CHAPTER 26
Frankie
It’s dark, but it can’t be any later than nine, and I’m nowhere near tired. So, I decide to keep the conversation going.
Yes, in the back of my mind, I’m thinking about that bed back there in the cabin, the one that’s currently morphing from crescent roll to sexual playground.
Is that what MacLaine has planned for me? Is that what I want? Do I even know what I want?
Oh, shit, this is getting way too complicated. I came here to hide. To be by myself, where no one would ever find me.
But Special K MacLaine found me, didn’t he?
I keep my gaze away from his and try to sound casual. “Does your start-up have a prospectus I could look at? I have a few tech investments.”
“We’re not public, unfortunately,” he says.
“That sucks.” I turn to him again. My heart is pounding, and my palms are sweating. I think I’m on the verge of doing something I’ll regret. Or not doing it, and then regretting that even more.
Trust your gut, Frank.
“Tell me more about the MacLaines.”
I’m stalling, but I’ve got to do something. I’m about three seconds away from standing, walking over there, and removing my cat so that I can lay some real pussy on his lap.
That’s how much I want him. Fuck reason and logic. Fuck the mess I’m in.
“I’ve been monopolizing the conversation,” he says. “How about you talk for a while?”
My mouth goes dry. “I… I love your stories. This will sound weird, but at first, I thought you were painfully shy.”
He lowers his jaw and peers at me, his violet eyes flashing. “The socially awkward forest ranger comment?”
I laugh. “Nothing gets past you, does it?”
“No, it does not.”
My heart thuds in my chest. That simple statement had a lot of power behind it. I think he just informed me that he sees far more than he’s letting on. That he’s got me rightfully pegged as someone who’s keeping secrets. He may have already guessed at what they are.
“The truth is, you were correct,” he says. “I am shy. And ‘socially awkward’ is a totally legit way of describing me. I’m not usually like this, Boots. It usually takes a long, long time for me to drop my guard.”
You and me both, cowboy.
I nod. “Tell me more. About your family, I mean.”
He shrugs. “Sure.”
I sit back and listen as he tells me how Victoria put her white-collar-criminal father in prison and while she was at it, discovered that a longtime ranch accountant had been skimming off the MacLaine family for decades, and got him arrested, too.
I’m stunned. “Seriously? She sounds like a badass.”
He smiles. “Turns out all my sisters-in-law are badasses.”
“Spill the tea, then.”
He tells me that Evander and Phoebe almost died a few months ago in the blizzard that paralyzed much of the state. And after he and Declan pulled off a daring helicopter rescue, Phoebe had to take on her whole family to fight for the man she loves.
“Get it, girl,” I say, which makes MacLaine chuckle.
Next, he describes how Summer and Declan got drunk-married in Vegas on New Year’s Eve, only to find out that Summer was dying. Then they learned she’d been misdiagnosed and wasn’t actually dying but was definitely infertile. And then she immediately got pregnant.
I squint at him in disbelief. “This sounds like a bad cable movie.”
“There’s more. Next is Finn’s drama. You sure you want to hear it?”
“Are you kidding? Absolutely.”
“I’ll give you the Twitter version, and even that’s a lot to take in. But if you insist...”
He explains that Finn’s first wife died giving birth to Jasmine and that Finn always blamed himself and never believed he deserved happiness.
“That’s awful,” I say.
But that ended the day Emma answered an ad to work as a ranch housekeeper and captured Finn and Jasmine’s hearts.
“That’s awesome,” I say.
And while this was going on, Aunt Phyllis—who had a family from her first marriage—discovered that she was Emma’s biological grandmother.
It turns out Emma had been in foster care her whole life, never knowing who her parents were, but Phyllis unearthed that the wayward teen daughter who’d died in an auto accident was actually Emma’s mother.
At the same time, Emma encountered the foster father who’d abused her, and Special K and his brothers served up justice for her, causing the asshole to lose his livelihood, his reputation, and his freedom.
“Wait. What now?” I stare at him, incredulous.
He nods, serious. “Can’t make this shit up, I know. But it’s all true.”
I’m quiet for a moment, taking it all in. “So, what you’re telling me is that the MacLaines are just simple country folk, living simple lives.”
He points at me. “Exactly! Just five Navy SEAL brothers back home on the ranch, ropin’ and ridin’ and raisin’ hell.”
I feel my eyes pop open. “All five of you are SEALs? You didn’t mention that!”
“Oh. Yeah, we were SEALS, all of us.”
“What the hell’s in the water out here?”
He laughs. “If you think that’s bad, next door at the Travis Ranch, all five of Phoebe’s brothers became professional athletes.”
“Travis…” The name sounds familiar for some reason, and then I remember. “You mean the football quarterback? The hockey star and the baseball player? That Travis family?”
“You follow sports? Yeah, that Travis family. There’s also an MMA fighter and a boxer.”
Oh, yes. I know all about the Travises. The MMA fighter’s a helluva tipper. So’s the quarterback.
He’s watching me carefully, putting the pieces together. I can’t let that happen. “And you’re the only MacLaine brother whose story hasn’t been written, right? How will you ever compete with all that?”
“Won’t need to.” His expression turns somber “I’ll never find the kind of happy ever after my brothers got. It’s not in the stars for me.”