Cowboy Underneath It All. Delores Fossen

no one had told him. Of course, he wasn’t exactly in the gossip loop since his best friend in Spring Hill, Lucky McCord, didn’t spend much time here, either. Lucky was a bull rider on the rodeo circuit and was gone almost as much as Kane was.

      “You could have let me know what was going on,” Kane pointed out to her.

      Eliza nodded. “I started to do that a couple of times, but then the lie kept snowballing. And you know that Violet has always wanted to marry a cowboy.”

      There weren’t enough curse words for his response. “And what in Sam Hill am I—French toast?”

      She looked at him, and for a moment he thought she was going to point out the obvious, that he was a fighter pilot. She didn’t. “You’re someone who hasn’t been around very much, and my sister fell in love with another man. I lied to her because I wanted her to have an open path to finding the happiness she deserves.”

      Kane wished he could dispute at least one part of that. Any part. But, hell, he wanted Violet to be happy, too. He just didn’t want her happy with another man. He was so glad he hadn’t said that aloud, though, because it made him sound petty and selfish. He wasn’t normally either of those things, but the shock and anger were getting the best of him.

      And the confusion.

      Because his mind was in a whirlwind, it took Kane a moment to pick through the whirl and process something Eliza had said.

      “How’d the lie that you told keep snowballing?” he asked.

      Eliza opened her mouth, closed it. Groaned. That groan was not a sound he wanted to hear, because Kane knew this had to be bad.

      “How?” he pressed. But Eliza didn’t get a chance to answer because the bathroom door flew open, and a woman came in.

      Violet.

      She was still wearing that veil, and she halted in midstep, literally with her foot still in the air. There was just a moment of surprise on her face before she smiled.

      And then giggled.

      That giggle wasn’t something Kane wanted to hear, either. Not just because it sounded drunk, but it also seemed as if Violet was thrilled about something. Since he was in the ladies’ room with what had to be a very confused look on his face, Kane couldn’t see anything for her to be thrilled about.

      Violet hurried to them, gathering them both into her arms, and she kissed them on their cheeks. “Kane, I’m so glad you’re here.” When Violet pulled back, there were tears in her eyes.

      Happy tears, Kane was sure of it. But he couldn’t figure out why they were there. He had a really bad feeling, though, that this had something to do with the snowballing.

      “I’m in seventh heaven for both of you,” Violet went on. “When Eliza told me you two were seeing each other, it just made my life complete. I mean, it was long over between us, and I wanted you to move on. It’s nice that you moved on in my sister’s direction.”

      Kane had to shake his head. “Seeing each other?” Kane questioned.

      Eliza had mentioned texting but not seeing. He figured there were other things she’d left out when Violet’s happy tears continued. “I just know you two are going to have the perfect life together.”

      “Say what?” he growled.

      Violet slapped her hand over her mouth as if she’d just blurted out a huge secret. Well, it was a secret to Kane all right. A secret that soon became a whole lot clearer when Eliza put her arms around him.

      “Violet, I didn’t say that Kane and I were engaged,” Eliza pointed out.

      Violet winked. “Not yet anyway. But since you’re in love, that’s the next step, right?”

      The blood rushed to Kane’s head. Crap on a cracker. This wasn’t snowballing. This was an avalanche.

      One that continued.

      Violet caught onto both his and Eliza’s arms and practically threw them together. “Go ahead, Kane. Kiss the woman you love.”

       Chapter Two

      Eliza felt like an idiot. Man, oh man, what had she done?

      Kane was no doubt about to ask her the same thing, along with blowing her lies to smithereens, but Violet put a stop to him saying much of anything. He managed a grunt before Violet pushed them together at the exact moment when Eliza was looking up at him. And Kane was looking down at her.

      Or rather glaring at her.

      Violet finished pushing, and Kane’s mouth landed on Eliza’s for what had to be the stiffest kiss ever. One of the best kisses ever, too.

      Here, all these years she’d fantasized about kissing Kane, and now they were doing exactly that even if it wasn’t what Kane wanted to do. Even with that extreme limitation, it certainly lived up to expectations, but it was part of the snowball of lies.

      Kane didn’t let the scalding kiss go on. After just a few seconds, he pulled back, and his glare got significantly worse.

      “Is there something you want to say to your sister?” he asked Eliza.

      This was easy. No, she didn’t want to admit to the white lie that had turned into a series of whoppers. But she had to fess up. Now that Violet was engaged, maybe it wouldn’t even matter.

      “She doesn’t have to tell me anything,” Violet blurted out before Eliza could get her mouth working. “It’s just so nice to see both of you happy.” She glanced at the stalls, hobbled around a little on her toes. “Now, if you don’t mind getting out of here, I have to pee. Like right now,” she added when they didn’t budge.

      Kane volleyed glances at them while Violet continued to hobble around. Just when Eliza was about to confess all, Violet hurried past them and into one of the stalls. Despite there being a door on the stall, Kane bolted out as if someone had scalded him.

      “We’ll talk when you’re finished,” Eliza told her sister. She followed Kane into the bar, not near anyone though, because Kane pulled her to the side.

      “When she comes out, you tell her the truth,” he demanded just as Eliza gave him another “I’m so sorry.”

      “The truth,” he emphasized. “And don’t apologize again. It won’t help. The only thing that’ll fix this is to tell Violet the way things really are.”

      “I will.” She paused. “But you don’t think it could wait until after the wedding? Just hear me out,” she added when Kane growled out a no. “It’s just for a couple of days, and then I’ll tell her the truth when she’s back from her honeymoon. I don’t want anything to put a damper on her mood.”

      “And this would?” He cursed, and it seemed to take him a couple of seconds and another round of profanity to find the words he wanted to say. “Why the hell would Violet care if we’re together or not?”

      Uh-oh.

      He was not going to want to hear this, but she’d already told so many lies that she had to go with the truth. “Violet knows I’ve always had a thing for you. And she was worried about you, that you would take her engagement hard. Worried about me, too, because I broke up with my boyfriend. She thought this would be the perfect fix for both of us.”