The next morning Kade woke early, ready to find Kelsey before she fled.
What had come over him? The confirmed-bachelor father. Hell, even if Kelsey did agree to see him again, what would she think of him having a son? He and Trent were a package deal. Usually Kade talked about his son all the time, but for some reason he’d stayed away from personal subjects, much the same as Kelsey had.
At seven he knocked on her door, hoping she’d still be there. The door opened, rewarding him with the sight of Kelsey clad in a pink T-shirt and shorts, and a glimpse of her shapely legs.
“What are you doing here so early, Kade?” She ran a hand through her tousled hair.
He leaned against the door frame. “You all right?”
“I’m fine.” She gave a cute little yawn. “What time is it?”
“Seven.”
“Seven?” She turned away, clearly distracted, and he caught the door with his boot. “Darn hotel drapes,” she muttered. “Always make it too dark.”
Kade followed her into the room, the door slamming behind him as she pulled open the drapes and flooded the room with sunshine. “Kelsey, we’ve got to talk.”
She spun around, almost colliding with Kade, those dark eyes looking up at him. “About what?”
“Us.”
“There’s no us.” She raised her hands as if in amazement and sounded agitated. “You were nice to me on the airplane and we had dinner. That’s it.”
He reached one hand up and smoothed hair from her eyes. “What about the kiss we shared? You have to admit, it was more than a little peck.”
For a moment, he saw yearning in her eyes, mirroring every desire in his soul. But she pulled free and pushed him away.
“No.” She pointed to the door. “And you need to go.”
Was she upset with him? Or did it have something to do with her ex?
“What happened?” he said softly.
She shook her head. “Nothing. I need to get ready for my appointment.”
“Kelsey—”
“Please leave.” Her expression looked both sad and distant. “I’ve really got to get ready for this get-together and I just don’t have it in me for any kind of complications right now.”
Kade stood there for a second, his thumb hooked in his belt loop. “Can I at least give you my card? I’ll leave it up to you to get ahold of me. If you want to.”
Kelsey sighed and nodded. “All right.”
He dug out his wallet and pulled out one of his cards from the agency and handed it to Kelsey. She took it without looking at it and slipped it into a pocket of her backpack.
Well, at least she hadn’t tossed it into the garbage.
Just as he was about to tell her good-bye, she said, “Hold on.”
He paused, wondering if she’d had a change of heart.
She leaned over and picked up his Stetson from a chair beside the bed. “You forgot this last night,” she said as she handed him his hat.
He put it on and tipped the brim at her. “I hope you’ll call,” he said, and then turned and headed to the door.
Kelsey followed him and he stood and looked at her as she held the door open a moment.
Her eyes softened. “Thank you for letting me join you for dinner. I had a nice time.” And then she let the door close quietly behind her.
Well, hell.
Maybe she’d call him after all.
Kade rubbed his clean-shaven jaw. What he needed was to get his mind back on his job and start thinking about what he had to do to track down those damn coyotes. He was getting closer to catching the bastards. He could feel it. Almost taste it.
He headed down to the hotel’s restaurant and waited for Chuck to arrive. Sun shone brilliant through the beveled glass of the Larson Hotel and spilled onto the carpeted floor. Groundskeepers worked at cleaning torn palm fronds and other debris left from the previous night’s storm, and housekeepers polished rain splatters from the windows and vacuumed dirt from carpets.
After he made his way into the restaurant, Kade was escorted to a table and let the hostess know he was waiting for another person to join him. He took a seat and tried to get his head back on the intelligence work waiting for him when he returned, but his thoughts kept turning to Kelsey.
“Howdy, son.” Chuck’s voice brought Kade out of his thoughts about a certain blond who’d given him the brush-off.
Kade smiled at his stepfather. “Mornin’, old man.”
“Old man, my ass.” Chuck removed his gray Stetson, plunked it on top of Kade’s, and took the seat across the table. After swiping his head with a meaty hand, Chuck eyed him with his penetrating stare, the same one that always could tell when Kade was up to no good as a kid. “You haven’t been sleeping.”
Kade leaned back and folded his arms. “Dad, I’m fine. Just had a restless night.”
Chuck tugged at his turquoise bolo tie. “How’re your sister and my grandkids?”
“Dara’s doing great and the twins are ornery as all get-out.” Kade laughed and shook his head at the thought of his niece and nephew. “Stevie takes more and more after his grandpa every day. The spittin’ image of you and a little devil.”
“Humph.” Chuck pulled his pocket watch out of his jeans. “Reporter should be here by now.”
Raising an eyebrow, Kade asked, “What’s this about?”
“Supposedly one of those in-depth feature type reports.” Chuck took a drink of his ice water and settled back. “Didn’t your mother tell you? This reporter fella will be staying with us awhile, talking with ranchers, showing our side of the story and not just those damn militants that make us all look like a bunch of uneducated redneck yeehaws. He’ll probably want to interview you and others from the department. He’s supposed to be one of the best.”
Kade’s attention wandered from his stepdad as Kelsey entered the room, brushing her hair behind her ear as she spoke with the hostess.
Fire burned in his gut as he thought of last night. Those lips. The taste of her.
Bright as a summer day, her honey-blond hair tumbled loose to her shoulders, the soft pink blouse and faded jeans hugging her body, showing off her curves. He could almost smell her honeysuckle scent.
“What’s the matter with you, boy?” Chuck turned and followed Kade’s gaze. “Ah. A looker, that one.”
The hostess grabbed a menu and led Kelsey straight to Kade’s table. Her jaw dropped as she reached him, and her eyes locked with his.
“These handsome gentlemen are your party, Ms. Nichols.” The hostess winked at Chuck. She set the menu in front of the empty chair between the men and left.
Chuck stood and took Kelsey’s hand. “I’m Chuck Turner. You’re the reporter, Kale Nichols?”
She moved her gaze from Kade to Chuck, and gave him a polite smile. “Please call me Kelsey.”
***
What’s Kade doing here? Kelsey’s body tingled as if his hands were on her now. She did her best not to look at him but at the man she was scheduled to meet instead.
“Nice to meet you, honey.” Chuck Turner’s hand swamped hers, and with his good ol’ boy personality, she almost expected him to slap her on the back and offer her a chaw of tobacco.
He released her and gestured to Kade. “This is my son. Kade, this is our reporter, who’ll be staying with us at the JL Star. It’ll be nice having a pretty lady as our guest.”
“Your son?” That horrible flush rushed over Kelsey.
Kade’s answering grin and the sweep of his eyes told her that he’d noticed. He stood and took her hand, and she felt that dangerous tingle skitter along her entire body.
Why did he affect her every time they touched?
She found her voice, and tried to sound like the professional reporter she was. “I thought your last name was Owen, not Turner.”
Kade gave a slow nod and smiled. “It is. Chuck’s my stepdad.”
Chuck lifted his bushy brows and looked from Kelsey to Kade. “You two know each other?”
With only a little difficulty, Kelsey extracted her hand from Kade’s. “We, ah, met yesterday on the plane.”
“And had dinner last night,” Kade added with a spark in his blue eyes.
Chuck’s eyebrows shot up farther. “Well then. Let’s have us some breakfast.”
After Chuck pushed Kelsey’s chair in, they ordered from the waitress. Kelsey chose the fruit plate, not sure the butterflies inhabiting her stomach could handle anything stronger with Kade so close, pressing his leg against hers. When she tried moving the other way, she managed to ram into Chuck’s knee. She flushed with heat as she mumbled an apology.
When the waitress took their menus and left, Kelsey picked up her water glass and cut Kade a look that told him exactly what she intended to do with it. He grinned and moved his knee. The remainder of the meal he only accidentally brushed up against her thigh on occasion.
During the little knee waltz, Chuck explained how large the ranch was, and sure enough, Kade lived at the ranch, in the same house.
Wonderful.
Providence?
Get real.
Kelsey groaned inwardly, wondering if she should say that she had changed her mind, then flee back to San Francisco.
But to what? The jerk? Her little apartment above the Italian bakery?
No. Not going to happen. She could keep Kade in his place, finish the feature, conquer the Wild West, and be on her way.
As the waitress served their breakfast, Chuck launched into his concerns on the illegal immigrant situation and with his permission, Kelsey adjusted her cell phone’s recording feature and put the phone on the table.
Chuck speared a sausage and gestured with it. “The problems have been there for years. They’ve got to get a handle on it, before more of those poor immigrant souls lose their lives, dying of thirst in the desert.”
“Can Border Patrol increase its efforts?” Kelsey said.
“Ask Kade.” Chuck waved his sausage at Kade. “He’s with the agency.”
She raised her eyebrows. “You’re a CPB agent?”
Kade gave her that easy smile. “I told you I’m in law enforcement.”
Kelsey tilted her head to the side. “You didn’t mention which branch.”
He shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”
Chuck’s chair scraped against the tile floor as he stood and drew a cell phone from the pocket of his western shirt. “Need a moment to call your mother and let her know we’ll be on our way in a few.”
When Kelsey was alone with Kade, she wiped her mouth with a napkin. “If I thought it remotely possible, I would bet you planned this.”
“Who says I didn’t?” He smiled. “You missed a spot.”
As she speared a strawberry, she gave him a puzzled look. “What?” He reached up and rubbed her chin with his thumb. “There, all gone.” But he didn’t stop, he continued on, trailing his thumb over her lips in a slow, sensual movement.
She froze, trapped by the brilliant azure of his eyes.
No. No way could she allow herself to become vulnerable to any man again.
Kelsey pulled away. “Kade... that kiss last night was a mistake. I’m going to do this feature, and then I’m going to leave. There is no room for any kind of relationship with you in this equation.”
“All right.” His lips quirked. “If you say so.”