Maya's Triple Dare (20 page)

* * * *

“There you are,” Frank Reeves muttered as he sat hunched in front of his laptop computer, staring at the online newspaper article featuring Maya. The unlucky girl had tangled with a rattlesnake and made the front page of the small-town newspaper. It hadn’t occurred to him until yesterday that if he was going to set up Google Alerts for
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her, there was always the possibility her name might be misspelled

“Dare” instead of Daire. Such had been the case, as he looked at the caption that went along with the article. It was just his luck the small-town newspaper reporter had gotten it wrong. But that hadn’t stopped him from finding her. Nor would he be impeded in bringing her ass back to San Marcos where she belonged. Right beside Morgan Daire, six feet under.

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* * * *

Taking out his bandana to wipe his sweat-soaked brow, Kendall looked around at what he’d accomplished that day. He remembered what the JWB had looked like the day they’d arrived two years before.

The rickety old ranch house had been uninhabitable after sitting unoccupied for thirty-plus years. The fields and pastures that now sported grass ready for baling and herds of Hereford cattle had been left fallow, and mesquite trees had gotten a prolific toehold, even around the house itself. In the last two years they’d done a lot—root-plowing and bulldozing the mesquites, cross-fencing the pastures, purchasing and maintaining breeding stock, and making the house habitable.

It was unfortunate the house had been leveled in the storm, but he didn’t miss it all that much. It hadn’t been near good enough for Maya to live in. With satisfaction at a job well done, he tipped the water bottle and splashed water on his face then took a long drink. He dried his face and grabbed his cell phone as it rang.

He glanced at the number on the screen and chuckled as he answered the phone, “Mom!”

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Josie Warner’s familiar, soothing voice responded, “Can someone please tell me why I have to hear that my son is in love from his cousin’s wife? I just got off the phone with Grace and she tells me that Maya Daire has got you wrapped around her finger.”

“Well…” The statement was mostly accurate.

“It’s good to hear that she’s moving on with her life, Kendall. I always wondered after Morgan’s passing if the two of you wouldn’t wind up together.”

“But, Mom, it’s—”

“That it’s the
four
of you is no big shocker as close as you boys have always been. Grace tells me that Maya fits right in down there.”

Kendall smiled that his mom made that news seem almost run-of-the-mill. “She does.”

“How is the ranch?”

“Hard, hot work but it’s looking good. How is Aggie Rose?”

“Your sister is just fine, from what I can tell. She’s about as good at keeping in touch as you and your bothers. But you know her. She’s an aggie all the way to her maroon blood, still loving Texas A & M. It looks like she’s going to finish early.”

“Yeah, she keeps telling me she’s going to open her veterinary practice in Divine after she gets her degree. I can’t wait, because vet bills are expensive. Did she tell you if she’s coming for a visit here soon?” He thought Maya would adore his spunky little sister Agatha Rose, affectionately known as Aggie Rose.

“With the schedule and hours she’s keeping? I wouldn’t expect to see her until Christmas time. I’ve never seen a more focused student than Aggie.”

“That’s good because I know you were relieved when the three of us barely managed to squeak by with our diplomas in hand.”

“But you’re good boys.”

“When are you coming for a visit?”

She snorted. “When I hear you have space for visitors. How is the house coming?”

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“We’ll get started in a few weeks.”

She giggled and speculatively said, “Oh! You’re too busy romancing the beautiful widow?”

Laughing, he replied, “Something like that.”

She turned more serious and asked, “Richard doing okay?”

“He seems to be doing great. Maya has been good for him, I think.”

“I’m happy to hear that. How is my eldest doing?”

“Boone is still working at the Rockin’ C Ranch with Richard. I imagine they’ll both come on fulltime at our ranch sometime next year. He’s crazy about Maya.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Maybe we can all be together at Christmas.

Oh, Kendall, that’s another call on the line I’ve been waiting for. I have to let you go, sweetheart. Tell the boys I love them and to
call
their
mother
, Okay?”

He responded affirmatively and she made a kissy noise in the phone and ended the call. He drove home and when he pulled up he noticed Ethan standing on his front porch. He greeted Ethan as Boone came out the front door.

“I’m glad you’re here, Kendall. We wanted to give you guys a heads-up.”

“About what?” Boone asked as he leaned against the doorframe.

Kendall joined them on the porch.

“Grace got home a few minutes ago. She was a little shook up because someone ran her off the road between Divine and Morehead.”

Ethan’s eyebrows were drawn together as he said it, and Kendall could see the stress in the set of his jaw.

“Is she okay?” Kendall couldn’t begin to imagine how that news must have affected Ethan.

“She’s lying down right now. She was having a few contractions here and there, but she’s attributing them to dehydration. I came down to let you know about it. With this damned blog that’s updating daily
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about the girls, we don’t want to take chances with them or Maya.

Has anybody said anything to her?”

Kendall shook his head as he regarded Boone. “Not that we’re aware of. Do you think the incident on the road and the blog are connected?”

Ethan shrugged as he leaned against the porch railing. “I don’t like to take chances where Grace or the others are concerned. We think it would be better to warn the girls and try to be with them if they have to go into town.”

Boone said, “Richard and I are going out of town with Chance and Clayton for a couple of days tomorrow morning, but Kendall will be here with her.”

“Maya told me she was running by the store after she dropped in on Dr. Guthrie this afternoon,” Kendall added.

Ethan smiled faintly. “Yeah, Grace mentioned that to us. She found out Maya has obstetric nursing experience, and I think she’s bound and determined to have Maya working at Dr. Guthrie’s by the time Rose Marie gets here. She really likes Maya.”

Kendall chuckled and said, “I think the feeling is mutual. Maya says she feels like she’s known them a long time, especially Grace.

Do you want us to send Maya down to check on her?”

Ethan looked up at both of them and appeared to waffle for a moment. “Yeah. If you don’t mind. The contractions worry me a bit.

She insists it’s just the little upset plus being too thirsty that’s causing them. I’d understand if you want the night to yourselves, with the two of you going out of town. That delicious aroma tells me she’s got your supper ready.”

Kendall shook his head. “We’ll eat real quick and be up to the house. Knowing Maya, we’ll have to make her stay to eat before going up there.”

“I don’t want that,” Ethan replied. “Eat supper. I know it would help Adam and Jack to worry less about her if someone with experience looked in on her.”

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Boone asked, “Was the car damaged?”

“No, not at all. She said it was a black SUV, similar to Jack’s, that ran her off the road. She had a bumpy ride but coasted to a stop in the ditch on the side of the road. That little BMW of hers is a solid little piece of machinery, which is one of the reasons we picked it out for her.”

Ethan departed a minute later and they went inside. Kendall groaned as the succulent aroma permeating the house filled his nostrils and caused his stomach to rumble hungrily. Maya was nowhere in sight. Kendall peeked in the oven and smiled as he saw the source of the aroma. A homemade chicken casserole from the looks of it.

Boone opened a cabinet and was pulling plates down as Kendall checked the timer, which was ticking down with two minutes to go.

“Wonder where they are?” he asked as he searched for potholders in a drawer.

Kendall blessed Grace and Teresa again for setting them up with all the kitchen basics. Everything they’d owned for use in a kitchen, little though it was, now resided in the pile of rubble that used to be their ranch house.

Boone replied, “Richard was taking a shower when Ethan knocked.”

The answer to his other question rang down the hallway as they listened to the melodious sound of Maya crying out in pleasure from the bathroom. Kendall glanced at Boone and couldn’t help the smile crossing his face that probably mirrored the big one on Boone’s face.

“Damn, I love that sound,” Kendall murmured as he opened the oven. His cock swelled as he imagined her in the shower with Richard, trying to catch her breath.

Boone’s voice sounded a little deeper than normal, signaling he must be thinking along the same lines. “For being the soft-spoken one, Richard sure is stepping up and claiming what he wants.”

“Yeah.”

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“It’s good. He seems happier.”

“Yeah, happier than I’ve seen him since before…You know.”

The water shut off in the bathroom as the timer went off, and Kendall pulled the baking dish from the oven and put it on the stovetop.

Knowing the other two would be out when they were done, Kendall set the table while Boone finished up his paperwork.

A floral fragrance emanated from the bathroom, along with a languorous sigh. He caught a glimpse of Maya striding naked down the hall to the bedroom. She glanced back and giggled when she caught Richard ogling her from the bathroom doorway and Kendall staring at her from in the kitchen. She blew a kiss and disappeared through the doorway. Richard appeared in the hallway and lifted his chin in relaxed acknowledgement to Kendall before disappearing into the second bedroom where his closet was located.

Kendall looked forward to getting started on house plans sometime soon. He wanted to see Maya in a place of her own that she’d helped them design. They’d been cramped with only two bedrooms. Comically, that was no longer a problem as everyone now willingly slept in the king-size bed with Maya. He’d have to talk to Wes and Evan about a nice big custom bed so they could stretch out a bit and sleep more comfortably.

He was filling glasses with ice a minute later when a scented cloud enveloped him and Maya wrapped her arms around him from behind. Her warm, curvy body felt like home pressed against him as he turned and embraced her from the front. She chuckled and rubbed against the erection that had reappeared at her touch.

“You sounded good earlier,” Kendall murmured before kissing her tenderly on her full lips.

“You’re all spoiling me. I get more attention at every turn than I would’ve thought.”

“Like it?”

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“I love it.” She emphasized her words, and his cock twitched against her abdomen at the velvety way she spoke. He could listen to her whispering to him for the rest of his life and be content.

Richard joined them at the table dressed in old, faded jeans and a T-shirt, and Kendall couldn’t help but feel a little envious of the mellow glow in his eyes when he gazed at Maya. It was plain something powerful was growing between the two of them. In his wildest imaginings, he’d honestly never thought beyond fulfilling this dream, to watch her fall in love with the three of them and them with her. The dream itself had seemed so unattainable his mind must not have allowed him to contemplate moments like this because of the sheer torture it would have been for him.

“Ethan came to talk to us, baby,” Boone said as he patted a chair for her to sit in.

She joined them at the table and smiled as Boone served food to her plate. “How was your day? Is everything all right at Grace’s?”

“Ethan wondered if you’d come check her after we eat. She had a little scare today on the way home from the boutique. She’s been having contractions.”

Concern showed in Maya’s eyes and she started eating quickly.

Kendall hated seeing the remnant of the languorous glow fade from her eyes, but was proud of how down to business she got when someone needed her help. That was his girl.

Boone and Kendall explained what Ethan had told them, and they discussed their concerns as they ate with haste. Fifteen minutes later, they were knocking on the back door of the ranch house.

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