by Mary Brady
He hadn’t come here to inflict more pain on her. He’d come to get a few of his things and maybe a few things that would make Crystal think of home, of her roots.
Footsteps closed in behind him. KayLee coming in for more pain? She said she played for approval points. He approved, more than he could ever remember approving of anyone. He was glad she had her daughter.
She had loved him. He had that. He slowed and let her catch up to him. He studied her profile, buried a picture of her face in his heart where he could find it when he needed it.
As they approached the house, he recognized Colorado license plates and his heart nearly stopped beating. J&J had no reason to be here. This could only be word about his sister and that could not be good.
A dark, wiry man got out and leaned against the rear quarter panel of the old Oldsmobile. His hands rested on the car on either side of him, knees slightly bent, he was ready to spring at any moment, in any direction. He reminded Baylor of a hungry wolf.
Baylor signaled KayLee to stay back.
There were some things he wasn’t willing to risk. KayLee Morgan was one of those things. MaryRose’s mother. His friend. If he couldn’t keep her safe on the ranch, he might as well give it all up.
Suddenly, Baylor knew he’d seen the man before. A flash of his face was all he had caught before his sister had dragged the man away on that first day at her apartment. The man was clean-shaven, wearing khaki pants and a golf shirt. He didn’t look much like the druggy from Denver, but he was.
Baylor stepped aggressively close, allowing the guy no access to KayLee except through him.
The man didn’t flinch or cower as Baylor expected and that might be the reason Baylor didn’t punch his lights out.
He looked up at Baylor and spoke calmly. “I’m Carlos Ramirez, Crystal Doyle’s partner.”
“KayLee, get out of here.” Baylor kept his voice dangerously low as he spoke. “I don’t care what you call yourself. Whatever it is you came to say, say it and get out. And if you’re looking for Crystal, no one here will help you.”
“I see you’ve met Officer Ramirez.”
It wasn’t KayLee speaking, but the familiar voice couldn’t be real. It was too clear, like the old Crystal. He stayed where he was, afraid to break the spell.
“Bay, if you’ve already punched him, don’t worry. Ramirez usually has one or two coming anyway.”
This was his sister. Funny, irreverent and took no prisoners.
He turned slowly. She wore jeans and a T-shirt, had cut her blond hair short, and there was only a clean, clear look in her eyes and a smile on her face.
“Give me a hug,” she said. “Or punch me.”
The words lifted the sluggishness that had descended over him. He grabbed her and hugged her tight.
Crystal pushed away and went to her partner. “Thanks for the ride, Ramirez.”
The man nodded and was soon leaving a trail of dust on his way off the ranch.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Lance said from the porch behind them.
“Lance Doyle, I heard that,” Evvy called as she stepped out beside her oldest son, ready to continue her chastisement. The words never came out of her mouth and her eyes filled with tears.
“What’s going on out here?” Holly stopped beside her husband and grinned. She figured out right away what was going on.
Soon all the rest of the Doyles were out of the house except Curtis.
Amy shrieked, which made Trey cry until Seth picked him up and popped him on his shoulders and did the “daddy’s a horsey” thing.
Crystal took the steps slowly as if testing to see if anyone would fend her off with a punch or a kick. Then she caught each of her brothers and her sisters-in-law with a big hug, but when she got to Evvy she stopped and curled her lips in as if she was thinking whether or not to hug her mother.
The children dutifully hugged their aunt but soon lost interest in the surprise and ran inside to play. Trey did a good job of keeping up with Katie, who was only a month older than him, and both of them did their best to stick with Matt.
Baylor took the steps two at a time and motioned KayLee up on the large porch. He walked over to stand beside his mother, facing Crystal, arms crossed, feet spread. Lance and Seth flanked him and stood in identical poses. Their wives stood at their elbows.
None of them spoke as Crystal shifted her gaze between them one at a time. “I didn’t know how bad it was for you at school until another girl stepped forward.” Evvy spoke first. She looked as if she were glad to be facing her demons. “By the time I found out, you were gone.”
She turned to her youngest son. “I know, Baylor, that you blame yourself for not being here for her.”
“She told me those two guys dragged her into the locker room, so I had a talk with them.” He remembered Crystal’s face when she told him and afterward when he assured her nothing would happen to her now, but it had. “Somebody had to do it.”
“It was my duty. She told me, twice.”
Baylor faced his mother. “You knew about the second time and let her go back for a third?”
He felt his older brother’s hand on his shoulder.
“Of course I knew, but not until it was too late. You are her brother, Bay. This was not your burden—”
“Hey, I’m right here,” Crystal interrupted her mother, commanding attention. “I like to think I can take care of myself. Baylor didn’t give those boys black eyes that weekend he came home from college.”
A smirk played around Cyrstal’s eyes, but she wasn’t being given any quarter by her family.
“Why didn’t you let us know where you were?” Lance asked.
“I was mad, at first, and then I was stubborn. So to get even, I became a cop. Turns out I have good instincts for undercover work.” She turned her lips in again and shrugged one shoulder. “And as far as they knew, I didn’t have any family that I was close to. Names in a file. You know.”
“A letter? A phone call was too much?” Seth prodded.
“The longer I was away, the harder it got.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? You could have gotten away, found me,” Baylor said. “I made no secret of where I was.”
“Think about it, Baylor. It wouldn’t have mattered if I was a drug addict or a cop trying to bust the biggest drug trafficking ring in the whole region. You would have tried to save me and no matter how that went down, there would have been consequences.”
“So what?” Lance asked. “You’d still be lost to us if Baylor hadn’t sent somebody snooping around.”
“You both knew?” Evvy asked, looking between Lance and Baylor.
“We didn’t know much,” Baylor admitted.
“Enough to almost blow my cover.”
“I wasn’t—” Baylor started.
Crystal made a chopping motion with her hand to silence him. There must be things he didn’t know. Things she didn’t want to discuss in front of everyone.
“You’re staying?” Evvy asked.
A light rain had begun to fall, splattering on the wooden porch and most of the Doyle family.
Baylor reached for the bags sitting on the porch that he assumed were Crystal’s, but she got there first.
“Put this somewhere safe.” She handed him a locked box he assumed must be the Glock he had seen her handle so well in Denver.
Lance shepherded them into the house, into the large living room where someone had built a fire to ward off the chill of the coming rain.
Baylor placed the box in the locked gun cabinet along the wall near the entrance to the room.
Then they all stood around the square wooden coffee table as if no one was willing to commit to a seat.
“Are you staying, Crystal?” Evvy repeated the question she had asked outside.
“We got the job done in spite of Baylor’s—” Crystal gave him a look of stubborn thanks “—intervention. I need a place to be out of sight for a while. I’ll stay if I’m welcome. Seems I can’t hide
from you people very well anyway.”
“This is your home,” Evvy said. “Of course you’re welcome.”
Crystal looked directly at KayLee, then she stepped around Seth to where KayLee stood apart from the group. She put out a hand. “Hi, I’m Crystal Doyle and you look like somebody I should get to know better.”
Put on the spot, KayLee glanced at Baylor and then took Crystal’s hand and introduced herself. The smile she gave his sister was a sad one and it pained him.
Evvy stepped forward. “KayLee is the designer and general contractor for the cabins you can see we’re building.”
Crystal looked from Baylor to KayLee and back again.
“What’s all the racket out here? Man can’t even get a good nap these days.” Curtis Doyle filled the doorway. His hair was smashed on one side and his shoulders slumped.
Then he spotted his prodigal daughter.
Curtis almost flew to Evvy’s side, drawing up tall, looking bigger and dangerous like a stallion whose territory was being challenged.
“What’s happening?” he demanded.
Evvy backed into the curve of Curtis’s arm and spoke to her husband. “It’s all right, Curt. We’re about to work out a few things.”
Curtis relaxed visibly.
Baylor hadn’t seen his dad look so vigorous in a long time.
Crystal’s homecoming was already having resounding ripples in the family, good ones. He hoped she’d stay.
“I’d like to speak with Mom and Dad alone,” Crystal said. “And I’m glad to see all of you.”
Lance gathered up the rest of them and herded them down the hallway to the den.
When KayLee tried to back out of the family crowd, Lance practically dragged her along. Baylor wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. She might just want to go home to her daughter and leave all this drama behind.
Amy and Seth took one couch. Lance and Holly took the other, leaving the two chairs. KayLee sat in one of the chairs and as Baylor started for the other, Seth called out, “Wait. Chair’s broke.”
Baylor didn’t believe him. “Doesn’t look broke.”
“We can’t help how it looks.” Amy backed up her husband “It’s broke.”
Baylor took a seat on the arm of the chair where KayLee sat and they all grinned at him.
He shook his head, but what he wanted to do was to pull KayLee into his lap and demand she learn to love him all over again.
Because damn if he didn’t love her, probably always had, no matter what his head tried to tell him was right and fair.
“Do you suppose,” Holly asked from across the room, “Crystal found anyone to love in Denver?”
Baylor glanced at KayLee and then began to explain what the apartment building was like where Crystal lived.
“But was there a special guy for her?” Amy asked. “Because every woman deserves a special guy.”
“What’s wrong with you people? Our sister lived a horrible life. Lonely, most likely. She probably didn’t have time to get close enough to anybody to fall in love.” Funny, they didn’t look chastised.
Holly was rubbing Lance’s thigh and he was twirling her long red hair between his fingers. Seth was…
“What?” Baylor demanded. They were going to kill him with innuendo if he didn’t stop them.
“We got fence posts smarter than you, Baylor,” Lance offered.
“If it was up to you, our family tree would be a shrub.” Seth raised his eyebrows and ran a finger down Amy’s forearm to her wrist.
“All right. All right. I get it, but there’s nothing here for you all to be poking in.”
That brought snickers all around.
“Kinda like the chair’s broke,” Lance mumbled loud enough for all of them hear.
Holly patted Lance’s stomach and the snickers evolved to chuckles.
From KayLee’s expression, she was looking for a way out. The best thing he could do was to help her escape. He stood and pulled KayLee from the chair. “Come on. I’ll get you out of here.”
“Now hold on just a minute,” Lance said as he glared at Baylor and then at KayLee. “We’ve all had about enough of the foolishness the two of you have been perpetrating over the past few months,” Lance finished.
“Perpetrating.” KayLee nearly choked on the word.
Baylor didn’t know what to say. If it were up to him, he’d take it all back, and would never have left KayLee’s side.
She had loved him, but now she wanted to make a life with her daughter and she hadn’t even hinted there was room for him anymore. What did his hick brothers know about love he hadn’t figured out yet?
He looked to his brothers.
“Don’t look at me,” Lance said. “I told her to kick your butt.”
“Sounds about right to me,” Seth added.
Baylor grabbed KayLee’s hand and dragged her down the hallway toward the office. In the dim light, he stopped and put his arms around her.
“Wow, I love how close you can get to me.”
“Is that what you dragged me down here to say?”
He drew her close and put his chin on the top of her head, afraid of getting the wrong answers to the questions he had.
“I love you. I want another chance. I know I’ve hurt you too many times, but if there is some part of you that still loves me, please give this sorry ol’ cowpoke a break.”
She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t stiffen or try to flee.
“We can live anywhere you want to, though I wouldn’t mind living here. I won’t ask you to give up anything you don’t want to give up.”
She stayed quiet and he got more scared.
“I want to be a part of your life. I want to love you forever, and if the offer is still open, I’d like to be MaryRose’s father.”
From the den Holly laughed and Amy whooped.
“I guess we aren’t as alone as I thought we were.” He put his cheek to her soft hair.
“Marry you? I didn’t hear ‘marry you’ anywhere in that nonsensical rambling.”
“Ask her, you idiot!” Seth yelled.
Baylor realized they weren’t alone at all. His brothers and their wives now lurked arm-in-arm in the hallway outside the den.
“Do it right, boy,” Curtis Doyle advised as he flipped on the hallway light. “I taught you better than that.”
They were all there, including his sister and the kids. Baylor looked down as KayLee lifted her face to smile at him. All he found there was love and acceptance, and possibly even a yes to his unasked question.
He might not be able to live with the answer, but he sure as hell couldn’t live without asking the question.
She put a hand on his shoulder and her cheek against his chest. She was either settling in or getting ready to push off.
He took a deep breath. “I love you with all my heart and soul, will you marry me?”
“Yes!”
He’s never known such joy—or relief.
In a blink, they were surrounded.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Lance said as he saw his brother’s face.
“What?” Holly asked as she craned to see. “Oh, man. Oh, wow! About time. Amy, you gotta see this.”
KayLee looked up and laughed. “I’m sorry. I am so sorry.”
“You don’t sound very sorry,” Baylor said as he swiped at the tears in his eyes.
That started them all laughing.
KayLee’s eyes were so full of tears they had begun to run down both cheeks.
She reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out the big red hankie he had given her that first day. She wiped her eyes and then his. “Okay, so I still can’t stop crying.”
Amy laughed. “Give yourself about, um, about twenty years, or longer.”
“There is one problem,” Baylor said as he held KayLee close to his heart. “I’m not sure I can make my family accept you, you being such a pushy outsider and all.”
“Forget it, Baylor,” Holly said. “We love you, KayL
ee.”
Crystal approached, smiling, and put a hand on each of their shoulders. “Thank you, KayLee, for saving my brother from himself.”
“Welcome, sister,” Lance said and kissed her on the cheek and then led the rest of them down the hallway and out of sight.
“I guess we’ll have to build another house on the Shadow Range,” Baylor said as he looked into the face of his world.
“I might know somebody who can get that done,” KayLee said as she reached up and kissed him. “We still need to get a few more issues taken care of.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t ever lie to me again. I’ve learned a lot about taking care of myself in the last few months and I can’t do that if you lie to me.”
He kissed her soft lips and hugged her close to him. It was great, arousing, to be able to hug her face-to-face.
“Baylor, do you have to think about it so long?”
“I was thinking about you and I got lost. I won’t lie to you. I’m not sure I even could anymore. What else do we need to deal with?”
“You gave me a two-week trial when I got here. Did I pass?”
“You’ve earned a lifetime warranty. Anything else?”
“There is.” She smirked. “I still need to kick your butt.”
“I think we can work something out.”
She put her palms flat on his chest and pushed up on her toes. “I love you, Baylor Doyle.”
“I love you, K. L. Morgan.”
When she kissed him this time, she almost crawled up him.
And he liked it.
ISBN: 978 1 472 02828 0
WINNING OVER THE RANCHER
© 2011 Mary Brady
First Published in Great Britain in 2011
Harlequin (UK) Limited
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, including without limitation xerography, photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.