Into The Sunset: An Erotic Romance Anthology (3 page)

Rex said the only word he could,
“Perfect.”

He expected Tad up early the next day, ready
to go, but instead he was on the back porch with his pipe, a cup of
coffee, and the paper—normally a Sunday routine.

Rex shifted from foot to foot, wanting to get
this over with. “Ah… When’re we starting?”

“
After Rose gets back from
Lulu’s.” Tad shuffled to the next page.

“
The hairdresser’s? She went to
the hairdresser?”

Tad didn’t bother to look up from his paper,
but he did arch one eyebrow. “I thought you said you were married,
boy. Now I’m starting to wonder.” He shook the paper. “First you
get all skittish when my girl arrives, then you interrupt my
morning paper with a sour look on your puss, and now you seem
unacquainted with women and haircuts.”

Rex could feel the heat on his cheeks as his
face turned tomato red. He was going to stutter out a reply, but
Tad shot him a look over the paper and he shut his
mouth.

“
I’m sure there’s work to be
done.” Tad went back to his paper.

Not one to linger after he’d been dismissed,
Rex made himself useful in the kitchen. Lily and Martha were always
happy to have a man around. Rex, in turn, pretended to hate their
matronly doting, while loving every minute of it. Lily and Martha
would then tease him about secretly being a mama’s boy, which
really wasn’t a secret in his hometown.

“
Ta-dah!”

Rex turned, and there was Rose, her long dark
hair cut short. It fell around her face in soft feminine curls.
Without the heavy framing of her hair, her breasts looked huge, her
waist the perfect size to wrap his arms around, and her hips
something he’d like to rub up against. He took a deep breath and
tugged at his belt. Easy there, cowboy. Remember what they taught
you at college—don’t piss in the company ink, or something like
that.

At that moment, he was forced to admit to
himself, Rose got to him on a visceral level. He hadn’t been with a
woman since Nancy left him, and he felt the obscene desire to kiss
Rose. Not a nice sweet kiss, but one where he pushed her against
the wall and tasted the inside of her mouth. He wanted to feel her
softness moving underneath him.

She put on that awful pink cowboy hat and
broke the spell.

“
Apple’s all saddled up for you.”
Josh tossed her a pair of pink gloves and she scowled.

“
How much did you jack asses spend
on this stuff?” she asked.

Lily snorted. Rex recalled seeing a pair of
pink boots and a horse blanket as well. Rose groaned at her
mare—the dark brown saddle set atop the baby pink
blanket.

“
That was an honest mistake, Rose.
We didn’t know it was going to be that color,” said a hand leaning
against the gate. “It was supposed to be hot pink.”

They had all gathered to watch Rose
grumble.

“
We got you these to say we’re
sorry,” another said. He handed her a box.

“
These are going to be the ugliest
boots I’ve ever seen, right?”

“
Not if you’ve ever been in a
high-end boutique. I’ve never seen such ugly shoes in my life
before, and they all cost an arm and a leg,” Rex said.

Everyone laughed, even Rose, who was looking
at him closely. She complained about the boots but still put them
on. She looked like a girlie girl, up on her horse with the pink
hat and gloves and boots.

“
We gotta order her a different
blanket,” a hand commented.

“
Mm…hm…” they all
agreed.

Tad cleared his throat and the men dispersed
at a leisurely pace.

“
Now, I’m sure you’re dying to
know why your mom and I asked you for all that money.” Tad got onto
his waiting horse, Honey, and Rex hopped onto his mount, a somewhat
ill-tempered stallion named Nero.

“
Yes, yes I have,” Rose
said.

Rex fell back to watch the interaction between
father and daughter.

“
Well, as you know, we’re not
making as much money as we used to.” Tad talked slowly, but he had
Honey going at a brisk walk. By the time he got around to telling
Rose what the plan was, they’d be at the model cabin.

Rex watched the pair and thought about how
this is what he wanted one day for him and his daughter. The
patience, the understanding, the love they had for each other. He
liked the thought of Annie seeing what a pair of loving parents and
their child looked like. With a jolt, he realized he’d been
comparing his daughter to a woman he wasn’t sure he could
trust.

A funny thought struck him. He had two things
in common with Rose, a love of ranching and a broken heart. It
wasn’t much, but it was a start. He could learn to trust
her.

They got to the little cabin just as Tad was
saying, “And so, your mother had the idea to turn this place into a
resort. We did some research, and the numbers looked good and we’re
in a good location. All we needed was some money and a man with
experience in this type of thing.” Tad gestured to Rex and he
nodded.

“
It looks like it came out of a
Western,” she said.

“
We got the lumber for the siding
secondhand. It gives it a nice weathered look. We saved money where
we could while keeping in mind that we’re aiming for a high-end
market.” Rex felt more comfortable now, talking about business. He
launched into his spiel about starting small so as to make it more
exclusive, but going big when it came to the services they offered.
He was rattling off numbers when he reached up to help her down
from her saddle.

It hit him: A soft floral scent, warm skin
under worn flannel. A woman, in his arms. A big curvy woman with
soft brown eyes looking straight into his.

“
Ah…” he trailed off. His gaze
slid to her lips, a shade of pink he actually liked.

“
You were saying why you think two
hundred thousand should get us started,” she said, moving away from
him.

He stared at her while she hitched her horse
to the wooden post outside.

“
Where are we getting the rest of
the money? I could have brought it with me,” she said.

Rex cleared his throat and his mind. Thank God
Rose was too distracted by business to notice him flaking
out.

“
Me. I’m investing the other half
of the money.” And he wasn’t losing his head over some hot-shot art
whatever that moved up to Boston to work at some fancy museum. He
tried to put some force into the conviction, but a part of him
knew, even before he’d met her, when she’d just been a
two-dimensional picture on the wall, he’d been thinking about her.
And thinking about a woman was step one in falling for
her.

He walked to the cabin, drew a keycard from
his wallet, and stood aside so she could see, just like a fancy
hotel, the rustic-looking cabin had an electric lock. It was a
sample on loan from the company, but still, the little things
mattered. “Your family retains full ownership of the property. The
business is divided fifty, McGovern and Rex. We already formed the
LLC.”

Rose walked into the cabin and stopped. He was
probably becoming inured to the awful decor, but every time Rex saw
it, he disliked it a little less. There was a kitchenette to the
side, complete with a little stove and oven. Rex thought they’d
offer in-cabin cooking classes for the women while their men worked
on the ranch. Or vice-versa, he didn’t really care. The bed was
portioned off by a set of plain canvas screens, and there was a
couch and two oversized chairs arranged around a flat-screen
TV.

The horse skull Lily hung on the pale
terra-cotta wall tied the room together with a Zen-like simplicity.
The cholla stump set on the coffee table and the succulent garden
growing in a hypertufa planter were two other details that caught
his eye. Simple, but elegant, a combination that always implied
expensive.

“
Not including the appliances, we
got this place furnished and decorated for about ten thousand, and
most of that went to the bed and chairs. Lily and Peggy put
everything together. But you know how smart those two are.” Rex
turned to Rose, expecting a complement, or a shrewd question, but
not tears. Her face was red, and tears streamed down her
cheeks.

The same black dread slapped him, just as it
had when Nancy had been screaming and carrying-on.

He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t handle her
crying. A foul stinking beast had seized him on the inside and
twisted—because that’s what Nancy’s betrayal had felt
like.

He opened his mouth to speak, but low in his
throat, he could feel the start of something else, something he
couldn’t let out.

Rex Waits, for the first time in his life, did
not calmly walk away from something too big for him to handle. He
did not stomp off in a temper. No, Rex Waits ran. He ran
quickly.

Nero whickered at him and laid his ears back,
but didn’t protest to being unhitched and mounted.

After that, Rex pointed him
away
, and gave the
contrary creature free rein.

* * *

Rose didn’t know whether to kick her father
for being so goddamn mysterious or kiss his cheek because the Crown
of Thorns Ranch was saved!

The tears had come naturally, a sweet flood of
joy. The numbers Rex recited sounded good and the cabin looked
good. She hadn’t missed him hamming up the keycard, but from what
he’d been saying, he’d be the one pitching the ranch to people, so
a little razzle-dazzle was a good thing. It didn’t hurt that the
man was easy on the eyes.

In fact, Rose had been staring at his ass. Her
gaze had only flicked to the keycard for a moment before it went
back to him. She had completely given up on not staring at the man,
deciding to get her fill of him while she was here. There would be
no sweaty dusty eye-candy in Boston. Best enjoy it while she
can.

She had expected him to politely look away
from her tears. Maybe hand her a rumpled handkerchief, but to flee,
like a sparrow from a hawk…. That was truly unexpected.

She and her father looked at each other,
listening to the fading beat of the horse’s hooves. They both burst
out laughing.

“
Did I miss something?” her father
asked.

“
God, Dad, I don’t know. Did I
miss something?”

They sat down on the couch and Rose relaxed.
They talked business while Rose fluffed up her hair. Whenever she
had Lulu cut it off, she couldn’t stop touching it.

“
Is he reliable?” she finally
asked. It had been a point she’d been wavering on ever since she’d
got there. Annabelle Lee was a gem, but her father ran hot and
cold. Then, finally, just plain ran.

“
He has been so far. As far as I
can guess, his ex-wife beat on his heart pretty good and ever since
then he’s just been focused on his girl.”

Rose nodded. “But, he’s going to have to deal
with women, in a professional manner. I don’t feel very confident
that he can.”

Her dad sighed, his gaze fixed on the floor.
“You want me to fire him, Rose? He and that little girl have made
this place their home.”

She fiddled with her new bangs. No, it wasn’t
just the disapproving tone in her father’s voice that made it seem
wrong to her. “Not fire. Reassess his role. Why does he have to be
an investor anyways? And fifty-fifty too?”

“
That part’s a done deal, at least
the partnership. You can pay for the whole thing, but he’d still be
a partner.”

Rose scowled and looked around the room. Now
she wanted to hate it, but couldn’t. It was too good. Hell, give
her some glossy brochures, and she could probably book the
place.

“
He only has money for half,” she
said.

“
Ah-huh. He’s putting most of his
savings into this. He believes in this, Rose.”

She nodded and stood up. “Fine, I’ll invest.
Get me the paperwork and I’ll fax it to Jill to look over.
But—”

She fixed her father with a stubborn look he
knew well from her childhood. He sat up straighter, knowing that
she wouldn’t yield on this point.

“
I want you to talk to Rex about
reconsidering what his role here will be. He stays, that’s fine, I
won’t press that point. I’m not impressed with how he’s handled
himself, and you know I’m not wrong.”

Her father sank back into the chair. “I’ll
talk to him. I’ve got a few questions for him myself.”

“
All right then. I’ll head back
and give Mom the good news. I bet it’s her and Martha crowding the
window.”

“
And little Annabelle Lee between
them. That girl loves spending time with your mother, and Lily
loves it too,” her father added.

Rose rolled her eyes. “I get it. Rex is a good
man, he’s just got his nose out of joint about something. No need
to get all schmaltzy.”

She shut the door on her father’s laughter and
rode back to the ranch.

Lily was armed with a manila envelope, a pen,
a great big smile, and some celebratory cookies Annabelle Lee had
helped with. The little girl had a dusting of flour in her hair, a
drop of cookie dough on her chin, and two cookies in her
hand.