Gone Country (28 page)

Rielle glanced up. “A, I’m not knitting. B, I’m not mad at you. How you handle your family business is your business, not mine.”

“Meaning I fucked up with Vi today.”

“No, meaning I don’t want to get involved. I’ve been neighbors with the McKays for years, and that hasn’t always been easy, but I won’t jeopardize that because I’ll still be neighbors with them when I build my new place.”

That reminder angered him. “So you have no opinion?”

“If I did I’d keep it to myself. Look, we’re roommates and lovers. It’s not my place to offer you advice or suggestions on how to deal with your family or to play referee when things don’t go your way.”

His mouth flattened. “Thanks for letting me know where I stand with you.”

“Huh-uh. You
don’t
get to get pissy with me. I like you. I like spending time with you, naked or not.”

“But?”

“No buts. We agreed to continue to lead our separate lives. We agreed that if we each had free time, we’d try and spend it together.”

Gavin stood and started unbuttoning his shirt. “Fine. I’m free right now. Let’s fuck.”

“Don’t be a jackass.”

“What’s the problem? Didn’t you just tell me this is all we are? Fuck buddies? So come on.”

She’d never seen this side of him and she didn’t like it. “Not interested. Now get out of my room.”

His shirt fell open. “Oh, so you can proposition me, like you did upstairs three hours ago? But I can’t proposition you?”

“
Let’s fuck
is not a proposition. It’s a demand, said in anger, just to be a dick.” She tossed the yarn winder aside. “Know what? I don’t have to put up with this shit. Get out.”

“Why? This approach has worked for you in the past. No pretty words, no foreplay, just ripping our clothes off and fucking on the floor like animals. What’s different now, Rielle?”

“You’re different now. And fuck you for coming in here and taking out your shitty day on me. And double fuck you for taking something that’s good between us and twisting it into something ugly.”

The stark realization of how asinine he’d acted hit him. “God. Rielle. I’m sorry—”

When he moved toward her, she recoiled. “Get out.”

“Can’t we talk…?”

She vehemently shook her head. “It’s best if we take a break. I’m leaving for Laramie tomorrow to see Rory anyway.”

“You are? Since when?”

When she didn’t respond, he sighed.

“All right. Please drive safe and I’ll see you when you get home.” He walked out and quietly shut the door.

After living in each other’s pockets for the last couple months, a cooling off period would do them both good.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Gavin hung over the top of the wooden corral, watching Quinn drive cows into a semi-truck as Dalton and Tell pushed the cattle into the loading chute. Ben was on horseback culling from the corralled herd, while Brandt—also on horseback—chased down the runaways and drove them back to the penned area.

He’d been surprised when Charlie had called, inviting him to watch them loading cattle to take to auction. He’d been curious about how the auction process worked differently than sending cattle to a feedlot.

With temps in the low teens and the gray skies spitting snow, he bundled up, figuring this weather wouldn’t faze hardcore ranchers like the McKays.

But Gavin also wondered if Charlie had issued the invite to chastise Gavin for the argument he’d had with Vi. An argument they hadn’t resolved.

During a lull in the action, Quinn wandered over to the corral. The man was sweating despite the frigid air temp. “Dad, I might need a hand in a bit.”

“No problem.”

Quinn flashed Gavin one of his rare grins. “Ever ridden in a fully loaded cattle truck?”

“No. Why?”

“Because I need someone to ride with me. And since the old man is retired, he’s no help, sitting at home with his feet propped on the coffee table having Mom wait on him.”

“I done my share of cattle sale runs, boy.”

“I’ll be back from the sale barn tonight?”

“Yep, but it’ll be late. And the weather and road conditions are flat out gonna suck.” Quinn crossed his arms over his chest as if expecting Gavin to refuse. “You up for it?”

“Sure. Do I have to help unload cattle?”

“Nope. Ben and Tell will be in the truck behind us.”

“Damn. I was hoping I’d get my own cattle prod.”

“Somehow I knew you’d say that.” Quinn wandered back to his post when Dalton yelled for him.

“So it looks like all the McKays help each other throughout the year?” Gavin asked Charlie.

“Carson has enough hands with his boys that he hasn’t needed much help. Same with Cal’s twins. None of them wanted to deal with Casper so he made his boys do everything on their own. Same with me’n Quinn and Ben and Chase if he was around. Brandt, Tell and Dalton increased the size of their herd and bought more land after Luke died so Quinn and Ben have been helping them and they help us.” He shrugged. “It works out.”

“Can I ask about the bad history between Casper and your brothers?”

Charlie remained quiet for so long Gavin suspected he was dodging the question. Then he scratched his chin with the back of his gloved hand. “I wish I could say there was some defining moment when it all fell apart, but it ain’t that simple. As twins, Carson and Calvin have always been two peas in a pod—no one was surprised when they married sisters.” A ghost of a smile appeared. “My dad wasn’t happy they were West sisters but that’s another story. Anyway, I think Casper had middle child syndrome. Dad had high expectations for his oldest boys and Mom doted on me as the youngest because I was a sickly kid. Casper got lost in the shuffle. He became a wild man and took hell raisin’ to a new level. Hard to look at him now and see it, but Casper had the type of good looks and charm the ladies loved.

“We were all shocked when he married Joan Tellman. I’ll admit I wasn’t a supportive brother to Casper then, because that was right around the time Vi moved away. I moped for a few months. Then I thought; screw it, I’m the last single McKay and I’m gonna cut loose. I screwed any woman who’d have me, figuring that’d erase Vi from my mind, but it never did.

“Then my dad had a heart attack. He recovered but couldn’t head up the ranch. He put my oldest brothers in charge, moved out of the ranch house, giving it to Carson and Carolyn—and we set him up in a trailer between Carson’s and Calvin’s place.”

“Wait a second. Were you living in the house with your dad when he had the heart attack?”

Charlie nodded. “I was the one who found him out in the yard. At first he refused to go to the hospital. Swore he’d rather die on McKay land. I called Casper and we got Dad loaded up and hauled to town.”

“He sounded like a tough old bird.”

“Oh, Jed McKay was an asshole or an angel, depending on your point of view and the day. Anyway, we’d just bought this place, a couple thousand acres on the far south end of McKay land with two houses. Casper and Joan claimed one place and I took the other. Around that time, Casper had turned into a raging asshole. Everything changed in the family dynamic because I felt that Dad and my brothers were punishing me, making
me
live by Casper.”

“Did Casper know you felt that way?”

“Probably. Another year passed and Dad had another heart attack. He couldn’t live by himself. Logically he should’ve moved in with Casper and Joan. But Dad refused and insisted on living with Cal and Kimi. Casper took it as Dad would rather live with a West family enemy than live with him. Made him even more bitter and I didn’t blame him. Meanwhile, we’re all workin’ the ranch and Carson is buying land up closer to where he lives. Ticked me and Casper off because we knew we’d never get to use those grazing areas and technically, the acreage belonged to us too. Then our neighbors the Burkes wanted out of Wyoming and didn’t offer the land to us first. Not only is that an unwritten western tradition, but the Burkes sold it to a couple from out of state.”

“The Wetzlers,” Gavin inserted.

“Yep. They were an odd lot. So I gotta be honest, even though it’s been a long time comin’, I’m happy the biggest chunk of that land is finally in McKay hands.” Charlie shot him a sideways glance. “So to speak.”

As much as the McKays had wanted that section and the discord it’d caused when he’d bought it, no one had approached Gavin on utilizing it. And he was such a greenhorn he had no idea how to offer it.

“For a few years me’n Casper worked together. That’s why I’m more tolerant with him than Carson or Cal. Then Vi returned to Wyoming. I hadn’t seen her in four years and I knew the reason I hadn’t found a woman to share my life with was because I was waiting for her to come back.”

Gavin didn’t know what to say. He wouldn’t have believed Charlie was capable of telling him something so intensely personal.

“Most people think they know what kind of woman Vi is. She’s bossy, nosy and opinionated. But that ain’t what I see. That ain’t who she is with me or to me. Back then or now.” Charlie scratched his chin again. “Probably TMI as Sierra would say, huh?”

He laughed softly.

“I know you and Vi had words, Gavin. Alls I’m gonna say is you need to figure out a way to deal with it and her because I hate to see my wife hurtin’.”

“Have you always been so protective of her?”

“Yep. Wasn’t your…”

Gavin watched the rancher struggle to ask about the man who raised him.

“Wasn’t Dan the same way?”

“My dad had a lot of great qualities. But being a protective husband wasn’t one of them.”

Charlie didn’t respond. He just kept focused on Quinn and Ben’s activities.

So Gavin kept talking. “He wasn’t faithful to my mother. As a kid I didn’t know. When I started working for him, I noticed he took long lunches. Wasn’t smart, but I followed him. He’d gone to some woman’s apartment. When I confronted him he told me all men cheat.”

“Bullshit,” Charlie spat. “I’ve been married to Vi thirty-eight years and not once, even when we hit rough patches, did I consider climbing into another woman’s bed. A man loves a woman, he loves her. Period. He cares for her and he protects her. Not because that’s his job but because he oughta want to.”

“I agree. It was a point of contention for us up until the day he died. His excuse, or explanation, or whatever, was that as long as he provided for my mother, she didn’t mind.”

“Did you believe that?”

“No. I saw it hurt her, but she never told him to stop. Never threatened to leave him.” Gavin poked at loose splinters on the wooden post. “When I found out my wife was cheating on me? I was more pissed off than hurt. I knew it wasn’t my goddamn fault that
she
cheated. My mom was the most vocal person in encouraging me to divorce her. She said cheaters don’t ever reform.”

“You were close to Grace?”

It didn’t escape his notice that Charlie didn’t refer to Grace and Dan as Gavin’s mom and dad. He obviously considered Gavin his son, not theirs, which was fucked up on a number of levels that neither of them had begun to address in the last two years. “Yes. Not to get off on a strange tangent, but my adoption was more her idea than his.”

Charlie looked at him sharply. “Why’s that?”

“My mom was forty and my dad was forty-eight when they adopted me. He was busy running his…affairs—” Charlie snorted, “—and having a baby gave her something to do. I never felt neglected or anything growing up—I had a great childhood—it’s just an observation I made after I had a child of my own and was so much more involved in raising her. Like I said, my dad had a lot of great qualities, but he wasn’t much of a family man.”

“Then in my opinion, he wasn’t much of a man,” Charlie said.

“Dad,” Quinn shouted, “I need that help now.”

Charlie slipped through the gate without another word.

Gavin wasn’t as bothered by the conversation as he feared he’d be. Charlie deserved to know what kind of father Dan Daniels had been to him. Not that Charlie could do anything about it and Gavin wasn’t looking for reassurance that Charlie would’ve raised him differently. The best thing Gavin had learned from his father was that he never wanted to be that type of father to his own child. And maybe some small part of Gavin wanted Charlie to know he was more like him.

He noticed when Charlie spoke to his sons and nephews, they listened. He remembered being so rapt with his father, hoarding his pearls of wisdom. Thinking the man could do no wrong. After learning his dad had continually cheated on his mother, Gavin wondered if he cheated in business too—which led Gavin to diversify the business after he’d inherited it.

Once the semi was loaded and closed up, Quinn parked it down the road and backed up the other semi-trailer to the loading chute. Took less time to load cattle into the second one than the first.

Quinn motioned him over. “You’re riding shotgun. Ben and Tell are ready to roll.”

Gavin looked over to see if Charlie wanted to speak to him before he left, but he was helping Dalton with the horses.

Maybe they’d said everything they needed to say.