Lynnette Kent - Married In Montana

But if Maxwell owned him, he couldn’t be completely trusted, either. Better not look for help from that quarter.

Rafe turned back to finish his eggs, and found Mona standing opposite him.

“Take the judge at his word,” she suggested, swapping his cold plate of food for a steaming hot portion. “Maxwell owns this town and most of the people in it, one way or the other. You land on his bad side, you won’t get an ounce of cooperation from anybody.” She smiled. “Except me. Maxwell doesn’t like me, either.”

“Why not?”

“I taught in the county school system for close to two decades. Bobby was one of my sixth-graders. Bright kid, spoiled rotten. He didn’t do a lick of work in my class all year. I wouldn’t promote him, no matter how many fits his daddy threw. Maxwell got me fired, but Bobby still had to repeat the sixth grade, and he didn’t pull the same stunt again. Graduated in the spring with pretty good grades, I heard.”

“And you’re working in the diner?”

Mona shrugged. “My husband built the place and ran it until he died last year. I figured keeping Grizzly’s open would give me something to do and pay my respects at the same time.” Her smile was rueful. “Anyway, watch your step. The Maxwells are about as safe to be around as timber rattlers. A little more predictable, maybe—you threaten them or theirs, you can be sure they’ll do their best to take you down.”

She moved away, and Rafe thought for a second about calling her back for one more question.

What about Thea Maxwell?

Did she take after her old man? Did she follow his orders straight down the line? Was she just one more piece of property her father owned?

Did it matter? Boss Maxwell had practically threatened him with bodily harm for interfering. The lady herself had brushed him off like yesterday’s dust. And there was little doubt that her brother would keep to the straight and narrow exactly as long as it took him to pick up his truck. Any more trouble with Bobby would put Rafe on the side of the devil, as far as all the Maxwells were concerned.

Didn’t he have enough trouble in this town already? Was his sense of self-preservation so weak?

With a silent sigh, Rafe acknowledged that the same two words answered both of those questions—plus one more…

Could he really be crazy enough to consider going after this woman?

Remembering Thea’s voice, her smile, the light in her eyes and the strange peace he’d felt when he first saw her, Rafe nodded and took a sip of coffee. Three simple questions, one simple answer.

You bet.

ALL DAY SATURDAY—sunrise until sundown—Bobby worked on getting his big sister to drive him to town to pick up his truck. Successful, as usual, he now sat beside her in the front seat of her Land Rover, beating a tattoo on his knees in rhythm with the tune screaming from the CD player. They’d rolled the windows down, though the night air blew cold. Between the big starry sky and the miles adding up between him and the ranch, he was beginning to feel he could breathe again.

Thea pressed a control on the steering wheel and turned the volume down.

“Hey!” Bobby reached for the button on the console. “I like that song.”

This time she punched the music off. “We need to talk.”

Here we go again. “No, we don’t.”

She ignored his protest. “What are you trying to prove with the drinking and the fighting and the stupid stunts? I have to tell you, nobody is impressed with your maturity and sense of responsibility.”

“I’m only nineteen years old, for God’s sake. I don’t have to be mature or responsible.”

“It would be nice if you were still alive when your twentieth birthday came around.”

He rolled his eyes. “Give me a break. The most life-threatening thing I do is show up for work every day, give the old man another chance to run me into the ground.”

“It’s your ranch…your life…we’re talking about here. Dad wants you to be prepared to take over when he retires.”

The words were out before he could stop them. “If he’d listen to me—just once—and realize I don’t want the damn ranch, we’d all be better off.”

Thea took her gaze off the road to stare at him. “Why not?”

Bobby dropped his head against the back of the seat and closed his eyes. His head still ached from last night. “When did I ever say I did?”

“You loved the place when you were little. We couldn’t convince you to come in for dinner some nights, at least not until it got too dark to work.”

“Yeah, well, I grew up.” He didn’t have the words to explain how the ranch, the old man…Thea herself…smothered him. And even if he could find the words…no way could he hurt Thea like that. She’d taken care of him since he was four years old.

“I’m not so sure.” She braked at the intersection of the ranch road with the main highway, then turned left toward town. “Adults acknowledge their responsibilities.”

He ground his back teeth. “Damn, I’m tired of that word.”

“Don’t swear at me.”

“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do.” Now he sounded like a four-year-old even to himself.

They rode the thirty miles to Paradise Corners without saying anything else. Thea took the shortcut, which brought them to the Lone Wolf Bar without going through the main part of town. His truck sat right where he’d left it last night, reflecting the neon lights of the bar in its bright red finish.

Bobby pulled in a deep breath. “Thanks, Tee.” He used his childhood name for her to apologize. “I appreciate the ride.” He opened the door and dropped to the ground, then turned to give her a grin and a wave through the open window. The night was young, and there was a girl he knew…

Thea evidently had other ideas. “You’re going to follow me home, right?”

He stared at her in disbelief. “Uh…no, I hadn’t planned on going home yet.”

His sister could swear with the best of the cowboys, and she did it now as she slammed the door and strode around the Land Rover to face him. She was only a couple of inches shorter and ten years older than he. That made her a strong woman, even when she wasn’t spitting mad.

Like this. “You are not going to spend tonight carousing and fighting, buddy.” She jabbed a finger into his chest. “I’m not having you brought home by the deputy again. Or an ambulance. You get your butt in that truck. I’ll follow you.”

“Tee—” The problem was that he wanted to laugh. He never could get mad at his big sis. “It’s Saturday night. You don’t really want me sitting at home on Saturday night.”

“I believe we’ll all survive the experience.”

The urge to laugh faded. “Look, I promise I won’t get plowed again. I’ll stay sober as a judge.”

“You know as well as I do how much LeVay likes his scotch.” Her eyes had lost their fierceness. He was gonna win this one, too. “And you promised the same thing before you left home last night, as I recall.”

“Cross my heart.” He suited action to words. “Look, I told Megan we’d go over to Bozeman tonight. She’s supposed to get here about eight—” A beat-up Jeep rolled into the parking lot. “See, that’s her right there.”

Thea had all her antennae up now. “Does Mr. Wheeler know you’re taking Megan to Bozeman? Why didn’t you pick her up at her house?”

“Uh…sure, he knows.” He hated to lie, but he didn’t want to continue this fight in front of Megan. “I thought I’d be in town earlier than this, so she got her friend Racey to drop her off.”

The Jeep stopped right beside him, and Megan scooted out. “Thanks, Race. See ya’.” She straightened up and smiled at him. “Hey, Bobby.”