Georgia shook it. “Nice to meet you, India. It seems you’re busy, so I can come back later.”
“No. Stick around. I don’t usually bring the kids to work with me, but every once in a while I don’t have a choice.” She kissed the top of the baby girl’s head. “Show me what you’ve got. Spread out on the counter, away from madly coloring little boys.”
“Good plan.” After Georgia lined up the pieces and made her sales pitch, she felt India staring at her.
“Now I know why your name is familiar. You’re dating Tell.”
That connection took all of thirty seconds. “I guess.”
India’s blue gaze sharpened. “What do you mean you guess?”
How could she admit that the R word had never come up between them during the two weeks they were boinking like bunnies? “Umm… It’s complicated.”
“Not when it comes to a McKay male. They are highly territorial.”
Georgia wondered if the guys in the McKay family would take that as an insult or a compliment.
“So? What’s the deal with you two?”
This woman just expected her to blurt it out?
India laughed. “Oh, I get why you’re hedging about your relationship status and using the word complicated. Because Tell is in the d-bag stage right now.” She patted Georgia’s forearm. “Don’t sweat it. We’ve all been there.”
After the contracts were signed, a loud crash sounded behind them. The youngest boy had kicked over the table and was smacking it with a fat table leg.
“Ellison McKay! Drop that and park your butt on that chair right now, mister.”
“No!”
“Don’t make me start counting.”
“No!”
“Okay. One.”
Ellison threw himself on the floor and started crying. His brother seized the opportunity to jump on him. Which only made the boy shriek louder.
“Hudson! What on earth is wrong with you? Get off your brother.”
The boys paid no attention. They rolled around on the floor. Dodging punches and punching back. Yelling. Crying.
The baby girl suddenly let loose a loud wail.
“Come on, McKenna baby, not you too.”
Georgia gathered her stuff, thankful they’d concluded business before the tantrums started.
The door chime jangled, but that didn’t end the chaos.
A wolf whistle pierced the air. Then a man separated the boys. “Hey, hey, you two. No hitting.”
“Just in time, Colt,” India said.
The younger boy clung to the man’s neck when he stood. Colt settled the kid on his hip and smoothed the older boy’s hair. “You wanna tell me what’s goin’ on?”
Hudson shook his head.
Then the man briefly looked at Georgia. And she just about choked on the puddle of drool forming on her tongue. This guy… Wow. Yeah, the kids had definitely inherited his amazing looks.
But then he only had eyes for his wife. “Sorry to interrupt, Indy. I’ll get the boys outta your hair.”
“That’ll work. But you should meet Georgia Hotchkiss. Georgia, this is my husband, Colt McKay.”
“Georgia. As in Tell’s Georgia?”
And she thought the people in Sundance were gossipy? They had nothing on the McKay family.
India elbowed him. “Sometimes there’s a disconnect between your mouth and your brain. Yes, this is the Georgia who knows Tell. No, she doesn’t belong to him, caveman McKay.”
Colt grinned. “Nice to meetcha, Georgia. I’m gonna hafta rib my cousin, because he’s dating way out of his league.”
Georgia blushed.
India bent down to hug Hudson. Then she stood and kissed Ellison’s cheek. “Be good for Daddy today, boys.” She turned away.
“Hey, Mama. Where’s my kiss?”
She sighed and stood on tiptoe to reach his lips for a quick peck. But Colt wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and held his wife in place as he gave her a very thorough kiss.
Georgia felt like a voyeur, seeing the intimate connection between these two, surrounded by their rambunctious kids, but existing only in the moment with each other.
Would she ever allow herself to have that kind of deep connection with a man? Or would she always pull back?
Like you’re pulling back with Tell? Like you’ve pulled back with everyone since RJ died?
She shoved everything into her briefcase. The tattoo art on the inside of the glass case caught her eye. Some designs were really cool, especially the memorial tattoos. Some were portraits, some were just dates, some were crosses, or some were a combination of all three.
“See anything you like?” India asked.
“Are all these your designs?”
“Most of them.”
“They are amazing.”
“Thank you. Were you considering a memorial tattoo?”
Georgia looked up. “I never have before now. But it seems…”
India patted her hand. “It’s hard to mark a sad event. But if you decide to do it, I can design anything from gaudy to discreet.”
“I’ll definitely be back.”
That night as Georgia wrote her sales report for her boss and mapped out her plan for the businesses in Moorcroft the following day, she kept sneaking glances at her cell phone. Checking it like some smitten teenage girl, wondering if her phone was somehow…broken because another day had gone by and she hadn’t heard from Tell.
So call him.
Right. After hearing his family’s concerns that she was some sort of femme fatale heartbreaker? Now she was uneasy enough about the situation that she wouldn’t call him first. Not out of pettiness; out of self-preservation.
Chapter Eighteen
Early Thursday morning, Tell glanced at Dalton, standing on his left. Man. His baby brother looked like roadkill. Then he noticed Brandt yawning. They were a lively bunch.
Cord had called a meeting at the sorting pens, which was neutral ground and the center of the ranch.
Pickups were parked in a lopsided circle. His cousins were spread out in groups of brothers. Kane and Kade were in a deep discussion. Colby, Cord and Colt were laughing about something. Quinn and Ben were standing together, not talking at all.
He spoke to Brandt. “You have any idea what this meeting is about?”
“Nope. Wish I’d brought more coffee. I am draggin’ ass today.” He yawned again. “Tucker cried all night. Woke us up every hour.”
“That sucks.”
Brandt offered a small smile. “Oh, it ain’t so bad. It’s just frustrating when we can’t figure out why he’s cryin’. The only thing that calms him down is bein’ held, so me’n Jess take turns.”