#
When Kiley Kellogg walked into the crowded firehouse, every head turned, Rob’s included. Not only was she new in town, and therefore a subject of great interest to the locals, but she was also beautiful in a fresh-faced, innocent way that made you want to trust her.
If she could lie without it showing in every cell of her body, Rob thought, she’d be dangerous.
Joey, who had arrived and found him while Kiley had been freshening up, said, “Hubba, hubba! Who is that pretty little thing?”
“That’s my new business partner. We’re going halves on the ranch.”
Joey’s eyebrows reached for the sky. “For real? Since when? I just saw you twenty minutes ago, and you said—”
“I know what I said. Things changed. I think she’s looking for me. Come on, I’ll introduce you. Uh, soon as you roll up your tongue, close your mouth and wipe the drool off your chin.”
Joey blinked and looked his older brother’s way. “Oh, yeah. Sorry.” Then he grinned. “You calling dibs, though? ‘Cause if you’re not—”
“I’m calling off limits,” Rob told him. “If I’m gonna be in business with her, I don’t need that kind of complication, Joe. Sorry.”
He started meandering through the crowd toward Kiley. She spotted him, smiled brightly and he tripped over the floor. Those eyes of hers, so blue you could paint the sky with them, had the impact of a wrecking ball when they locked onto his. No wonder Joey’d reacted the way he had.
With his brother on his heels, he made his way through the crowd to where she stood. She had a white paper Big Falls Pharmacy bag sticking up out of her purse. “Did I miss anything?” she asked.
“Not a thing,” Rob told her. “Kiley, this is my brother, Joey. Joe, Kiley Kellogg.”
“Kellogg? Like in ‘the old Kellogg place’?” Joey asked, offering his hand.
She took it and shook once, smiling. “I wish I could say, ‘as in heiress to the Frosted Flakes fortune,’ but no, you got it right. I lived there as a kid. Just never got the place out of my system.”
Joey’s smile widened. He liked her, Rob could tell. And what was not to like? She was a charmer.
There was a vat of coffee on a long folding table on one side of the room, and people were constantly making their way to or from it. It was surrounded by styrofoam cups and several cream and sugar bowls. There was one of those Big Falls’ Big Future fundraising signs right beside the table, with a plastic cylinder for donations, already half filled with bills. The remainder of the table was taken up by a wide selection of pastries. A Sunny’s Bakery sign was taped to the wall behind them, and there were stacks of flyers and cupcake shaped magnets with the bakery’s phone number on them, taking up the two inches between the edge of the pastry trays and the edge of the table.
Smart business woman, that Sunny.
The auctioneer took to the front of the room, and people began to quiet down. “I think it’s best you do the bidding for both of us, Rob,” Kiley whispered.
“Why’s that?” Joey asked before Rob could respond.
She smiled. “Because the locals will realize that it’s a lost cause trying outbid a McIntyre.”
Rob frowned, not the least bit comfortable with that. He hadn’t thought of it before, or he’d have got someone to come in and bid on his behalf, just to keep things fair and upright. He was big on fair and upright. They were part and parcel of honesty. And honesty had been his thing ever since Paula…but he wasn’t going to think about that just now.
“Look we’re gonna get the place either way, right?” Kiley asked, looking up and directly into his eyes, resting one hand on his chest right where his heart started beating faster. “So why should we pay more than we have to?”
“She has a point,” Joey said.
Kiley sent Joey her laser beam smile. “Of course I do. When you grow up poor, you learn to find advantages where you can. It’s not the kind of thing I expect a man like you to understand, Rob, but maybe you could just trust me on this? Just this once?” Someone bumped her, or something, because she stumbled closer, her chest pressing against his for a second, and her other hand closed on his shoulder to hold on, as she cast an irritated look behind her.
Rob didn’t see anyone back there, though. And she didn’t move away, despite the fact that there was room to.
“Besides,” she said, her breath sweet and minty. “If I’m wrong, then people will bid anyway. No harm done.”
“All right,” he said, fully aware that his brain had shut down and his mouth was on auto-pilot. “I’ll do the bidding. But you’d best not take this as a sure thing, Kiley. I don’t want you all disappointed if we don’t get the place.”
“You’re so sweet,” she said.
Then she stepped away from him, removed her small warm hands from his body, and took a careful look at the people around them, her eyes turning sharp and interested. “Do you know if anyone else plans to bid on the place?” she asked.
He looked around too. “Most of these folks are locals. Probably just here out of curiosity.”
“And for the free goodies,” Joey put in. “But hey, that guy’s new, front row, left of center. You know him, Rob?”
Rob looked where Joey was focused and spotted the stranger, a short man, heavyset, with male pattern baldness ringed by super dark hair. He wore an expensive suit and was sipping coffee from a foam mug.
“Never saw him before.”
“He’s a lawyer,” Kiley said. Her tone had an edge to it that he hadn’t heard before. Not so much sweet southern twang anymore.
Both guys shot her a look and Rob asked, “You know him?”
“Nope. But I can smell ‘em a mile away. He’s here to bid for some client or other. I’m gonna keep track of him.”
Before Rob could reply, Kiley was moving away from him, weaving her way to the front of the room toward the stranger, and the next thing he knew she was squeezing herself right in beside the man.
The stranger shot an irritated look her way, and she beamed up at him, blinking those baby blues and saying something to him.
The guy smiled at her, almost visibly melting.
Joey elbowed him. “Holy crap, those eyes of hers oughtta be certified as deadly weapons.” Then he frowned, and shot his brother a look. “What do you know about her, anyway?”
“Not a damn thing,” Rob said. “Just met her last night.”
“And you’re gonna go into business with her? Robby, are you sure this is a good idea?”
It was seeming like less of a good idea with every minute that passed, but the auctioneer banged his gavel, and the Kellogg ranch was the first order of business. Within a few seconds, that lawyer standing beside Kiley Kellogg was raising his paddle. Every time Rob bid, the stranger bid a little bit higher. Three others started bidding too, but as the price went up, they dropped out one by one.
Rob knew they were getting close to Kiley’s maximum. The alleged lawyer was looking down at a cell phone every few seconds, probably texting with his client, and it didn’t look as if he’d got the “quit” message yet.
And then Kiley looked down, which made Rob look down too. In between elbows and arms, he saw her rummaging around in that white pharmacy bag of hers.
“What the hell is she—”
Joey elbowed him. “Rob, it’s your turn. Bid or you’re gonna lose it.”Distracted, he raised his paddle, and the auctioneer recognized him and kept on barking. When he looked up again, Kiley was glancing back at him, and she flashed him a thumbs-up sign.
What the hell did that mean?
He looked at the man who stood on her right, sipping coffee from his white foam cup while looking down at his phone screen. Nodding, the fellow raised his paddle once more.
The bidding went on, back and forth, just between the two of them, three more increments up. Rob was raising the price by smaller and smaller amounts, which probably signaled to the other fellow that he was getting close to his limit. The guy smelled blood. He wouldn’t quit.
And then sud
denly, the fellow spun around and shouldered his way to the aisle. Once clear of the bystanders he broke into a run, disappearing into the hallway where the restrooms were.
“This is it!” Joey said, and he grabbed Rob’s wrist and lifted it, paddle and all.
The auctioneer accepted his bid, then asked for others, but of course there was no one there to give them. Bert, the auctioneer, glanced down at Kiley, and said, “Is he coming back, ma’am?”
“I surely don’t know,” she said. “He muttered, ‘too rich for my blood’ and then ran outta here like the devil was on his tail.”
The auctioneer shrugged and said, “Going once, going twice,” and then he banged the gavel, “Sold!”
“Holy shit,” Rob said.
Joey clapped him on the back, grinning, then he hugged him full on. “Congratulations, Rob! You did it! You got your ranch.”
Kiley sent him a gorgeous, innocent smile, and sauntered toward the exits, shoving her little white drugstore bag further down into her purse on the way.
Rob wasn’t entirely sure, but he thought maybe he’d just made a deal with the devil.