“I see.” Her motto, “The heart wants what the heart wants,” was her declaration to the world, then, that her spa was her dream. But if she’d left one guy to pursue it, would she leave him, too, if she had to make a choice?
And since he was dead set on living here on the ranch, could he blame her for that choice? We aren’t built to last.
Except he could learn from where Phillip had failed Krista. He could find a way to let Krista have her dream and a life with him, too. He wouldn’t make her choose, because, well, he didn’t want to have to choose between her and his life, either.
“Listen,” he said, “about Phillip, I’m not sure we should do anything further.”
“Did you not hear a word I said? Phillip has me in his social media crosshairs and now that we’re together, you are, too.”
“It’ll blow over like it did before.” Blow all away, so he and Krista could have a decent start together.
“Yes, it will. Eventually. All things come to an end, but not before serious damage is done. The Celebrity Ride is a full two months away. People have lost their reputations and jobs after twenty-four hours of Twitter storms. Look, you have done absolutely nothing wrong, but, thanks to Phillip, there’s a sector of social media who thinks you only date dumb blondes. How is that going to look to your sponsors? Forget that, how badly is that going to blacken the Claverley name?”
“The Claverley name can weather a little bad publicity. We’ve been around a long time.”
“And you’re always going to have loyal customers that know you and the rest of your family personally. And your cattle and horses don’t care about social media, either. I get all that. But going forward, you said you want to get more into breeding horses. Won’t you have to increase your social media presence for that? All this stuff will follow you, Will. What happens on the web, stays on the web.”
That stopped him. He didn’t want some knothead in Toronto trying to ruin his family and his future. “I take it you have a suggestion?”
Krista met his gaze squarely. “It might make sense if we maintained a...distance.”
Will sat up in one motion, ice packs tumbling off. “Not happening. That’s giving in to that mob. That’s letting them rule our lives, get between you and me here on my bed, on this ranch, on this Sunday afternoon. No way.”
She sighed. “You’re making it very hard for me to take the high road, here. I don’t want to cause trouble for you, Will.”
If he could stand the pain in his shoulder, then he could stand anything she dished out. Especially if it came with her.
“There may be some very good reasons why we don’t belong together, Krista. But what the world out there throws our way isn’t one of them.”
Alyssa’s warning popped into his mind. She’ll build you up and make you feel as if you two can take on the world. And then she’ll move on.
“Hard,” she whispered. “Impossibly hard.”
No. Alyssa and Phillip were wrong. They’d make this work. He swooped in for a kiss on her soft lips. “Now that’s a message I’d like to get out there.”
* * *
JANET LISTENED TO Dave making small talk on their evening horse ride. It wasn’t like him, but neither was her silence. She usually chatted nonstop, and it suited them both. She had never been good at holding out with Dave, and she’d held her tongue for nearly a week now. It was killing her.
Dave rambled to a stop, and they finally rode together in silence. Janet took in the clop of the horses and the throaty calls of frogs from a slough, the beat of the lowering sun on her cheek and the breezes carrying the herby scent of hay and grass. Two calves were tucked together in the tall grass and with a slight press of her knee, Silver adjusted her course to skirt them.
“Now that is what Silver deserves,” Janet burst out, patting her horse on the neck. “Someone who trusts her.”
“All right,” Dave said.
“I was almost glad when she made a fool of herself on Silver at Laura’s wedding. I thought, ‘Good, now Will can see for himself just how preposterous the chances of their relationship are. It will never go beyond fakery.’”
“We’re talking about Krista,” Dave deduced.
“Yes. Her.” Janet sat even straighter in her saddle, if that was possible. “She has her hooks in Will.”
Dave didn’t answer right away. He stared out at a bunch of cows grazing together. She expected he was looking for Maude and her calf. They’d noticed the cow had what appeared to be a light sprain last night.
Janet gave her prognosis to steer him back to the issue of their son’s choice of a possible wife. “She seems better. No worse.”
“Better check on her.” Dave slipped from his horse and handed Janet the reins. Not that it mattered with Goldie. She’d not go far without Dave. He pushed on Maude’s haunches to get her walking, his eye on her front hoof. From where she sat, Janet judged her prognosis to be dead-on.
“Swelling’s down,” Dave said as he swung into the saddle again. “Problem’s fixing itself for a change.”
“I caught them together in Harry’s House, kissing.”
Dave pushed back on his cowboy hat and gave her a reproachful frown.
“I didn’t realize she was there! I saw her car parked next to Alyssa’s, so I assumed Krista was with her at the arena. I’d gone down to ask Will about bringing the lawn chairs back down from the gazebo. I knocked, opened the door and wham!
“She scuttled off and Will denied nothing. He said that they’d decided to take their relationship to the next level.”
“Well,” Dave said, “he’s done this before. With other girls.”
“Not with Krista!”
“What’s your problem with her in particular?”
“Have you heard about what happened with that man she was with Down East?”
“Sounded to me as if he was the problem.”
“That only proves she makes bad decisions when it comes to men.”
“Are you saying our son is a bad decision?”
“In this case, yes. As she is for him. What can Will possibly be thinking?”
“Maybe he’s not,” Dave said, turning his horse for home. Silver followed without a cue from her. Smart horse.
“That’s what I’m worried about. I don’t understand her appeal when he has other obvious options. I asked him about Dana and he said she’s already interested in someone else.”
“Hard to believe that there’s a better choice than Will out there.”
“I agree, but he refused to reveal who it was. And he made it quite clear that he and Alyssa didn’t have a future.”
“You’re worried that he’ll end up in the same situation as Keith,” Dave said.
“How can I not worry? Krista is not as shallow as Macey, I’ll give her that, but Will and Krista, they are oil and water, fire and water.”
“And yet Will’s got his heart set on our little Krista,” Dave said with a smile.
“She’s not ‘our little Krista.’ She has her own mother and sisters, a cousin and nieces.”
“Yeah,” Dave said equably, “but after all these years of her eating at our table and sleeping over with Laura a piece of her is still ours.”
Janet twisted in her saddle to get a better look at the man she thought she knew inside and out. “You don’t mind that they’re together. You actually like the idea.”
“She’s different,” Dave said, “and different is good.”
“Different? From the man who refuses his steak if it’s not medium well and served with homemade barbecue sauce. When we went to Mexico, you couldn’t sleep on the plane because you were seated to the right of me instead of to the left like in our bed.”
Dave shrugged. “Point is, I got on the plane to Mexico.”
“True,” she conceded. It was in celebration of their thir
ty-fifth anniversary last year.
“And I wore sandals every single day there.”
“Also true. Your poor toes had never been exposed to the light of day before.”
“Yep.” Dave grinned, that incredible Claverley smile that always made her believe things weren’t as bad as they actually were. “I hear there’s a new place in town where I can expose them again.”
“She’s gotten enough of our business.”
“Maybe she’ll give me the family discount.”
Janet spluttered, incoherent again, but Dave’s grin remained unmoved.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
WILL FELT MORE than his shoulders tense as Krista and Alyssa took in the latest from Krista’s ex on their phones. “When do I get to read it?”
Not that he’d get more than a glimpse, given he was point man on Austin patrol right now. Keith was on his way home from an all-day haul that was running late, and Will’s parents were out on their horse ride. Their time alone. Fed, Austin was toddling around the back lawn, Will following like a bodyguard to make sure small stones, grass or too much dirt didn’t make their way down Austin’s gullet.
“Here you go,” Krista said. Austin had his fists clutched in the neck hair of Clover, who saw Austin as her human pup. That would buy him time to look away from the boy. Will took Krista’s phone. A meme of two inflatable dolls sat together on a fence, a superimposed sunset of oranges and purples in the background. The Krista-doll, perky in a buckle bunny outfit of pink and tassels, held a rope lassoed around the foot of the Will-doll slouched in chaps and a plaid shirt. The speech balloon above the Krista-doll read “Don’t you just love kids? I love them like cupcakes.” His reply was a thought cloud: “Kids are accidents that permanently injure my life.”
He thrust the phone back at Krista, too angry to speak. Where did that piece of scum get off accusing him of hating kids? Austin was edging to Clover’s tail. Will closed the distance between him and Austin, Krista right there with him in silent support.
Alyssa followed. “The hospital is all about kids who have had accidents. We can’t be represented by someone who is caricatured as calling kids themselves accidents. And wow, that permanent injury bit—” She shook her head. “We’ve got to hit back. It’s already had five shares and it’s only been up for a half hour.”
This had not been the first meme or the first online attack, either. Phillip had set up a website and created an entire dreamy life featuring Krista-doll and blogging about her country hick boyfriend. They’d had titles like How My Man Lassos a Post, What Makes a Horse Go Vroom-vroom, and Riding Off into the Sunset—Backward. Each blog came with a meme widely distributed on social media. Each Will had absorbed, but this one would not go away after a few hours of working with the horses.
“Oh great,” Alyssa said. “An email from Super-A Supplies. ‘Our company draws its support from our family-oriented customers. Due to the ongoing media spotlight on Will Claverley, we regret to inform you that we will not be able to proceed with our sponsorship of the charity ride.’”
Clover, who made a living flushing cattle out of the bush, wove in front of Austin to herd him back to Will. Austin decided to try and crawl under Clover. Smart tike. “But I’m for family. I’ve never said a word against it.”
“It doesn’t matter who you are,” Alyssa said. “It only matters what other people say you are.”
Practically word for word what Krista had said. She was tapping her lip. “Nobody said anything until this latest meme, so they don’t really care who Will dates. It’s the family thing. So how about we focus on Will and family on the Celebrity Ride page and start a new narrative.”
Austin broke around Clover, and gravity was carrying his legs down the slope of the lawn to the gravel drive where a face-plant would bring blood and howls. The dog and the three humans moved in accordance, but Austin was picking up serious speed.
Will nabbed him as his little rubber boots hit gravel. “Come on, buddy. Let’s get you back in the pasture.” He began to walk Austin up the slope. Alyssa and Krista regarded him with the same speculative expression. What had he done to put them on the same wavelength?
Alyssa’s fingers were flying over her phone. “We’ll go with a short video. Less than thirty seconds.”
“Then a voice-over from Will, maybe some music,” Krista continued, “if it’s not long enough.”
“What are you guys up to?”
Alyssa held up her phone. “Walk. I’ll video you.”
“You can’t put Austin on social media. It’s not right.”
“Laura has already put him on Facebook,” Alyssa countered.
True... “Okay, just the back of him.”
Alyssa began to protest but Krista said, “That’ll work. It’ll come across more universal.”
And so Will had the unsettling sensation of two single women filming from his backside, Austin riding on his arm. His good arm. He had yet to tell Krista the dire warnings of the physiotherapist. It was bad enough that his mother knew.
“Stop,” Alyssa said. “Now to come up with words to neutralize Phillip’s poison.”
“Something natural,” Krista said.
“But profound,” Alyssa said.
“I can do the first, but not the second,” Will said. “I’ll say whatever you two decide.”
“But that completely goes against the ‘natural’ part,” Krista said. “Tell me, Will, how do you feel about kids?”
Will gazed at Austin, whose little hands were busily digging into his shirt pocket bumpy from his baggie of painkillers. The crinkling noise had Austin squeezing the pocket for all he was worth. Austin had never made strange with Will, like other babies with their uncles, because they were part of each other’s daily routine.
He couldn’t imagine a world without Austin, without kids, a family. When did Krista want to start a family? He wanted one, the sooner, the better. But she had her business, and she’d probably prefer to wait until it was on its feet. Only he couldn’t see himself waiting years on end to carry around his own Austin or Austin-ette.
He brushed away a mosquito hovering around Austin’s bare neck. He spoke to Krista, though Alyssa had her microphone pressed close. “Some people say kids are a pain, a problem, not worth the trouble. But I grew up with farm animals and there’s not one of them that doesn’t take care of babies. Even those that belong to others. A mother cat will nurse kittens if their mother dies. A stallion makes sure all the other horses get in ahead of him. The dog lies beside a hurt calf. Kids aren’t easy, but even an animal understands you don’t ever give up on them.”
Krista’s blue eyes were wide with...what? Bewilderment? Fear? Definitely not the excitement he’d hoped for.
“Aaand that’s a wrap,” Alyssa said. “I’m off to get this turned around. I should have it posted to the Celebrity Ride site in a couple of hours.” Krista’s head was still down and didn’t rise until Alyssa was out of earshot. “That was nice, what you said.”
“You want kids?” he said quickly, to get it out there.
She drew her finger down Austin’s arm. “To be honest, they always seemed down the road. I’ve never had a serious enough boyfriend to consider having kids. My nieces, Sofia and Isabella, they’re my first contact with kids and that only started eight months ago.”
“Laura told us about them.”
“You’ll meet them at the barbecue.”
He grinned. “Six days and counting.”
Austin yawned. Will recognized that signal. “First yawn already. Three yawns and he’s done for the day. We’d better get him in the bath quick.” He caught Krista looking in the direction of her car. “Unless you have someplace to go.”
“No,” she said. “No better place.”
He wished he could believe she wasn’t just saying that to make him feel better.
* * *
“I SCREWED UP BAD, didn’t I?” Will said as he and Krista got into his truck after the Montgomery Canada Day barbecue. The rest of her family were still around the fire, probably happy to see the last of him.
Krista shed her red-and-white beanie with moose ears—and yes, she made it look cute. “Um, well, it wasn’t all bad. The girls adore you. I mean who can resist a guy with dogs, cats and horses. I bet they’ll pester Jack and Bridget to take them up on your invite to come out to the ranch.”
“Which I shouldn’t have offered before checking with them.” He pulled the truck away from the curb, relieved to put distance between Krista’s family and him.
“I promised to give Sofia makeup before checking with them, too. It’s small.”
“And the whole steak thing. I meant it as a hospitality gift, but Jack made enough digs for me to regret it.”
“I totally blame him for that one. He is overly sensitive that way,” Krista said. “Penny’s Place nearly went bankrupt last Christmas, and they’re really only breathing easy now. I guess your gift was an unintentional reminder of a time when they couldn’t afford to serve their house guests steak.”
“What else did I do?”
Krista hesitated. “You did seem nervous around Mara.”
That was the worst mistake. Krista had filled him in on Mara’s deteriorating vision, how they had to watch not to put stuff in her peripheral vision. He’d overcompensated, reacted as if she were Austin. He’d jumped to reach for a plate, scooted his chair way back when she edged by and it wasn’t until Jack outright told him that Mara wasn’t deaf, that he realized he’d spoken extra loud to her.
“I was nervous,” he confessed.
“Why?”
“Same reason you’re nervous around my mother. You want to make a good impression.”
“No, I don’t.”
No way was she getting away with that lie. “I don’t believe you.”
Harlequin Heartwarming June 2021 Box Set Page 86