“Ibet she could.”

“Ibet she couldn’t.”

Joelstuck out his hand. “How much?”

“Ahundred bucks,” Jason answered.

“You’reon.”

“Fine.After dinner, I’ll take her up to her room and turn on the charm. I bet shekisses me and lets me feel her up.”

Joelsquinted and snapped, “I bet she calls a halt to everything after the firstkiss if not before.”

“Youknow very few people outside of the family can tell the difference between us,Joel. I bet she can’t.”

“Ithink she’s more into me and will be able to tell right away.” Joel kicked arock near the toe of his boot back out into the corral. He sounded confident tohis brother, but he wasn’t so sure. What if Mesa couldn’t tell the difference?What if she liked Jason better than him? No,this is nuts. I know what our kiss was like. We could set the sheets on fire ifI could get her between them. “I know what I felt when we kissed.”

“She’sjust a woman, Joel. Nothin’ special.”

“You’rewrong there, Jason. She is special.”

* * * *

Thedinner bell clanged and Mesa frowned. She hadn’t seen Joel all day. Was heavoiding her? Probably. Men didn’t take well to being put off when they had sexon the brain. Stopping their kiss the night before wasn’t a bad idea, but maybehe felt like there wasn’t anything to gain now by hanging out with her.

AsMesa made her way down the stairs to the dining room, the sound of voices gotlouder. A bus full of tourist had arrived earlier in the day, making the wholeplace buzz like a swarm of bees. Many of them went riding earlier, leaving herthe run of the ranch house to herself. She’d taken her laptop into the mainhall, set it up on one of the tables and managed to type out the beginning of anew novel called Mission: Cowboy. She cringed. She wasn’t sure she liked it,but she figured a new title would come to her when the characters started addingtheir voices to the storyline. She wasn’t a plotter when it came to her storiesso everything depended on what they said.

Stoppingon the stairs, she looked over the group. All the tourists were back and theplace was packed to the gills. The family waited at their table for the groupto be served while they chatted about their day. Joel sat at the end of thetable next to an empty chair she hoped might be for her. Or was it Joshua?Maybe Jason? Damn. From this distanceshe wasn’t sure which one was which? Damnit.

“Mesa,come sit by me, darlin’.” One of the three waved from the end of the table.

Shechewed on her lips a moment and then started down the stairs. Okay. Joel? Shit. I’m not sure. She tookthe seat he held out for her, dropping into it with little grace. Nice, Mesa.

“Howwas your day?”

“Great.I got a lot of writing done in the main lodge.”

“Awesome.”

Therest of the group had been served, so the family got up to get their own plates,which included her. Joel or whichever one of them this was standing next to her, grinned and motioned for her to take the spot in frontof him. His cologne drifted to her nose. It seemed different somehow. Shelooked closer. No, she couldn’t really tell if it was Joel, Jason, or Joshua.Well, yes she could because Joshua had a small cut near his chin and Joel had asmall abrasion near his bottom lip from their fight at the bar last night. Thismust be Jason. But what was he up to? Was he deliberately playing like shedidn’t know the difference? Surely they didn’t think she was that stupid.

“Ienjoyed our kiss last night,” he whispered near her ear.

Okay,she didn’t like this game. What the hell was going on? “Really? I’m glad.”

“Metoo. I want to take you out in the moonlight tonight after dinner. You game?”

“Okay.”She frowned. Really? She grabbed aplate in order to get her dinner as the conversation lagged. Discussing this infront of his family wasn’t a great idea. She glanced around looking for Joel.He stood at the back of the line frowning. What kind of game were they playing?

Shereturned to her place at the table, setting her plate down first before sheretrieved a glass of lemonade and a dessert. Jason slid his hand along hershoulder as he took the seat next to her. Now she knew why the cologne wasdifferent, he wasn’t Joel. Why was Joel giving her the cold shoulder? What didthey plan?

Theconversation around the table focused on the day’s labors. They’d moved cattlefrom the south pasture to the north pasture. Several of the cattle had droppedtheir calves already making everyone worry it might be too late in the seasonand they would suffer without extra feed. She could hear many of the touriststalking about their ride on the horses that day and she mentally planned to dosome riding of her own tomorrow. Horseback riding was one of her favorite pasttimes. She wanted to explore the ranch more with Joel, though. Not on a stricttrail ride.

“Wouldyou like to go riding tomorrow?” Jason asked.

“Um,yes I would.”

“Great.I’ll saddle a couple of horses. I can meet you at the stable around nine in themorning.”

“Okay.”What the hell? This whole thing stinks.

Theyfinished dinner in silence while the rest of the family talked about differenttopics. The moment she finished, Jason grabbed her plate to deposit it into thedirty dish bin.

“Walkwith me.”

“Allright,” she answered, deciding to see where this whole thing might be leading.Did Joel push her off on his brother because he didn’t want to hurt herfeelings by saying he wasn’t attracted to her? Did Jason think she wanted him?

Shelet Jason take her hand and walk her out the front door of the main lodge tothe chairs lining the porch. Even though the full moon happened the nightbefore, it still shone bright enough to see the walkway.

“Youlook beautiful in the moonlight.”

“Thankyou.”

“Youknow, the kiss we shared last night blew my socks off. I wish you hadn’t mademe leave.”

Frowning,she opened her mouth to tell him she knew he wasn’t Joel, but he bent his headand kissed her full on the mouth. She quickly stepped back and smacked himacross the face. “How dare you.”

“What?”

“Doyou think I’m stupid? Do both of you think I wouldn’t know the differencebetween you, Jason?”

“Youknew I wasn’t Joel?”

“Hellyes! Even if I hadn’t figured it out at dinner, I would have known from thekiss.”

“Mostpeople can’t tell the difference between us.”

“Joelhas an abrasion near the left side of his mouth from where he got in a fightwith Joshua at the bar last night.”

“Damn.”

“Whatthe hell is going on here? Why the ruse?”

“I’lltell you, Mesa,” Joel said, coming around the side of the house. “I was pissedoff at myself this morning because of what happened last night. Our kiss, Imean.”

“Wellyou know what? Fuck both of you! You want to play these sillyassedgames, you can play them on some other unsuspectingwoman. I’m not doin’ it.”

“Mesa,listen,” Joel implored, holding out his hand to touch her arm.

Shejerked back and slapped at him. “No. This is childish. I can’t believe you two!I thought I might have meant a little more to you than this, Joel, butapparently not. What we shared last night was special to me, but not to you.I’m just another girl to you.”

“No,you’re not, Mesa.”

“Yeah,whatever.” She spun around to head back into the house. Maybe it was time togo. Head back to Los Angeles and lick her wounds.

“Mesa,please.”

“WhatJoel?” She turned back around.

“Let’stalk about this.”

“Whatthe hell is there to talk about? You and your brother were playing me for thefool. How many times have you three switched places on a girl, huh? I bet alot.”

“No.”

“Yes.”During her discussion with Joel, Jason had disappeared either back into thehouse or whatever. At this point, she really didn’t care. He probably slinkedback into his hidy hole. Man, if she ever became apermanent part of this family, she’d…what? Thoseare crazy thoughts.