Kenny charged through the front door and nearly ran into his father, who was coming down the stairs into the foyer. “Where is she?”
“Where’s who?”
“Don’t you dare try to hide her! Torie already called and told me she’s here.”
“I just walked in the door,” Warren replied. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I do.” Shelby came into the foyer from the back of the house. As she spotted Warren, she smiled at him like a high school cheerleader looking at the hero of the football team. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
Even through his distress, Kenny noticed the way the old man’s eyes lit up as he gave Shelby a light kiss. “I was just coming out to find you. Where’s Petie?”
“On the patio.”
Kenny interrupted the love fest. “Somebody’d better tell me where Emma is.”
“Let’s talk about it on the patio,” Shelby said.
“I don’t want to go out to the patio. I want—”
“We’re your family, Kenny. The only family you have.”
The quiet intensity behind her words stopped him in his tracks. He looked back and forth between them and felt rattled. He’d seen those stubborn, worried expressions on their faces before, but he hadn’t taken them in, not like he did now. He saw concern there, and caring . . . even from Shelby, his father’s too-young bride, who, despite everything, was starting to seem like another sister. And maybe having another sister wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to him. He loved Torie and, in his own way, he guessed he was starting to feel the same about Shelby. She sure was a good mother. And she’d made his dad happy.
His father slipped his arm around Shelby’s waist, and Kenny felt as if he were staring into a mirror. All his life he’d heard how much he and his old man looked alike, but now he could see it for himself. And as he gazed into that older, but still familiar face, he finally understood exactly how a man could screw things up for somebody he loved, not meaning to, just being stupid.
He drew a deep, shaky breath. He couldn’t explain any of this to his father right now, although he’d have to find a way to do it later, so he just nodded and headed for the patio. But when he got there, he discovered he was in for one more shock in a day full of surprises.
“Boys they wanna have fun. Oh, yeah! Boys, they wanna have fun.” Torie stood in the middle of the patio swinging Petie around in her arms and singing to him with this smile spread all over her face. Petie was laughing to beat the band while Dex sat on one of the banquettes with a beer in his hand and a grin that stretched from one ear to the other. As Kenny absorbed the change in his sister—the same sister who’d barely been able to look at that little baby boy—he had this crazy urge to kiss Dex smack on the lips, just as Emma’d kissed Torie.
His sister saw him in the doorway and stopped swinging Petie. Petie let out a deep baby-chuckle as he spotted him. Warren and Shelby came out to the patio. His father walked over to the tray of drinks that had been set up, while Shelby sat on the banquette, pulled her knees up to her chest, and watched Kenny with anxious eyes. They were all gathering around to help him straighten out his life. Just yesterday the idea would have driven him insane, but now it was almost comforting.
Petie extended his chubby arms toward his brother and let out a demanding squeal. Torie came forward, her expression as worried as Shelby’s. Kenny took the baby, but his eyes remained riveted on his sister. “Where is she?”
“You screwed up bad this time, Kenny. She’s really leaving.”
“No, she’s not,” he said stonily.
“She’s made her plane reservations. Shelby and I tried to talk her out of it, but you know how she is. What took you so damn long to get here?”
“I was looking all over the place for her, and I didn’t get your message until a few minutes ago.” He dodged the wet fist the baby was trying to shove in his mouth. “Tell me where she is.”
“Inside calling Patrick and asking him to pack up her things,” Shelby said from the banquette. “We told her she needed to go back to the ranch first and discuss this with you, but she said there wasn’t any need, that even if she tried to talk to you, you’d refuse to talk back.”
That stung because he understood exactly what Emma meant. He spun toward the door to go and find her, only to come to a dead halt as he saw that she was already here.
She stared at him without saying a word, and the chill in her eyes went straight to his bloodstream. She was giving him her schoolteacher’s stare, a stare that told him, plain as anything, he might not be suspended from the tour any longer, but he’d been suspended from her life.
He realized he’d started to sweat through his golf shirt again. This was one hard-eyed woman. A woman who’d been done wrong by her man a time too many. And all because it had taken him too long to say the words he’d refused to let out of his heart.
“Sweetheart?” His tentative tone made him sound like a wimp, but he was no fool, and he knew she needed to be approached cautiously.
She blinked her eyes, drew back her shoulders, and shot up her chin. “Ah, Kenny.” Then she barreled forward, all full of dangerous business, and even though she wasn’t carrying her umbrella, he could feel the tip plunging straight into his groin. “I’m delighted you showed up. It saves me having to write a note.”
A note? She’d planned to leave him a note? He started to fume all over again.
“Patrick’s bringing over my things, and I’ve spoken with Ted. He agreed to drive me to San Antonio.”
That little prick.
“Of course, since you seem to own this town and everybody in it, neither of them will do what I asked, so I’ve also called a car service. Once I get packed and arrive in San Antonio, I’m catching a short flight to Dallas, and I’ll be out of your hair in no time.” She brushed her hands together . . . brushing him right out of her life. “That should do it. Sorry things didn’t work out. As soon as I get settled, I’ll send you my address so we can straighten out any annoying legal business.”
And then she stuck out her hand, actually stuck out her hand for him to shake.
“Uh-oh.”
Emma heard Torie’s muttered warning, saw fireworks go off in Kenny’s eyes, and realized she’d pushed him too far with the handshake. But she’d been determined to go out with her dignity waving like a Union Jack in the wind.
He thrust Peter into Torie’s arms, then his fingers manacled her wrist. “If y’all don’t mind excusing us, my wife and I have some business to conduct in private.”
He spoke in a menacing drawl, with an extra bite on the word wife. She started to dig in her heels, but he was already dragging her toward a gate in the middle of the back wall. Her former friend, the traitorous Dexter O’Conner, rushed ahead of him to open it.
Kenny pulled her into a small, shady garden with a wedge of lawn to one side and a swimming pool just beyond. Then he backed her right against a tree.
“You’re not doing this, Emma. I swear to God, I’m not letting you throw away a good solid marriage just because you’ve got yourself in a snit over the way I’ve screwed up.”
A good, solid marriage? His audacity nearly took her breath away.
“You should know me well enough by now to know I always screw up when it comes to you. And exactly what kind of marriage are we going to have if you decide to run home to England every time that happens? You’d be gone most of the month.”
The whirlpool that made up Kenny Traveler was once again trying to suck her into its hazardous depths. But this time she wouldn’t go, and instead of attempting to reason with him, she gazed at him stonily. “This discussion is over. We have nothing more to say to each other.”
“I know I didn’t pick a good time to tell you I loved you,” he went on, just as if she hadn’t spoken, “but it didn’t hit me until today.”
That hurt so much she couldn’t let it pass. “How bloody convenient! Especially since this sudden revelation managed to get you bac
k on the tour again, didn’t it?”
His eyes narrowed, as if he were the wronged party. “Is that what you think? You think I somehow figured out that, if I told you I loved you in front of Dallie, it was going to magically get me back on the tour?”
She regarded him steadily. “That’s what happened, isn’t it?”
For a moment he simply stared at her, then he erupted. “That’s not what happened! I can’t read his mind! I didn’t know that was all he was waiting to hear from me.”
“All!”
“I didn’t mean it like that! I only mean—”
With a violent shove, she pushed herself away from him and rushed blindly forward, not thinking about where she was going, just knowing that she’d lost the dignity she’d been trying so hard to maintain, and hating him for it.
“Emma!”
Tears were clouding her vision, tears she couldn’t let him see. When had she turned into such a crier? Her weakness made her furious all over, especially when she heard him coming up behind her. “Don’t you dare touch me! Don’t you ever touch me again!”
He pulled her to a stop and swept her into his arms, up against his sweaty golf shirt. “Listen to me! I love you, Emma! I don’t know how to say it any plainer.”
She drew strength from her fury and looked him straight in the eye. “Save your breath because I don’t love you! I never did! It was all sex.”
Something devastating came over his features, something that made her feel ashamed. But she wasn’t the guilty party, and her anger, combined with a strong sense of self-preservation, rescued her. She spun away from him.
As she began to march toward the house, she saw that they were all gathering by the gate to watch, these nosy, impossible Texans. And not just Kenny’s family. The Beaudines had shown up, too! All of them were—
She was suddenly flying through the air as Kenny picked her up and grabbed her beneath the knees. He began to run. Run! With a full-grown woman in his arms!
The soles of his shoes struck concrete. She felt the muscles in his arms bunch, and then she was flying. Flying through the air as he threw her into the deep end of the Traveler family swimming pool.
The water closed over her head. She sank . . . rose . . . sputtered . . . and blinked her eyes until she could see through the strands of wet hair.
Kenny stared down at her from the side of the pool with the most tragic, stricken look on his face she’d ever seen. As she tried to make sense of it, his body straightened and he dove in after her, shoes and all.
Her own sandals slipped from her toes as she began to tread water, waiting for him to surface.
He came up sputtering and desperate. “I love you!” he cried. “And it doesn’t have anything to do with golf, or the tour, or anything except what’s inside me! And you love me! It’s not just sex. You’ve got too much integrity for that.”
She stared at the inky hair plastered to his head, the water streaming down his gorgeous, tanned face, his dark, spiked lashes, and eyes that smoldered with intensity. “I’m sorry I figured it out at an inconvenient time, but when have I ever done anything conveniently? And I finally do have it figured out. I have all kinds of things figured out.” He regarded her searchingly. “I know I’m asking for a lot. The idea of spending the rest of your life with somebody who’s been as unstable as me has to be scary, but you’ve got a lot of grit, and you can do it if you set your mind to it.” He paused. “Can’t you?”
She was too stunned to speak.
Despite her lack of response, he wasn’t giving up, and he continued treading water as he tried to convince her. “I know I might never mean as much to you as that school of yours, but a school can’t give you what I can. A school can’t give you kids, and a school can’t walk along the Pedernales with you in the evening, and a school can’t make you laugh.” His voice softened, then grew husky. “I can do all those things, Emma, and a lot more. Just give me a chance.”
Despite the chill of the pool water, warmth was beginning to spread through her. Why hadn’t she remembered that Kenny never did things like other people? That was what made him so infuriating and so wonderful.
The weight of his heavy golf shoes had pulled him lower in the water than she was, but he continued speaking in those urgent, desperate tones. “We’re married, sweetheart. The ceremony might have happened in a seedy Vegas chapel, but I didn’t take those vows lightly when I was saying them, and I’m not taking them lightly now. If you don’t feel married, we’ll do it all over again, right here in Wynette, or we can go back to England and get married there, whatever will make you understand that this is real. We’re attached to each other now, and that’s the way it has to be.”
Attached. This man was attached to her.
“I know how much that school means to you. Maybe I can—I don’t know—buy it or something. I could take out some loans, pick up more endorsements. We’d have to sell the ranch, but I’m willing to do that if it’ll make you happy.”
He’d knocked the breath right out of her. He was willing to sell his ranch to buy St. Gert’s? She couldn’t imagine—couldn’t think—but her spirits had begun to fly. At the same time, seeing that desperation in his eyes had become intolerable, and she managed to speak.
“That’s the second time you’ve thrown me in a pool.”
He looked devastated. “You were getting ready to walk away for good, and it was the only thing I could think of to do.”
“Throw me in the pool?”
He nodded, his expression an endearing combination of anxiety and stubbornness. “I had to.”
Only Kenny Traveler, the terror of Wynette, Texas, could try to convince a woman that he loved her by throwing her, fully dressed, into a swimming pool. “Yes, well, you’ve managed to ruin my very favorite pair of sandals.”
He grew still, then said softly, “I’ll buy you a hundred more.”
Oh, no, he wasn’t going to get around her that easily! Not after what he’d put her through. “That’s not the point. The point is, I liked those sandals. They were Italian. And you’re sinking.”
His eyes were still wary. “You got something to say?”
“I certainly do. But I prefer to say it on dry land.”
He thought for a moment, then shook his head unhappily. “I’ll do anything for you, but I can’t let you out of the water until we get this settled. You’re still too mad at me, and you might decide to run away again.”
“You’re sinking,” she pointed out again. “It’s your shoes,” she added.
“Don’t you worry about it.”
She was getting tired, but she continued to tread. “Very well. In the first place, you will not be selling the ranch. The very idea. And in the second place—”
“What about St. Gert’s?”
Even though his gaze hadn’t lost any of its seriousness, she thought she detected a spark of hope there. “I have to put St. Gert’s behind me.”
“You love that old school, sweetheart. Maybe I can find another way to come up with the money. The season’s just heating up, and there are some fat purses out there. If I get lucky, I might be able to pull off a couple of big wins.”
She could feel herself succumbing to his sweetness, but she wouldn’t surrender yet, not until she’d finished stating her position. “I have no intention of letting you buy St. Gert’s for me, although I appreciate the offer. I know if I think hard enough I’ll come up with another plan.”
He immediately looked wary.
“I finally understand that I can’t dedicate my entire life to an institution, although I still have to think about the girls.” She pushed the wet hair from her eyes. “Moving on to my next point . . . point number two. You’ll need to put aside any aversion you might have to a working wife because I love teaching, and I won’t give up my profession.”
He studied her closely. “Will you give it up long enough to have my babies?”
She could barely resist throwing herself in his arms. “Certainly.”
She knew she was making this too easy for him, but the vision of little violet-eyed children so thoroughly entranced her that she could barely pull herself back together. “Point number three . . .” She cleared her throat. “This one’s important, so pay attention, please. If at any time—any time!—I feel the need to publicly defend you, I will do so, do you understand?”
He blinked. “Just please don’t kill anybody.”
She needed something difficult. Something that would be nearly impossible for him to agree to. Just one small something to repay this rogue of a husband for all the upheaval he’d put her through.
And then she knew exactly what it would be.
“Come along, Kenny. We have somewhere to go.” As she set out for the side of the pool, she was delighted with how officious she’d made herself sound, but when he caught her ankle and turned her back around, she was disappointed to see that he was smiling instead of gritting his teeth.
“You’re determined to have your pound of flesh, aren’t you?”
She could no longer repress her own smile. “They were my very favorite sandals.”
His grin spread until it seemed to envelop her, too. And his eyes were so full of love that she felt as if she were floating. Then he sobered. “I love you, my sweet Lady E. You know that now, don’t you? Please tell me you know it.” She heard the urgency behind his words, and she nodded. “And please tell me you still love me.”
She nodded again, and he curled her body against him. Groaning, he cupped her chin in one hand. “I’ve been so damned stupid.” He rubbed his thumb over her cheek as if he were memorizing her face, then sealed his mouth over hers.
His kiss was a promise from a man who didn’t make promises lightly. It was also a covenant that joined them forever, and she understood that he was giving himself to her in every way he knew how. In his kiss, she tasted all their tomorrows, saw their children, felt his passion and tenderness. She was being offered everything she’d dreamed of having but had given up believing could be hers.
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