Corralled (Blacktop Cowboys 1)

“Me neither.” Kyle sipped his coffee and looked at Hank curiously. “I’ll bet Celia rolls outta bed at the crack of nothin’ and whips up something like this for you when you’re home, huh?”

Lainie’s hand tightened around her coffee cup. Who was Celia, and why was she cooking Hank breakfast on a regular basis?

“She can’t cook worth a shit, Kyle. Nice shot, putting me on the defensive first thing.” Hank faced Lainie in the booth. “Now’s as good a time as any to exchange family history. I don’t have to ask about yours, since it’s rodeo legend, but the Celia that Kyle was referring to is my baby sister.”

“Baby.” Kyle sneered. “She’s what? Twenty-one?”

Hank ignored Kyle’s interruption. “I have one older brother, Abe. Me ’n’ him run the family ranch outside of Muddy Gap. We raised Celia after our folks died ten years back.”

Weird to think that in all the times she and Hank, or she and Kyle, had been together, they hadn’t talked about family. Lainie placed her hand over Hank’s on the table. “I’m sorry. Both your parents died at one time?”

“Yeah. Dad was elk huntin’ and Ma went along because they did everything together. Some freaky malfunction happened with their hotel heater and they died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Anyway, Celia was only eleven, so she was stuck growin’ up with me and Abe. Which means she’s pretty much a tomboy clear through.”

“That girl would rather be with her horses than with people,” Kyle said.

“Probably why she has an eye for good horseflesh. Celia ain’t interested in datin’, thank God.”

“Only because you and Abe chased off all the guys in the county that dared look at her.”

“Lookin’ is one thing. Touchin’ is another.”

The waitress returned to take their order. As Lainie was thinking about all she didn’t know about Hank, she realized Kyle was as much a mystery. “What about you, Kyle? You from a Wyoming ranching family?”

Kyle shook his head. “Just me ’n’ my mom. My mom worked a lot, so I rode the bus home with Hank or our buddy Eli. I practically lived at the Lawson place.” Kyle gave Hank a conspiratorial smile. “Your mom was the greatest. She loved bein’ surrounded by rambunctious boys. And you finished chores three times as fast with me ’n’ Eli helping.”

Lainie had no problem imagining Kyle and Hank as rough-and-tumble teenage boys. “So what’d you do after chores were done?”

“Raised hell,” they said in unison, and laughed.

“Raced horses, raced four-wheelers, taunted bulls, fished, worked some more, target shot, the usual stuff ranch kids do for fun.”

“I had ranch envy,” Kyle admitted. “We lived in a two-bedroom apartment in low-income housing in the crappy section of Rawlins, close to where she cocktail waitressed. Whenever I was out at Hank’s place or Bran’s place I felt like I could breathe.”

Another punch of guilt surfaced at hearing Hank and Kyle talk about their growing-up years. These guys had a connection stronger than any bond they’d started to form with her.

“Hey.” Kyle leaned across the table and peered into her eyes. “You got an awful serious look all of a sudden. What’s wrong?”

“I can’t do this.”

“Can’t do what, sweetheart?” Hank asked.

“Can’t come between you two.”

“I’m hopin’ you come between us often.”

Lainie glanced at Kyle after his smart-ass response. “This isn’t funny. I’m serious.”

“So are we, Lainie. We’re big boys. We’ve talked about it.”

“You have?”

Hank nodded. “Actually, that’s why we think the sharing option works. Because we’ll both give this time with you our best shot. So if you do choose one of us over the other—which we all know might not even happen—it really is because the best man wins.”

“Wins? I’m not the prize you think I am.”

“Sugar, obviously that ain’t true, because Hank and I are both here.”

Their reassurances didn’t bolster her confidence.

“We know you had fun with us last night,” Hank said.

“That’s an understatement,” she muttered in her coffee.

“We also know you’ve been pushed into taking a vacation. Since you’re not sure about your travel plans, here’s what we propose.” Kyle looked at Hank and Lainie saw him nod. “We want you to spend those weeks with both of us during Cowboy Christmas.”

Her gaze whipped between blue eyes and green. “You’re serious.”

“Completely. You said you don’t get to see much of the areas you’re working in. Here’s a chance for you to learn the life of a rodeo cowboy. Think how much better it’ll be for your career as a med tech to know firsthand the stresses our bodies are subjected to as we’re getting from place to place.”

“But—”

“When was the last time you went to a rodeo and just had fun?” Kyle demanded. “Watching all the events, not just stuck in the medical aid room?”

Lainie racked her brain but she couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer.

“Doesn’t it sound like a blast to attend rodeos—big and small—across three different circuits?”