Page 8 of Rancher’s Rescue (Flying Diamond 5)

CHAPTER EIGHT

KANE

R ain beat softly on the tin roof of the summer bedroom and I pulled Maggie closer to me.

These last weeks, we hadn’t hidden, or waited for the dark of night to be together and we’d all fallen into a comfortable routine.

“I guess this means we get a lazy day.” She said, and I felt her face turn up into a smile against my chest.

“Except there will be four eyes peeking around the corner any minute,” I said, chuckling lightly, thinking of the kids coming down.

“Why don’t we take them into town? Make a day of it.

Pretty soon, they both will be back in school, and we can lie in bed all day after they leave. ” I nuzzled her ear, and she sighed.

“That sounds wonderful.”

“Which town or laying in bed all day?” I moved my hand down the side of her thigh.

“Both.” Her laugh filled the room and my heart.

It wasn’t ten minutes later the ruckus from above descended the stairs. Standing in the kitchen with Maggie, the kids burst into the room, chattering a million miles an hour.

“All right, go get some good clothes on. We’re going to the city.” I called above the noise.

“We are?” Kit asked, eyes wide and dancing.

“We are so hop to it.”

The kids ran noisily off and up the stairs to their rooms. Turning, I looked at Maggie. She was standing there with her arms crossed and her eyebrow arched. “The city? I thought we were just going to town?”

“It’s not that much further to the city, so I thought, why not? You have to get back to school shopping done, and we might as well take advantage of the rainy day.” Moving to her, I wrapped my arms around her waist and looked down at her and smiled.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Fine, but when they are bored asking how much further it is, you get to deal with them.”

“Deal.” Leaning down, I kissed her to seal our bargain. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, I just have to grab my purse.” Reluctantly, she moved out of my arms and went to gather her things.

* * *

The dive was miraculously good. Kit and Marshall behaved well, and the two hours it took seemed to fly by. “All right, where are we starting?”

“If you don’t mind, I would like to start at the mall.

I know I can get the school supplies there.

” Groans came from Kit in the back seat when school supplies were mentioned.

She’d made it very clear she wanted to be homeschooled so she could work on the ranch all day.

No matter what Maggie said, she was determined that when the end of August rolled around, she wouldn’t be on that bus, and Maggie was determined she would be.

“It goes much better shopping for that alone. Would you mind keeping the kids?”

“I don’t mind a bit, you know that.” Smiling, I turned into the parking lot of the mall and pulled into an open spot. It looked like every rancher and farmer had the same idea. The lot was full of pickups, but this was Montana.

We ran to the entrance hand in hand, like a big chain. Maggie and I held onto Marshall so he could leap over puddles instead of running through them. “It hasn’t rained like this in three years.” Maggie said as she brushed raindrops from her face, smiling and laughing.

“All right, you head off and do your thing. We will wander around. Is there anything you want me to pick up?” I took Marshall and Kit’s hands and we were ready to look at what the mall offered.

“At the other end of the mall, there’s a western store. If you don’t mind helping Marshall pick out some clothes, I will pay for them when I’m done.” She waved as she wandered away.

The kids pointed at things and chatted as we made our way to the other side of the mall. Marshall was in his glory, picking out shirts, pants and even a new cowboy hat. Turning to Kit, she had stayed close to the women’s area looking at jeans and a jacket.

“Kit, do you know what size you need?” If she didn’t know, I was going to have to find one of the female staff for her.

“Mamma won’t let me have them. They are too expensive.” She looked longingly again, and I looked at the pile of clothes Marshall had. They weren’t cheap, so I wasn’t sure what the problem was.

“Why won’t she let you get this stuff?”

“It’s not practical. You can’t work in bell-bottom jeans. The jacket is only good for a few weeks.” She shrugged and ran her hand over the fuzzy jacket.

“Well, your mom isn’t here and I’m buying, so let’s get you ready for school, too.” I knew Maggie was right, but it must be hard to be the only girl at school without a dad, and she worked like a ranch hand from sun up to evening. She deserved whatever I could give her.

We walked out of the western store with more bags than I’d seen three people carry. Marshall was proudly wearing his new cowboy hat and Kit hadn’t stopped smiling since she tried on her first pair of jeans.

“Hey kids, can I ask you a question?” I stopped and pulled them over to a bench in the middle of the mall.

“Sure.” Kit chirped.

“What would you think about me asking your mom to marry me?”

Both kids sat down beside me as they looked at one another. They both smiled and nodded. “We’d be happy.” Marshall said sweetly, looking up at me with his enormous hazel eyes that looked just like his mom’s.

“It would be awesome, Kane.” Kit replied quietly, but her eyes had lost their sparkle.

“I’m not replacing your dad. Nobody can ever do that. From what I know, he was a wonderful man. But I love your mom and I love you two crazy kids.” Kit smiled and rested her head on my shoulder and nodded.

“Yeah, marry my mom.” Kit looked up at me and the sparkle returned to her eyes.

“All right. Let’s go pick out a ring, but you have to swear not to say a word to your mom.” Leaving the jewelry store with a ring that was now burning a hole in my pocket. The kids were full of anticipation, and I hoped we could make it home without them letting the secret slip.

“You three look like you’ve been busy.” Her voice sang from behind us. Turning, the kids looked from me to her and nodded. “I thought I said to leave them at the store I would pay for them.”

“Oh well, we figured this would save time, and I don’t mind doing it. In fact, I enjoyed spoiling them.” It wasn’t a lie. These experiences had been taken from me six years ago and being able to have them with Maggie’s kids was like a balm to my heart.

Maggie looked at me and shook her head. “I will pay you back for all that.”

“We can deal with it when we get home.” I tried to bush her off, and the kids giggled.

“So, what do we have left on the list? Kit, we should take you somewhere to get clothes.” She had her own bags, and they looked heavier than the clothes.

“Nope, I got what I needed.”

“Give me those and take these.” I said, swapping bags with Maggie. “Kit got clothes at the western store. We can deal with that later, too.” I winked and Maggie looked from me to Kit and back to me.

“I can’t fight the two of you.” She shrugged and smiled. “Think we can make it to the truck and get rid of all this stuff and come back to look around?” She turned to look out the doors and it appeared the rain had let up.

“Let’s do it. We still have an entire day ahead of us.” If you’d walked by the four of us, you wouldn’t know we weren’t a family. But soon enough, we would be.