Buck stared at him. “Hanging out at the town fair being sociable is the way to get to know people.”
“That’s what I meant.” Gabriel noticed there were only five people in front of him now. His heart rate sped up. Should he kiss a woman his father had such a close relationship with? Clearly Pop had depended upon Laura for the sense of family he was lacking. It almost felt like Laura could be a sister.
He heard cheers as Buck laid a smooch on Laura. To Gabriel’s relief, it was mercifully short and definitely respectful. Just good clean fun.
He found himself standing in front of her booth, staring down at her like a nervous schoolboy. Her blue eyes lit on him with curiosity and nothing else, no lingering resentment over their initial meeting. He noted a distressing jump in his jeans, a problem he hadn’t anticipated. But he’d always been a sucker for full lips and fine cheekbones. He could smell a sweet perfume, something like flowers in summer.
Laura was nothing like a sister to him.
He laid a twenty-dollar bill on the booth ledge and walked away.
GABRIEL FOUND A BETTER way to support the local elementary school: drinking keg beer some thoughtful and enterprising young man had set up far away from the kissing booth. Here he was safe. No one bothered him while he sat on a hay bale and people-watched, which was good because he really needed to think. He hadn’t expected his father to have a family connection in Union Junction.
He sat up. Surely his father hadn’t been trying to build his own family here? With a ready-made mom and grandchildren? All it would take was one out of the four brothers to meet the lady and her children, to whom some of the Morgan money had been put in trust, and maybe, just maybe, Pop might get that family he’d been itching for?
He wouldn’t put it past Pop. Throw in a scheme that required all four brothers to be on the premises for a year, and Pop had a one in four chance of seeing that dream come true.
Gabriel resolved not to fall for it. In fact, he congratulated himself for staying one step ahead of the wily old man. He didn’t know for sure that was what Pop had been up to, but with Pop there was always an angle.
He’d be very cautious.
“Hi.” Someone soft and warm slid onto the hay bale beside him. Laura didn’t smile at him, but her lips were full and plump from being kissed. “Guess you changed your mind about kissing me.”
He hung between fear and self-loathing for being a coward. “Seems we should keep our relationship professional.”
“Awkward.”
“That, too.”
“Fine by me.”
He slid her a glance. She had nice breasts under her blue-flowered dress—very feminine. A breast man by nature, he was shocked he hadn’t taken note of her physical charms before. He’d been completely preoccupied by the swarm of women descending upon him. Although he had to admit that after just thirty minutes of being in his house, it looked and smelled more welcoming than it was ever going to be under his watch. But now he was checking out Laura’s attributes, a subconscious flick of his gaze that dismayed him. God, they really were gorgeous. And he hadn’t noticed her small, graceful hands before, either.
He felt his temperature rise uncomfortably. “Where are the kids?” Not that he was really interested, but it was best to remind himself that this woman was a mother, not someone to be ogled as if she were single and available for some casual fun.
Which was all he was interested in, for now and for always. Damn Pop for throwing temptation my way.
“Penny and Perrin are being held by some ladies from the church. They’re spoiled rotten by them.” She pointed to an outdoor play area that had been set up. Lots of older ladies were inside, holding infants and playing 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