“And my daddy said when I get bigger I can ride in a barrel race. Have you ever seen a barrel race, Mr. Kyle?
Daddy used to do rodeo, but he wasn’t very good.”
“Hey, I wasn’t that bad,” Shane protested, placing a hand on his daughter’s bobbing blond head. “I just had other things I wanted to concentrate on. Like keeping all my bones intact,” he added in an aside to Kyle.
Kyle smiled obligingly as they made their way across the sweeping back lawn toward the main house, but his head was still spinning from spending the better part of an hour with Shane and Lucy. Kyle had noted on more than one occasion that Molly liked to talk, but she couldn’t hold a candle to her four-year-old niece. At least Molly had to pause for air occasionally.
“Run on into the house, honey, and ask your mommy for a glass of milk or something,” Shane instructed, giving Lucy a little push. “We’ll be right in.”
Lucy disappeared into the house. Shane turned to Kyle, motioning toward one of the wrought-iron rockers grouped invitingly around the brick patio that stretched across the entire back of his parents’ home. “Have a seat, Kyle.”
He chose a rocker warily, wondering what was coming next. An interrogation? Had Shane somehow sensed that he and Molly were involved in…well, in something?
Shane dropped into one of the nearby chairs, stretching his lanky, denim-clad legs in front of him, battered boots crossed at the ankle. “Does the ranch look pretty much the way you remembered?”
“With a few exceptions, yeah, it’s the same.”
“You ever think much about your time here?”
“Occasionally. It was the one good time during a generally lousy period in my life.”
“You’ve always been welcome to come back for a visit, you know.”
Kyle nodded. “I figured. Time just got away. Things changed. You know how it goes.”
“Yeah, I know. You start feeling like a different person. Not sure how you’ll connect again with the people who knew you the way you were before.”
“That sums it up pretty well.” Kyle was surprised Shane understood.
“I’ve been talking to Daniel Andreas since he married my cousin B.J. He said that’s sort of the way he felt when the thought of visiting crossed his mind during the past few years.”
Recalling a hazy memory of a slender, dark-haired youth about his own age, Kyle nodded again.
Shane wasn’t discouraged by Kyle’s lack of verbal response. “You know, the big party for Dad and Cassie is only four days away. If you don’t have anything pressing to get back to this week, we’d sure like it if you could stay long enough to visit with them for a while.”
Anything pressing. Kyle rolled the phrase around in his mind for a moment, wondering if working out, watching TV and stewing about his future counted as “pressing.” It wasn’t as if he had to hurry back, but he still wasn’t sure he wanted to stay for the party. Even at his best, he wasn’t much of a party guy.
Maybe it wasn’t as uncomfortable as he had feared, being back at the ranch, faced with so many old memories. And maybe he wouldn’t mind seeing Cassie and Jared again. It was the thought of all those other people—strangers, extended Walker family members who would look vaguely familiar but whose names he would probably never recall—that made his palms go damp.
Not to mention the awkwardness inherent in seeing Jared again after sleeping with Jared’s daughter.
It was that last thought that made him stammer a little when he said, “I, uh, don’t know that I can stay that long.”
“I’m not going to pressure you. I just wanted to assure you that you’re more than welcome to stay. Molly’s been working on this party for months, with some help from Dad’s sisters, Layla and Michelle. She’s determined to make everything work out perfectly—hence, her trip to Tennessee to drag you back here.”
“I don’t really think she sprained her ankle just to get me here.”
Shane chuckled. “I wouldn’t put it past her.”
“She’s got a big heart.”
“The biggest.” Shane laced his hands on his stomach and gazed at his boot tips. “Of course, she can nag you half insane when she sets her mind on something-this party, for example. She came to me last April and told me about her idea, and she’s been working and planning on it ever since.”
“That long, huh?” It had been late July when Kyle had first been contacted; he supposed it had taken them that long to track him down.
“Oh, yeah. It’s been all she’s thought about for most of the year. It’s a wonder Dad and Cassie haven’t figured out that something was going on, but I think it’s still going to be a surprise for them.”
Kyle was starting to feel guilty. He wondered if that was Shane’s intention, telling him how long and hard Molly had worked to make this party so special for her parents.
He told himself that he didn’t owe this family anything—but even before he had completed the thought, he knew that wasn’t true. He owed the Walkers a great deal. More than he could repay. Put in that perspective, staying a couple extra days for a party didn’t really seem like too much to ask.
“I guess I could stay for the party—since it means so much to Molly,” he heard himself offering almost before he knew he’d come to the decision. “I’ll make arrangements for a flight out late Saturday night.”
“Airfare will be cheaper if you wait until Sunday morning,” Shane pointed out.
“Yeah. Okay. Sunday morning, then.”
“I’ll drive you into Dallas, myself. Just let me know when you need to be at the airport.”
It seemed to be all settled. Looked as though Kyle would be staying for that party he’d been trying to avoid for several months.
He gave Shane a quick, suspicious look, but Shane’s expression was still serene. He didn’t look particularly smug at having just skillfully manipulated Kyle into the answer he had wanted to hear. Yet, somehow, Kyle still had the sneaking suspicion he’d just been conned by a master.
Having sent Lucy into the den with a spill-proof cup of milk, a cinnamon roll on a plate and permission to watch television for a short while, Kelly glanced out the kitchen window toward the patio. “They’re still sitting out there talking.”
Molly tried not to reveal how nervous that made her. “I wonder what they’re talking about.”
“Probably just catching up. Maybe I should make a fresh pot of coffee for when they decide to come in.”
“Not for Kyle’s sake. He doesn’t drink caffeine.”
“Oh. Should I make a pot of decaf?”
“I don’t think he cares for coffee at all. He likes herbal teas, though. I know Mom keeps several varieties on hand.”
“Then I’ll put on a kettle of water.”
Molly nodded and glanced toward the back door again, hoping the guys wouldn’t stay out there much longer. Her curiosity was driving her crazy.
“You’ve spent a lot of time with Kyle during the past few days.”
“Yes. More than I had intended, of course.”
Kelly shot her a quick smile from the sink where she was running water into a copper-bottomed aluminum teakettle. “It doesn’t seem as though you’ve found it too much of a trial.”
“No. We’ve gotten along fine.”
“Funny. I’d gotten the impression that he was sort of surly and antisocial.”
Since he had sent two representatives back with metaphorical tails tucked between their legs, Molly knew where Kelly had come by that impression. “He can be a little grumpy,” she admitted. “But I learned pretty quickly how to handle him when he gets that way.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you have a little crush on him. Just something about the way you look when you talk about him.”
Molly felt her cheeks warm. “Don’t be silly,” she said, but she didn’t meet her sister-in-law’s eyes.
“Deny it all you want, but there’s something there.”
“Even if there were, it wouldn’t really make any difference. Kyle’s a confirmed loner. He’s going back to his little mountain hideaway as soon as he can book a flight. What ties he has to anyone are back in Tennessee, not here in Texas.”
“That is quite a way from here,” Kelly conceded.
It hadn’t seemed so far when Molly had set out on her trip to find Kyle, but she knew it would seem a half a world away after he left. Even had he wanted her to go back with him, which was highly unlikely, she couldn’t imagine living that far away from her family. Her aunt Lindsey lived in Little Rock, not even halfway to Kyle’s place, and Lindsey had never been able to participate fully in all the family get-togethers and impromptu parties.
Not that Kyle would ask, of course. More likely he’d be glad to see the last of her when he left. She couldn’t even talk him into staying a few more days for the party.
The back door opened and Shane ambled in, followed by Kyle. Shane draped an arm around his wife’s shoulders and kissed her cheek. “Where’s Lucy?”
“Watching cartoons in the den.” Kelly smiled at Kyle. “I’ve heated some water for tea. Would you like a cup? We have several herbals without caffeine. And fresh cinnamon rolls, if you’re interested.”
“I’m interested in both. Thanks.” He pulled out a chair and sat next to Molly, his gaze meeting hers for a moment and then sliding away.
“Kyle’s decided to stay and join us for the party Saturday,” Shane announced cheerfully. “You don’t mind having a houseguest for another few nights, do you, Molly?”
She blinked, but managed to contain her surprise, though her curiosity was running rampant. How on earth had Shane talked Kyle into staying? “I’d be delighted,” she said brightly, without looking at Kyle. “Mom and Dad will be so pleased.”
“They’re going to be so surprised,” Kelly predicted. “I can’t believe how much Molly has gotten done without even letting a hint of her plans slip to her parents.”
Molly smiled modestly. “I really wanted to do this for them. But I’ve had a lot of help, you know. You and Shane, and aunt Layla and aunt Michelle. Everyone at Walker Investigations who helped me track down the foster boys we’d lost contact with.”
“So everything is pretty much on track on your end?” Shane asked.
“It’s going to be a busy week, but nothing I can’t handle.”
Shane nodded and glanced at Kyle. “Since you’re going to be here anyway Kyle, maybe you could give me a hand for the next couple of days with some of the outside preparations.”
Molly watched as Kyle gave Shane a look of guarded intrigue. “I’d be glad to help out.”
She thought he sounded almost relieved to have the prospect of something to do for the next few days.
As for herself, she couldn’t help wondering about the next few nights.
Molly didn’t see much of Kyle that day, since he spent a lot of time outside with Shane. In the meantime, she and Kelly—with a little “help” from Lucy—made a half-dozen lists of details to be seen to before the party.
Working on the party plans gave her something to do besides brood about Kyle, but didn’t stop her from wondering about him periodically. Specifically, she wondered what he and Shane were talking about out there.
“…as for the logistics of housing everyone, it looks as though all the arrangements have been made,” Kelly said, breaking into Molly’s reverie. “Most everyone from out of town prefers to stay in a motel, and they’ve already made reservations. Everyone else lives close enough to drive back and forth.”
“I assume Lindsey and Nick and their kids are staying with Michelle and Tony?”
“Yes. They’ll drive to Dallas on Friday. By the way, I don’t envy you having to admit to Lindsey that you drove right through Little Rock—twice—and didn’t even call her.”
Molly shifted guiltily in her chair at the kitchen table where they had spread all their paperwork. “If I’d called on the way to Kyle’s house, she’d have tried to stop me, or would have insisted on someone accompanying me the rest of the way. I didn’t call on the way back because Kyle was with me and it would have been too awkward.”
“Mmm. Maybe you’ll get away with those excuses.” They both knew she wouldn’t, of course. Lindsey would have a few things to say—but since she’d have to get in line behind Jared and the other relatives, Molly figured it would be routine by then to say she was sorry and promise never to do such a reckless thing again.
The phone rang then, and Kelly jumped up to answer the kitchen extension. Molly dutifully admired the picture Lucy had drawn with colored markers, then looked up when Kelly held the receiver out toward her. “It’s your mom.”
For the first time in her life, Molly hesitated before reaching for the phone to speak to her mother. She could only hope Kelly would attribute her sudden surge of nerves to her determination to keep the anniversary plans secret.
“Hi, Mom. Are you having a good time?”
Cassie’s rich voice came through the line with a vibrant clarity that made Molly ache to hug her. “We’re having a wonderful time, even though your father is already getting restless to get back home.”
“Tell him he’ll be home soon enough. You should both enjoy every minute of this trip. You’ve had so few of them together.”
“How is everything there? Going smoothly, I hope?” Molly glanced at the papers scattered across the kitchen table. “So far.”
“How are the boys?”
“All doing well.” She saw no need to mention
Hayes’s unpleasant appearance at Shane’s door. “Good. And you? Are you okay?”
She looked down at the brace on her right leg. “I’m fine. Tell me about everything you’ve seen this week.”
Cassie laughed. “I couldn’t possibly do that in one phone call, but I’m taking lots of pictures.”
They chatted for a few more minutes, and then Cassie announced that she had to end the call. “I’ll see you Saturday, sweetheart. Your Daddy sends his love.”
“Give mine right back to him. And to you, too. Bye, Mom.”
She handed the receiver back to Kelly, who waited to replace it in the cradle so Molly wouldn’t have to get up. She wasn’t sure she had done a very good job of sounding entirely natural with her mother, but she was confident that she hadn’t let anything slip—about the party or the fact that since she’d last seen her parents, Molly had fallen head over heels in love.
In addition to the party, the entire family’s anniversary gift to Cassie and Jared was a new outdoor kitchen for the parties they were so fond of hosting. While most of the clan had donated financially to the cause, Shane and Memo had done the actual work, with help from the foster boys after school and on weekends.
The Walkers had always believed in the benefits of honest physical labor, Kyle reflected, wiping a film of sweat from his forehead. He and Shane had just wrestled a large, stainless steel, built-in grill into place, and now Kyle stood aside while Shane connected the gas lines.
It felt good to be useful. To be treated like an able-bodied man again. Shane cut him little slack, crediting him with enough sense to decide for himself how much he could comfortably handle.
Memo, a quiet, easygoing man who reminded Kyle a bit of his friend Mack, had left a while earlier to pick up the boys from school. While Shane finished connecting the grill, Kyle studied the kitchen, which was almost complete.
Protected from the elements by a slate-roofed, open-sided wooden structure, the kitchen consisted of a stainless steel sink, small refrigerator and the massive grill-rotisserie-gas burner unit they had just installed. Lights were strung overhead for evening entertaining, and a fire pit was surrounded by a Mexican tile floor that would hold a couple of café tables and several chairs. Certainly not enough seating for the crowd expected that weekend, but enough for smaller family dinners outdoors.
Shane had explained that Molly and Kelly would place big Mexican pots filled with hardy plants along the borders of the outdoor room. Future plans included a water garden with a small waterfall nearby, to add the soothing sounds of water to the backyard retreat.
“And more bird feeders,” Shane added, taking a step back to catch his breath and admire their handiwork. “Mom’s a nut for the birds.”
There were already several feeders and baths scattered around the yard. Kyle looked beyond the outdoor kitchen to the dormitory, the barn and the green pastures beyond. “I can see why you and Molly enjoy living here so much. It’s a great place.”
“A different view from what you see in the mountains, but this is pretty much paradise, as far as I’m concerned,” Shane murmured, his gaze following Kyle’s. “I know Dad feels the same way. This is exactly what he and I always wanted during the years we drifted around looking for a place to settle, before he met Cassie or reconnected with his brothers and sisters. I don’t know if you remember the story about Dad finding his siblings twenty-five years ago?”
Kyle frowned. “I remember hearing something about them all being separated as children, then coming back together years later. Your dad spent a lot of time in foster homes, himself, from what he told me.”
“He did. He was the eldest of seven kids who were separated when their parents died when Dad was eleven. My aunt Michelle was the one who brought them back together. She’d been adopted as a toddler and didn’t even remember her biological family, but she found out about them after her adoptive mother died. She hired Tony—whom she married shortly afterward—to find her siblings. He put his investigators to work, and within a couple of years, they’d located everyone except a brother who died years earlier, leaving one daughter, my cousin Brynn. The one who’s married to the orthopedic surgeon who’s going to look at Molly’s ankle.”
Following the story easily enough, Kyle nodded. “They’ve all become close since they were reunited. I remember seeing them all together at family barbecues here when I was in high school.” And envying the family bonds between them he’d never experienced for himself, he added mentally.
“They’re very close. You’d never know they weren’t raised together. But I guess that’s why they like to get together so often now—to make up for lost time. Michelle and Lindsey were the only ones adopted into new families. The others were all older, and remembered being together for a time. All of them spent a lot of years missing their family and searching for a place to call home.”
Kyle could empathize with the need to find a place to belong. That was exactly what he had faced as he’d lain in a hospital bed in Germany, his best friend dead, his military career at an abrupt end. He hadn’t had a clue where to turn—and then Mack McDooley had shown up at his bedside to assure him that he did have someplace to go.
It had touched Kyle immeasurably that Mack had gone to that effort, even in the depths of his own grief over the loss of his son. Knowing that Kyle had no family of his own, Mack and Jewel had taken him into their family, helping him find a place to live, patiently drawing him out of his depression, offering him hope for his future—much as Jared and Cassie had done a dozen years earlier.
For a guy who’d had his share of hard luck, he’d been extremely fortunate to have had the Walkers and the McDooleys in his life, he mused.
Speaking of boys who had been lucky enough to come into this family…
Kyle looked around as Memo Perez ushered the four foster boys out of the dormitory. “You got things for this crew to do, Shane?” Memo called out.
Shane grinned. “Always.”
As the boys groaned, Shane turned to Kyle. “Kyle, meet the gang. Jacob, Colin, Elias and Emilio.” He pointed to a gangly fifteen-ish redhead, a chubby towhead about the same age and a pair of dark-haired, dark-eyed boys who were obviously brothers, the older perhaps seventeen, the other five or six years younger. “Guys, meet Kyle Reeves. He lived here for a while when he was a teenager.”
“You was a foster kid?” the towhead, Colin, asked. Kyle nodded. “I was here for just over a year when
I was seventeen. I left after I finished high school.”
“They make you muck out stalls?” Elias asked, his lip curling.
“Every afternoon. Can’t say it was my favorite chore, but I lived through it.”
“How’d you get that scar on your face?” Emilio, the youngest boy, inquired.
“Emilio, that’s not polite,” Memo chided with an apologetic frown toward Kyle.
Kyle shrugged. “It’s okay. I was wounded overseas by a roadside bomb. I was in the Marines.”
All four boys looked at him with widened eyes, obviously intrigued by meeting someone with such an adventurous past. The scar, rather than an oddity, had now become a mark of heroism to them. Because he wasn’t comfortable with the image of himself as a war hero, Kyle turned abruptly to Shane. “I’m getting pretty thirsty. If you don’t need me for anything else right now, I’ll go inside for a while.”
“Yeah, go sit and relax for a bit,” Shane encouraged him. “We’ve put in a hard afternoon.”
Kyle hoped he had worked hard enough that he would be able to sleep that night. Alone. Without spending hours lying in his bed aching to go to Molly.
But then again, he didn’t think it was possible to work himself to that point.
Late that afternoon, Shane insisted that Kyle should get on a horse. “Can’t have you turning into a city boy,” he said with a laugh, leading a glossy, brown, saddled gelding around the end of the barn while Molly and Kelly watched. “Jump on. Bodie here needs some exercise.”
Kyle made a face. “It’s been three years since I was on a horse, and I was in much better shape then,” he demurred. “I’ll probably fall right into the dirt.”
“Nah. It’s like riding a bike. You never forget.” Grinning, Shane motioned toward the stirrups. “C’mon, Kyle, it’s not like I’m asking you to rope a calf or race to the back property line. Just ride around the yard here. Show me that you remember everything I taught you when you were a skinny, funny-looking kid. Rather than the skinny, funny-looking guy you are now,” he added, mischievously.
Molly was pleased that Kyle chuckled in response to Shane’s cheerful put-down. Though he cautiously approached the right side of the patiently waiting horse, he still seemed concerned about climbing on. “No laughing if I fall on my butt,” he warned Molly.
She grinned. “Sorry, greenhorn. No promises from me on that count.”
For all his protests, Kyle wasn’t nearly as rusty as he’d feared. Placing his right foot into the stirrup, he swung himself into the saddle almost as easily as if it were something he did everyday. Once again, Molly was struck by how gracefully he moved, despite his physical limitations. She wished she could better remember what he’d been like as a teenager. Had he always been so well coordinated, or had that developed during his rehabilitation?
“Not bad,” Shane approved. “Careful, though. Tennis shoes aren’t made for stirrups, the way boots are.”
Kyle nodded and wheeled Bodie around to trot briskly around the perimeter of the big yard. He looked as though he enjoyed being on horseback again.
Molly looked down regretfully at her brace and crutches, wishing she could join him for a nice, long ride. By the time she got rid of these things, he would be gone, and there would be no chance to ride with him, she thought wistfully, her chest aching with the thought.
“Wow,” Kelly murmured, moving close to Molly’s side. “He looks good up there, doesn’t he? I guess I’m just now realizing how attractive he really is, once he relaxes and lets himself smile.”
“Yes, he is nice looking.” Molly tried to speak casually, but the look her sister-in-law gave her said she hadn’t done a very good job of it.
“Yeah, right,” Kelly said with a sudden, wicked smile. “Like you’ve hardly noticed in the past few days.”
“Haven’t noticed what?” Shane asked, joining them just in time to hear the last few words.
“Nothing that’s any of your business,” Kelly shot back, playfully punching his arm.
“Where are the girls?” he asked, looking around for his daughters. “I thought they wanted to ride before dinner.”
“Last I saw, they were playing a video game with Emilio. I’ll go get them.”
Kelly turned and walked away. Shane and Molly both looked at Kyle again. Perhaps Shane was still remembering the boy he’d known in the past—but Molly was much more interested in the devastatingly sexy man she saw in the present. Now if only she could do a better job of hiding that reaction from her much-too-perceptive older brother than she had with his equally observant wife.