Kissin' Tell: Rough Riders, Book 13 (46 page)

“You were havin’ some sort of gang bang in a motel in Hulett, where you were the bang-ee. Rumor says you had thirteen women with you, and you fucked every single one while the other women watched.”

He rolled his eyes. “Christ. No wonder the McKays have such a bad reputation for bein’ man-whores with a taste for multiple partners. Not that them rumors weren’t partially based on fact. But the facts get distorted. Big-time. Yes, I was with some women in a motel room. But it sure as fuck wasn’t thirteen. It was only three.”

“Only?” Tell repeated.

“This is gonna sound really weird, but two of the chicks were lesbians.”

“And the third?”

“The woman I’d been seein’. Willa.”

Tell frowned. “This is the first time you’ve mentioned her.”

Dalton focused on digging a rock out of the dirt with the toe of his boot. “That’s because I ain’t exactly proud of her. I met her and her friends in a strip club. That right there shoulda been my tip-off they liked T and A a little too much. Willa had just gotten out of a relationship and was lookin’ to have some fun. Right up my alley. She pitched this foursome idea to me. The horny bastard that I am, I agreed.

“It was fuckin’ bizarre, bro. After I was with each one of them, then they were with each other. Doin’ stuff I ain’t ever seen even in porn. And then it was like I wasn’t even in the room. Willa dumped me Saturday night. I shoulda let it go but I didn’t. That’s when she told me she was goin’ back to her ex. Her ex-girlfriend.”

“No,” Tell breathed.

“Yep. Evidently I’m so fuckin’ bad in bed that I can turn a woman back into bein’ gay.”

“Come on. You don’t really believe that.”

He kicked a clump of clover. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.
And as long as I’m confessing shit, you oughta know… I had a pretty good lyin’ streak goin’ there over the years about how many chicks I banged. Pretending to be a McKay stud who knew everything about sex backfired on me big-time. I ain’t gonna go into details about what happened, ’cause it’s the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done and I have been forgiven by the person involved. In the meantime, I’ve been tryin’ to get all the sexual experience I’d been pretending to have. Which is how I ended up doin’ it with three lesbians. I should just stick to poker. I’m one helluva lot luckier in cards than I am in love.”

Seeing his little brother so dejected and his face so red from embarrassment, Tell attempted to lighten the mood. “So Dalton and three lesbians walk into a strip club…”

Dalton said, “Fuck you,” but he smiled. “That brings me to the next point. I was at the Golden Boot Saturday night. Georgia saw me make a drunken idiot of myself and she took my keys.”

“You were gonna drive?”

“I guess. She took me to her place to sleep it off.” Dalton looked him in the eye. “I take back the shitty things I said about her. She didn’t have to help me; she coulda let me sleep it off in my truck. But takin’ in a stupid cowboy like me showed her generous nature. That’s not the type of thing a user does. She’s sweet and fierce and smart and loyal. She is something special.”

Don’t I know it.

“You’re a lucky guy, bro. She’s perfect for you.”

“Did she say anything about me?”

“Just that you’re the greatest guy she’s ever known. She seemed sorta sad. Did I miss something? Why weren’t you guys together Saturday night after the rodeo?”

“No. We had a big blow-up when I found out she never intended to stay here permanently.”

Dalton raised his eyebrows. “You’re just gonna let her go?”

“It’s not like I’ve got a choice.”

“Bullshit. Don’t be a dumb-ass, Tell. Convince her to stay. Wow her with some of that McKay mojo I’m lacking.”

He snorted. “Right. Like that’ll work.”

“Then maybe you oughta tell her the truth.”

“Which is?”

“Christ. You’re really gonna make me say it? Tell her that you love her and can’t live without her.”

It couldn’t be that simple. Could it?

It was worth a shot.

Tell grinned at his brother. “Thanks, bro. You know, you’ve got a romantic streak. There may be hope for you yet. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m goin’ to get my woman.”

Tell cleaned up and dressed in better clothing than he normally wore on a Monday afternoon. On the drive into town, he cautioned himself not to ask what the hell she’d been doing whoopin’ it up in the bar after the shit that’d gone down between them at the rodeo Saturday afternoon. He composed snappy comebacks—a mix of charm, snark and wit. Then he practiced keeping his face a blank mask when he imagining her saying
it was a fling, I’m returning to Dallas and never coming back,
but he knew he’d never pull it off because he’d be crushed beyond repair if she left
.

So what would he do to get her to stay?

What would it take for him to follow her?

He’d never considered that option. Could he seriously pull up stakes and leave his family and everything he’d ever known? Just to be with a woman?

Yes. If that woman was Georgia.

Whoa there. Before he started packing his shit and looking for cowhand jobs in Texas, he’d better find out if that was something Georgia wanted.

Tell fought a massive wave of anxiety as he knocked.

The door swung open and Georgia froze.

His heart began that slow, sad tumble to his feet until Georgia threw herself into his arms and squeezed him so tightly his heart stopped beating entirely. “Cowboy hottie, I am so happy to see you. If you wouldn’t have come to me today, I was gonna drive out to your place.”

“That right?”

“Yes.” Georgia tugged him into the living room and shoved him on the couch. “I didn’t call you because I had some important things to deal with first, not because I was waiting to hear from you first. We’re beyond that behavior, aren’t we?” She perched on the edge of the coffee table, facing him.

“I hope so. What’s goin’ on?”

“I know we need to talk about a lot of stuff. But before we get all this out in the open, I have to ask you one thing.” Her eyes searched his. “Did you mean it when you told Deck that you wanted me for keeps?”

With all my heart. With everything I am
. “Yep.”

“You sure? This thing with us was supposed to be a fun diversion with some smokin’ hot sex thrown in and it turned into so much more than that. I don’t think either of us was prepared for how fast everything changed. Although it’s pretty obvious it never was casual. It’s always been something special between us. Something I’ve never felt.”

Georgia was babbling? He put his hands on her cheeks. “Sweetness. Calm down. And if you’re sayin’ what I think you’re sayin’, well, I need to hear every word. Loud and clear.”

She blurted out, “I love you.”

There was that falling sensation again. “Run that by me one more time.”

“I love you. I love you so much it scares me.”

“Why does it scare you?”

“After RJ died, I closed myself off from all relationships. I couldn’t lose anyone else I cared about if I didn’t bother to care about anyone—a friend or a lover.

“I’ve needed to deal with this for a long time. It’s not surprising it came full circle in Sundance. When I was forced to take this job, I swore I’d come back here, exorcise my demons and move on. Then I got involved with you. You changed everything. You challenged me. You accepted me. You freed me.”

He had to breathe slowly, steadily, because the roaring in his ears threatened to drown out the sound of her words.

“I only just realized I’m tired of blaming everything that’s wrong with my life on someone else. On my early, crappy marriage to Deck. On RJ dying. On my parents splitting up. On the way my dad grieved. On my job. Over the last day, it’s become obvious I need to take responsibility for myself and my own happiness and live my life on my terms.

“The God’s honest truth is you make me happy. Happier than I’ve ever been in my life. And isn’t that feeling worth something when making a life-changing decision? Shouldn’t that feeling of happiness determine
everything
? Yes. So I quit my job yesterday.”

His voice was barely above a whisper when he asked, “Are you sure that’s what you want?”

“Yes. So my decision to give up my life in Dallas to be with you here in Sundance is not politically correct. I’m supposed to believe I don’t need a man to make me happy. But you know what? That’s crap. That’s me listening to other people’s opinions instead of listening to my heart. My heart is telling me to stay here with you, Tell McKay. My heart loves you. I love you. I love everything about you.

“I can’t imagine anything better than waking up with you every morning. I love how much you make me laugh. I love how you’ve taught me how to have fun. I love how you’ve shown me what a sense of community means. What friendships mean. I love how you understand family issues and don’t believe everything has to have a quick fix. I hate that we’ve both dealt with sadness and loss, but I love I have you to talk to about it. You accept it all. Every part of me.”

If Tell’s mouth weren’t so damn dry and his heart weren’t beating a million miles an hour, he might have thought he was actually dreaming.

“I’ve had so many choices made for me throughout my life. This time I’m taking a stand and making my own choice. This time I’m choosing you.”

As calm as he appeared on the outside, on the inside his inner teenage boy was yelling,
In your face, suckas, this girl is mine!

She blushed and fiddled with the collar of his shirt. “So, ah, please don’t tell me you were coming here to break up with me or something.”

He laughed. He laughed until he cried. Or maybe he was crying because this woman had just made him the happiest man alive. He brought her close enough to stare into her eyes and feel her stuttered breath on his lips. “I’m not breaking up with you, but you should understand that I’m not good at this because I’ve never said it before.”

“Tell, you don’t have to—”

“Yes, I do. I love you, Georgia. I’ve come to some of those same realizations too. I wanna be with you so much that I was ready to move to Dallas if that’s what it’d take for us to be together.”

“You’d do that?”

“In a fuckin’ heartbeat. I want a lifetime with you. Marriage, babies, havin’ our family and friends over for dinner, goin’ out on the town, planting a garden and sinking our roots in deep. I’ve seen my cousins so happy, and they’ve each built their own family. I’ve wanted that for myself, but I didn’t think it was possible until you. You make me feel so much. Make me feel things I’ve never felt before. And yes, it’s scary as hell for me too.”

They stared at each other.

She grinned and said, “Wow. That’s some grown-up stuff.”

“Yeah. Mushy stuff too.” He kissed her fingertips. “I love everything about you. I love that you get everything about me, and apparently you still love me anyway.”

She laughed softly.

“You make me happy, Georgia. And I will spend the rest of my life makin’ sure you don’t regret choosing me.”

“I already don’t have any regrets.” She kissed him with passion, heart and fire; he sucked it down like a narcotic. Drugged on the taste of her, the feel of her, this woman who loved him.

He broke the kiss to murmur, “And don’t take this wrong, but you don’t hafta get a job right away if you don’t want to. I’ll support you.”

“See how sweet you are?” She nipped his chin. “Thank you. I appreciate it, but I’ve got a few offers.”

“Already?”

“Leah and Roxanne have offered me a job at the beauty shop. Stephanie said she’d hire me to organize her filing system. Domini mentioned they’re always shorthanded at Dewey’s, so I could probably wait tables. At the fundraiser, the cheerleading coach said there was an assistant cheer coach’s job for me at the school if I wanted it. And the Sundance Chamber of Commerce might be looking for a part-time PR person. So I’ve got options. The job doesn’t matter as long as I get to come home to you every night.”

“Well, now that you mention it, I was sorta kicking around the idea of takin’ on a roommate.”

“That right?”

“Uh-huh. But it’s gotta be someone special. A woman who doesn’t care that I’m gonna be a rancher the rest of my life. A woman who is okay with me judging the occasional rodeo. A woman who knows I can’t cook. A woman who understands that once she moves in, she ain’t ever movin’ out. A woman who knows that I’ll love her and cherish her and protect her every day of her life. That this is for keeps.”

Georgia’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m so ready to sign on the dotted line for that.”

“And ain’t it lucky I just happen to have a pen?”

She laughed. “God. I love you, Tell McKay. My very own cowboy hottie. I will take you up on your roommate offer, if it includes trampoline and zip-line privileges.”

“Absolutely.”

“I have to go to Dallas and load up my stuff and cancel the lease on my condo, but that should only take a couple of days.”

“I’m goin’ with you.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Really?”

“I sure as hell ain’t gonna let you drive across the damn country by yourself dragging a U-Haul. You’ll need help loading your stuff. And I wanna see where you lived and worked because that’s part of who you are.”