by Gina Wilkins
“Probably just fine,” Brynn said in disapproval. “I doubt that he’s eating his heart out like poor Amber. This sort of thing is almost routine for Cameron.”
“Cameron isn’t heartless,” Kelly protested. “I’m sure he hated hurting Amber. But he would have hurt her worse if he had let it go on longer when it just wasn’t working for him.”
Brynn peered over the seat back. “You’re defending him rather heatedly. Are you sure you don’t have a thing for Cameron?”
“Brynn,” Joe murmured.
Brynn shrugged unrepentantly. “You should have heard the way she grilled me about you before you and I got together. She knew I was besotted with you, and she teased me mercilessly about it.”
“You were besotted, huh?” Joe seemed to like that description.
“Oh, very,” Brynn answered humorously. “Of course, that was before I married you.”
“Are you saying you aren’t still besotted?”
With wide eyes and a broad smile, Brynn patted his arm. “I am still most definitely besotted,” she assured. Then, without pausing, she asked, “What about you, Kelly? Are you besotted with Cameron North?”
“No,” she said firmly. “I am not besotted, infatuated or in any other way taken with Cameron. He’s a friend, that’s all. And I don’t think he should have to take all the blame for a relationship that was always destined to fail.”
She, Kelly assured herself, was not besotted with anyone. And she would just as soon keep it that way for now.
The talk turned to other topics, and inevitably Joe turned onto the road that led to the Walker ranch. The closer they came, the more tension Kelly felt building inside her. She had practically thrown Shane out of her apartment Sunday evening. She hadn’t heard from him since. Would the awkward incident cause him to treat her differently today than usual? Would the others notice, and wonder why?
She had her answer as soon as she climbed out of the car. “Hey, Kelly! Heads up,” she heard Shane yell.
She turned, and was nearly hit in the face with a football. She caught it at the last moment, using reflexes she hadn’t known she had.
“Shane!” His aunt, Michelle, who had seen the incident as she’d hurried to greet Brynn, Joe and Kelly, scolded him as if he were seventeen rather than ten years older. “You nearly hit Kelly in the face with that ball. She could have been hurt.”
“Not Kelly,” Shane answered with an impudent grin. “She moves pretty fast when she wants to.”
“Besides which,” Kelly replied, deciding to follow his lead with joking, “if you had hit me in the face, I would have made you eat this football.”
Michelle’s eleven-year-old son, Jason, laughed. “She sounds pretty scary, Shane. You’d better watch our.”
“She is scary,” Shane answered with a laugh, taking the football back from Kelly and then ruffling her hair. “But I like her, anyway.”
“Me, too,” Jason’s little sister, Katie, who’d been tagging behind the others, declared. She threw her arms around Kelly’s legs and beamed up at her. “Kelly’s nice.”
“Thank you, Katie.” Kelly was touched by the six-year-old’s ingenuous gesture. “I like you, too.”
“Do you like Shane?”
Kelly briefly met Shane’s eyes, finding nothing there but amusement. If he even remembered the incident Sunday night, he wasn’t letting it show. “Yes, I like Shane, too,” she replied casually. Then added in a stage whisper to the little girl, “Most of the time.”
Katie giggled. Shane and Jason laughed aloud. And Kelly, relieved that everything seemed to be just the same as always, turned to help Brynn and Joe unload the food they had brought with them for the Thanksgiving celebration.
Chapter Five
During the first twenty minutes after they arrived, Kelly, Brynn and Joe were greeted by a dizzying number of family members. Though the six surviving Walker siblings had been orphaned and separated as small children, they had become very close during the years that had passed since they’d found each other again. All six had married and had produced a total of fourteen offspring—not counting Brynn, the daughter of the one brother who hadn’t survived for the reunion. All but one sister, Lindsay Grant, lived near Dallas, Texas. Lindsay and her family lived in neighboring Arkansas, but visited as often as their busy schedules allowed.
Everyone had been able to attend this Thanksgiving Day gathering, which meant there was total chaos at the Walker ranch—adults talking, laughing and good-naturedly arguing, children running, squealing and occasionally crying, dogs barking and horses whinnying. No one there would have had it any other way.
The traditional Thanksgiving fare of turkey and all the trimmings—side dishes provided potluck-style by the guests—was served on the tree-shaded back lawn, where several long tables and plenty of folding chairs had been set up. The weather had cooperated nicely; it was sunny and warm enough that a sweater or light jacket was all anyone needed. An occasional breeze toyed with the crisp white tablecloths and carried the tantalizing aromas of the food and the more delicate scent of the masses of fall flowers Cassie had used for centerpieces.
It had always seemed natural for the young singles in the family to cluster together. Shane, the eldest at twenty-seven, usually held court at the “singles table.” He did the same on this day, insisting that Kelly take the chair at his right. His cousins, the Samples siblings, joined them—twenty-one-year-old Dawne and eighteen-year-old Keith, both college students, and Brittany, a fifteen-year-old high school sophomore. There was a newcomer at the table this year, sixteen-year-old Emilio Ramirez, a foster son of Shane’s Aunt Lindsay and her husband, Dr. Nick Grant.
Painfully shy and recently orphaned, Emilio seemed a bit dazed by the pandemonium of the Walker Thanksgiving celebration. It took Shane less than twenty minutes to have the young man joining shyly in the conversation, looking almost happy to be there.
“He’s something else, isn’t he?” Dawne murmured into Kelly’s ear.
Kelly turned to the young woman beside her. “Who?”
“Shane.” Dawne nodded toward her cousin, who was practicing his rather rusty Spanish, to Emilio’s obvious amusement. “He’s already got that boy feeling like a member of the family.”
“Shane’s very good at putting people at ease,” Kelly agreed quietly. “I remember the first time he visited me in the hospital. He was a complete stranger to me, but he’d heard about the accident and he thought I might be lonely and afraid, so he and Jared stopped by to visit when they made a trip into Dallas for supplies. By the time they left, I felt like I’d known them for ages.”
“I have to admit, I adore Shane,” Dawne said with a sigh. “It’s just too darned bad he’s my cousin. Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever meet a guy as special as he is.”
“Of course you’ll meet someone,” Kelly assured the wholesomely attractive college senior.
“When I do, I hope he’s just like Shane. Sweet and funny and kind and good-natured. He loves kids and animals and little old ladies. Have you ever even seen him lose his temper?”
Kelly had to think about that for a minute. “Well, no, actually, I haven’t,” she finally admitted. There had been times when she’d thought Shane was a bit annoyed with someone, but she’d never seen him really angry.
“Neither have I,” Dawne responded. “And I’ve known him since he was fourteen.”
Kelly looked assessingly at Shane, wondering if he truly was that easygoing or if his temper, like his emotions, remained hidden behind his lazy, unrevealing smiles.
He glanced her way, their gazes meeting. “What are you two talking about so seriously?”
“You,” Kelly answered equably.
“Good. I like it when you talk about me.”
“You just like being the center of everyone’s attention,” Dawne accused him affectionately.
“Exactly.”
An outburst from the kids’ table, around which ten children under the age of twelve were gathered, claime
d everyone’s attention then. While parents rushed to deal with the situation, everyone else continued their meals and their spirited conversations.
Watching as Shane turned back to chat with Emilio, it occurred to Kelly that Dawne was right. Shane was a very special guy. And if she ever met anyone, she, too, wouldn’t mind if he was a lot like Shane.
The “outsider attack” came completely without warning, catching Kelly totally unprepared. One minute she was contently mingling with the thirty or so members of the extended Walker clan, and the next minute she was on the outside of the family circle, gazing wistfully in.
It was only in her own mind, of course. Everyone treated her as warmly and graciously as they ever did. But suddenly she found herself fighting those old childhood demons—fear of rejection, of humiliation, of not fitting in.
Annoyed with herself for giving in to such groundless neuroses, she drifted toward the barn, thinking maybe a visit with the horses would give her time to bolster her self-confidence. She apparently wasn’t the only one who’d had the idea. “Emilio,” she said to the slender young man gazing into one of the stalls. “Do you like horses?”
The boy jumped and whirled to face her. “I didn’t touch anything. I was only looking at the horses.”
She smiled reassuringly. “It’s okay. Jared and Shane don’t mind you looking. In fact, they would probably take you for a ride if you want.”
“I’ve never ridden a horse before.”
“No?” Moving slowly to allow him to recover from the start she’d given him, she leaned against the stall railing beside him. “What have you ridden?”
“Dirt bikes. I used to race them. My dad...” The boy choked.
“Your father helped you race?” Kelly supplied gently, her heart twisting in compassion.
Emilio nodded. “He died two years ago. My mother died when I was a baby. I lived with my grandmother for a year, but she was old and sick.”
“I’m sorry, Emilio. You’ve had a very difficult time, haven’t you?”
He shrugged and looked at the dozing horse again.
“Do you like living with Lindsay and Nick?”
“They’re nice,” he conceded hesitantly. “Dr. Nick used to race bikes, and he said he’ll help me get started again in the spring—if I’m still with them then. They treat me good. Better than the last place.”
“They’re nice people. And their children are so sweet.”
“They’re okay,” the teenager conceded about the eight-year-old daughter and six-year-old son of his foster parents. “They sure have a lot of family,” he added. “At least, Lindsay does.”
Kelly chuckled softly. “Yes, Lindsay has two complete families. This one—her biological siblings—and the parents and two brothers who adopted her as a baby. Not to mention all the foster sons her adoptive parents took in over the years. She considers them all family, and she loves them all.”
“She has a big heart.”
“Yes,” Kelly agreed with a smile, thinking that Emilio had fallen quickly for his foster mother. “She does.”
Emilio looked at the horse again. “Everyone has been very nice to me here. But you have so many cousins. It makes me...”
“Dizzy?” Kelly supplied for him with a smile. “I know the feeling. This isn’t my family, Emilio. They aren’t my cousins. I’m a foster kid, too.”
He looked at her in surprise. “You are?”
“I used to be. When my mother became too ill to take care of me, I was placed into a foster home with Brynn D’Alessandro, Lindsay’s niece. Brynn and I have remained close friends and I’ve gotten to know her family very well during the past couple of years. They’re wonderful. But I still know how you feel. Sometimes I’m very much aware that I have no family connection to the others.”
His dark chocolate eyes focused intently on her face. “I would never have known you aren’t related to them.”
“Most of the adult members of this family have been in foster care at one time or another. And Jared and Cassie, who own this ranch along with Shane, have taken in foster sons several times during the past few years, though they don’t have one in residence at the moment. They know how important it is to make newcomers feel welcome. And they know it is always possible to make room in the family for more.”
Emilio thought about her words for a moment, and then smiled. “It’s a nice family.”
“Yes,” Kelly agreed, and she was glad now that she had chosen to come to the barn. Both she and Emilio had needed this talk.
The boy’s smile suddenly turned a bit mischievous, making him look more his age than the somber expression he’d worn before had. “But can you name them all?”
“Not only can I name them, I can do it in order.” Lifting her chin in response to the challenge, Kelly drew a deep breath. “Jared’s the eldest. He’s married to Cassie, and they have Shane and Molly. Then there’s Layla, who married Kevin Samples and had Dawne, Keith and Brittany. A brother named Miles died on his eighteenth birthday. His daughter—my friend, Brynn—was born after he died. She married Joe D’Alessandro. Then come the twins—Joe Walker, who’s married to Lauren and has a little boy named Casey, and Ryan Walker, who married Taylor and has twin boys, Andrew and Aaron. Michelle and her husband, Tony D’Alessandro, have four children, Jason, Carly, Katie and Justin. And finally there’s your foster family, Lindsay, who married Nick Grant, and their two children, Jenny and Clay.” She finished on her last gasp of breath.
Emilio laughed. “Okay, I’m impressed.”
“And so am I.” Shane stepped out of the shadows of the barn, his eyes on Kelly.
Emilio stiffened. “We were just looking at the horses,” he said quickly.
Kelly wondered what in Emilio’s background made him go so quickly on the defensive. Had he often been falsely accused of misdeeds?
“How would you like to take a ride?” Shane offered.
The boy’s face lit with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. “I don’t know how.”
Shane clapped him on the shoulder. “You’ll know by the time you leave here today,” he promised.
Shane had begun to wonder if he would ever have a chance to talk to Kelly in private that day. It seemed that there was never a moment when they weren’t surrounded by other people. Either it was simply coincidence—not so hard to believe, considering the number of guests that day—or Kelly was taking pains to keep from being alone with him.
He wasn’t at all pleased by that possibility.
From several yards away, he watched as she organized a game of Simon Says with the children late that afternoon. She looked particularly nice today, he thought, admiring the pumpltin-colored sweater that clung so enticingly to her small, firm breasts, and the way her dark indigo jeans cupped her tight bottom. He wouldn’t have been a normal male if he hadn’t noticed those details, along with the attractive flush of pink in her smooth, fair cheeks and the glittering strawberry highlights in her short, tousled blond hair. He’d always liked long hair on other women, but Kelly’s wispy cut suited her, emphasizing her big green eyes and slender throat.
He suddenly frowned and shifted his weight, shoving his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. Damn, what was this? Surely he wasn’t standing here getting all warm and itchy just from looking at Kelly. And why was he suddenly remembering the way she’d felt in his arms, the taste of her mouth beneath his?
What the hell was going on between them lately? Why was he suddenly having trouble thinking of Kelly as just another member of the family? Or was this really all that sudden? The truth was, he’d been drawn to her since the day he’d first seen her lying in a hospital bed, broken and hurting, but with a spark of spirit in her emerald eyes that had refused to be extinguished.
Okay. So they were exceptionally good friends, he told himself. Such close bonds were rare and precious. He wasn’t about to screw things up, the way Cameron had with Amber.
But he still wanted a chance to talk to Kelly alone.
H
e found that opportunity soon after her game with the children ended. It was getting cooler as the day wore on, and the guests were beginning to drift inside the ranch house. No one seemed in a hurry to leave, and soon they would pull out the leftovers from lunch for an evening meal. Always the conscientious hostess, Cassie suggested organizing various games, grouped by age and interest, in several rooms of her house. Charades in the living room, poker in the den, board games on the dining room table, Trivial Pursuit in the extra room they used as a computer room and library. Football games were tuned in on a couple of different television sets for those who chose to watch rather than play.
“Shane, we’re almost out of canned soft drinks,” Cassie commented, pushing her unruly mop of red hair away from her face, which was still fresh and unlined as she approached her fortieth birthday.
Giving his stepmother an affectionate smile, he nodded. “I’ll go fetch the ones we stashed in my fridge. Kelly, can you give me a hand?” he asked, as if on a sudden impulse.
He saw what might have been a quick flare of nerves in her eyes, but she masked it quickly and nodded. “Sure. I’d be glad to.”
Cassie smiled in satisfaction. “Thanks, you two. I appreciate it. Now I’d better go make sure everyone’s found something interesting to do.”
“Cassie’s such a good hostess,” Kelly commented as she and Shane began the quarter-mile walk to his house. “She’s so careful to make sure everyone has a good time.”
“She enjoys entertaining. Dad’s gotten accustomed to having a crowd underfoot—even seems to like it most of the time.” Shane knew how much adjustment it had taken for his father, who’d been a loner all his life, to suddenly find himself part of a large, demonstrative family. Shane had taken to their new life immediately, but Jared had needed a bit more encouragement. He’d found that motivation in his love for Cassie.
Paulie, the border collie, came running up to meet them as they approached Shane’s house. Shane absently patted the dog’s black-and-white head. Kelly greeted him with more affection, bending down to stroke him into a frenzy of delight. “Good dog,” she said. “You’re such a sweet boy.”