“To do it,” Emma finished with a nod to the other woman. “Respect me on this, Cade. I told you that you and Eli were wrong to try to manipulate Kenzie.”
Ty forced himself to sit up. “Come again?”
“Out. Now,” Reagan said, her tone brooking no argument, and yet it was compassionate for all that.
His older brothers left the room. Eli was pulling the door closed behind him when he paused. Staring at the floor for a moment, he seemed to need to work up the courage to face Ty. When their eyes met, Ty’s breath seized in his chest at the sheer remorse on Eli’s face. “I’ll ask you to remember one thing. We did this because we weren’t willing to lose you. Nothing,nothing, is worth that.”
Then he closed the door.
Side by side, the women Ty loved like family faced him. And what they told him upended everything he thought he knew.
But he’d been right about one thing.
He was a total dick.
16
BETWEENWHITE-KNUCKLEDdriving conditions, pulling a trailer over snow-packed roads, changing a flat tire halfway home and trying to figure out how to break the truth to her dad, Kenzie was ready to drop long before she saw the sign announcing that Cheyenne Wells, Colorado, was seventeen miles ahead. She took the next exit, crossed under the Malone gate and began the last leg of her journey home. Winding her way across the ranch, she let herself take in the sweeping grassland and strong five-wire fences that ran to the moonlit horizon. It was a good thirty minutes of dirt roads, muddy potholes and creative curse words before the mare barn came into view.
Parking out front, she rested her forehead on the steering wheel, the only sound that of the engine ticking as it cooled. Eyelids heavy, she may have passed out for a minute before jerking upright at the rap of knuckles on the driver’s-side window.
She powered the glass down with a touch before shutting the engine off. “Hey, Andy. You’re up late.”
“Could say the same for you.”
She couldn’t stifle the jaw-cracking yawn, only nodding in response.
The weathered cowboy leaned back and made a show of examining her truck and trailer. “Looks as if you drove through every snowdrift and salt spill you could find.”
“They treated the roads pretty heavily for ice so it wasn’t too... You know, I was going to say it wasn’t too bad, but that’s a bald-faced lie.” And she was done with those. For good. Even if it hurt, it was the truth or nothing from now on.
Opening the door, she hopped down from the cab. “The salt needs rinsed off, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”
“That’s a first.”
“What’s that?” she absently asked.
“You puttin’ off caring for your precious truck.” He shook his head and grinned. “You two ought to write your love story down for future truck owners, Mackenzie. I’m stuck in a mediocre relationship with mine, and you give me hope I might just find ‘the one’ if I keep searchin’.”
She felt the color leave her cheeks. Such a profound statement given what she’d left behind earlier today.
Roll with it, Malone.
Dredging up the last of her emotional reserves, she managed a small smile. “Funny guy.”
“Suppose only a fool gives up hope, though, huh?” Andy slapped the halter lead he held against his leg. “Came out to check on Bean’s labor.”
Impossible as it seemed, Kenzie perked up. “Bean’s foaling?”
“Said so, didn’t I?” Andy glanced over his shoulder. “The Malone’s in there with her now.”
Her knees simply folded and she went to the ground.
Andy dropped the lead and went to one knee beside her. “Malone,” he called, low but strong.
“No,” she croaked. “Don’t call him.”
“Too late.” The cowboy stood and slipped into the darkness at the same time Jack Malone appeared.