Gone Country (14 page)

That was pretty…intimate stuff to share.

Carolyn chuckled. “My wild-child daughter loves to shock her father, her brothers and her cousins with that type of information, so I thought I’d forewarn you.”

“Good to know. If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to find my daughter.”

He walked past the guest bath and saw two boys filling squirt guns. He shook his head. “Take ’em outside.”

“Told ya, Gib.”

Gib. Colby’s oldest. Since the boy in the mirror looked nearly identical, they had to be brothers. When another, smaller boy leaped out from behind the shower curtain with a loud, “Rawr!” Gavin jumped.

The boys broke into bouts of gut-holding laughter.

Then Gavin heard Sierra’s laugh and he spied her at the end of the hallway chatting with Keely. He did a double take. Seeing them standing so close together the family resemblance was a little spooky. Same height, same dark hair, same build. Same sort of scheming smile.

Lord help him. So far boys hadn’t started sniffing around his daughter, which made him wonder what the hell was wrong with boys these days because she was a beautiful girl; yet, he was damn happy she wasn’t boy crazy like so many girls her age.

“Hey, sweetheart, did you forget you were my co-pilot for tonight’s festivities?”

“It looked like everyone had gone through the food line.”

“Vi is in the kitchen restocking everything. Go help her.”

Sierra sighed. “Fine. See ya, Keely.”

As soon as Sierra was out of sight, Keely said, “Shit. That was close.” She opened the door to the spare bedroom and her husband Jack leaned against the wall just inside the doorway.

Jack’s hair was a mess, his shirt was unbuttoned, his belt was buckled but his fly was undone. And he didn’t seem a bit concerned that Gavin saw his state of undress.

“Sorry.” She gave Gavin a sheepish look. “We, um,
borrowed
your room for a few minutes. Sierra was coming out of that room the same time I came out of this one. So I thought it’d be best if Jack stayed hidden.”

So they had snuck off for a quickie. In the midst of all this chaos? In a house filled with family members?

Yeah, Gavin planned to keep Sierra far, far away from Keely.

Keely was already focused on Jack, smoothing the wrinkles from his shirt. “GQ, we have to straighten you up before you go out there. You look like you’ve been rolling around in bed.”

“Or more accurately, on the floor.” Jack made a low noise and wrapped his hand around the back of Keely’s neck, pulling her closer. “Since I’m half-dressed…it’s your wifely duty to get back in here and make sure I don’t miss any buttons.”

“But we already—”

“That one was for you. This one? For me.” She squeaked when he tugged her into the room.

The last thing Gavin heard: “Lock the damn door, cowgirl.”

At least someone was getting laid in this place.

He shot a look at Rielle’s closed door. He knocked. No answer. He started back down the hallway. When he reached the entryway, Quinn walked in through the front door.

“Hey. I wondered what happened to you.”

“Just enjoying the fresh air. You look like you could use some.” Quinn smiled. “Dad—Charlie—is outside. I was getting him a beer.”

“I’ll take it to him.”

Quinn reached into the cooler and pulled out a Miller Lite. “Have at. Better see if Libby needs my help with the kids anyway.”

Gavin grabbed another beer and stepped onto the porch. He took a second to breathe in the cool night air and take in the blessed quiet. He saw Charlie sitting on the steps and walked over, dropping beside him. “Miller Lite, right?”

“Gavin.” Charlie didn’t hide his surprise. “Wasn’t expecting you.” He quickly added, “But I’m glad you have time for a beer.”

“I needed a break. I left the kitchen in Vi’s capable hands.”

Charlie twisted the top on his beer bottle. “She’s in her element. Thanks for asking her to help. It means more than you know.”

“Help? Hell, it was her idea.”

He chuckled. “I ain’t surprised to hear that. So how’re the West boys comin’ with the garage? I couldn’t see much of it in the dark tonight.”

“They do great work, but they had to stop for several weeks and finish another project. It’s almost done. You should swing by during the day and check it out. They don’t mind having people around.”

“I’ll do that. I guess my question is do you mind havin’ me around?”

Gavin released a slow breath. “I’ll admit even after being here a while I don’t know how this living close to family thing works. What are the parameters? Do you just drop by Quinn and Libby’s? And Ben and Ainsley’s?”

“We used to. Not so much anymore. We call first.” He took another pull off his beer. “Vi…God love the woman, but she overstepped her bounds with Quinn and Libby from the moment they got married. Things went south for them for a while and they ended up mending fences. Quinn warned his mom to butt out. Then she made a pledge to all the boys she wouldn’t try to control them, or guilt them, or nag them. And she’s even stuck with that promise—for the most part.”

“I remember the first time I showed up here and Vi said that situation with Quinn and Libby was a wakeup call for her?”

He nodded. “Vi had one of those moments where every damn thing you’ve done wrong just smacks you square in the face. That’s when she finally told me about you.”

Gavin didn’t have the balls to ask if Charlie felt what Vi had done—giving him up for adoption—was wrong. Because one thing he’d noticed about Charlie? The man had fierce loyalty. If he disagreed with his wife, he never said so in public. He held Vi in the highest regard. Whereas Gavin’s father, Dan, was the complete opposite. While a shrewd businessman, he made a lousy husband, and Gavin’s mother had turned a blind eye to her husband’s many affairs.

“I ain’t gonna pretend I wasn’t mad. I was mad as hell. And don’t take this the wrong way, but my anger was directed at her—not that she’d given a baby up for adoption, but that it’d taken her so damn long to tell me about it.”

“Would it have made a difference if she’d told you ten years earlier? Twenty years earlier?”

“I can’t answer that. Sweet baby Jesus her father was a mean bastard, so I never doubted for a second that shaming her into an unwed mother’s home was solely his doing.” Charlie tipped his bottle up and drank. “I argued with her for even wanting to name our second son Bennett because I didn’t want anything to do with that SOB.” He sighed. “Sorry. I’ve started doin’ that old man rambling thing. I’m sure this had a point, but I’ll be damned if I remember what it was.”

“I asked about your family policy on drop-ins.”

“Ah. Policy. Well, remember that I ranched with Quinn and Ben, so we were at each other’s places every day. Chase hasn’t lived around here for any length of time since he started ridin’ bulls. This thing with you…is a new situation for us. We don’t wanna crowd you, but you oughta know that we both consider it nothin’ short of a miracle that you’re even here, livin’ a few miles up the road from us. It’s more than we ever had hoped for.”

“I fear the reality won’t match up to the hype.”

“You mean living in Wyoming? Or living around family?”

Both. Neither. “I don’t know what I mean. I appear to be rambling too.” He changed the subject. “The driving lessons with Sierra are going well?”

Charlie smiled. “I’ll admit it’s a lot different teaching a girl to drive. I don’t recall that I ever taught the boys much. They just seemed to know it. She’s eager to learn, that’s for damn sure.”

“She listens to you?”

“Mostly. The girl does ask a lot of questions. And she likes to talk.”

“Bet that’s a different experience.”

Charlie looked at him. “’Cause Quinn is quiet?”

“Ben is too, for the most part, unless it’s one on one.”

“Guess we all feel there’s no reason to waste air sayin’ something that don’t need to be said.”

The door slammed and half a dozen kids raced out.

Adam climbed onto Charlie’s lap. “Bet your daddy doesn’t know you’re out here.” Charlie looked at Gavin. “This boy wears his shoes out he’s constantly on the go, aren’t you, buddy?”

“Gampa, I hungry.”

“Grama’s probably got some cookies with your name on ’em, though I suspect your mama would rather have you eatin’ carrots.”

“Cookies!”

The door slammed again and Quinn clomped down the steps. “Adam, what’d I tell you about running off?”

The boy started to cry and wouldn’t let go of Charlie.

Gavin took that as his cue to leave. He was completely off balance anyway, in unfamiliar territory on so many levels. He needed something familiar to hold onto. And Rielle was the first thing that came to mind.

Where the devil was she? He hadn’t seen her for at least an hour. No one waylaid him when he checked her room. No sign of her. He scoped out the ladies sitting and chatting in the great room. She wasn’t here either.

Ainsley was in conversation with Libby so Rielle hadn’t snuck off with her partner in crime for a drink. She wasn’t helping Vi and Sierra in the kitchen, although it must’ve driven her crazy leaving it to chaos.

Chaos. As someone used to solitude, she’d want to go someplace quiet.

He snuck up the back stairs and opened the door to his bedroom. Everything in him settled, seeing her silhouette against the French door.

Chapter Thirteen

“Rielle?”

She whirled around guiltily. She hadn’t heard Gavin enter. Right. She couldn’t hear anything over the pounding in her head. “Oh. Ah. Hey. Bet you’re wondering what I’m doing in your bedroom.”

Gavin shut the door and silently leaned against it.

“I’m sorry. There were just too many people. Too many kids. My God, what is it with the McKays? Are the women who married into the family having a contest to see who can pop out the most babies? And didn’t it seem like all the babies were screaming at one time? Guess what, they were. I timed it. There was a two minute window when no kids were yelling. Two minutes. That’s all. In the last two hours. So naturally a pause in the collective noise pollution was a signal for the adults to get louder. Laughing and chatting like they hadn’t seen each other in years, when I’m pretty sure they have some kind of crazy McKay gossip fest every couple of weeks.

“Then there were all these toddlers and school age kids running around. Climbing on the furniture like monkeys. Did the parents make the older kids go outside? No. They let those adorable, monstrous children race up and down my hallways. Up and down my stairs. Around and around my dining room table like it was a race track. All the while these kids were dropping potato chips and fruit and spilling ranch dressing on the rugs. I tried to stay out of the way and embrace the
kids will be kids
philosophy, but I wanted to run screaming out of my own damn house. But I couldn’t. So I came to the one place that’s always been my refuge.

“But when I got up here, I realized, this place no longer is mine. This is your private space and I’m sorry I violated it. But where am I supposed to go? So I stayed because I just needed a minute to breathe.”

Rielle placed her hands on her cheeks. Her skin was on fire. Or maybe she was having a hot flash. Better that than a panic attack. She vaguely remembered her parent’s advice about breathing techniques and visualization exercises to calm down.

Why the fuck couldn’t she remember how to calm the fuck down?

Her heart galloped and her pulse throbbed…maybe she was having a heart attack.

She grabbed the bottle of whiskey off the dresser and swallowed two huge mouthfuls before she set it back down.

That didn’t help. It just increased her feeling of burning up from the inside out.

Hot. Too hot. On fire. Can’t breathe. Skin is suffocating. Must get out of my clothes so I can get air to my skin…

Rielle unbuttoned the top two buttons on the sheer white blouse and pulled it over her head, leaving her in a floral patterned camisole and a gauzy skirt that hit below her knee.

She waited for a sense of relief to settle in.

Nada.

I need to take all my clothes off. Nothing constricting my skin.

When her fingers curled around the bottom band of the cami and she started to pull it up her torso, a hoarse male voice barked, “Jesus, Ree. Stop.”

She froze and glanced at Gavin, still plastered to the door.

Oh. My. God. In her panicked state of mind she’d started to strip in front of him; she’d forgotten he was even there. What must he think of her? Some crazy woman muttering and ripping off her clothes, sucking down his high-end booze after hijacking his bedroom to have a mental breakdown.

That’s when she started to hyperventilate for real.

Spots danced in front of her eyes and she swayed.

“Shit.” Then Gavin was right in her face, holding her upright. “Are you okay?”

She couldn’t speak.

“Rielle! Talk to me.”

“Too. Hot,” came out whisper thin.

He shook her a little. “Goddammit, what is going on?”