“If Michael were here, I’d have him over there right now to see that the Covington kid kept his word. Your brother would have done it, too.”
“Dad—” she started, paused, then started again. “Dad, I’d like to think Michael would have trusted me to handle this on my own. And I’d like to think you would do the same.” The irony wasn’t lost on her. She was asking for his trust when she was giving nothing trustworthy in return. She’d never hated herself quite so much as she did right then.
“Your mother and I are concerned about you, honey. You’re living a very lonely life right now, chasing that national title like it’s the be-all and end-all. Now you’ve created this partnership that could make your line into something, and you’re less interested in it than you are in the man who’s trying to screw you out of your fair share.”
“If you only knew,” she muttered.
After an interminable silence, a silence in which Kenzie felt the pressures of his expectations building in her chest, he spoke. “Losing Michael wrecked this family.” The words were offered like a reverent eulogy, not a decade-old memory, and it stung.
“I’m well aware of that. I lived through it,” she said in a tight voice.Itandthe aftermath.
“Don’t get smart with me.” Jack Malone paused, seemingly searching for the right words. “Michael’s loss left a hole in our lives, a hole we’ll never fill again. Not because we don’t want to, mind you, but because we can’t. If that makes us a little overprotective of you as our only child, you’ll just have to come to terms with it. You’re all we’ve got left.”
Her father continued, but Kenzie hardly heard the last of her dad’s words before disconnecting the call. The conversation had stopped for her when he’d said she couldn’t fill the hole that had been left by Michael. She’d spent a decade trying so hard to be both son and daughter to her parents, to be a strong enough personality to fill that emotional vacancy her brother had left. She’d failed on an epic level. Now, knowing her efforts to be both daughter and lost son to her parents had failed? Hearing him say it out loud? Fully aware she’d only be disappointing him further when she admitted her deception? Well, she hadn’t thought she’d be able to hate herself any more. How miserably wrong she’d been.
TYCOULDN’TGETthe taste of Kenzie off his lips. He brushed his teeth. He drank a Coke. He considered smoking a cigar. That only reminded him of their last game of strip poker, the one where he’d been down to one sock and his boxers. She’d been tossing out cards while wearing nothing but a green dealer’s visor, her bra and a black thong. A cigar had dangled from the corner of her mouth. Light had danced through her hair, and every time she’d moved, her smooth skin had pulled taut over that flat belly. Sure, it had been sexy. But it was nothing compared to the way her lips had wrapped around the butt of the cigar and kicked up at one corner when he’d lost the next hand in spectacular fashion. Oh, and his boxers. He’d lost those, too. She had immediately declared herself the winner and claimed him as her prize.
They hadn’t slept that night.
“Damn it!” He slammed his closet door shut and collapsed into his wheelchair so hard he had to put a foot out to keep from tipping over. Settling, he wheeled over to the window in his temporary bedroom and looked up. “I’m seriously getting sick of this.”
He shoved the window open a crack. A rush of crisp, snow-laden air washed over him and made the hair on his arms stand up at the chill. He needed the opportunity to cool off. Kenzie had left his blood so close to the boiling point that he couldn’t think. Even now, all he wanted was to get his hands on her again and to have her put her hands on him. He just had to get her out of his system, then he’d see her off the ranch and out of his life. For good.
He heard the sound of a single horse’s hooves pounding the earth. He stretched to peer out the window.
Who is it? Windows are too tall. So either stand and see or sit and wonder, Covington.
Curiosity won the internal debate as the sound grew nearer, the tempo increasing as the horse picked up speed in order to charge up the hill.
The rider’s sticking to the road. Is something wrong? Has something happened? Could be one of the ranch hands on his way to fetch either Eli or Cade.
He wanted the cowboy to be coming afterhim, coming to askhimfor advice, askhimfor help. It used to be that way. Not anymore. No one asked him for anything anymore.
Everyone from Kenzie to Eli had told him that was his own fault. Their theory? If he’d make an effort to re-engage not only with others but with life in general, folks wouldn’t feel so awkward about approaching him. They’d start to seek him out again. He just had to make sure they knew they were welcome. But that was the problem. He wasn’t at all sure theywerewelcome. He didn’t want to be gawked at, didn’t want to be—
Those pounding hooves drew closer still.
Screw it. He wasn’t standing up. He was too tired and he hurt, no matter how little Kenzie thought of his excuse.Excuse...
“Damn if she’s going to get me questioning myself,” he groused. “Incoming!” he called into the house. Then he waited.
No answer.
“Hey!” he hollered. “I said there’s a rider incoming!”
More silence.
Temper brewing, Ty grabbed the windowsill and pulled, hoisting himself up to peer out the wide but narrow bank of windows that ran nearly the full length of the wall. The breeze carried the smells of dust and crushed grass and animal through the window. Fresh and pungent, they tickled his nose and wordlessly encouraged him to draw in a deep breath. Then he choked when he recognized the rider, hunched over the animal’s neck, riding hell-bent for leather up the main road as she headed deeper into the ranch.
Kenzie.
She didn’t take in nearby scenery but kept her gaze focused far ahead. She didn’t stop when a cowboy called out to her. Strangest of all, she didn’t acknowledge a group of young kids, their trustworthy little ponies plodding along in single file as they carried their charges home from a trail ride.
Kenzie morphed into the Pied Piper around children. Little cowboys and cowgirls alike flocked to her at exhibitions and rodeos, clamoring to gain, and keep, her attention. She loved the littlest ones most, though she never admitted it.
So to see her fly by kids, her mare’s jets set on wide open, without offering a greeting? No. That rang all kinds of bells, each of them chiming “wrong” in a different tone.
Ty watched her go, her shape growing ever smaller as the wind carried her dust trail off at a brisk clip. Never easing up, she and her mare crested the hill behind the house and disappeared. He sank into his chair, lost in thought. What kind of skeleton did a woman have in her closet that held that much sway over her? To chase her out into the elements in such a blind panic?