McKettricks 01 - High Country Bride by Linda Lael Miller

Author:Linda Lael Miller
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Westerns, Fiction, Romance, Western, Historical, General
ISBN: 9780743424578
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2002-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

Jeb reached into the of the wagon, just as Rafe was leading the mules into the barn to be brushed down and fed, and came up with Emmeline’s discarded pantaloons.“What’s this?” he teased.“A flag of surrender?”

Rafe left the mules standing and went back to snatch the knickers out of his brother’s hand. Once he had them, he didn’t know what to do with them, and he made several false starts before stuffing them inside his shirt. His face felt hot as a stove lid with a January fire burning beneath it.

“One more word,” he warned, waggling a finger at Jeb and frowning so hard, it hurt. “Just one more word, Little Brother, that’s all it’s going to take.”

Jeb was trying hard not to laugh, and he held up both hands, palms out, in a gesture of peace. His cheeks kept puffing out, though, and he was making a wheezing sound. Under any other circumstances, Rafe would have whacked him hard on the back, thinking he was choking.

Instead, he turned his back on his brother, commending himself on his forbearance, and stalked over to take up the mules’ halter ropes again. Damn, but he’d be glad when he and his wife had their own place.

Jeb followed him into the barn. Typically, he didn’t help put the mules away, he just leaned against the stall gate, watching Rafe work and grinning like a cat with feathers in its whiskers.

Rafe finally snapped. “What?” he barked, tossing the brush he’d been using into an old bucket full of similar items, and forcing Jeb to step back by opening the stall gate.

“I reckon we’ll be starting on that house of yours soon,” Jeb said.

Rafe glared at him, suspicious. “You’re up to something,” he said.“What is it?”

Jeb tried to look injured.“Me?” he asked, thumping his chest with both hands. “If anything, Brother, I’m stricken with admiration. Who’d have thought you had such a way with women?”

“What way is that?” Rafe asked in a very low voice, glowering. He was taller than Jeb, so he made a point of looming a little.

Jeb reached out, patted the lump on Rafe’s chest where the bloomers were stashed. Unbelievably, he’d forgotten all about them. “That must have been some picnic,” he said.

Rafe lunged for him, but Jeb was quick as a rabbit, and he got out of the way. He gave a hoot of laughter and Rafe went over the edge, chasing the little bugger clear out of the barn and around the horse trough. When he got his hands on Jeb, he meant to drown him.

The ruckus drew a crowd from the bunkhouse, including Kade and the new man, Cavanagh.

“What’s that in your shirt, Rafe?” Denver Jack wanted to know.“You fetch home a pup or something?”

Jeb found the inquiry uproariously funny and let out another guffaw. Rafe saw red. He knew Jeb was just ribbing him, and normally he wouldn’t have let him get under his hide, but he was mighty sensitive where Emmeline was concerned, and he didn’t want the whole bunkhouse speculating on how she’d come to be separated from her knickers.

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