Home on the Ranch: Honorable Texas Cowboy
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Ali Olson
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13
Chapter 1
Diego McNeal’s headlights washed over the old farmhouse where he’d grown up, bathing it in bright light for a few seconds before he turned off the engine and everything faded into darkness. Everything but the small light over the door, which Ma had left on for him, as she always did for her children when they would be coming home late.
And boy, was it late. Diego’s eyes stung. He stretched his back and rolled his neck, trying to rid himself of the perpetual ache that had lodged there over the past few months. Even though he was only twenty-seven, sitting at a desk and dealing with the stress of running a business made him feel twice that.
He’d stayed in the city, working in the little hole he and his twin brother called an office until past midnight, trying desperately to figure out how their struggling rodeo stock company could actually make enough to keep them in the black. It wasn’t an easy task by any stretch of the imagination.
He didn’t want to admit that he’d also planned his arrival at the ranch long after everyone had gone to bed so he wouldn’t need to spend the evening awkwardly avoiding any situation where he might find himself forced to make small talk with someone.
There was one particular someone he’d managed to mostly steer clear of for months. He wasn’t sure this time he would be so lucky.
Diego tried to push thoughts of Kate out of his head. He was home for the Fourth of July because Ma and Pop wanted all their children together, and he had to admit he’d been absent enough over the past six months to feel guilty about it. A few hours here and there, but that was it; now he was going to be there for days. His parents were ecstatic. They couldn’t understand why keeping a business afloat meant that he needed to disappear from their lives.
He’d never mentioned to them that he was completely infatuated with Kate Andrews, the beautiful, intelligent, fiery woman they’d hired to run the ranch’s riding school. The woman he had immediately been drawn to the first time he’d seen her, and hadn’t been able to get out of his mind since.
The woman who also happened to be dating Jose, his twin brother.
Diego took a deep breath. He’d just avoid her as much as possible, pretend like he didn’t worship the ground she walked on, spend some time with his family, and then get back to his office, where a desk full of paperwork waited for him. He could do that, right?
He would simply have to. There was no other solution.
He stepped out of his truck and breathed in the dusty heat of a Texas summer. Even this late at night, the warmth wafted from the ground that had baked all day in the July sun.
It was long past time to go to bed, and Diego looked forward to sleeping in late the next morning, staying out of Kate and Jose’s way, and eating too much barbecue with his friends and family. If he played things right, he wouldn’t even need to talk to her, which was best for everyone, really.
Diego crept into the house, trying to be as quiet as possible. The moment he stepped inside, though, it was apparent he wasn’t the only one up at this late hour: the doorway to the kitchen glowed a warm yellow, and he could hear the quiet scrape of a ceramic dish on wood. Diego smiled to himself. There was no question in his mind whom he would find when he walked into the cozy light, and it was someone he very much wanted to see.
“Hi, Ma,” he said to the gray-haired woman standing beside the kitchen table as he stepped into the bright kitchen. She had evidently just finished setting a steaming plate of chicken and mashed potatoes at his usual seat, and she straightened up with a grin.
“There you are, dear!” she said in a hushed tone as she hurried over to hug her son.
Diego embraced her, feeling some of his weariness fall away. Even though he and Jose were adopted, Ma had always been the most devoted and doting of mothers one could ever hope for—far better than their biological mother, a lesson they’d learned the hard way years before. Ever since that disappointing reunion, Diego made sure Ma knew just how wonderful he thought she was.
She squeezed him tight before ushering him toward the meal. “You must be hungry. And exhausted. You’ve been working yourself too hard, Diego. I expected you hours ago,” she told him.
“You didn’t need to wait up for me,” he insisted, but she dismissed his words with a wave of her hand.
“I’ve had plenty to do preparing for tomorrow. I’ve never had so many people over for a holiday before, and if I didn’t do some of the work now, I’d be running around like a chicken with its head cut off all day tomorrow.”
The wrinkles around her eyes creased as she smiled at the prospect. With her two older children settled down so recently, and both of them living back in Spring Valley to boot, Ma was just about over-the-moon with happiness. She’d invited half the town over for the holiday festivities, and he’d bet that was just so she could show off her abundance of family.
Diego thought about his brother Brock, married, living next door, and now the father of young twin boys; and his sister, Amy, so pregnant she was about to burst and living just a few miles away with her new husband. And, of course, Jose was with Kate, a woman his parents absolutely adored.
How Ma managed to keep from floating right off the ground was anybody’s guess.
Diego felt a twinge of jealousy, but he tried to stifle it. He was happy for his siblings, there was no doubt about that. He just wished—
“Eat up and then get to bed, dear. Brock said they’d all be here bright and early for breakfast,” Ma said as she placed a hand on his shoulder, breaking him out of his thoughts. “Oh, and you should sleep in Amy’s old room tonight and let Jose alone. You know how he hates getting woken up.”
Diego wondered if Ma was purposely naive in assuming Jose hadn’t snuck into Brock’s old room, where Kate slept, but he said nothing. He just picked up his fork dutifully and started to eat. The food was rich and delicious, as anything with that much fat and butter had to be, but it was still hard to swallow with that thought in his mind. While he worked his way through the mound of calories, Ma sat down across from him. “Speaking of Jose, you haven’t talked to him about leaving the business yet,” she said.
It wasn’t a question, more of a prompt. Diego swallowed his mouthful. “I can’t ditch him,” he told her, keeping his eyes on his plate. Ma just raised an eyebrow at him. “We’d be flat broke if I left now. Besides, it’s the summer. This is our busiest time. Jose needs me. It’s not that bad, really.”
He didn’t need to hear her thoughts to know she considered everything he said a load of excuses. Maybe she was right, but it didn’t change the fact that Diego would stick with the rodeo stock business, arranging deals between ranchers and rodeo organizers from behind a desk in a tiny office that made him feel claustrophobic, until Jose got bored of it. Just like Diego did with each one of Jose’s ventures. Ma shook her head a little. “I love you and Jose both dearly, Diego, but you can’t always protect your brother. I know you wouldn’t be broke in the first place if he hadn’t sunk so much money into that fool plot he thought was a ‘sure thing.’ And I know you’re working yourself to the bone on a business you don’t enjoy. It ain’t right, son.”
Diego shrugged. He knew all this. “But it’s Jose,” he said, so much meaning in those few words.
Ma nodded as if this made sense to her, though Diego knew she didn’t really know the half of it. Jose and Diego were identical twins, brothers and friends from birth. Diego knew that Ma didn’t understand his stubborn faithfulness to Jose and his many schemes. She didn’t know about the search for their real parents or the promise Diego made the day they’d met them all those years ago. She didn’t know about the times Jose had saved his life. He owed his brother so much.
Diego would do anything for his brother and would never hurt him if he could help it. They were a team for life.
As difficult as it was to constantly pick up the pieces while Jose bounded through life in his carefree way, Diego couldn’t imagine leaving his brother to fend for himself. Diego had always been the responsible one, and Jose needed him.
Ma said nothing more on the subject. She just stood and gave Diego a kiss on his cheek as she picked up his plate. “You get to bed now,” she said.
Diego stood up with a weary groan and left the bright kitchen. His eyes slowly adjusted to the shadowy darkness as he pulled himself up the stairs, feeling like every bit of energy had been drained from him. He’d been on edge for so long, and now that he knew he wouldn’t be seeing Kate until the next morning, he was left feeling exhausted and, though he hated to admit it, a little disappointed.
He put his hand to the doorknob of the room he’d shared with his twin since infancy, then thought about what Ma had said. She was right, Jose hated getting woken up. And if he was in Kate’s room, well, Diego didn’t want to see the empty bunk and know it for sure.
So Diego walked farther down the hall to Amy’s room. Her bed was a little short for Diego’s long frame, but it would do. He slipped into the dark space, dropping his clothes in a puddle on the floor. He didn’t bother to turn on the light. He was too tired to do more than strip to his boxers and climb into bed, his mind fogging over with drowsiness before his head even hit the pillow.
After a long, deep, dark sleep, Diego found himself experiencing a spectacular dream like none he’d ever had before. In it, he was experiencing a mind-blowing kiss that set everything about him on fire. He could feel the soft, supple lips of the woman pressing against his as he moved his hands through her silky hair and down along her neck and shoulders. He hoped it would be a long time before he awoke and she disappeared.
It took him several seconds to realize he was already awake, not in a dream at all, and that the lips and hair were connected to a real, actual person.
He bolted upright and turned on the light, then stared dumbstruck at the woman lying in bed beside him with full, just-been-kissed lips. He knew that deep red hair, those freckles dotting her nose in a way that somehow made her both look feisty and irresistibly sexy.
It was Kate. He had been kissing Kate. His mind couldn’t wrap around what had just happened.
She was breathing hard, her face flushed, her lips turned up at the corners into a smile that made it clear she’d enjoyed the kiss as much as he had. Her hazel eyes stared unabashedly up into Diego’s brown ones, and he found himself unable to pull his gaze away from hers. Diego’s heart hammered away inside his chest.
“Am I asleep?” he asked aloud, trying to come up with any other possible explanation for the situation before him. None of this made any sense.
Her smile widened into a full grin that only made his heart beat harder. “You seem pretty awake to me,” she said breathlessly, brushing back her mussed hair. “That was...wow.”
Diego felt hope bloom in his chest, despite everything. Did she have feelings for him, too?
Kate sat up and looked toward the door. The bed sheets slipped to her waist, revealing a tight white pajama top that left far too little to the imagination. “You shouldn’t be here, Jose,” she whispered.
Diego’s heart plummeted as he realized her mistake.
Kate shook her head in admonishment. “I gave up my room so you could stretch out, not so you could sneak in here in the middle of the night. You know how I feel about behaving appropriately in your parents’ house.”
The reality of the situation wasn’t pretty, and it took Diego another few seconds to find his voice. “I’m not Jose,” he finally managed to get out.
The smile dropped from Kate’s lips and her eyes opened wide. She looked as shocked as he felt. “Diego?” she asked quietly.
Damn. He didn’t know what he expected, but her reaction still hit him in the gut.
Diego nodded. Kate, Jose’s girlfriend, covered her face with her hands. “Oh, my God, you’re Diego,” she groaned.
Her extreme embarrassment broke Diego out of his frozen state of shock. “I’m so sorry,” he blurted out in a rush. “I thought this room was empty and—”
And I never expected to find myself kissing the woman of my dreams, he finished in his thoughts.
Kate shook her head, still not looking at him. “It’s not your fault. I just assumed...”
She trailed off, but Kate didn’t need to say what she had assumed. Everything seemed very clear to Diego. She assumed her boyfriend had snuck in to spend the night with her. Her boyfriend, who happened to also be Diego’s identical twin brother.
“I’m going to go,” he mumbled, not sure what else there was to say.
Before she could respond, he grabbed his clothes from the floor and rushed out, not looking at her again. Once he was safely in the hallway, though, Diego stopped and leaned against the closed door, allowing himself a few deep breaths. They did no good. His heart was still pounding like he’d run a marathon instead of dashed out of a tiny bedroom.
His attraction for Kate before was nothing compared to his feelings now that he’d kissed her, held her in his arms, and he let out a deep sigh.
Dammit, Jose, he thought as he walked to his and Jose’s apparently empty room. You have all the luck.
If he didn’t have the deeply instilled belief that Ma would somehow find out if he did, he would have cursed her, too. He was sure it had been an innocent mistake, but her innocent mistake had just stuck him into a whole heap of trouble.
Kate stared at the closed door, fighting the mad urge to rush to it and chase after Diego.
That kiss. She could still feel the pressure on her lips—intense, full of desire, but still somehow tender.
Jose’s kisses were always hungry and demanding. Nothing like what she’d just experienced. She should have realized immediately that it was Diego. She’d only met him a few times, had hardly spoken to the man, but it was enough to know that he and his brother were as different as night and day, however much they looked the same.
Kate groaned quietly and dropped her head to her pillow, then turned her face so she could see the bedside table, where a diamond ring sat, its facets glinting at her in the lamplight. This was very, very not good.
It was nearly morning, and Kate punched her pillow a few times and tried to lie down and close her eyes, but there was no way she could get to sleep after what had just happened, even though she had been up much too late—first at the rodeo, then agonizing about that damn ring on the nightstand and what would happen when she gave it back.
She tried to read a bit to get her mind off the whole big mess she found herself in, but after a few minutes she gave up and paced aimlessly around the little room, feeling cooped up, but too nervous to leave the room. What if she met Diego in the hallway? Or Jose? Or, God forbid, both of them?
Nope. Better to wait and make a dash for downstairs once other family members had arrived. She definitely needed a buffer around when she saw either of them. The conversation she needed to have with Jose would have to wait. Once again, she berated herself for not breaking up with Jose when she had the chance. Her efforts to let him down easy had really come back to bite her.
And Diego, well...if all went as she hoped, her next conversation with Diego would be somewhere in the vicinity of never ever. She was far too embarrassed to be around him.
Embarrassed, she repeated to herself. Certainly not attracted, like some parts of her body seemed to believe.
She got dressed slowly, listening for noises below, and wished like hell she’d come up with some other way to spend the Fourth of July. Even a lonely hotel room would be better than this. And then she would’ve missed the rodeo the night before, too, and this entire debacle could’ve been avoided. If only, if only.
For the thousandth time in the past two hours, she replayed The Kiss. It had already earned capital-letter status in her mind, the standard by which all other kisses would be compared. A mostly asleep touch of the lips that had quickly deepened into a connection that made her heart stutter.
For a moment, it had given her hope that her problems had been solved. Some of her commitment to breaking up with Jose dissolved in those few seconds—the sweetness behind the kiss made her suddenly sure there was a side to Jose she’d missed, and the relief she’d felt was almost overwhelming. He was more than just a joker, a guy wandering through life without letting it touch him. And she had thought for a tiny happy sliver of time that perhaps they’d be able to make it work after all.
Kate didn’t want to admit, even to herself, how thankful she’d been. She loved this job so much, had grown so fond of Ma and Pop, and she knew she might need to leave when she and Jose split up. It had made things that much harder over the past few months as she’d started to realize Jose wasn’t the right guy for her.
It had even gotten to the point that she was glad he didn’t come to Spring Valley very often because she wanted to put off the inevitable breakup as long as possible. In fact, she’d been convinced, just by his absence, that he felt the same way and didn’t know how to break things off, either. So she had finally decided that this was the do-or-die weekend, only to have her moment thrown back at her in the most unexpected way when Jose proposed.
If it had been him who’d kissed her like that, though...
But no, it had to be Diego who made her heart pound right out of her chest. And really, Jose couldn’t have kissed her like that. She had known the truth for weeks now: she and Jose didn’t make sense and never would, and that was why their kisses never set her on fire like that. But Diego was different.
It was incredibly clear to her that the chances of keeping this perfect job working with the McNeals had gone from slim to none in the time it took for her lips and Diego’s to touch.
Kate was broken out of her reverie by a knock and shouts from below, followed by the murmur of conversation and the pounding footsteps of young children. Finally, she could escape this room and distract herself from her own thoughts.
After a quick glance through the cracked door to double-check that the hall was empty, she walked quickly to the stairs and made her way toward the living room without a pause.
Whatever had happened a few hours before, she wasn’t going to let it ruin the holiday for this sweet family who had welcomed her with open arms. She would just try to avoid being too close to either Jose or Diego. If she could sidestep any awkward situations, things would be just fine.
After one more fortifying breath, Kate walked into the living room. She was about to say, “Happy Fourth of July!” but only managed the “Ha—” when a voice shouted her name so close behind her that she nearly jumped out of her skin, cutting off the rest of her statement.
Before she could recover, she was wrapped up in someone’s arms and being lifted off the ground. Kate’s jolly greeting ended as little more than a squeak and a gasp for breath.
“Set her down, you idiot,” Brock said from his spot on the floor, where he and his young stepsons were building a block tower.
“Excuse me for being romantic,” Jose shot back as he finally set Kate back on her feet.
Kate rubbed the place on her arm that ached where he’d squeezed her but bit her lip and said nothing. Now was not the time to explain to Jose what the word romantic meant. She flushed, feeling embarrassed and annoyed.
“How are you, Kate?” said Cassie, Brock’s wife, as Kate sat beside her on the sofa.
Cassie and Kate had become friends almost as soon as Kate moved to town, and she knew that Cassie, the town’s doctor, was unusually perceptive. But this wasn’t the time to get into her worries or discuss the events of the last twenty-four hours. She mustered everything she had in her to give Cassie a sincere smile. “I’m fine, Cassie. How are you?” she asked, as convincingly as she could.
Cassie’s eyes didn’t move from Kate’s face, and she knew Cassie wasn’t totally convinced. Kate shrugged. “There are a lot of changes going on and it’s just a bit...overwhelming,” she said softly, not wanting Jose to overhear.
Cassie nodded and gave Kate a quick side-hug—she had been at the rodeo the night before and had watched the proposal firsthand—and then focused her attention on the boys playing on the floor. They’d switched from building towers to knocking them down with as much force as possible.
Kate was glad Cassie’s eyes were off her, and she took a deep breath. She had a sneaking suspicion Cassie was at least somewhat aware of Kate’s tangle of emotions regarding the ring upstairs—the one Kate couldn’t force herself to actually wear.
In fact, Cassie had seemed more quietly sympathetic than excited about the whole event the night before, and Kate wondered if it might be best to open up to Cassie and ask for her help. Though how Cassie could help her in this situation wasn’t at all clear to Kate; she had no idea. Still, it could be good just to have somebody to talk to about it all.
Her thoughts were cut short by Diego’s entrance. Kate tried not to stare at him, but it was hard. How could she have ever mistaken him for Jose? Yes, they were identical twins, both tall with bronze skin, coffee-colored eyes and jet-black hair, but everything else about them was so starkly different: Diego didn’t have any of Jose’s joking swagger, and his eyes were kind rather than perpetually amused. He didn’t have that smirk Kate had come to recognize as Jose’s trademark.
The more she noted the differences, the more she’d wished she hadn’t gotten involved with Jose in the first place. When she’d moved to town, Kate had been so worn down from her old job and from being alone that he seemed like the perfect antidote. She just needed to have some fun, and the man was definitely fun—and, as a bonus, quite attractive.
She should have realized that in order to be truly happy she needed someone who brought more to the relationship than fun and good looks. Kate just wished she’d figured that out before getting herself into this sticky situation.
And now she’d found the whole package, and he was completely off-limits.
