Gone Country (50 page)

“Did you talk to her?”

“I tried. But she’s a little high-strung, like someone else I know.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Me?”

“Nope. Me.” She pecked him on the mouth. “Gotta run. Save me a seat at the table.”

Even with so many people the chow line moved fast. Gavin sat across from Keely and Jack. Sierra scooted over when Rielle showed up and didn’t say much.

“Keely, how are you feeling?” Rielle asked.

“Good, for the most part. I’m tired. I could sleep all damn day. This kid kicks all the time.”

“Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”

Keely shook her head. “There are so few surprises in life, we want this to be one of them.”

“Any weird cravings?”

“Tomatoes and Hershey bars,” Jack answered. “And yes, she eats them at the same time.”

That sounded nasty.

“But I’m not hungry at all today,” Keely said. She turned sideways on the bench seat and leaned into Jack.

Jack stretched his hands across Keely’s rounded belly and murmured to her.

Then Gavin was drawn into conversation with Carson and when he turned back to talk to Sierra, she’d vanished.

After everyone had eaten, and they were milling about under the big tent, Vi clapped her hands for attention. “Sierra has something she’d like to share. A piece of McKay history.” Vi gently patted Sierra on the shoulder as she shoved her front and center.

Gavin grinned. Vi had her own way of doing things.

Sierra looked nervous being in front of the entire McKay clan. Her gaze scanned the crowd until she found him. He smiled, elated his daughter still looked to him for support. He gave her two thumbs up, which would earn the,
Dad, you’re such a dork
remark later.

Sierra clutched a sheaf of papers and began. “Most of you know I did a paper on the McKay family for history class. I started out with an old family tree, branched out, and wow, there are a lot of McKays running around these days. It took me forever to do that part.” That earned her laughter. “Anyway, when I finished, I was still confused about a few things. For one, the lack of information about Jonas McKay’s twin brother Silas, who was unofficially marked as deceased. He isn’t buried in the McKay cemetery and there is no official record of his death.”

A wave of conversation broke out and then Dalton whistled for quiet.

“Aunt Carolyn lent me the McKay archives and I scanned all the information in twenty-seven boxes, including Dinah Thompson McKay’s journals. The other reason I kept going on my search, is because I’ve heard about the West-McKay feud, but no one—in the McKay family or the West family—knew what’d happened. And I mean no one. Not even my Grandpa Charlie and he’s old.” More laughter and Sierra blew Charlie a kiss when he tipped his hat to her.

“Because I didn’t want to be accused of skewing any information I might uncover as favorable to the McKays, I enlisted Boone West to help me search for facts. Boone had no idea what the original source of friction between the Wests and McKays might be either.” She paused and thrust her arm in the air and waved the paper. “And guess what? We found it!”

Excited chatter erupted.

Gavin watched as Sierra waited for the crowd to quiet down, a smug smile on her face.

Keely whistled to cut the chatter. “Pipe down. I wanna hear what she has to say. Go ahead, tell us everything.”

“Thanks, Keely.” Sierra took a deep breath. “Silas and Jonas McKay were identical twins who wound up in Wyoming in 1896. Jonas worked as a deputy. Silas worked as a ranch hand. In 1897 Silas bought a tract of land, which is still part of the McKay ranch today. Then in 1898, during a poker game at a bar in Moorcroft, which was likely a whor—” she shot a look at the little kids sitting in front and amended, “—a house of ill repute, Silas McKay won a chunk of land from Ezekiel West.

“Ezekiel’s brother Zachariah disputed the validity of the game, but the sheriff vouched for Silas. Since Jonas worked for the sheriff, the Wests accused the sheriff of corruption. In the meantime, whenever Ezekiel and Silas crossed paths the following year, they’d end up in fight. According to Dinah’s journal, Ezekiel broke Silas’s arm one night when Zachariah joined in and they beat Silas to a pulp.”

“See, this is already playing in favor of the McKays,” Cam shouted from the back.

“Hush, you,” Carolyn scolded. “You got just as much West in you as McKay.”

A chorus of “Oohs,” broke out.

“This is where Dinah Thompson enters the picture. She was the school teacher and she boarded with the town’s doctor and his wife. Dinah was also expected to help the doctor out on weekends. Silas wasn’t much of a fighter; he ended up at the doctor’s office frequently after his tussles with Ezekiel. Silas became smitten with Dinah and wooed her.” She wrinkled her nose at the term. “Taking her to church socials and community events. They fell in love. Since school teachers couldn’t continue teaching after marriage, she asked Silas for a long engagement, so she could keep earning money to put toward building a new house on the ranch.

“But Ezekiel also had his eye on Dinah. He wasn’t the gentlemanly type that Silas was—Dinah’s words, not mine—and Ezekiel became a stalker of sorts. Dinah wasn’t wearing Silas’ ring, so that made her fair game.” Sierra scowled. “This next part is a little hazy, but near as I could tell, Ezekiel got Dinah alone and hurt her. When she told Silas, he went after Ezekiel. They got into another fight, Ezekiel pulled a gun on Silas, but Silas ended up shooting him.”

Everyone stayed quiet.

“With Ezekiel dead, Jonas had no choice but to arrest his brother, even though it was clearly self-defense. But Zachariah West swore the murder was premeditated and he’d see Silas hang for killing his brother.”

“That’s what happened to him?” Kyler demanded. “That’s why no one talks about Silas, because he was hanged?”

“No. But Silas believed he was headed for the gallows. One night he attacked Jonas inside his cell and escaped from jail. Silas disappeared, never to be seen around here again. Several people swore they saw Silas get killed during a train robbery in Montana, but it was never confirmed. Others said Silas lived with the Crow Indians on the Montana border, but again, nothing was ever confirmed.

“Dinah wrote that Jonas knew his brother would be unjustly hanged so he made it possible for Silas to escape. Then Jonas resigned as a deputy and took over Silas’s ranch. We discovered Zachariah West ended up with a small section of land in Campbell County that’s still in the West family today. Dinah’s last entry alluded to that land being paid for with blood money. What that means is up for debate and probably always will be. Some secrets really do go to the grave. Anyway, Jonas and Dinah fell in love and got married.” Sierra looked up. “And they are the reason we are all here today.”

Applause and wolf whistles rang out.

Charlie sidled up and put his arm around Sierra. “How about my smart and determined granddaughter? Getting to the bottom of all this family stuff and putting rumors to rest with facts?” He kissed the top of her head. “I’m so damn proud of you for taking an interest in our heritage.”

She ducked her head and Charlie hugged her.

Then she was surrounded by curious McKays.

“Quite the girl you have there, proud daddy,” Rielle said.

“She is something. She really fits in with the McKays, doesn’t she?”

“Yes, but so do you. Did you have any idea that Sierra had done so much research?”

“I knew she was working her butt off on it. She mentioned she’d found something to Quinn and Charlie and Vi, but she wouldn’t tell me what it was.” He put his mouth on her ear. “To be honest, I thought she and Boone were using
just doing research
as an excuse to hang out together these last few months.”

Rielle laughed.

Sierra fairly bounced over after being waylaid by questions. “Dad, can I go now?”

“Where are you going?”

“Where is the only place I ever go?” she said with exasperation.

“To meet Marin.”

“So can I?”

“Where are you and Marin going?”

“To a graduation party at the lake. And no, we won’t be drinking, smoking weed or having sex.”

“No swimming at night either,” he warned.

“I know. And Boone will be there.”

That didn’t exactly alleviate his worry. “You haven’t had any issues with your new car?” Maybe he had gone a little overboard, buying her a Mercedes M Class SUV, but he couldn’t put a price on her safety. A little peace of mind was worth a lot.

She rolled her eyes. “Dad. We studied the manual together. You read the manual to me when I was driving. I read the manual to you when you were driving. I’ve studied the manual more than I have for my English final. So can I go?”

“Okay. But drive careful.”

“I will.” She kissed his cheek. “I love you. I know my curfew’s at midnight. There. I saved you from saying it.” She gave Rielle a half-hug. “See you later.” She practically skipped across the gravel driveway.

“So…she’s gone for a few hours,” Rielle said.

“What do you say we head home? School will be out in two weeks, ending our mid-morning quickies.”

“And our afternoon delight.” Rielle threaded her fingers through his. “Since we have two vehicles, and I know how competitive you are, let’s have a race.”

“What’s the prize?”

“Winner’s choice.”

“Hot damn.” He whispered, “Your ass is mine tonight, honey.”

“Don’t bet on it.”

But Gavin beat her home by a full two minutes.

He was feeling pretty cocky after a spectacular bout of raunchy sex, until Rielle whispered, “So, for the record, I let you win.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

The bright moon glow sent silvery light across the clearing. Sierra bumped over the cattle guard and saw him shielding his eyes from the glare of her headlights. Seemed a little strange, Boone calling her out of the blue and asking her to meet him. She hoped it meant something more than he was bored.

Sierra ignored Marin’s snarky voice in her head, asking why she went running every time Boone crooked his little finger at her. But she hadn’t seen him since his graduation and he’d slipped back into the not-returning-texts zone. School had ended two days ago, and her summer plans were still up in the air.

She put her car in park and killed the ignition. Butterflies danced in her belly. Where had her nervousness come from? She was out here with Boone. Mr. Trustworthy. Mr. Oblivious.

His butt rested against his motorcycle seat. His booted feet crossed at the ankle. His arms folded over his chest. He wore a super tight T-shirt which displayed the ripped muscles in his arms and the ridges in his lower abdomen. She’d seen that shirt on him a dozen times, and every time she whispered a little thank you to the T-shirt gods.

Stop gawking at him.

Nothing wrong with being attracted to her best guy buddy.

Was there?

No. Especially when he still didn’t have a clue how she felt. She walked up to him, her hands jammed into the back pockets of her jeans. “You summoned me?”

Boone frowned at her attire. “Wasn’t tonight the dance?”

“No. It was last night.”

“Oh. Was it fun?”

“I don’t know. I skipped it.”

“But…you said that night at the lake you wanted to go.”

She shrugged. “Marin is at her grandma’s for a week so she wasn’t going. Besides, they probably only played country music.”

“You should’ve gone.”

But I knew you wouldn’t be there.

“You asked me here to chew my ass about a dance I didn’t go to?”

“No.”

“What are you doing out here, anyway? Did your bike break down again?”

“Funny. It was a great night for a ride. I lost track of time. When I pulled over, I realized I wasn’t far from your place.”

“So you called me.” Instead of just showing up at her house. That made no sense. Especially if Boone thought she was at the dance. What was going on with him? He acted…jumpy.

“You got any decent tunes in that piece of crap car you’re driving these days?” he asked.

The Mercedes was hardly a piece of crap and he knew it. Boone also knew that the only reason her dad had bought it was for the safety features, including an excess of air bags. “I’ll play music as long as you don’t bitch about what it is.”

“Deal.”

She rolled down the windows and plugged her iPod into the stereo system. She mimicked his pose against the car, standing opposite him.

Boone grinned when the music started. “Foo Fighters. Cool.”

“Don’t get used to it. The next song might be by Flogging Molly.”

“I don’t even know what the hell that is, McKay. You’re more
ur-bane
than me.”

“Right. Seriously, West, what’s up? It’s not like you to text me, demanding I meet you out in the middle of nowhere. Especially this late.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Since when is ten late?”

“Since my dad grills me about where I’m going at ten at night and who I’m going with.”