Wild Montana Nights (17 page)

immediately took Darla from him and began toweling her dry.

“Am I next, little brother?” he asked with a smile.

“Screw you, bro. You can dry yourself off.”

Randall chuckled and watched as he snagged another towel to dry

himself. His brother looked down on her with such love in his eyes

that Randall didn’t see how she could miss it. Then maybe she just

wasn’t looking, he thought. Maybe she really didn’t feel that way

about them, so she didn’t notice how lovesick his little brother looked.

It was obvious to him though.

Marcus finished drying her off and picked her up to carry her in

the bedroom. He watched them go. Marcus kicked the bathroom door

shut behind him to keep the warm air in the bathroom. He appreciated

that. Randall took his time drying off so he could think.

He’d started the search through his lawyer doing a normal

background check and told him to find out why she’d left Mississippi

as well. He felt guilty now and wondered if he should stop it. It was done now, might as well go through with it. He would just make sure

she never found out or he was sure she would leave them.

As soon as he was dry, Randall pulled on his thermals that he’d

brought into the bathroom with him. They still hadn’t moved their

clothes into the master suite with her, and he didn’t want to run down the hall in the cold for all his clothes. When he opened the bathroom door, the bedroom was empty. Evidently she had gotten dressed and

they’d gone downstairs ahead of him. He hurried to his room and

pulled on socks, jeans, and a clean shirt. Then he jogged downstairs to see what they were up to.

* * * *

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“Hey. Wondered when you were going to come downstairs,”

Marcus said. “I’m going to check e-mail and do a couple of things

before I shut down the generator for the day.”

“Sounds good. What is Darla doing?” Randall asked.

“She is in the kitchen cooking again. Said something about chili I

think.” He rubbed his hands together. “I’m all for it, too.”

“Chili will sure go down good after being outside all day,”

Randall said.

“Randall,” he began. “Let’s go in the office. I want to talk, but I

don’t want her to overhear us.”

“Sure. What’s wrong?”

Marcus looked troubled. They walked into the office, and Randall

closed the door. He propped against his desk and waited while

Marcus took a seat behind his desk. He turned on the computer to let

it boot up.

“So?” Randall asked.

“Don’t you feel the least bit guilty about lying to her and checking

up on her? I mean, what happens when she finds out? She could leave

us, and what if she is pregnant? She could take the baby with her.”

Randall’s eyes grew large. He jumped up from his chair.

“We can’t let her do that.”

“I agree, but we are guilty of lying to her by omission,” Marcus

reminded him.

“I love her, Marcus. It would kill me if she left us.” Randall

rubbed his face with both hands.

“I know. I love her, too. I think it’s time we let her know how we

feel, and then tell her what we’ve done. We should never have tricked her like we have.”

“You’re right. Damn!” He smacked his hands down on the desk.

“Let’s tell her how we feel first, and then wait a day or two and

confess about the background check. That way she will have time for

it to sink in and maybe she won’t be that mad about it when we tell

her the rest.”

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“Okay, I can live with that,” Randall said.

There was a knock at the door. They looked at each other and

closed their eyes. Then Randall walked over and opened the door.

“Um, I don’t mean to bother you, but one of the ranch hands is at

the back door needing to see you.” She looked uncomfortable, and for

a minute he was afraid she’d overheard them.

“Thanks, baby. I’ll check and see what they need.” Marcus shot

out the door before Randall could.

“We were just talking about the horses. You’re not interrupting

anything.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head.

He closed his eyes as he hugged her, praying they hadn’t done

something she wouldn’t forgive them for.

“So, Marcus says you’re cooking chili for tonight.”

“Yeah, I hope that will be okay with you.”

“I love chili. The hotter the better,” he admitted.

She pulled out of his arms and frowned up at him. “I may not

make it hot enough for you. You might have to add some hot sauce to

it.”

“I can do that. Don’t worry about it.”

Marcus came jogging in. “Got a problem with one of the mares.

She’s down.”

Randall cursed. “Okay, I’m on my way.” He turned to Darla.

“Keep the fire going. We may be awhile.”

“I’m going to turn off the generator, too, so watch your step

around the house,” Marcus told her.

“You two go on. I’ll be fine.”

Randall took another look at her, then kissed her hard and quick

before following Marcus to the kitchen to put on his gear. Having a

horse down was a major problem. It could be anything. The usual

problem was colic from bad feed. He would make sure they checked

all the feed to be sure and not give any to the other horses if that was what it was.

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Once outside, he took one last look back at the house then joined

the ranch hand in the barn.

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Chapter Ten

Darla had just turned the chili down to simmer when the

electricity when off. Marcus must have turned off the generator, she thought. The rooms would get cold soon. She hurried up folding the

clothes in the laundry room then put them up. It was a good thing

Marcus had talked her into wearing a T-shirt under her flannel one.

She already felt the cold seeping into the rooms.

Once she had everything finished that she could do without

electricity, Darla put another log on the fire and curled up on the

couch with a blanket. She couldn’t read in the dark despite the fire in the fireplace. With the snow coming down like it was, there was little light outside to stream through the windows.

At least an hour had passed when she heard someone stomping at

the back porch. She hurried into the kitchen wearing the blanket to see who it would be. Marcus pushed into the room closing the door

behind him. A roll of snow followed at his feet.

“Damn snow,” he mumbled.

“Is everything okay with the horse?” she asked.

“Don’t know yet. Randall is working with her. Looks like colic,

but we aren’t sure how she ended up with it. All the feed looks fine.”

He shucked his outerwear and stuffed his feet into the loafers that sat under the coat rack for them.

“I’ll boil some water, and we can make coffee,” she offered. “It

might taste a bit strong, but it will warm you up.” She hesitated.

“Unless you would rather have hot chocolate.”

“Coffee, no matter how strong, will be wonderful. I’m going to

get by the fire for a few minutes.”

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Darla cleaned up the mess on the floor from where the snow had

blown in. It didn’t melt, so she knew it was cold in the house. Next she put a pot of water on the stove and turned it on to boil. She

located the strainer and put three small scoops of coffee into it. As soon as the water boiled, she would set the strainer with the coffee into the water. She hoped it would be palatable. She thought about her mother talk about doing it.

Thinking about that brought the memories of her mom and dad

back. She’d lost them in a tornado when she was fifteen. Sometimes

she could almost feel her in the room with her. Times like these she

wished she had her to talk to.

The water began to boil, so she sat the strainer in the boiler and

turned the heat down so it would simmer. More than likely it would

be bitter, but it was the best she could do since they didn’t have

instant. She needed to put that on the grocery list for the next time they went into town.

Several minutes later she turned off the coffee and poured a cup

for Marcus. She took a tentative sip of the hot liquid and nearly

burned her tongue off. It wasn’t half bad, but too hot to drink. Still, she carried it into the living room where Marcus was backed up to the fire.

“It’s too hot to drink, but it’s not too bad,” she told him.

“Thanks, I doubt anything could be too hot right about now.”

“What have you been doing?” she asked.

“Helped them check the feed. Then I shoveled snow to keep the

path clear. Hard to do with the wind like it is.” He took a cautious sip and grimaced. “Yep. Mighty hot, but pretty good.”

“Is there a battery operated radio around here?” Darla asked.

Marcus thought a few seconds then grinned. “Sure is. Wish I’d

thought about that earlier.”

He handed her his coffee and disappeared down the hall toward

the office. A minute later he returned with a small clock radio with a handful of batteries.

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125

“Needs batteries I think. I wasn’t sure what kind till I opened it

up, so I brought a few of each. I figure it will take a
D
though.”

Handing her the batteries, he sat on the couch and opened the

battery compartment. It was empty. He looked it over really well then held out his hand.

“I was right.
D
s. Hand me two of them.”

Darla dropped two in his hand and watched as he loaded them into

the clock radio. When he turned it over and switched it on static

greeted them. He frowned and fiddled with the knob until he found a

station that was fairly clear.

“Snow’s messing with the reception,” he said.

“At least it makes some noise. It’s really quiet with all the snow

and all. I hear the wind some and the fire crackling, but that’s about it.”

“You can listen for weather reports for us while we’re outside. He

stood up and stretched. “Speaking of which, I need to get back out

there.”

She followed him into the kitchen where he donned all his gear

once again. Before he opened the door he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

“Love you, baby. Stand back so you don’t get covered in snow.”

Darla opened her mouth then closed it. He’d said he loved her. Or

was it just a figure of speech? She stepped back so he could open the door and disappear into the snow. She shoved the door closed behind

him then cleaned up the mess again.

What had he meant with that? Did he even realize he’d said it, she

wondered. Her throat constricted at the implications. She couldn’t

help the wide smile that bloomed. If he loved her, then maybe his

brother would, too. Then she wouldn’t have to worry about needing to

leave. A black thought crossed her mind though.
He
had said he loved her, too. Then he’d broken her heart.

She licked her lips and huffed out a breath. She wasn’t going to

fall for anything this soon. How could they love her after only a few
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days? But she loved them, didn’t she? Wasn’t that why she ached to

hear them say it? It had only been a few days for her as well, but she knew in her heart she loved them both.

Nearly five hours later both men stomped into the kitchen

strewing snow everywhere. She resigned herself to cleaning it up

several times a day. There was nothing to be done to stop it.

“How is the horse?” she asked immediately.

“She’s going to make it, but it was touch and go there for awhile.

Getting her up was the hardest thing, but once we got her up, we

could walk it out of her.” Randall sat on the bench and pulled off his boots. He slipped into the loafers and standing up, stretched.

“Something sure smells good. We missed lunch, didn’t we?” he

said.

Marcus dropped his hat on a hook and walked to the stove to lift

the lid on the pot and take a sniff.

“Why don’t you two go warm up by the fire and I’ll bring you

some coffee?” Darla shooed them out of the kitchen and warmed up

the coffee on the stove.

She carried two mugs of the steaming liquid to them and watched

as they sipped it.

Randall grimaced but grinned afterwards. “Strong and good but a

little bit bitter. How did you make it?”

Darla told him, and he laughed. “You’re just full of surprises.”

“I’ve listened to the radio off and on most of the day trying to

catch some weather reports. The last one I heard was about thirty

minutes ago. Said the worst of the storm was over, but there would

still be another five or six hours of steady snow.”

“Hallelujah to that.” Marcus cheered. “I’m sick of this stuff, and

we still have the rest of the winter to deal with.”

“Yeah, but we only get a few storms like that where we lose

power,” Randall amended.

“It hasn’t been too bad. I’ve had a couple of hot cowboys keeping

me warm and busy.” Darla winked at them.

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“Who’ve you been letting in here when we aren’t around?”

Randall teased.

Both men sidled up to her and squeezed her between them. She

shivered but not from the cold. The two of them sported hard-ons the

size of baseball bats. It thrilled her that they got that way for her.