Cowboy Underneath It All. Delores Fossen

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      Heck, he never let anyone know that. Kane just showed up. He’d been doing that for years, and no one had complained. Not until now anyway.

      Since he wasn’t getting anywhere with this discussion, he moved on to the next questions. “And what does any of this have to do with you lying? Better yet, what lie did you tell?”

      “Lies,” she corrected. Eliza groaned, squeezed her eyes shut a moment and leaned against the aqua-painted concrete-block wall. “God, I’m so sorry, but I told my sister that you and I had been texting and calling each other. And we do talk, remember?”

      Yes, around Christmas Eliza had called to chat. It was June now. And, yes, they had also texted a couple of times since then, but both the calls and the texts had been about business. Kane often hired some of the hands at Eliza’s family’s ranch to keep the yard and pastures in shape at his own place. Eliza was the business manager there, so Kane went through her to get that done.

      But why had Eliza told her sister about his needing the grass cut?

      Kane tried to follow that through to some logical conclusion, but he couldn’t come up with one. “Why the hell would you do that?”

      “Because I could see that Violet was falling for Dax, and I didn’t want there to be any obstacles.”

      He had to throw his hands up in the air. Not a good idea because he raked his fingers across her left breast. Nice breasts, too. Something he wished he hadn’t noticed. He wished Eliza hadn’t noticed his reaction, either, because a slightly heated look followed her sound of surprise.

      Kane quickly got his mind back on the right track. And the right track certainly wasn’t noticing or touching her breasts. “I’m not an obstacle. I’m her boyfriend.”

      Eliza had obviously practiced flat looks over the years because she gave him a good one. “You two saw each other when it was convenient. It was more of a habit than a real relationship, and you know it.”

      He didn’t want to admit it. Even if it was true. “So what? I called Violet just a couple of months ago, and she didn’t mention a word about Dax.”

      “You called her eight months ago,” Eliza corrected.

      Kane frowned. That was possibly true. Heck, had it really been that long?

      “That’s about the time she and Dax started dating,” Eliza went on. “It wasn’t love at first sight exactly, but it happened shortly afterward. And then they got engaged, and they hurried to put this wedding together because they didn’t want to wait to get married.”

      And no one had told him. Of course, he wasn’t exactly in the gossip loop since his best friend in Spring Hill, Lucky McCord, didn’t spend much time here, either. Lucky was a bull rider on the rodeo circuit and was gone almost as much as Kane was.

      “You could have let me know what was going on,” Kane pointed out to her.

      Eliza nodded. “I started to do that a couple of times, but then the lie kept snowballing. And you know that Violet has always wanted to marry a cowboy.”

      There weren’t enough curse words for his response. “And what in Sam Hill am I—French toast?”

      She looked at him, and for a moment he thought she was going to point out the obvious, that he was a fighter pilot. She didn’t. “You’re someone who hasn’t been around very much, and my sister fell in love with another man. I lied to her because I wanted her to have an open path to finding the happiness she deserves.”

      Kane wished he could dispute at least one part of that. Any part. But, hell, he wanted Violet to be happy, too. He just didn’t want her happy with another man. He was so glad he hadn’t said that aloud, though, because it made him sound petty and selfish. He wasn’t normally either of those things, but the shock and anger were getting the best of him.

      And the confusion.

      Because his mind was in a whirlwind, it took Kane a moment to pick through the whirl and process something Eliza had said.

      “How’d the lie that you told keep snowballing?” he asked.

      Eliza opened her mouth, closed it. Groaned. That groan was not a sound he wanted to hear, because Kane knew this had to be bad.

      “How?” he pressed. But Eliza didn’t get a chance to answer because the bathroom door flew open, and a woman came in.

      Violet.

      She was still wearing that veil, and she halted in midstep, literally with her foot still in the air. There was just a moment of surprise on her face before she smiled.

      And then giggled.

      That giggle wasn’t something Kane wanted to hear, either. Not just because it sounded drunk, but it also seemed as if Violet was thrilled about something. Since he was in the ladies’ room with what had to be a very confused look on his face, Kane couldn’t see anything for her to be thrilled about.

      Violet hurried to them, gathering them both into her arms, and she kissed them on their cheeks. “Kane, I’m so glad you’re here.” When Violet pulled back, there were tears in her eyes.

      Happy tears, Kane was sure of it. But he couldn’t figure out why they were there. He had a really bad feeling, though, that this had something to do with the snowballing.

      “I’m in seventh heaven for both of you,” Violet went on. “When Eliza told me you two were seeing each other, it just made my life complete. I mean, it was long over between us, and I wanted you to move on. It’s nice that you moved on in my sister’s direction.”

      Kane had to shake his head. “Seeing each other?” Kane questioned.

      Eliza had mentioned texting but not seeing. He figured there were other things she’d left out when Violet’s happy tears continued. “I just know you two are going to have the perfect life together.”

      “Say what?” he growled.

      Violet slapped her hand over her mouth as if she’d just blurted out a huge secret. Well, it was a secret to Kane all right. A secret that soon became a whole lot clearer when Eliza put her arms around him.

      “Violet, I didn’t say that Kane and I were engaged,” Eliza pointed out.

      Violet winked. “Not yet anyway. But since you’re in love, that’s the next step, right?”

      The blood rushed to Kane’s head. Crap on a cracker. This wasn’t snowballing. This was an avalanche.

      One that continued.

      Violet caught onto both his and Eliza’s arms and practically threw them together. “Go ahead, Kane. Kiss the woman you love.”

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