, saying she loved how soft the cotton was and how bright the colors were. The one she had on now was a pretty red, reminding him of the shirt she’d been wearing the day they met.

              “They don’t really work for daily life out here,” Emma said, but her voice sounded meek.

              “Besides that,” Cole said. “Why spend a lot of money on clothes when you’re as beautiful as Emma? She could wear anything.”

              Her face flushed in appreciation and somehow, they got through an extremely awkward meal. He knew her father’s questions were specifically designed to point out Emma’s flaws in ranching.

              “How much stock do you have?” he asked while finishing his meat loaf.

              “Eight horses,” Emma answered with a barely visible flinch.

              “And how many can you stable here again?”

              “Seventy five in the main barn,” she answered.

              When he began eating his side dishes, the beans and potatoes, he switched tack. “Did you manage the hay all alone?”

              “No,” Emma said proudly. “Cole and his brothers helped.”

              “It must have been an expensive wage. Or did they give you a discount because you’re neighbors?”

              “I didn’t...I didn’t pay them,” she admitted.

              “We were happy to help out,” Cole said, putting his hand on Emma’s knee. It was the wrong thing to do. Her father’s gaze cut into him and he realized that the man was insinuating Emma had offered a very different kind of “payment.” “We helped Hank out a lot over the years, too,” he informed her parents. “It wasn’t easy for him when he got older.”

              “Which is why my father should have sold the ranch back then.” Philip neatly folded up his napkin and pushed his plate away. “Emma--”

              “Does anyone want dessert?” Emma cut in desperately. “I made an apple pie.”

              “Emma,” her father went on inexorably. “This is foolish and we all know it. Eight horses? No help with the haying? No knowledge of everything you need to do to run this place? You think this is a good way to respect your grandfather’s legacy? By running his ranch into the ground?”

              “I...” Emma stammered. “I don’t think that I am running Raven Branch into the ground. I--”

              “Look around you,” Philip said. “This is a foolish, childish dream. You don’t have the expertise.”

              “That’s true,” Cole said, breaking into the conversation suddenly. Emma looked at him in shock.

              “Cole,” she whispered, looking incredibly hurt.