Raising Kane (Rough Riders #9)(10)

She threw herself at him.


“Eliza, did you sweet-talk your daddy into lettin’ you help him today?”


“Sweet-talk.” Kade snorted. “She browbeat me. Up at the crack of nothin’ waitin’ by the damn door for me this mornin’ and she wouldn’t take no for an answer.”


“A stubborn McKay child. Imagine that.” Kane whispered, “That’s my girl. What’s up?”


“Me’n Grammy baked cookies today! With rainbow sprinkles and we bringed you some, ’cause Grammy said it’s a shame you don’t got a woman to bake sweets for you.”


Kane exchanged a look with his brother. Then he smooched Eliza’s forehead. “I don’t need a woman when I have you. Come on. You can help me feed Shep. He’s probably mighty lonesome out in the barn.”


“Why’s he in the barn? Was he bad?”


He laughed. “No, I’m helpin’ out Hayden’s mama for a few days and Shep can’t come with me.”


“But why not?”


“Because he can’t sleep in Ginger’s house and they don’t have a barn. He’ll be better off here.”


Her enormous blue eyes pooled with tears. “Oh no. Poor Shep’s all alone?”


Ah hell, he’d done it now. His softhearted, hardheaded niece constantly dragged home injured critters—birds, frogs, turtles, feral cats. “He’ll be fine, Eliza.”


“I wanna see for myself,” she harrumphed, exactly like her mother, and marched to the barn.


Kade sighed. “Thanks a lot. She ain’t gonna leave here without Shep. That girl, I swear I’m gonna have a zoo instead of a ranch.”


“A llama, a goat, two sheep, chickens, cats, dogs and horses… Yep, as soon as Eliza Belle convinces you to buy an ostrich you can rename the place McKay’s Menagerie.”


“Fuck off.”


Kane laughed. “You love it. Although the inside of your house is as much of a zoo as the outside.”


“True. I swear all three girls talk at the same time, from the moment I pick them up until we tuck them in bed.”


Between Eliza and fraternal twins Peyton and Shannie, Kade and Sky definitely had their hands full.


“You ain’t really complainin’.”


“That’s also true.”


“If Eliza wants to babysit Shep for a couple of days, I’d appreciate it. That way I won’t worry about him.”


Eliza and Shep loped out of the barn. Kane bent down and ruffled the dog’s ears. “What do you say, Shep? Wanna stay with Miz Eliza for a couple days?”


Shep wagged his tail.


“Yay!”


Kane looked at Kade. “Got time for a beer before you head back?”


“Just one.”


Once they were inside, Eliza made herself at home. She shed her coat, the Hello Kitty snow boots Kane had bought her for Christmas, and opened the kitchen cupboard where Kane kept the dog food. She chattered away while Shep chowed down.


Kane handed his brother a beer.


Kade twisted the cap off the beer, took a long pull and looked at Kane suspiciously. “So, what’s really goin’ on with you and Ginger Paulson?”


“Nothin’.” Kane flicked the metal beer cap into the garbage can. “She fell down her office stairs.


Ended up with her arm in a sling, her lower leg in a cast and she’s got no one else to help her out, so I volunteered.”


“Why?”


Because I am crazy about her. “Just bein’ a good neighbor.”


Kade waggled the beer bottle at him. “Bullshit. I know you, bro. Need I remind you what happened with Brandi?”


“Christ. No. It ain’t the same. Not at all.” Brandi, the mother who’d been so desperate to hook him, had shown up at his trailer late one night. She’d removed her trench coat to reveal her naked body beneath it. Things had gone downhill when he’d learned she’d left her six-year-old son home alone so she could strip for him. He hadn’t exactly been nice to her, requesting reassignment, and she’d caused problems for him.



“You’ve no interest in Ginger at all?”


Lie. Lie through your damn teeth, fool.


But Kane couldn’t snow his brother. “There’s interest. And sparks. But I don’t wanna do anything to jeopardize my relationship with Hayden.” He swigged his beer. “Ginger is a temptation that I’ve resisted.”


So far.


“And yet, you willingly put yourself in close quarters with her?”


“Yeah, I ain’t exactly the brightest crayon in the box, am I?”


Mouth tight, jaw set, Kade stared at him.


“Jesus. What?”


“Is that part of it? You think she’s smarter than you?”


“Think?” Kane repeated. “I know it. I barely graduated from high school, remember?”


“So? I don’t think she gives a shit what grade you got in world history.”