Page 14 of Kinsey (Pennington Family #1)

“Come to bed. I’m too sore to do much more than just let you hold me.” He took off the clothing that he’d gotten on and got into bed with her. “I could get used to this. Having you in bed with me has made me realize that I’ve gone too long without the right man in my bed.”

“Why, thank you, ma’am.” She curled herself around him again. “I will have to go home sooner rather than later. I have a lot of work to get done. Especially if the sale isn’t—where are you going?”

“The sale is today.” He said that he knew it, he’d just said that. “I want to see if there are any calls to see about it. We should both go down and get some breakfast anyway. I feel like I could eat an entire cow right now.”

And just like that, she was in the shower, and he was left getting dressed.

Laughing to himself, he wondered what Wylie was thinking about him not being at home, and thought that he didn’t care.

He was a big boy and could stay out all night if he wanted.

But he did text him to let him know he’d be home later in the afternoon.

There was no point in making him too worried about him.

His message back was champagne glasses clinking together.

Leave it to his brother to embarrass him online.

He didn’t know if he should go down to the kitchen or not since Meggie was in the bathroom.

He also didn’t know if she would take a longer shower than he had or not.

There was a lot of stuff he didn’t know about her, but was willing to learn.

He was in the kitchen when the cook asked him what he wanted to eat.

“Whatever Meggie eats, I’m fine with that.” She nodded once and went to the refrigerator. He sat down at the bar in the room and asked if he could help. “I can cook too if you have other things to do.”

“I’m going to cook you a big breakfast, young man. Now all you have to do is tell me how you want your eggs and we’ll be just fine.” Grace came into the kitchen then, and she was dressed up. “The ladies have all confirmed that they’ll be here at six on the dot, mistress. I hope that’s all right.”

If they were going to act like it was all right with him being there, he was going to be all right.

It wasn’t until Meggie came into the kitchen and kissed him that he felt like he was a part of the house.

She told her grandma that she’d gotten two calls already and that she was hoping for several more.

“What happened to David Winchester and his need for land? Surely you told him about it.” She said she sent him the same flyer as she had sent to everyone else.

“Good. That man is going to own a couple of states before too much longer. Did you tell him that the land is over—of course you did. You would have told everyone that. More bang for their bucks.”

They talked around him. Mostly about the upcoming dinner tonight, but about the sale as well.

When a platter of food was set in front of him, he was sure that he was required to share it.

But when Ms. Maple, the cook, set one in front of Meggie, he had to smile.

She must have thought that they worked up a hell of an appetite last night.

And after his first bite, he thought that he had as well.

It was nearly noon when the calls started to come in.

Meggie said she was surprised by that but didn’t say it was a bad thing.

When Mr. Winchester called her, she told him everything that had been in the flyer about the land and even asked him a couple of questions about the land.

Like, did the house come with it. He had to ask himself, what would he do with the house if he sold the land under it.

But he did ask only himself, not wanting to make a fool of himself.

When she said that she had to go to the office, he decided that he should be starting home.

He had plenty of work to do and didn’t want to leave it all on his brothers.

As soon as he got into his truck, she came out of the house to talk to him.

Turning off the motor, he smiled at her when she pouted prettily, telling him that she wished that he could stay.

“I’ll call you tonight. And when I have some good news.” He told her that he’d keep his cell phone on him. “All right. I wish you could stay today, but I know that you have work to do.”

“Wylie will have started on it, but it’ll take the two of us to get all the work done today.

Ara is coming over this afternoon, too.” She smiled at him and told him she’d enjoyed their time together.

“So did I, but I will only admit this to you, I’m sore in places that I’ve never been sore before.

” They both smiled at his admission, and she said that she was as well.

Driving home, he thought about the night he’d spent with Meggie and was glad for the time they had.

Now, if the land were to sell, he’d have more time for things like this with her, and nearly turned around to go back to her, thinking fuck it and letting his brothers take care of the day.

But he didn’t, knowing that he’d feel guilty about it.

He was pulling into his driveway when his phone rang.

Since he didn’t know the number, he let it go.

Whoever it was, they’d leave a message if they wanted to talk to him, and he wasn’t going to let his good mood go because of a phone call.

Wylie was waiting for him when he got changed and made his way to the barn.

“Everything all right?” Kinsey told his brother that things were just fine, and they set to work.

He did ask him about the sale if they’d heard anything, and that was about it.

Telling him that Meggie was going to call if she heard anything seemed to be all right with him, and they continued with their jobs in getting the cows milked and the milk ready to be transported to Berlin.

At four, they quit for dinner. It was early, but he’d not eaten anything since breakfast and was starving.

There was just enough leftovers for the four of them to have open-faced sammiches, and there was plenty of tea for them to have with it.

Setting up the tea maker to make some more for the four of them, they ate the rest of the cake that Ara had picked up at the day-old grocery store for their dinner.

He didn’t see anything wrong with it and was happy for the sweetness after having a big dinner.

Exhausted now, he made sure to keep that to himself while they finished up the rest of their chores after dinner.

Kinsey had forgotten to check his phone for messages after the call that had come in.

The person had left a voicemail. Getting a pen and paper to write it down, his phone rang, and it was Meggie.

Smiling for the first time all day, he thought, he greeted her with his usual charm and laughed when he realized that he didn’t have shit as charm anymore.

~*~

“I have four offers on the land. One is for all of it, the other is…hang on. That line is ringing again.” She’d meant to give him the good news, but it was too busy to do right now.

“I’ll have to call you back, Kinsey. The offers are coming in very fast now.

I suspect by the end of the day, you’ll have sold the land, making it so you don’t have to farm anymore. I’ll call you back here in a bit.”

Hanging up on Kinsey, she picked up the other line.

It was her old friend, Winchester. He wanted to know when the bidding stopped.

Stupid question. It would go on until it was finished, and one man was left.

She told him that, but in a much nicer way.

The man laughed like he knew she was being nice in the way she told him.

“How much is the bid for now?” She said that she was still answering the phone, so she’d have to look.

“Well, get on it, girl. My land is wasting away right now. And you know that I get what I want. I should have had you tell them others that so they’d back off.

But I want this land, and I’m going to have to spend some of my hard-earned cash to get it, I’m thinking.

Making this Pennington man a very wealthy person. ”

“You might not win this time, you know. There are some pretty heavy hitters bidding on this land, and I’m only going to have to deal with one of you.

” He doubled his last bid and told her to let him know when she knew anything.

“You know I will. I was actually thinking of having conference calls set up in the office so that I could hear them all at once.”

“Excellent idea. I’ll be there in an hour.

” Before she could tell him that she was joking, he hung up on her.

The only other person she wanted here was Kinsey, and she didn’t think it would be a good idea to have him here fainting when he heard how much the price was up to now.

She had her secretary call the other three men and tell them what was going on.

They all agreed to come to the meeting room and bid on the land in person.

Kinsey was going to shit his pants when he heard the amount that was being tossed around for the land that he wanted rid of.

When the other three men arrived, they sat in the conference room and talked before she came in and told them the last bid on the land.

None of them seemed inclined to bid, but she knew better; they all wanted the land and were determined to get it.

As she was leaving them to it, David caught her hand.