“You smell like apples.”
“Is that what it is?”
“Evidently he likes your shampoo.”
Kendall patted his nose. “I don’t mind when
you
flirt with me, big guy.”
“He’s not giving you any trouble, is he?”
“No. Lon’s one of those guys not used to a no. I can handle
him. I just don’t want Shane to catch on.”
“Why?”
A flash of his possessive kiss after her first day in the
stables came back to her. “Things between Shane and I are a little
complicated.”
Evelyn swung her leg off the horse’s saddle and dropped to
the ground. She ran a gentling hand along Porthos’s neck. “Now we’re getting
interesting.”
“No, Shane and I are less than interesting.”
“So you keep telling me.” She clucked at Porthos and led him
into the shade of the stable and uncinched his buckles.
Kendall went around to the other side of the horse. They
were getting into a routine, and every day Evelyn bugged her for details. And each
day she had no idea what to say. “We’re sex and no entanglements, and we like
it that way.”
“That only works for so long.”
“We have until we get to New York.”
The saddle slid toward Evelyn, and she hefted it with ease. She
slapped it in its holder. “Wait, what?”
Kendall cringed. “I didn’t mean to say that.”
“Yes, I think you did.”
No, she really hadn’t. Crap. “It’s complicated. If I tried
to explain it to you, there would be more questions.”
“I’m good at complicated.”
Kendall snorted. “No, you’re not. You like simple. That’s
why you like horses better than people.”
“You”—Evelyn pointed a finger at her—“are way too
perceptive. But I really am good at complications. I just don’t choose to get
involved most of the time.”
“Why would you get involved with me, then?”
“Because I
like
you.”
Kendall choked out a laugh and sniffed at the same time. She
tipped her head back to stop the sudden tears. She was good until Evelyn had
shown honest concern. There were so few people in her life she’d allowed to get
close enough to notice when she was having a bad day.
“But if there are tears, then we don’t get to talk anymore.”
Kendall flipped a bucket and plopped down on it. “Crying
doesn’t solve anything. I’m just breaking the cardinal rule of a fling.” She
sniffed again and patted her eyes with the backs of her hands. “I always sucked
at rules.”
“Ah, so this wasn’t supposed to be anything serious with
Oscar?”
Kendall couldn’t help a small smile. Everyone had taken to
her nickname for Shane. He was stern with the men and didn’t try to make
friends. It was his job to be the hammer, and he was good at it.
And she ached for that smile that was imperceptible to
anyone but her.
“We’re business partners—though it doesn’t seem like it.
Thanks to a ridiculous will, Shane and I are co-owners in a bed-and-breakfast.
The plan was to make it across the country and figure out if we’re going to
sell the house and split the profits or run the place together.”
“That sounds very clinical for something that can’t possibly
be that simple.”
“It’s not. God, even saying it out loud sounds ludicrous.”
Evelyn crouched in front of her. “Just tell me, honey.”
She hadn’t told anyone, hadn’t really faced just how much
change there would be when they got to Bradley. She’d been so stupid to think
she could go on having a fun road trip with him when she got home and
everything in her life would change.
Maybe she really did think she could convince him to share
the B and B and start a life.
Maybe she was an idiot.
“My father died a few weeks ago.”
“Oh, honey.” Evelyn covered her hands. Kendall relaxed under
her touch.
“It hurt Shane more than it affected me. Lawrence hadn’t
been my father since I was five. But he raised Shane like a son.”
Evelyn stood and pushed a bucket of water in front of her.
“We’ll rub down Porthos, and you can tell me everything.”
Kendall nodded. “My father left when I was a kid. I never
knew why, just that he up and left one day. And then it was just me and my
mom.” She’d been young enough that adjusting hadn’t changed her life, and
missing Larry had faded over time.
Doing something so mundane helped. The smooth muscles and
warmth of the horse evened her out. They hosed Porthos down and moved on to
brushing his coat.
“So I lived my life, and my father left the house to me and
my mom. And eventually we made it into a bed-and-breakfast to help with bills.
We had all this land right on the lake. It just made sense.”
“If I didn’t hate people, I’d agree with you.”
Kendall laughed and relaxed a little more. “My mother loves
being around people. And I’ve learned to enjoy it. After ten years it’s all I
know.”
“I sense a
but
.”
The sounds of brushing filled the silence. How did she
explain that her mother had loved an undeserving man? That Lily’s heart was the
reason change was coming like an uninvited guest. Was she destined to revisit
the same mistakes because she was probably mistaking passion for growing
feelings?
Another Justice was changing her life.
Every day she’d spent with Shane made her want more. The sex
and the excitement were enough at first. But now she ached with missing him.
She stared at the ceiling each night. She worked herself into exhaustion,
hoping that she’d drop into sleep, but her body and her heart longed to curl
into his reassuring warmth. The need to pull a smile out of his serious face
was more tempting than thinking about the future.
She was ignoring the facts.
He didn’t want forever. As much as she hoped he would want
to become her partner so that she could keep the Heron, he was probably going
to want the money. This was his chance to start over. The fantasy of seeing him
in the B and B with her was just that—a fantasy.
The deep brown of Porthos’s coat blurred. She’d been doing
her level best to hold on to the days and create a precious time separate from
Bradley, but the reality was leaking into the fantasy.
“My mother loved my father too much. Even when he didn’t
love her back. She never moved on. She never took Larry’s name off the deed to the
house. When he died, the only thing left was my house, and everything was split
between me and Shane.”
“So wait, he’s not your brother, but he’s got rights to the
house?”
“Lawrence adopted Shane, raised him as his own.”
“And now you have to share the house with him?”
Kendall nodded. “I love the Heron. It’s been nice to be away
and see the country, to be with Shane. Everything’s going to change when we get
to Bradley.”
“So what are you afraid of?”
“That he’ll just want to sell it and walk away.” She swiped
at her wet cheeks with the heel of her hand. “I don’t want him to walk away.”
Evelyn came around and leaned into the horse’s neck,
absently patting his broad face as she gave Kendall her undivided attention.
“From you or the house?”
The concern in Evelyn’s voice killed whatever was left of
her resolve. “I’m afraid it’s both. And it’s stupid to think that way. We’ve
only known each other for a little over a week. I’ve got to be confusing my
feelings with the afterglow of great—and I do mean great—sex.”
“What about him?”
“Where’s the advice jar?” Kendall forced herself to swallow
the lump in her throat. This felt like a therapy session. No more tears. She
would not let a Justice make her cry again.
Evelyn’s steady, dark gaze bored into hers. “Don’t avoid the
question, Kendall.”
“I don’t know. I really don’t. From the moment we got near
each other, it’s been like this.”
“All sex and no talking?”
She could feel the flush crawling up her neck and flooding
her cheeks. High emotions and lust were a terrible combination. She and Shane
barely knew how to talk to each other. And she was deluding herself to think
they could be anything more than a fling.
Even if being with him felt more right than anything had
ever felt before.
Porthos nudged her shoulder; his peach-fuzz-soft lips
snuffed at her ear. “We’re good at the sex part, but these few days without him
being around, it makes me wonder if there’s anything else between us.”
“I can’t answer that for you, but relationships have been
started on less. You’re what? Twenty-something?”
“Twenty-seven.”
“Huh.” Evelyn grinned at her. “I was going to say
twenty-four. But that’s good. You’re not so young that you don’t know what you
want. I was fucking stupid at twenty-four.”
“I’ve been running the Heron since I was sixteen.”
“Oh, honey. You’ve never been a kid.”
She shrugged. “No, and that’s why I was trying to have fun
with this trip. Hell, I even went to college near home. This is the first time
I’ve ever been away for more than a weekend.”
“Maybe selling the Heron wouldn’t be a bad thing. Set your
mom up in a cute little house, and go travel. In fact, I’d take you here in a
heartbeat. You’re a natural with the horses.”
Kendall straightened. “You would?”
“I would. I love having you around.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Just know that you have options.”
Kendall nodded slowly. “Thanks.”
“I have to put this big baby back in his stall. I’ll see you
up at the house?”
“Yes. I need to get cleaned up.”
“A bunch of us are going to Starrla’s. You should come.”
“Wow, there are people actually going? I thought that was
just a line that Lon was feeding me.”
Evelyn laughed. “It’s the only place to go, really. I feel
like dancing tonight.”
“Maybe I will.” She stroked Porthos’s neck one last time,
then headed toward the new stables. The whir of a skill saw and the echoing
snap of the nail gun almost made her turn around. Her head was already slamming
from being out in the sun too long.
A coating of hay dust made her itchy, and all she wanted to
do was pop a few ibuprofens and stand under the shower spray for an hour, but
she hadn’t seen Shane all day.
She liked seeing how much the space transformed from the
morning through the afternoon. The crew worked hard, and despite Shane’s growly
nature, she spotted him smiling at the top of a set of scaffolding outside the
stables. With a blowtorch in his hand?
“You’re not going to burn down this almost perfect
establishment, are you, Oscar?”
He smiled down at her, his teeth a slash of white against
the grime on his face. A sweat-soaked black tank hugged his chest and tight
abs. Battered jeans hung low on his hips with a heavy leather belt keeping
everything in check. Too bad. She liked the dimples just above his truly
spectacular ass.
He dragged his leather-clad hand across the toasted wood.
“Just accenting some carving.”
“Is it safe to come up?”
He nodded toward the ladder that made up the end of the
scaffolding. She climbed, reaching for Shane’s outstretched hand. God, he was
even more breathtaking up close. What was it about a sweaty man doing manual
labor?
He tapped the brim of her hat. “What have you been up to? I
missed you this morning.”
“I was at the stables. Needed to clear my head.”
He raised a brow.
“Your things made it to the B and B. I’m going to have to
tell my mom what’s going on.” She really didn’t want to do that until she was
home.
“You should have told her a while ago, Kendall.”
The skin between her shoulders tightened. She hated when he
called her by her name. Lately he only did it when he was perturbed. “I know. I
just know how she’s going to react, and I don’t want to deal with it.”
“How’s she going to react?”
Possible tantrum, definitely with a million questions, and
quite probably with tears. “It’s going to be a long phone call.”
He fired up the torch and put his protective glasses on. “Is
there anything I can do?” Already his attention was on the large wood plaque
under Doyle’s iron brand. The WD was an exact replica of the one on the center
of the gates on the front of his house as well as the logo used on everything
at the farm.
“I’ll take care of it,” she said.
“Are you sure?”
She leaned on the railing of the small cage they were in.
With each pass of his torch, the grain in the wood bloomed to life. The
engraved portion stayed in the stark-white pine. “It’s beautiful.”
His lips kicked up at the corner as he continued his gentle
sweeps.
He cared. There was love in the work he did. The men inside
the stables scurried around with intent. He didn’t micromanage them; he just
made sure they knew that each job was important. Stern Shane was someone she
would listen to as well.
She had listened. And she’d definitely obeyed a few orders.
Her nipples tightened at that thought. She turned back to Shane and waited
until he turned off the torch.
He pushed the glasses on top of his head. “Are you sure
you’re all right?”
She flashed him her carefree smile and hoped to God it met
her eyes. “How could I be anything but okay? I’m watching a hot guy play with
fire. Can’t get much better than that.”
He frowned. Before he could question her further, she went
on her toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Am I going to see you tonight?”
He looked over the chaos below, then swiped away the sweat
on his forehead. “I’m not sure. If I want to keep to this five-day deal, then I
have a lot more work to do.”
She crossed her arms. “Then I think I’m going to go into
town with Evelyn. A bunch of people are going.”
“Good. I don’t want you sitting around up at the house.”
“It’s getting a little old.”
He mirrored her stance. “I’m doing the best I can, Kendall.”
She touched his arm. “I know you are. I’m just restless. You
know, anxious to get back.”