Her dad considered her, then closed the distance between them. Reaching out, he gently took her hand and cradled it in his own. “You know there’s nothing you can say or do that will make me stop loving you, Mac, so out with it. What’s been eating at you?”
“I lied to you.”Nice finesse, Malone. Nothing like hurling it at him via fast-pitch.The truth hung there, suspended in flight. It had been offered and, apparently, received, and neither sender nor recipient was sure what to do with it.
He finally offered a short nod. “Okay. About what?”
She’d known from the moment she got into her truck and headed home twelve hours ago that she would have to tell him everything or nothing. There would be no CliffsNotes version.
“You won’t stop loving me.” A declarative question if ever there was one.
“There’s nothing in the world that could make me stop loving you, Mac.”
Then, everything it is.
Decision made and reassurances offered, there was no point in stalling. So she didn’t. Starting with the admission that she and Ty had been lovers, she ran through the entire course of events, wrapping up with the details involved in her long trip home.
There was only one topic she didn’t address: the fact that she’d fallen in love. That in the midst of the continual heartache involved in healing physical wounds and the terror of learning to recognize her true self, she’d fallen in love with Tyson Covington.
There would be fallout from her actions and the choice to keep this one fact to herself. It was one of life’s simple truths—cause and effect. A Japanese man had even created a kind of chart—an Ishikawa diagram—to make results traceable and repeatable and to identify weak points. Whoever Ishikawa had been, he’d no doubt have a heyday with her psyche. She was so messed up she probably would have broken the initial diagram. Hell, she’d probably have broken the theorybehindthe diagram. Whatever. All she wanted right then was her dad’s reassurance that it was all going to be okay.
The longer she waited, the longer she stared at Jack Malone’s neutral countenance, the more her internal panic levels escalated. They were fast approaching DEFCON Total Emotional Annihilation when he finally spoke.
“Why lie, Mac? I was proud of you for doing the right thing for the right reasons—helping someone in need, helping someone who couldn’t take control of a horrifying event.” He parked his fists on his hips before exhaling through his teeth. Staring at apoint on the ground somewhere between them, he quietly asked, “Why lie about any of this?”
Mackenzie nearly came out of her skin when the answer came from behind her.
“Love makes a woman do crazy things.” Stella Malone, Kenzie’s mother, stepped out of the shadows, climbing the fence to sit next to her daughter. A look of contrition decorated the older woman’s face, emphasizing the fine lines that good makeup and bright smiles usually hid.
Kenzie glanced between her mom and dad, confused. “When did you come down from the house?”
Stella’s shoulders rose and fell with feminine grace. “When I heard your father laughing. He rarely laughs like that. I wanted to know what was happening and be part of it.” She reached out and took Kenzie’s grimy hand. “Appears I got here a little late.”
“I’m glad you came,” Kenzie managed before the first fat tear broke over her lower lashes. She rubbed at it with undiluted aggression. “I’m so sick of crying over this. It seems as if that’s all I’ve done all day.” She drew a shaky breath and, clutching her mom’s hand, forced herself to lift her face to her father’s. “I’m so incredibly sorry, Dad. I didn’t mean to do anything more than secure the right to save Gizmo like Ty asked me to do. I know what it’s like to lose your hope.” Her voice broke, and she had to clear her throat before continuing, “I didn’t want that for Ty. Beyond that, I don’t have any excuse for my behavior.”
Her dad simply stood there, his chin tucked to his chest, refusing to meet her eyes. When he spoke, his voice had dropped two solid octaves and gone gravelly. “Do you love him, Mackenzie?”
“Does it matter?” The question could have been rhetorical. It wasn’t. And her parents knew it.
“Get on up to the house and get cleaned up. I want you to stay with us for a few days.” Spinning on his heel, he started for the barn.
Her mother’s hand tightened around hers.
“Does it matter?” Kenzie asked again, louder this time.
Jack Malone answered without slowing, without turning around. “It changes everything.”
THESUNWASgoing to melt Ty’s brain. That or it would cause the useless gray matter to spontaneously combust given the level of alcohol he had consumed last night. He rarely drank and never to excess, but last night had been his major exception. There was no doubt he’d come close to pickling his organs.
A pitiful groan sounded from somewhere near the foot of the bed.
Ty stretched one leg and was met with a flexible but solid object.
The toe punt resulted in a muffled, “Ow. Quit it.” Bedding rustled. “Man, you have the bluntest toes. They’re like little battering rams.”
Ty blinked slowly, forcing his eyes to adjust until he managed to squint in the face of certain death. His mouth was so full of cotton he expected he could have spun yarn straight out of it.
At least then I’d do something useful with my piehole.
“What happened?” a different, deeper voice asked.