Short-Order Sheriff (River's End Ranch Book 1) Read online

  “Okay! I’ve got a nice collection of DVDs to choose from. We’ll pick when you get there.” Her mind was already going through the collection. She’d have five ready for him to choose from. Hopefully there would be one or two he hadn’t had the pleasure of watching yet.

  “I’m off at five. We could do dinner in the restaurant at six? Can you get us in?”

  Kelsi nodded. “Sounds good to me, and I can always get us in.” She had always had fun with Shane and looked forward to an evening with him. He may be as much of a dud as Donn had turned out to be, but she’d never know unless she went out with him.

  Dani walked in through the front door then, surprising Kelsi. “I figured you’d sneak in the back so no one would know you were here!” Kelsi called to her sister.

  Dani wrinkled her nose at her identical twin. “Yeah, well I didn’t see any cars but the sheriff’s, so I figured we were safe. I can’t work this Saturday, so you’d better have a replacement for me by then. I have to do my search and rescue training.” She folded her arms over her chest as if daring her sister to have a problem with it.

  Kelsi frowned. “Who am I going to get on short notice?” She looked over at Shane, a twinkle in her eye. “You’ve filled in before in a pinch.”

  Shane nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be here if you need me.”

  “I will.” She scooted out of the booth. “What can I get you for lunch, Sheriff?”

  “Burger and fries. Chocolate shake.” He wasn’t sure if Kelsi even realized she’d never brought him a menu, but it didn’t really matter. He had their menu memorized right down to the daily specials. He wasn’t fond of the chicken and dumplings they made on Mondays, so he chose from one of the regular offerings.

  “Coming right up.”

  He caught her hand as she went to hurry away. “I’m really looking forward to tonight.”

  She smiled down at him, her heart racing at his touch. Had it ever done that with Donn? She wasn’t sure. She knew it hadn’t in years. “I am too.”

  She followed her sister into the kitchen and gave the order. As soon as Kathy saw Dani, she flung her arms wide. “I’m free! No more slinging hash for me! I’ll live in the lap of luxury now!”

  Kelsi rolled her eyes. “Sure you will, Kathy. Sure you will.” There had been a lot of cooks over the years who had run off with different guests of the ranch. Most had requested their jobs back, but if they hadn’t given a proper notice, they hadn’t gotten them.

  Kathy threw her arms around Dani, who pushed her away. Refusing to be thwarted, Kathy rushed to Kelsi and hugged her tight. “Be happy for me!”

  “How ‘bout if I’m happy for you and annoyed for me?” Kelsi asked.

  “That works!” Kathy untied her apron and dropped it on the counter. “Bye! Thanks for all the fun.” She rushed out of the café, leaving the sisters in the kitchen.

  Kelsi smiled at Dani. “We get to work together for a while again. I know—this time, you call me Louise, and I’ll call you Thelma! They’ll be our fun secret names for each other!” She always tried to add more fun into her work, and she loved to tease and try to coerce Dani into joining in with her nonsense.

  Dani raised an eyebrow at her twin. “Don’t think I don’t remember that you named your breasts Thelma and Louise when we were twelve. No way am I going by the name of one of your boobs. Just call me Dani.” She pulled on a clean apron. “I need you to whack off my hair again. Can you do it tonight?”

  Kelsi shook her head. “I have a date.”

  “Donn The Dweeb coming over again?”

  “Nope. Donn was yesterday’s news. He’s on his way to sunny California to make cotton candy for Disney and sell it from one of those little carts. I’m going out with the sexy sheriff tonight.” Kelsi wiggled her eyebrows at her sister.

  Dani raised an eyebrow at her sister. “Shane? He’s been hot for you forever. It’s about time you gave him a chance.”

  “You think?”

  Dani laughed. “I know. The whole town knew. You’re so oblivious sometimes, Kelsi.”

  “Don’t you mean Louise?”

  Dani’s face shut down. “What’s the sheriff having for lunch?”

  Kelsi dug through her closet frantically that afternoon, trying to find just the right thing to wear for her date with Shane. She wanted to be casual, but elegant. She found a pair of jeans and a cute top that would be just right, but the only shoes she had that went well with the outfit pinched her toes.

  She hurried to the room next door to hers and knocked. “I need shoes!” she called through the closed door, before opening it without getting a response.

  “Go away!” Dani said as Kelsi barged into her room, heading straight for her closet.

  “What’s the point of having a sister the exact same size as you if you can’t borrow her clothes?” Kelsi asked, already looking through the shoe options available to her.

  “I don’t think there is a point to having an identical twin. I haven’t figured one out yet at least.”

  “Why are you always so grumpy?” Kelsi asked, finding a pair of red cowboy boots. “Can I wear these?”

  “What if I say no? Will you listen to me?”

  “Of course not! Thanks, Dani, you’re the best!” Kelsi rushed out of her sister’s room shutting the door behind her, and then hurrying back to open it.

  “Yes?”

  “I’ll cut your hair tomorrow night if you don’t want to go to the spa to have it done.”

  “Why would I go to the spa and pay some stranger to run their fingers through my hair when you’ll do it for free?”

  “I love you, Dani!”

  “Uh huh.” Dani kept reading her book, not even looking up as her sister closed her door and hurried away.

  By six, Kelsi was ready for her date with Shane. She wore the jeans, a red sweater that hugged her curves, and her sister’s cowboy boots. She had made reservations at the restaurant, annoying the staff to no end, because there was no room for her, and picked out the movie choices she wanted to give Shane.

  Because the house she shared with her sister was also the main house of the family’s dude ranch, Shane walked right in without knocking, the same way everyone in town did. They’d decorated it to look like a home, but there were little touches that made it obvious it was a business.

  She found Shane in the library waiting for her. “Hey, you’re here already. Sorry, I would have come out sooner if I’d known.”

  He stood up from one of the overstuffed chairs, placed there for the guests to read in.

  “I don’t mind waiting a minute or two for you.” He looked her up and down, his eyes appreciative. “You look fabulous.”

  Kelsi did a little spin, letting him see the full effect of her outfit. She’d fixed her hair instead of pulling it back into the ponytail she always wore for work, and she felt pretty for a change.

  “We have reservations at the restaurant.”

  He held out his hand, letting her know to precede him into the hallway. “Thanks for making the reservations happen. I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to get in.”

  The restaurant at the ranch house was used not only for the dude ranch guests, but it was also the most popular restaurant in town. It was only open for dinner, and you had to book a couple of weeks in advance if you wanted to eat there—unless you were family, of course. They warned every guest who called to reserve a room to book their meals in the restaurant as soon as they could, so they wouldn’t miss being able to eat there.

  Shane wore a pair of jeans with a button up shirt and his favorite cowboy hat. “I love your boots.”

  She grinned. “I borrowed them from Dani, despite her protests.”

  He laughed, knowing how the twins’ relationship worked. “They look really good on you.”

  “I think so,” she said with a wink.

  Shane watched her as they walked through the house and waited to be seated. He’d lived in Riston for ten years, since she was about fourteen. He’d moved there at eigh
teen to start his career in law enforcement, and had quickly been elected sheriff. He’d known her the entire time, but she hadn’t really caught his eye until four years before. Her fun, quirky personality had drawn her to him, though her slender figure and pretty face hadn’t hurt.

  “What time do you need me at the café Saturday?” he asked, not wanting to talk business, but figured he’d get it over with, and they’d move on.

  “Five? People start coming in about five-thirty for breakfast.”

  He groaned softly. “You know how much I hate mornings, right?”

  She grinned at him. “I’ll make the coffee extra strong for you.”

  “You’re the best.”

  Chapter Two

  Once they were seated at a table right outside the kitchen Shane was sure wasn’t usually there, he looked around. “You know I don’t think I’ve ever actually brought a date here before.” He’d been to the restaurant once or twice, but not often. He enjoyed cooking enough that he usually made himself dinner.

  His name had never been attached to anyone else’s that Kelsi knew of, so she shrugged. “Sometimes it’s easier to just drive into Boise for a date.”

  “Or make them dinner at my place.” He looked at her over his menu. “I’d like to cook for you sometime.” It was weird taking her to a restaurant that was attached to the back of her home. Yes, it was the nicest restaurant in town, but it was still strange.

  “That would be nice. I mean, I’ve eaten your cooking because you cook for the café on occasion, but it would be nice to eat something you’d cooked special for me.” She took a sip of the water in front of her. “I can cook too, you know.” She didn’t like it much, but she could do it and do it well.

  He raised an eyebrow at that. “Really? Why don’t you ever cook and let Dani work out front?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Can you see letting Dani deal with the guests? No, she’s the Weston we keep behind closed doors where she can’t run anyone off.” Her sister’s grumpy moods were legendary around Riston.

  “She’s not that bad!” he protested, not really meaning it. Dani was downright scary when she was in a mood, and he avoided her as much as possible. He preferred her sweet-tempered twin.

  “She actually threw an egg at my head today, because a customer complained that his burger was too rare.” Kelsi sighed. “I don’t know what we’re going to do with her, but I know I love her.”

  “I’ve never seen identical twins who were more different! Your hair isn’t even the same color.”

  She grinned. “Dani’s is natural, and I give mine a little boost in the blond department.” Dani had the mousy brown hair that was natural to both of them, but Kelsi felt it was too lackluster. She wanted the blond to match her personality.

  He shook his head. “And hers is always so short, and looks like someone took a hatchet to it.”

  “Well, that’s because she keeps coming to me for haircuts, and I have no clue what I’m doing. I think she wants to look as different from me as possible. Mom always made us dress alike when we were little, because she was so excited to have mono-zygotic twins.”

  He blinked a few times. “Mono-zygotic, huh?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Sometimes it’s fun to use the real names for stuff.”

  The waiter, Steve, stopped by to take their orders then. “Hi, Kelsi. Sheriff. What can I get you?”

  Once they’d ordered, he wandered off. Kelsi knew Steve was working his way through school in their restaurant, and he wouldn’t be there forever, but she liked him.

  “So tell me about you,” Kelsi said. “I know you’ve been here for about ten years, but I have no idea where you came from. You just showed up one day, and you’ve been part of the town ever since.”

  He sipped his water, watching her closely. “I grew up in Southern California, and hated the constant temperatures. I wanted real seasons. I know everyone is supposed to love it there, but I didn’t. I moved here right after high school, because I saw an ad for a deputy on a job search site. As soon as I got here, I felt like I was home.”

  “You have a house in town, right?” she asked, just then realizing she had no idea where he lived. The ranch was so huge that it was almost entirely self-contained. She had no need to go into town often, because she ordered everything she wanted from Amazon. She was constantly surrounded by people, living in what was basically a hotel, so there was never a need to go search out companionship.

  “Yeah, I live on Main Street. You know the white house with the blue shutters next door to the bowling alley? That’s mine.”

  “I know exactly which house you mean!” She took another sip of her water as the waiter put their food on the table. “So tell me something, Sheriff?”

  “Anything.” He had nothing to hide from her. He liked that she was asking questions.

  “What’s a big, sexy sheriff like you doing still single?”

  Shane laughed, shaking his head. “You’re not afraid to say anything, are you?”

  Kelsi shrugged. “Should I be?” She believed in speaking her mind and asking what she wanted to know. How else would she get to know him better?

  “Not at all.” He cut a bite off his steak, spearing it with his fork. “I’ve been waiting for you to realize you were dating a loser, so I could ask you out.”

  She laughed. “Sure you have. Seriously, why haven’t you dated anyone? We have so many women in and out of the ranch, I’d have expected you to be dating regularly.”

  “I’m not kidding. I’ve been waiting for you.” He ate the bite of his steak, chewing it slowly, and following it up with a sip of water. “You caught my eye about four years ago, and I’ve been biding my time ever since.”

  “Why didn’t you say something?” If she’d known he was hanging around, she might have done something about Donn. Of course, she’d barely known him four years before, so maybe not.

  He shrugged. “You seemed to be happy, and I wasn’t going to be the reason you broke it off with your high school sweetheart.”

  “I am happy. I always have been. Happiness is so much more than the romantic relationship you’re in. Happiness is waking up every morning in the middle of the most beautiful piece of land God put on this earth. Happiness is knowing my family loves me and will do anything for me—even if they’re grumpy about it. Happiness is being Kelsi Weston and doing the job I love every single day. No man can take that from me.”

  He nodded, raising his water glass to her. “To Kelsi Weston, the strongest, happiest woman I know. And the most beautiful.”

  She blushed but raised her glass to clink against his. “Beauty fades. Strength lasts forever.”

  “So tell me about the history of River’s End Ranch. I’m dying to know. There are so many stories around town about your family—one has a gunslinger moving into town and killing off the people who lived in the house—making it his own. Another says that one of your ancestors moved here during the latter half of the nineteenth century, along with a brother, and one of them ordered a bride from back east somewhere. Just all kinds of weird stuff.”

  She smiled. “Alas, there is no gunslinger in my family’s history, so I have to say that didn’t happen. The second story is mostly true. A brother and a sister came out here to homestead, each choosing a different section of land. The sister pretended to be a man when she signed for her part of the land, and she got herself a mail order groom from the east. The brother died young, unmarried, but not until after he’d “proved up” the land, so the sister inherited that. The two of them had a couple of kids and all worked hard, starting a ranch. They gradually bought up the homesteads of others around them. By the 1940s, all the land that’s part of River’s End Ranch was here. It was huge. My great-grandmother had in her head that it would be nice to have a hotel on the land, and the dude ranch part of the business was born. We still run cattle to entertain the guests, but the biggest part of our business is tourism now.”

  Shane smiled, nodding. “That’s fascinating. Cou
ld women not homestead?”

  Kelsi shook her head vehemently. “They were still men’s property during that time. Don’t get me started on that bit of nonsense!” Every time she thought about the story, she wanted to travel back in time with a gun and show the authorities what a woman could do.

  “What about the café? Did your great-grandparents start the café too?”

  “That was all Grandma Kelsey, who married Granddad Wilfred. Grandma Kelsey wanted there to be a place for guests to eat during the day that didn’t include her cooking, so she started Kelsey’s Kafé. She hated to cook, but it’s her recipes we still serve. She was a lot like me, as she enjoyed visiting with customers and waiting tables, and I remember going there to work with her when I was little. She died when I was sixteen, but she taught me so much about life, love, and the restaurant business. I always knew it would be my place to take over.”

  “Sounds like you loved her,” Shane said, pushing his plate away.

  “I have so many happy memories of working with her waiting tables in the café. I know that’s got to sound crazy, but I love this whole place more than I’ve ever loved a person. It’s home.”

  He nodded. “I felt the same thing the first time I set foot in Riston. It was like this was the place I’d been searching for my whole life. My dad was a Silicon Valley guy, so he really doesn’t get Idaho or the whole law enforcement thing, but I’m doing what I was called to do.”

  “It was so weird to me that Donn spent so much time trying to find ways to leave Riston. This is my little version of heaven on earth, and he hated it. He complained every day that he needed to find a way to make his dreams come true and that it was awful here. He hated the winters.” She sighed. “I love the winters. Of course, I’m all excited now because winter’s almost over and the snow is melting and the tourist season is about to get into full swing.”

  “How do you feel about summer and fall?” he asked, a twinkle in his eye.

  “Summer brings swimming and boating and all the fun things that you can do on a ranch. And fall means the leaves are changing colors and soon we’ll be able to have our first snowfall and Christmas and snowmobiling.” She shrugged. “I told you I love Idaho. I love all the seasons!”