Stepbrother Cowboy: A Western Romance (5 page)

“Already?” I asked as I saw a crazy coiled roll of barbed wire. “I forgot to ask, do I need to hobble Lightning, or will he stay close?”

“She’ll stay close to Blue, and he’ll stay close to me.”

“Good enough.”

I slid off the horse warily, not wanting a bruise on the other butt cheek, and then pulled some heavy gloves on that Ali had put in her pack. She dropped Blue’s reins by Lightning and followed me with the pliers in her hand. I found one end of the wire, still attached to the post and frowned. The shiny gleam of metal showed through a cut in the rusty wire. The outer surface had corroded, but the flat pinched metal with the shiny core showing could only be from a cut. I walked to the other end, praying the wire had some stretch in it.

I worked the wire from the farthest post it was still tacked to, and unwound the kinks and random snarls when the wire snapped back. Finally, I had a section that I could pull within a few inches of the cut side without straining. It appeared that there was enough slack, so I used the pliers to pull it tight, my arms straining. My gloved fingers of my right hand started twisting the heavy wire back together. I wasn’t going to do this by hand and expect it to hold forever, just tight enough to hold until I could get a new grip with the pliers.

“You big dummy, I have two pairs, you know.”

“Oh, Thanks. I got it,” my cheeks burned. Two pairs would make life easier, but I was committed for now.

I slowly eased the tension off of the pliers and let go when it was obvious it wasn’t going to come loose right away. I grabbed both ends of the wire I’d twisted together with the pliers and gave them some more twists, then tucked that parallel with the wire finishing the quick patch. I handed them back to Ali and we mounted up again. The sun was just peeking over the mountains now, and soon, it would be full daylight.

“Good thing the posts are spaced every twenty or thirty feet.”

“Yeah, otherwise some of these dumb cows might make a break for it. If they find it.”

“Has that been happening?”

“Some, but not many. Just a little more than normal. We always lose some to dogs or coyotes, and don’t find much of them when that happens. Lately, it’s been the calves just after they’re weaned.”

“I thought the ranch always bought young and raised them to size? I meant to ask about that yesterday.”

“We used to, but we’ve been breeding them now too.”

“You’ll have to fill me in on that.”

We rode and talked. The day passed lazily and we didn’t find any more cuts and decided to water the horses and break for lunch. Alison led us about ten minutes east of the fence until we came to a low rise, and a shallow basin of water filled a depression in the ground. My stomach rumbled loudly and making it known that I was ready to eat lunch. When I dismounted, I pulled a smashed sandwich out of my pocket and held it out to Ali. She wrinkled her nose at me and shook her head. The other saddlebag she hadn’t used before, she opened, and she pulled out a thermos and three wax paper wrapped packages. She sat on the low rise, and motioned me to sit beside her.

I took my lame looking sandwich and sat; putting the rifle down beside me and watching the horses poke their noses in the water, smelling it, before they started drinking.

“What are you thinking about? You’ve been quiet since the wedding,” Ali asked me, handing me one of the wax paper wrapped packages.

I opened it. Looked like a ham and cheese sandwich, no mayo, little bit of lettuce and tomato. Perfect for a picnic lunch with no fridge handy. I bit into it and tried to find an answer I could live with.

“What you asked me earlier.” I said biting in, chewing.

“Yeah, that was funny how you avoided the question.”

“I was hoping you’d let me slide, but I figured you weren’t done yet.”

“So… What did Jackson want?”

“Warned me about Dade.”

“Him?”

“Yeah. Said he could be a real bastard if it came down to the messy stuff.”

“He worked here for a while. I didn’t realize he was with the Bart’s.”

“Guess he joined up.”

“He was always a loner when he was here. He was always nice to me. Helped me with things. I think he was sweet on me a little.”

“Did you know him well?” I asked her.

“As well as anybody I guess. He was pretty quiet.”

“Wasn’t that kind of creepy? You were just a little girl.”

“You mean like right now? He was your age you know.”

“Was? Is? I mean, you were underage back then, weren’t you?”

“You’re Jealous, aren’t you?”

“No,” I lied, my words tasted like ashes in my own mouth.

“I’m not a little girl, Cameron,” she sounded pissed.

We ate in silence for a while, and I took a cup of coffee from the thermos. The cloudy skies told me it wasn’t going to be hot today, but in the sunshine, out in the middle of the tall grass with no one else about, my heart skipped a beat. I gazed at Alison when her head was turned, taking in her features. The bruise was starting to darken a bit, and every time I’d seen it today I wanted to go back to stomping Tim all over again. Ali saw me looking and smiled. Maybe I’d been forgiven?

“So what else did Jackson say?”

“Who said there was anything else?”

“Your eyes did.”

“I…” I leaned forward, pulling her hat back and kissed her gently, feeling her breath catch.

My heart screamed yes, my mind screamed no, but I didn’t care. Ali’s hand gently rubbed the back of my neck, and when I opened my eyes I could see hers still shut tight, as she was lost in the moment too.
Did she feel guilty?
I wondered.
Should I?
We broke the kiss, and I almost started it up again when she chewed her bottom lip, looking at me hungrily. I realized I had been jealous when she was talking about Dade… The kiss had confirmed a lot of feelings I had swirling through my body.

“You talked about kissing me?”

“Indirectly.”

“So, what was it about then?”

“Sandy thinks there’s going to be a wedding.”

“Who’s?”

“Ours,” I said starting to laugh. The surprised look on Alison’s face only made me laugh harder, and soon the tears were rolling down my cheeks.

“That’s not funny.”

“No, it’s not,” I laughed harder.

“Cam, we can’t do this.”

“No, but we did. Twice,” I said, starting to get my mirth under control.

“Is it weird?”

“What? Kissing?”

“No, kissing me.”

“I had to find out if the first time was a fluke, to be honest. It’s been eating me up all day. When I left for the army, you were a fat pimply little brat who…”

She tackled me, knocking my hat off and straddled my waist, her arms pinning my shoulders. I could have probably gotten up, but the fierce expression in her face made me smile and I let her hold me.

“Fat? You never call a girl fat,” she slugged my arm lightly, and then returned her grip.

“Don’t forget pimply. And a brat.”

“I was, wasn’t I?”

“Not anymore,” I admitted, loving the feel of her body holding me down.

She leaned down and kissed me. It was like our first kiss. It was like the sun exploded and fireworks were going off all around me. It was full of passion, need. She wanted this, and she wasn’t holding back. I was surprised when I realized I wasn’t holding back either. My hands started roaming her back, my hand slipping under the back collar of her shirt to caress her skin. A low moan surprised me, and I became painfully aroused when she started unbuttoning my shirt, undoing the red flannel. Her auburn hair kept tickling the sides of my face and I used my free hand to push it back out of my eye.

“No, not anymore,” I hoarsely whispered when she broke the kiss. Repeating myself.

Her hands trailed across my chest, her fingernails lightly scratching me. Her eyes never left mine, nor did she give up her position on top. I think she liked this as much or more than I did. I knew it was wrong, but the hand on her back moved to her side. I used a finger to trace her stomach for a moment and I laughed when she almost fell atop me, giggling like crazy.

“That tickles.”

“I’ll have to remember that,” she buried my mouth with a kiss, but my hand was still there, touching her.

I ran it up her side, loving the feel of her silky skin and gently cupping her breasts through her bra. Her breath caught for a moment and then she was pulling away, almost falling backwards. Her expression was half horror, half excitement. I was painfully aroused, and for a moment, wondered if that’s what had done it, or was it me trying to feel her up?

“We shouldn’t have.”

“No, no. You’re right,” I answered, standing to button my shirt.

I looked down, and in our shenanigans, the sandwiches she brought were kicked all over, in the dirt. I sighed. Nothing worse than having a hard on and being hungry. Even the thermos had spilled. The horses didn’t care, there were still sipping at the pool of water and munching on the lush grass there.

“Shit, what was I thinking?”

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to start things.”

“No, no. I can’t. I’ve never…”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s just that. I never should have-” The expression on her face changed to embarrassment, and she took a couple of deep breaths. “I’ve always wanted to do that, but maybe we shouldn’t.”

Of all the things to tell somebody who was worried about making out with his stepsister who was adopted, that wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I was expecting it to be about something else. Guilt perhaps?

“Wow,” I said, the only thing I could come up with.

“Is that a good wow, or a bad wow?”

“I thought you were worried about the family connection thingy?” I started to button my shirt.

Bonus! I found my sandwich, still in the Ziploc. Yes, it still looked sad, but it was edible. I took half out and tossed her the other half. She caught it and almost dropped it, having to reach way down. Bad throw, that’s the old me coming to the surface, the bad one. It was a surefire way to catch a glimpse of cleavage, and of course…. It worked. Mentally I kicked myself. She bit off a chunk and looked at me with pity in her eyes and handed me back the sandwich.

“Can I tell you something?”

“Sure,” I said, all kinds of confused.

“When you left for the army, I was pissed.”

“Why?”

“Because I had the world’s most crushable crush on you.”

“You hated me?” I was confused.

“I was 12 back then. It’s how girls act when they like a guy.”

“No wonder, guys never understand women.”

“Hey!”

“Well, just saying.”

“And for a while, I was really down. Dad figured it was because of the divorce, and that was part of it. He had me go to a counselor. Finally, your mom stopped by. Something she’d forgotten at the house and was picking up… I lost it and started crying. I told her everything. I didn’t realize my dad was in the kitchen doorway, and god, I almost died of embarrassment.”

I smiled, I could only guess, although getting caught kissing her at the wedding last night definitely gave me a taste of the embarrassment she might have felt.

“Then they both sat me down. ’Twelve is too young to fall in love’ they told me. I told them I felt horrible because it wasn’t just that, it was because you were my brother, or were. I shouldn’t have feelings like that for you.”

“You were a pretty smart and complicated little mess back then, weren’t you?”

“Definitely.”

“So then what?”

“They told me time would make things easier. For the most part, it did. I forgot about you for a while. Then you sent home a picture of you and your army buddies. You were in Fallujah. Mom had started dating Dad again by that time and I sort of…”

“What?”

“Stole the picture.”

“What?”

“Yeah, Dad found it under my pillow,” her face was burning up with embarrassment, the red coming all the way down her neck.

“Oh geeze. I think I remember that shot.”

“Yeah, you were smoking a cigarette and had two machine guns crossing your shoulders.”

“Oh god, yeah, that’s the one. I wasn’t wearing a shirt. It was supposed to make Mom feel better… It was a badass, still alive no injuries love you Mom, picture.”

“Well, I loved it too.”

“So why tell me all this now?”

“Because, when Dad told her about it, she came and talked to me. I told her I still felt the same way I did when I was younger.”

“But I sent that picture two years ago.”

“Yeah. She said, sometimes the heart loves who it wants. Since we’re not blood, there’s no reason to feel too bad about it.”

“That’s what Jackson said too.”

“You shit! I knew you were holding back,” she reached down and ripped up a handful of turf and pelted me in the face with it as I was finishing off the sandwich, getting some of the grass in my mouth.