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“Well, I’ll be damned.”
“Yes, you will be,” she said. An emotion passed over her face but too quickly for him to interpret it.
The cashier signaled Kinley over, and Nate stood where he was and observed her. She’d changed more than just her wardrobe, he realized. There was a core of strength that he hadn’t noticed in her when they’d spent the weekend together. Maybe that was because they’d both been focused on having fun.
She concluded her business, and Nate stepped up to do his. He talked with Maggie, the cashier who’d been working the opening shift since before Nate had been born. When he was done, he looked around and noticed that Kinley was waiting for him by the exit.
She had her smartphone in her hand and was tapping out a message to someone. She’d pushed her sunglasses up on her head and was concentrating as she typed. She looked so serious.
He wondered what had happened in her life in the last three years and then realized he really had no right to find out. He’d ended their affair because her dad worked for his family and Nate wasn’t really big on monogamy or commitment.
But seeing her again reminded him of how good that weekend had been and how hard it had been to hang up on her when she’d called and said she wanted to see him again.
She glanced up as he approached her.
“I hate to do this, but I can’t make coffee this morning. I have to get my office set up here, and my boss has a potential couple scheduled for 10:00 a.m.”
“Rain check, then?” he asked.
“Yes, that would be great,” she said. She held her hand out to him.
She wanted to shake hands. Did she think this was a business deal? He took her hand, noticing how smooth and small it was in his big rough rancher hand. He rubbed his thumb over the back of her knuckles and then lifted her hand to his mouth to drop a kiss there.
“I’ll be in touch,” he said, turning and walking out of the bank. He went to his truck and realized his hangover was gone.
* * *
Kinley put Nate out of her mind as she unpacked the office and got the client meeting room set up. She glanced at her watch as she worked. The day care she’d signed Penny up for was two blocks down. Kinley wanted to get the room ready for the meeting with the basketball player and his fiancée and then go to see Penny before the meeting.
Her thoughts drifted back to Nate.
Damn.
He’d surprised her. Though she’d known she would run into him, she hadn’t been prepared for it to be today. She’d sort of hoped to establish herself here first. She stood in the doorway and looked at the table she’d set up with a variety of faux cakes and flower arrangements.
Her phone rang and she glanced down. It was Jacs on the Skype app. She answered the call.
“Do you hate me now that you’re back there?” Jacs asked.
“No. I don’t hate you. But I could have used a little more time before seeing the client this morning,” Kinley said.
“Sorry about the rush, kid, but these two are hot to get married. They want to expedite the timeline but still make sure everything is one of a kind. You are going to have to really work your contacts to get this done. But I have confidence in you. Also don’t let Bridezilla bully you. She was full on this morning with me.”
“I won’t,” Kinley said. Actually, it would be good to get straight to work. “I’m seeing the local baker this afternoon for the Caruthers-Gainer wedding. If she doesn’t work, I’m going to see if I can get Carine to fly in from LA.”
“Good. Do you need anything from the office here?” Jacs asked.
“I might after I talk to my ten o’clock. We still have the dress from the O’Neill-Peterson cancellation. She was very demanding. Maybe it will work for this bride if she doesn’t know it was designed for another woman,” Kinley said.
“I like your thinking. I’ll have Lori email the sketches so you can use them,” Jacs said. “Have a good one.”
Jacs disconnected the call, and Kinley gave the room a final once-over. She nibbled on her bottom lip as she realized that she was rubbing the back of her right hand...the hand Nate had kissed.
She shook her head. This was a horrible idea. For one thing, she’d never really gotten over him. She hadn’t been pining over him; she was too sensible for that, or at least that’s what she told herself. But she still thought about him.
Still remembered all the things that had gone on in that big king-size bed in the Vegas penthouse suite. Sometimes she woke up in a sweat thinking about Nate.
Usually it only took a moment to shove those thoughts away. She’d been telling herself that he wasn’t as good-looking as she’d remembered, but the way those faded jeans had hugged his butt this morning had confirmed he was.
And the spark of awareness that had gone through her, awakening desires that had been dormant since she’d given birth to her daughter, couldn’t be ignored. Maybe it was like Willa had suggested to her last month. It was time to start dating again.
Yes, that was it. She’d find a nice guy, a townie, and ask him out for a drink. Or maybe she’d go to the local bar and see if she could find someone...to do what? She wasn’t the party girl she’d once been.
She was a mom, and frankly the idea of going out and hooking up sounded like too much work—and not the kind she wanted to do.
She left the office, grabbing her purse and keys on the way out and locking the door behind her. She needed to see Penny.
Her daughter grounded her and made her remember what was really important.
As she walked down the streets of the historic district, she took stock of how far she’d come. When her parents had divorced, Kinley was a tomboy, the daughter of a housekeeper for one of the wealthiest families in Cole’s Hill. Now she was living in one of the houses her mom used to clean and planning a wedding for the son of her father’s boss. She felt like she’d come a long way.
Not that there had been anything wrong with her parents’ careers, but she was different. She always had been.
She entered the day care facility and was shown to the room where Penny and the other two-year-olds were playing. Her daughter was right in the middle of a group that was clustered around some easels. She walked over to her daughter and stopped next to her.
“Hi, Mama,” she said, dropping her marker and turning to hug Kinley’s legs.
“Hey, honey pie,” Kinley said, stooping down to Penny’s level. “What are you making?”
“A horsey. That boy said he has his own,” Penny said.
Kinley tucked a strand of her daughter’s straight red hair behind her ear and brushed a kiss on her forehead. “There are a lot ranches around here.”
“Like Pop-Pop’s?” she asked.
Penny had seen the ranch on the many video chats they’d had with her father. And the last time they’d talked, her dad had taken his tablet into the barn and shown her his horse. The toddler couldn’t wait to visit her Pop-Pop and meet his horse.
“Just like that one. But Pop-Pop just manages the hands. It’s not his ranch.”
“I can’t wait to see it,” Penny said.
“We might not get to go out there,” Kinley said. She didn’t want to take Penny to the Rockin’ C and chance her running into Nate. She had no plans to tell Nate about Penny; he’d made it clear a long time ago where his interest lay, and it wasn’t with raising a family. “Pop-Pop is going to come to town and visit us.”
“Okay,” Penny said.
Kinley hoped that would be the last of Penny talking about going to the ranch. She visited with her daughter until snack time, and when it was over, Kinley left after giving Penny a hug and a kiss.
She got through her meeting. She’d talked the bride, Meredith, into looking at the sketches for the dress they’d already had made. Meredith liked the design but wanted a few changes. Kinley was still thinking about that as she drove over to the Bluebonnet Bakery to sample the cakes for the Caruthers wedding.
She saw a familiar pickup truck with the Rockin’ C logo on it parked out front but told herself not to jump to conclusions. The Rockin’ C probably had a lot of F-150 pickups. It was probably just Hunter.
But when she walked into the bakery, she found her gut had been right. Nate stood at the counter along with his middle brother, Ethan, Hunter and a woman who had to be Hunter’s fiancée. Derek, the second-oldest Caruthers, was a surgeon and probably not available to sample cake.
“Hello, everyone,” Kinley said.
She just had to be professional. She could do that.
“Hi, I’m Ferrin Gainer,” the woman said, stepping over to her. “It’s so nice to meet you.”
“I’m looking forward to working with you and helping you plan your special day. I’ve arranged for us to have a tasting in the back room,” Kinley said, motioning everyone in the right direction. “Why don’t you go through there and I’ll be right with you.”
Everyone went into the room but Nate. He hung back.
She shook her head.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m the big brother of the groom. He asked me to come, so I did,” Nate said. “This is why I wanted us to chat earlier. Just clear the air. Like I said, I was a jerk, and I’m sorry. I don’t want anything to mess up Hunter’s wedding.”
Oh.
When he said it like that, he sounded so reasonable. And she realized that coming to Cole’s Hill had more consequences than she’d thought. She was losing her professional edge because of Nate. Part of it was the way he made her pulse speed up; another, bigger part was the fact that he was her daughter’s father and she hadn’t told him. And the cost of keeping that secret seemed higher than she might be able to pay.
“Sorry. I’m just a little short-tempered today. Must be the jet lag.” Though with only a one-hour time difference between here and Vegas, she knew jet lag was a bit of an exaggeration.
“Don’t be. It happens to the best of us. After the tasting we can get a drink and talk. It’s obvious we’re going to need to.”
She nodded. She had to check in with her nanny, Pippa, and make sure that Penny would be fine for the evening. “I have one more appointment, and then I can meet you for a drink.”
It would have been so much easier to just say no if Nate wasn’t...well, so likeable and charming. And if she didn’t have Penny. But she did. And now she was going to have make a decision that she’d thought she’d already made.
Two (#u55e4c8d5-265a-5fe6-87bf-092fc4ad1ebd)
Cake tasting. There were times when Nate wondered what had happened to his family. Though he didn’t begrudge Hunter his happiness or his wedding, Nate liked things the way they’d always been: when the Carutherses were out working hard, playing even harder and making respectable mamas lock up their daughters.
“What do you think?” Hunter asked, pulling Nate aside so that they could speak privately for a moment.
“About what?”
“The cake. Do you have a preference?” he asked.
Nate shook his head. “I do like the idea of your groom’s cake being shaped like a football field.”
“That was discussed fifteen minutes ago. Where is your head?”
He looked over at the pretty redhead taking them through the different types of jam and icing that could be used between layers. Kinley. She was too much in his head. Going for a drink had stupid written all over it, but he’d never been one to back down from anything, even when it went against his own better sense.
“Don’t do it,” Hunter said.
“Don’t do what?” Nate asked. Though he knew what his brother was talking about.
“She’s practically family,” Hunter said. “Marcus is like a second dad to us. Don’t mess with her.”
Too late. Nate recalled every detail of the weekend that he and Kinley had spent together; a part of him didn’t want to ever forget it. Another part didn’t believe it could have been as good as he remembered. But he knew it was. Then he remembered that silly little handshake she’d limited him to this morning at the bank and the rush of energy that had gone through them when they’d touched.
“I’m just looking.”
“Make sure that’s all you do,” Hunter said.
He clipped his brother on the shoulder with his fist. “I don’t take orders from you.”
“You do now. Ferrin really wants this wedding to be special. And that means not letting you, Ethan or Derek screw anything up. So be good.”
“When have any of us ever been good?” Nate asked. He wasn’t going to mess up Hunter’s wedding. As much as he was against marriage himself, he really liked Ferrin and thought she was perfect for his brother. Hunter hadn’t enjoyed being single the way the rest of the Carutherses did. His college girlfriend had been murdered and suspicion had fallen on Hunter for a good ten years before the real murderer had been convicted. So the only women Hunter had dated were those looking for a thrill...until Ferrin came along.
“I won’t do anything to hurt your wedding,” Nate promised.
Hunter reached over and squeezed his shoulder. “I know you won’t. You’ve always looked out for me.”
“Someone had to,” Nate said. He loved his brothers and had always been the one to stand up for them.
“You two done over there?” their mother asked.
“Yes, ma’am. I was just saying how much I liked the mandarin filling,” Nate said, luckily recalling the last cake he’d tasted.
“That’s the one I am leaning toward as well,” Ferrin said.
“Honey, that’s my favorite, too,” Hunter said, giving his fiancée the sweetest, sappiest smile Nate had ever seen. What the hell had happened to his brother?
“Then it’s decided,” Kinley said. “I have your other preferences marked down. Are you happy with this bakery? We can have one of our specialty bakers from Beverly Hills fly in and talk to you as well.”
“We’d like to keep it local as much as we can,” Ferrin said. “Hunter and I want this to be as authentic as it can be.”
Kinley made some notes in her notebook, her hand gliding across the page. Nate couldn’t help remembering the tomboy she’d been and the time he’d caught her sitting under one of the scrub oaks out in the pasture crying because her teacher said she had the worst handwriting in the class.
He shook his head. Where had that old memory come from? He had spent hours under that tree showing her how to write until her handwriting had been passable. It wasn’t that he’d had the greatest handwriting, but Nate had never liked to be second best at anything. So he’d practiced a lot, and he remembered how grateful little Kinley had been that he’d helped her.
The women had moved to leave the room, but Ethan and Hunter hung back. Hunter just shook his head, but Nate noticed that Ethan watched until Kinley had rounded the corner.
“Dang. That Kinley sure has changed,” Ethan said. “She makes a man—”
“Don’t. She doesn’t make you anything, Eth.”
Both of his brothers turned to stare at him, and Nate knew he’d showed his hand without meaning to. But he wanted her. She had been his once and he knew himself well enough to know that he was going to try to make her his again. He didn’t think it would last longer than it took her to plan Hunter’s wedding, but damned if he was going to let any other man—especially one of his brothers—make a play for her.
“The lady might have something to say about that,” Ethan said.
Nate shrugged. “We’re having drinks tonight.”
