by Anna Sugden
Realizing the state he was in, Kayla began to chuckle, and the shiver it sent through her drove his need to even greater intensity. Easing away, he hurriedly dealt with fresh protection and returned to the bed.
This time he moved more slowly, restraining the wild need so he could watch how his movements affected Kayla, learning what pleased her most. She slid her hands down his back and hips and he shuddered, moving faster while her head fell back and her climax began. He kept going, pleasuring her and himself in a way he couldn’t remember ever experiencing before.
Finally, he collapsed, gasping for air. He could feel her heart thrumming against his chest, the beat matching his own until both slowed and they became aware of the world.
In the distance, a horse neighed and Kayla suddenly pushed him away.
“Don’t worry, the kids can’t be back yet. It must be one of my ranch hands,” he said lazily.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“You’re angry.” Jackson was unaccountably disappointed. “You could have said no when I asked, though I suppose women are often—”
“Don’t say it,” Kayla ordered. “I’m not being inconsistent because I’m a woman. I made a choice, but that doesn’t mean I’m required to be happy about giving in to temptation with a guy who doesn’t trust women and treats sex as casual recreation.”
“I don’t,” he denied, though she had a certain amount of truth on her side. “Just earlier I was thinking how much I admire what you’ve done with your life, so you can’t claim I don’t trust you.”
“Yeah, you admire a teenage mother who made good. That isn’t the same as trusting me.”
Jackson snorted. “Hey, you have just as many trust issues as I do.”
“Possibly, but you’re just deflecting. I’m going downstairs in case Flora comes home or the kids return early. I do not want them figuring out what happened up here.”
Hell. He’d forgotten Flora might get back from shopping earlier than expected. While she usually visited family when she went into town, there were no guarantees.
Quickly Kayla squirmed back into her damp suit.
“I’ll be down in the pool,” she said, walking out.
For several minutes Jackson lay on the mattress, trying to control his unruly body. Damned if he couldn’t have made love to her again. He’d hardly been a monk since his divorce, but there had been nothing this good—a generous give-and-take of pleasure. Still, that didn’t mean it had been a smart idea.
With a sigh, he got up and remade the bed so it showed no signs of their vigorous activity. He wasn’t concerned about Flora—she wouldn’t be upstairs until she made the beds in the morning—but Morgan might see and wonder about it.
He’d only complicated matters by giving in to temptation. It would be wise to remember that he had two overriding goals—figuring out Morgan’s issues, and building a good relationship with Alex. To help reach the second goal, he was supposed to be forming a cordial partnership with Alex’s mother, not sneaking into bed with her.
* * *
AS KAYLA STEPPED into the pool, she was ready to tear her hair out. Didn’t she ever learn? Jackson McGregor was bad news for her. He was sexy as hell, but he had even more issues now than as a teenager. He didn’t listen to people, he didn’t trust women and he didn’t trust marriage. A triple threat. Not that she was interested in marrying him, but it was symbolic of the gulf between them.
And he had the nerve to criticize her struggle to trust? She’d grown up in a harsh world, where trusting the wrong person was dangerous...a world her mother had taken her back to when they’d left Schuyler. But she’d done what was necessary to survive and take care of her baby, and now that she was alone again she wasn’t about to let down her defenses, especially with a horny rancher trying to force himself into her family.
It was a reminder of how careful she needed to be with Alex, as well. Jackson might not be quite as chauvinistic as he sometimes seemed, but his opinion of the opposite sex wasn’t the best. It still worried her that Alex would pick up the wrong attitudes.
A wry grin tugged at Kayla’s mouth.
Luckily Alex’s best friend was a forthright teenage feminist who’d set him on his ear if he pulled any sexist nonsense.
“Something funny?” Jackson asked as he slid into the pool next to her.
“Not really.” They sat silently for a long while, then Kayla stirred restlessly. “I don’t understand how you let someone like Marcy affect you so much.”
Jackson stared into the pool’s depths. “The only thing Marcy and I had in common was being teenage parents, and she was a lousy mother. She was furious that I’d made an agreement with my great-uncle not to touch my trust fund for several years. Instead, he gave us a small house on the ranch and I worked as a cowhand. He paid me the same as his other employees and expected the same effort from me as from them.”
“That’s reasonable—he loved his ranch and wanted to be sure you could handle it.”
“Marcy didn’t see it that way. I swear, I paid for that agreement every day of our marriage. She was bitter, claiming we were living in squalor, and complained to everyone that I was treating her badly. I thought it would get better when I was able to build this house, but her complaints didn’t stop. The last straw was when she started sleeping around.”
Kayla couldn’t help but feel bad for him. At least Curtis had been honest enough to end their marriage before cheating. It was the only semimature thing he’d ever done.
“Did Marcy’s parents believe her complaints?” Kayla asked.
“No. I think the Liptons were seeing her clearly for the first time. They wouldn’t give her money and told me to stick to my arrangement with Great-Uncle Mitch. They said it might save her. But I think they’d given up hope by the time my mother-in-law died. Then with Della gone, Edgar didn’t have much to live for. He went soon after.”
It was sad the Liptons had passed knowing their daughter hadn’t turned out to be a very nice person.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ALEX PATTED BETTY on the neck as they rode away from Halloran’s Meadow. Much as he hated to admit it, riding horses and spending time on a ranch was pretty cool.
“Let’s go faster, slowpokes,” DeeDee called, passing him.
He and Morgan made faces at each other. Oops, DeeDee had looked back and was sticking out her tongue.
Sometimes it was a pain to have a ten-year-old tagging along. Maybe when Keri got to Montana, the two of them could hang out together and let him and Morgan spend time with Sandy.
It was rad having a sister his own age, although once in a while he’d caught DeeDee looking at him funny, especially when he tried to talk to Morgan privately.
By the time they got back to the ranch, he was starving.
“Are we staying long?” he whispered to his mother. “I’m real hungry.”
“No, Grams is expecting us at six.”
They’d eaten at Jackson and Morgan’s house for a couple of nights, so she’d decided they should spend an evening with her grandparents.
Morgan winked as they left—a signal to remind him about messaging her later. In the car he checked his phone and saw a message from Sandy saying her parents had finally gotten it together, so she and Keri were flying to Montana in two days.
When they came into the house, Grandma handed him and DeeDee plates piled with minipizzas. “I knew you’d be hungry and dinner will be later than planned. Your grandfather got tied up helping an old client.”
“Yummalicious,” DeeDee said.
Elizabeth smiled. “Thank you. Why don’t you watch the baseball game?”
In the family room, DeeDee plopped down on the couch, grabbed the remote and put on the game.
Alex shoved a bite of cheese pizza into his mouth. It tasted great, but he missed pepperoni. When he got back to Seattle he might have to start eating meat, no matter what jokes Brant and Dad made.
After a while DeeDee got quiet, and Alex didn’t think it was because the Mariners
were getting their butts kicked by the White Sox. It made him nervous.
“Okay, what gives?” he asked during the seventh-inning stretch. “You’re acting all wacky, looking at me sideways and stuff.”
“Nothing.”
“As if I buy that. Your face looks the way it did the time you took my bike without asking and mashed up the front wheel. So?”
“I just... Did you feel left out when...” She stopped and chewed her bottom lip. “Did you feel left out when you found out Dad had adopted you?”
Alex shrugged. “Not exactly. He already didn’t have any time for me and only cares about Brant.”
“Yeah. Same here. Maybe you’re lucky to have Jackson.”
He stared and wondered what bug she’d gotten in her brain this time.
The Mariners almost managed to pull the game out of the trash can but finally lost in the bottom of the ninth. DeeDee still had the remote and put on a cartoon Alex didn’t care about, so he went to find his mom.
“Something up?” she asked.
“Yeah...no. I mean...could we go for a walk?”
Her eyebrows rose. “Sure,” she agreed, exchanging a look with Grandma. “Not a long one, though. Dinner is almost ready.”
* * *
KAYLA SET OFF with Alex and waited for him to say something.
“Mom, DeeDee just asked me something strange,” he said after they’d walked several blocks. “She wanted to know if I felt left out when I found out about being adopted.”
“Did you?” she asked.
“No, I was mostly mad because no one told me. DeeDee says maybe I’m lucky to have Jackson, but I don’t feel lucky.”
“You might, someday.”
“I dunno, but I thought you should know about DeeDee. Something’s bugging her.” Alex turned and watched a passing truck, his face more grown-up and sad than she’d ever seen it. “I miss the way we used to be, back before Dad split.”
Kayla let out a painful breath, wishing there was some way to make things easier. “So do I. There’s no going back, but that doesn’t mean the future can’t also be good.”
“I guess not.”
They returned to the Garrison house in silence while Kayla fretted about her daughter. DeeDee was the one who usually charged ahead, with less introspection. She cared, but she moved so fast she didn’t always slow down to think things through. But what she’d said to her brother made Kayla want to kick herself. She’d worried so much about Alex and her mixed feelings about Jackson that she might have missed something with DeeDee.
After dinner, she went up to the attic bedroom and sat on the bed with her daughter. “Alex told me you asked about how he felt about your dad adopting him.”
DeeDee rolled onto her stomach. “I just wondered.”
“Any special reason?”
“Nah, just curious.”
“Maybe it’s more than that. How are you feeling about everything here in Montana? I mean, we’ve gone to a family picnic where Alex met his birth father’s parents. We spend time at the ranch where he has a sister who isn’t directly related to you. And tomorrow afternoon we’re having a gathering where he’ll meet aunts and uncles and other family.”
DeeDee squirmed around to kick off her sneakers and scratch her toe. Kayla waited. It was unusual for her daughter to think first and talk second, but both her kids had been doing unusual things lately.
“Uh...” DeeDee said finally. “It’s like...Alex has a whole new chance to have a dad who cares about him instead of our dad, who’s a jerk a bunch of the time.”
A jerk? Kayla flinched. She’d suspected DeeDee was angry with her father but had never heard her call him names. “Is that how you think of your father?”
“Sometimes.” The word was mumbled. “He spends all his time with Brant, the way he did with Rosa and Willie before that. He only cares about us when he doesn’t have someone new around.”
After she spoke, DeeDee buried her face in her pillow.
Kayla’s throat ached with suppressed emotion. She couldn’t deny that Curtis was a troubled person. Lately she’d begun wondering if it was because of his years as a foster child. He’d been one of those kids who regularly got moved from place to place. At each new home he would court the new family, trying to ingratiate himself so this time he wouldn’t be sent away. Maybe after a while it had become a game. He’d expected to leave after a certain amount of time and had started anticipating what he would need to do at the next place to make them like him. That kind of childhood wouldn’t prepare anyone for staying in a long-term relationship.
“Your dad loves you, DeeDee,” she assured gently. “He just gets easily distracted by problems that have nothing to do with you or Alex.”
DeeDee looked unhappy for a moment, then shrugged as if she’d tucked the feeling away. “Okay.”
“So what about everything here in Montana? How do you feel about that?”
“Uh...well, Morgan is awesome, but I’m just the little kid who tags along. And even though the McGregors are nice to me, it’s Alex they want to know. Maybe Jackson’s family will think I shouldn’t be at the party tomorrow night.”
Hell. Belatedly Kayla realized she should have expected something of the sort. Her daughter was strong and bold, but no one was invulnerable.
“I think the McGregors will be happy you’re there,” she said. “They’re a nice family and probably want to meet the people Alex cares about.”
“I guess.”
“And as for Morgan and Alex, you know I never had any brothers or sisters. But I’m sure older kids do enjoy spending time on their own, the same way you sometimes enjoy being with Keri and not having Alex around, right?”
“Keri says her big sister is always calling her a squirt—just like Alex calls me—and tells her to get lost.”
“That doesn’t mean they don’t care about each other,” Kayla pointed out. “And I’ll bet her sister would love to see Montana, but Keri gets to come because you’re friends.”
DeeDee brightened as she nodded in agreement. Kayla tugged the end of her daughter’s thick braid. “There’s always give-and-take in a family. You’ve been very understanding about everything going on here in Montana, but Alex cares about you, too. That’s why he told me you might be upset about something.”
Alex stuck his head through the door. “Yeah, you may be a squirt, but you’re my squirt.”
“Alex, you shouldn’t be eavesdropping,” Kayla scolded him mildly.
“I just got here, so I didn’t hear that much.”
“It’s okay,” DeeDee said.
“You can be a pain,” Alex told her, “but you’ll always be my ‘oldest’ sister.”
DeeDee giggled.
Kayla smiled at her daughter. “If you don’t want to go to the family gathering tomorrow evening, we can—”
“I want her to come,” Alex interrupted quickly. “Okay, DeeDee?”
DeeDee grinned. “Sure.”
* * *
MORGAN OPENED THE Facebook message from Alex. He said that DeeDee was worried people thought she was in the way.
She knew how DeeDee felt. It was crummy to feel as if someone wished you weren’t there.
Grabbing her cell phone, she texted DeeDee and asked if she and Alex wanted to go on a ride before the grown-ups got there and outnumbered the kids. She didn’t want DeeDee to feel bad or left out.
DeeDee texted back: Can we go 2 HMdow?
Yes. CU.
One of the things Morgan liked about DeeDee was how much she loved Halloran’s Meadow. Alex thought it was fun, but Morgan didn’t think he understood how she felt when she sat and listened to the water falling and the breeze rustling through the quaking aspens.
The first time they’d gone to the meadow together, she’d gotten out of the pool and sat staring at a wildflower, feeling mellow in the sun and wondering if the door to another world could be nearby...maybe behind her, or to the left or right. And if she stepped through the door, there was a chanc
e she might find hobbits or elves or unicorns.
After a few minutes, DeeDee had dropped down next to her and whispered, “I like it this way, but I wish I could come sometime in the rain. It’s the kind of place where fairies might wash their hair.”
Morgan had opened her eyes wide. Could DeeDee have read her mind?
“It’s great in the rain,” she’d whispered back.
Then DeeDee had looked embarrassed. “Don’t tell Alex I said something about fairies. He might tease.”
Morgan knew how DeeDee had felt. Alex was a geek who loved Star Trek, but he was still a guy, and guys didn’t always understand. Besides, it would feel silly talking about fairies and unicorns out loud—she sure couldn’t tell any of her new buddies from the past year about the things she imagined. They’d laugh their heads off.
Another message came from Alex; he’d forgotten to tell her Sandy was coming in a couple of days. Morgan didn’t know what to think about that. It had been nice having him and DeeDee to herself.
They wouldn’t be in Montana for much longer, then they were going home. Morgan didn’t want to think about it.
* * *
THE NEXT MORNING Morgan got back from her run and slumped into a chair in the kitchen. How could Kayla do it alone every day? It was much more fun running with her.
Her dad came in from the ranch office. He was looking at some papers but set them aside when he saw her at the table.
“Still running, I see,” he said.
“Yeah,” she mumbled.
“You took Cory?”
“As if I could stop him from coming.”
His jaw tightened. “Morgan, can’t you talk to me like a normal person?”
“Jeez, sorry for disappointing you.”
“I didn’t say you disappointed me.”
“That’s what you meant,” she muttered.
Her dad rubbed his forehead. “Morgan, do you miss your mom? Is that the reason for this attitude? Tell you what, I’ll call her and ask her to come for a visit.”
The last thing Morgan wanted was her mother coming to Schuyler. “No.”
He closed his eyes the way he did when he was angry or didn’t want her know what he was thinking. “Do you want to visit her in New York?”