One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas #3)(65)

“Well, Rhett O’Donnell, looks like you belong to me for the ice cream supper and Sunday dinner tomorrow. I hear that you really like steak, so that’s what we’re having on Wild Horse Ranch tomorrow. The whole family will be there to meet you. Who knows? Maybe we’ll show you a better life than Fiddle Creek.” She smiled up at him. “Let’s go on back now. I know a route that’s gentle on the feet. Maybe I’ll even get the prize for bringing in the first catch.”

“And that would be?”

“The look on Leah’s face when she comes in empty-handed. Or better yet, when Tanner catches her.”

“You put those stickers in the path, didn’t you?” he said.

“All is fair in wars, feuds, and the Sadie Hawkins race.” She laughed. “Now come on, darlin’, we’re takin’ a shortcut back to the store.”

“But I’ve got to warn Leah,” he said.

“Sweetheart”—Betsy smiled at him—“there won’t be a single sticker on the path by the time she gets to that spot.”

“You are mean,” Rhett said.

“Like I said, all’s fair.” She laughed again.

*

Leah kept on the path in a slow, steady jog until she saw the barn. Then she slowed to a walk and shaded her eyes with her hands, but she couldn’t see any sign of Rhett. That meant he was already there, waiting on her.

“Not giving up on me.” She smiled.

He was everything she’d ever wanted in a man, and if their relationship got her thrown off River Bend, well then, so be it. She wasn’t going to live like her father had the past twenty-five years. No, sir, she’d found the right man, and he was a fine person.

Who are you trying to convince? Yourself or your family? the voice in her head asked, which reminded her of the Chris Young song about hearing voices all the time. Maybe Eve had always been there, waiting for the right time to give her the strength to get out of this damn feud.

She noticed a single wild daisy blooming beside the path and stopped long enough to pick it. She tucked it behind her ear as she covered the last hundred yards to the barn where Rhett waited for her. Would he be in the loft? Her skin went all tingly at that idea, and she started jogging again. The barn was dark and smelled like fresh hay. It was eerily quiet as she stood inside the shadows and let her eyes adjust to coming in out of the hot, broiling August sun.

“Rhett?” she whispered.

Nothing.

He should have been there, but maybe he’d had to alter his plans to outrun someone and was behind her. She turned around and looked out over the landscape. No Rhett, and the way her stomach had twisted up into a pretzel, her gut was telling her something was wrong. She went back inside and sat down on a hay bale to wait for him. If she couldn’t have him, she damn sure didn’t want anyone else, and the barn was a fine hiding place.

Someone slipped their hands over her eyes, and she smiled. After she kissed him, she fully intended to read him the riot act for scaring her.

“Keep your eyes shut.” He whipped the cuffs out of her pocket, snapped them on his wrist, and then on hers.

“Can I open them now?” she whispered.

He sat down beside her, their hands brushing together. “You sure can, Leah.”

She had already moistened her lips for the kiss, and her eyes were half-open when she realized that Tanner Gallagher was sitting beside her, his bare feet propped up on a bale in front of them.

“Congratulations, you caught me,” he said.

She rubbed her eyes with her free hand. Surely she was seeing things. Maybe she’d even had a heatstroke.

She gasped. “You cheated.”

“All is fair in the Sadie Hawkins race. Besides, if you yell that I cheated, who will believe you? Why in the hell would a Gallagher rope himself to a Brennan on purpose?”

“Tanner, please don’t do this,” she begged.

He held up his hand. “Too late. We’re together until after dinner tomorrow. Are we going to River Bend?”

“Hell no! Granny would roll you in honey and cornflakes and feed you to her new hogs. I don’t like you, but I don’t want to see the hogs eat you.”

“I’ve never heard you cuss, Leah Brennan.”

“You don’t know me,” she said.

“Then I’ll get to know you on the way back to the church for the ice cream supper.”

“How did you know I’d come to the barn?”

“Nothing is a secret in Burnt Boot. Betsy overheard someone talking about having seen y’all driving this way and then walking around the end of the store. She figured your plan out and told me. I’ve got a confession.”

“I’m not a priest,” she smarted off.

“Betsy put stickers on the path, and she’s already cuffed Rhett. And, darlin’, I like this new Leah with the sass better than the old one. But that’s not my real confession. It’s that when this started, it really was all Granny’s idea. She knows you’re being groomed to run River Bend like Betsy has been raised up to do at Wild Creek. After that shit storm on both sides, she decided if she could steal you, it would hurt Mavis worse than anything she could do.”

He stood up, and Leah had no choice but to follow him. “And?”

“It was a game until a few days ago, and I figured out that I really do like you. So say good-bye to Rhett. You’re going to be mine when it’s all said and done. I get what I want, and I want you.” He chuckled.