games with toddlers.
He could see Penny’s light hair, just like her mother’s, as she sat in a woman’s lap and colored in a book. It wasn’t difficult to see what had drawn Pop to this gentle fatherless trio.
Who would have thought Pop would have had a protective bone in his body?
“You know, we’re not swindlers. Nor did we lure your father into feeling like we were his family.”
He turned to Laura. “I shouldn’t have implied that there was anything unusual about my father leaving someone outside the family money. I apologize for that.”
“Thank you.” She raised her chin. “I knew you could be a difficult person. I choose to ignore that for your father’s sake.”
He frowned. “I don’t want anything for my father’s sake.”
She shrugged. “He was a nice old man.”
“You didn’t know him.”
“Maybe not as well as you. But maybe better in some ways.”
He couldn’t argue that. Didn’t even want to. “Why?”
“When my husband got sick with cancer, and then died, your father said the least he could do was make certain my kids had college educations. There was a fundraiser here in town to help us…because Dave had no insurance. He was a self-employed carpenter, a dreamer, really.” Her voice got soft remembering. “He loved to build homes. The bigger, the better, the more intricate, the better. He did lots of work on your father’s place.”
This was all beginning to make sense. “Listen, none of this is my business. What my father wants to do with his time and his life is his concern.”
She nodded. “I’ve got to go back to the booth. I’ve got one more half-hour shift.”
He could see the line queuing from here; could count at least twenty men waiting their turn. It looked as if Union Junction had no lack of horny males. “Do you have to kiss all of them?”
“Most of them just kiss my cheek.” She smiled. “Only the younger ones try for something more, and a few of the bachelors.”
That’s what he was afraid of. He thought about his father, and what a jackass he was. He looked at the line, and the men grinning back toward Laura, obviously impatient for her break to be over.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Penny, who’d spotted her mother. Mom and daughter waved at each other, and he could see the longing in Laura’s eyes to be with her daughter.
What the hell. He lived to be a jackass. He was just keeping the family name alive.
“All right,” he announced loudly, ambling to the front of the line, “I’m buying out Ms. Adams’s thirty minutes of time.” He placed five one hundred-dollar bills—all he had on him at the moment besides some stray ones and a couple of twenties—on the booth ledge where everyone could see his money. Grumbling erupted, but also some applause for the donation. He grunted. “Move along, fellows. The booth is closed for this lady.”
Chapter Three
Gabriel’s buyout of Laura’s time in the kissing booth won him lots of winks from the guys and smiles from the ladies as he walked toward his truck. He hadn’t said anything to a shocked Laura—just figured he’d introduced himself to the town in the most obvious way he could have for a man who preferred being a loner.
He didn’t even know why he’d done it.
Maybe it was Pop, egging him on to be a gentleman, which was a real stinker of a reason. Mason met him at his truck.
“Have a good time?”
Gabriel checked Mason’s eyes for laughter but the question seemed sincere. “Seems like everyone is enjoying themselves.”
“Good to see you around. We’ve been wondering what you’re going to do with yourself out there if you stay holed up at the ranch.”
“I imagine I’ll figure out something.”
Mason handed him an envelope. “Mimi said to give you this.”
“Mimi?” Gabriel scanned the envelope. It had his name written in his father’s handwriting, and no postmark.
“Mimi’s the law around here.” Mason winked at him.
“What does that have to do with me?”
“Your father left that with her. She asked me to deliver it to you. I’ve been meaning to get out to your place, but here you are, getting to know the good folks of Union Junction.”
Again Gabriel studied him for sarcasm. There appeared to be nothing more to the man’s intentions than good old friendliness.
“Why didn’t Pop just mail this to me? Or courier it like he did before?”
Mason shrugged. “He said something to Mimi along the lines of when and if any of his sons ever got here, they were to have that. Josiah figured you’d be the first, though. In fact, we wagered on it. I owe your father a twenty.” He handed Gabriel a twenty-dollar bill.
Gabriel shook his head. “Put it toward the school fund.” He looked at the envelope, wondering why his father would have wagered he’d be the first brother to the ranch. “Who’d you bet on?”
Mason laughed. “Jack. He’s the unpredictable one. I always go with the dark horse.”
“Cost you this time, buddy.”
Mason slapped him on the back. “Sure did. Come on out to the Double M when you have time. We’ll introduce you to the kids.”
“Maybe I will,” Gabriel said, knowing he probably wouldn’t.
“Congratulations, by the way,” Mason said as he walked away.
“For what?”
“For spending that much money for a kiss and then not getting it. Nerves of steel.” Mason waved goodbye. Gabriel glanced back down at the envelope, aware that Mason was now giving him a gentle ribbing. “Jackass,” he muttered under his breath and got into his truck.
But it was kind of funny coming from Mason, and even Gabriel had to wonder why he’d passed up the chance to kiss Laura after he’d so obviously put his mark on her.
Not that he was going to think about it too hard.
“NOTHING,” LAURA TOLD the girls at the Union Junction Beauty Salon. “I’m telling you, there’s nothing between us. He didn’t kiss me. Gabriel’s barely civil to me.”
The girls oohed and then giggled. Laura had received a fair bit of teasing and she expected the kissing booth incident had been thoroughly dissected. Privately, Laura wondered what it would have been like to have Gabriel’s lips on hers. It had been so long since she’d kissed a man—well, kissed a man as she had Dave. She didn’t count those chaste, predictable pecks in the kissing
