The Wedding Gift (Colorado Billionaires Book 7)

by Regina Duke

  “Thanks,” said Clayton. “I appreciate it.”

  When dinner came, they kept conversation to a minimum but managed to smile a lot.

  Clayton loved the way Kenzie would peek at him, then look away shyly. He decided the prime rib was the best he’d ever eaten. He even ate the asparagus. Everything tasted better when he was with Kenzie.

  He felt his phone buzzing in his pocket. He ignored it. But by the third time, Kenzie leaned forward and murmured, “You can take that if you have to.”

  Clayton gave her an apologetic grimace as he pulled out his phone. He glanced at it. “It’s my father,” he said. “Let me just text him that I’ll call him later.”

  Kenzie looked wistful. “My dad wouldn’t know what to do with a cell phone. I’m glad yours is a bit more in touch with the modern world.”

  Clayton put the phone away. “I guess it’s a good thing. Of course, your dad isn’t interrupting our meal.” He winked at her.

  Alice Kate arrived as their plates emptied. “Dessert is on the house,” she said. “And it’s coming right up. Crème brulée.” She stacked their empty dishes and, before she left, said, “Kenzie, did you have a chance to ask your mom if she’s going to continue growing organic vegetables and strawberries for my kitchen?”

  “Not yet, but I will.”

  “Excellent. Whenever you get a chance. I’ll pack up what the cook collected for your pigs.” She smiled and left.

  Kenzie frowned.

  “Problem?” asked Clayton.

  “Oh, it’s just that I don’t remember my mother saying anything about going organic in her letters. How could I have lost track of them like that?” She added sadly, “They look so old.”

  Clayton gave a little shrug. “Our parents age, but we’re too busy growing up to realize it, until one day…boom…they look like our grandparents.”

  “Exactly,” said Kenzie.

  “Did you keep her letters?”

  Kenzie’s eyes widened. “Yes! I have them all, zipped inside my suitcase.”

  “Maybe later you can go through them again, see what you missed.”

  “Have your parents turned into old people, too?”

  The question brought Clayton up short. “Well, my dad looks the same to me, but his hair is starting to turn salt-and-pepper. Maybe he looks the same because he sounds the same. You know, when he’s giving me a hard time.”

  Kenzie giggled. “I can’t imagine anyone giving you a hard time.”

  “He thinks I should be more serious. He thinks I’m a playboy, running around in a fast car and doing nothing with my life.”

  Kenzie’s eyes darkened with feeling. “I don’t get that vibe from you at all.” She suddenly looked uncertain. “Is that what we’re doing? Am I just a notch on a playboy’s pistol? Is that what you’re after?”

  “No!” He took both her hands in his. “Nothing could be further from the truth. Honest.” He glanced about self-consciously and lowered his voice. “From the moment I first laid eyes on you, I was completely in your power. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. I’m just drawn to you.”

  “Like a moth to a flame?” she teased.

  Clayton smiled. “I don’t have any burns yet.” He paused while dessert and coffee were delivered. Then, “It’s almost ten. Don’t they close soon?”

  “Mrs. McAvoy will let us finish dessert. She just locks the door at ten. Puts out the ‘Closed’ sign.” She whispered, “Her waitstaff probably has to be home before eleven on a school night.”

  Clayton chuckled. “Well, it’s Friday, so I guess we’ll have time to finish.”

  Kenzie tasted her dessert. “This is great.” She moved her head in a way that included everything about the evening.

  “Thanks,” said Clayton.

  “So, what about your mother?”

  Clayton fussed with his napkin. “She’s gone.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry. You already told me that, didn’t you?” She took another bite and diplomatically changed the subject. “Ten o’clock seems so early to go home. If you like, I’ll give you an after hours tour of the highlights. You have to see my high school. I was a soccer star my senior year.”

  “No kidding? I’d love that. I played lacrosse.”

  Kenzie looked puzzled. “I’ve never seen that sport out here.”

  “It’s an east coast thing. And…” he hesitated.

  She finished for him. “And you are related to the Garrisons so your family has money and you went to a private school.”

  Clayton was surprised. “What exactly did you major in? Criminal justice? All these deductions.”

  Kenzie put a spoonful of dessert in her mouth and rolled it around in a way that made Clayton tingle all over. Then she smiled and said, “The Mercedes was a clue. And also I asked Taylor about you. Is Axel your cousin, too?”

  “He’s my cousins’ cousin, but when we were kids, none of that mattered. We thought of ourselves as one big bunch of kids who were somehow related. And that was good enough.” He scraped the bottom of his dish and waggled his eyebrows. “What else did Taylor tell you?”

  Kenzie laughed softly. “Enough to make me feel okay about you driving me to and from work.”

  * * *

  They were the last ones out the door. Kenzie loved the way Clayton held her hand. In all the confusion going on in her life, there was one thing she knew for certain. This man was very important to her. She was filled with a need to get everything else behind her so she could concentrate on Clayton.

  He held her car door, and after he slid behind the wheel, Kenzie said, “I don’t want this evening to end.”

  “Me neither.”

  Kenzie allowed herself to be pulled into a tender kiss. It was brief, but the chemistry knocked her back, breathless. She cleared her throat. “If you go out the western side of the parking lot, I’ll direct you to my high school. You’ve seen the farm. Other than that, the high school is where I spent the most time. Unless….”

  “I would love to see your high school,” said Clayton. “By the way, what time does the coach turn into a pumpkin?”

  Kenzie sighed. “I said I wouldn’t be too late. Maybe midnight?” She shook her head and laughed. “I feel like a high school kid all over again. Worrying about curfew.”

  Clayton leaned in for another brushing of lips. “Midnight it is.” He added in his most exaggeratedly sexy voice, “Now where is this magical high school you speak of?”

  Kenzie laughed out loud. “You better crack the whip over the white horses,” she said, “if we want to squeeze in the whole coach tour before midnight.”

  The dark, empty school seemed lonely and sad to Kenzie. Without its students and faculty, it was just a big old building. “Pull around the back,” she said. “There’s a student parking lot way out by the playing field.”

  As soon as Clayton parked the car, she was out, striding toward the track that surrounded the field. The evening air was crisp and getting colder. She rubbed the goosebumps off her arms.

  “This is it?” asked Clayton dramatically. “This is where a star was born?”

  Kenzie smirked at him. “You are adorable, but you have an annoying smart mouth.” She softened her comment by slipping an arm around his waist. “I’ll have you know, I broke four different high school records in track.”

  “I thought you played soccer?”

  “I did it all. I was the best athlete at the school.”

  Clayton humphed. “Probably the best female athlete.”

  Kenzie pulled away and pretended to be horrified. “I cannot believe you said that, Mr. Masters! I’m going to have to write a letter to the Department of Education and file a lawsuit. Something under Title IX, I think.”

  Clayton played along. “It’s a good thing Mrs. McAvoy gave me the number of a good lawyer.”

  “Ha!!! I’m the native daughter here. I get the local guy. You’ll have to use your father’s lawyers.”

  “No worries. No court would rule against
me anyway. I’m a man, after all.” He puffed up his chest and struck a pose like Superman. “Everyone knows men are better athletes.”

  Kenzie shrieked in mock fury. “You will eat those words, Jerk Face. Think you’re so athletic? I’ll race you around the track. One, two, three, go!”

  She said it so fast, she caught him off guard. Before he could react, she was off and running.

  “Hey!” But Kenzie was laughing over her shoulder. Clayton started running.

  Kenzie set a nice pace for herself. She’d kick it into gear if he got too close. She peeked over her shoulder and was gratified to see that he was chasing her. The whole thing sent a thrill through her that she’d never felt before. Gorgeous Clayton, chasing her through the night, all alone, no one else around. She let her mind wander for a moment down one of many possible paths this romantic pursuit might take. The sound of Clayton’s footsteps pounding up behind her snapped her out of her reverie. She spared him a quick glance.

  “Holy mackerel,” she said. “You’re fast!”

  When he grinned back at her, clearly anticipating victory, she added, “For a boy!” And she kicked it into overdrive. She realized after a few seconds that she couldn’t hear Clayton behind her. She kept going, back to their starting point. After all, it was only a quarter of a mile.

  Barely breathing hard, she turned to locate him. He was loping slowly across the grassy edge of the field.

  “Cheater!” she called out. “Come on, I’ll give you another chance. I’ll even it up a bit. I’ll run backwards.”

  Now he was only a few feet away, but he was laughing so hard, he had slowed to a crawl. Gasping for breath, he said, “Let’s change sports. How about wrestling?” He grabbed for her.

  Kenzie danced out of his reach. “Come on, you can do it,” she taunted playfully. She motioned him to follow her back across the track to the inner field. The grass was damp. “Show me how to play lacrosse.”

  This time, he got his arms around her. “Hold on, hold on,” he gasped. “Let me breathe for a second.”

  Kenzie struggled, but it was only an act. She stopped with his arms still around her. “I guess I should have told you I tried out for the Olympic team.”

  He pulled her closer. “Oh, thank goodness! I thought I was getting old as fast as our parents.”

  “Hardly.” Her breath caught. Their lips were only inches apart. A moment later they were kissing again. Kenzie reveled in the soft sweetness of it, and when Clayton tried to tease her lips apart, she realized she was way too close to letting herself go. She ended the kiss, hating herself for doing so. “I’m sorry. We should go. I told Mom I wouldn’t be too late.”

  Clayton seemed as breathless as she was. He nodded and tugged her by the hand in the direction of the car.

  Once inside, she bounced the back of her head against the headrest. “Darn it! We had things to talk about.”

  Clayton grinned. “First thing tomorrow morning, I’ll call this lawyer. Do you work tomorrow?”

  “Thanks for understanding. I’m off tomorrow. Sunny takes Saturdays.”

  “Maybe we can see this guy tomorrow, then. I’ll see if I can set something up, and then I’ll call to let you know.” He started the car. “And it gives me a great excuse to see you again.”

  Once they were parked in front of her house, a good-night kiss seemed in order. After what felt like days in a dream state, Kenzie noticed the dash clock. “Oh my gosh, we’ve been necking like teenagers for thirty minutes. See you in the morning.” She felt herself leaning toward him again, but stopped herself with a determined growl. Clayton laughed, and somehow that made it easier to slip out of the car.

  Once in the house, she moved as quietly as she could. It was almost one a.m. No light clicked on under her parents’ door, so she eased into her room. She knew she should get some sleep, but her whole body felt like an electric current was moving through it. She was consumed with thoughts of Clayton. She ran the evening back through her memory, savoring every second. “Oh! He said I should read Mom’s letters. Good idea.”

  She settled cross-legged on her bed and splayed the envelopes out before her. A task she thought would take fifteen minutes took fifty-five. She was surprised when she plugged her phone into the charger and saw that it was two a.m.

  She kept reading things she barely remembered. She had a recollection of her sister making lieutenant, but none at all about the second mortgage mentioned in the same letter. Why had her parents taken out a second? She’d thought the farm was clearly theirs. Maybe they needed a loan, but what had they used it for? The house still needed painting, and the number of livestock had continued to dwindle. It was yet another mystery.

  In the letters she’d received after graduating, her mother had begun hinting about her coming back to Eagle’s Toe. But she never said anything about her father’s health.

  At least reviewing the letters had calmed her down, and she was ready for sleep. She got into her pajamas and crawled into bed. Before she even turned off the lamp, she sat straight up and threw off her covers.

  The money!

  She almost tripped over her own feet in her haste to reach the dresser. Then she resettled, cross-legged, on the bed, but this time, she was counting out stacks of hundred-dollar bills. Ten hundreds to a stack. When she finished, she had ten stacks and a couple hundred left over.

  She rummaged in the nightstand for an envelope. Ten thousand dollars made a nice thick stack. She had to wrap a rubber band around it. On the front, she wrote, “Mom, I got a downpayment on the money I’m owed. This should help a bit. Love, Kenzie.”

  She would place it somewhere her mother would find it once Kenzie had left with Clayton to see the lawyer.

  * * *

  Clayton barely recognized himself in the reflective surface of the Cattleman’s lobby doors. Who was that dreamy-eyed guy with the smile on his face? Was this what love looked like? Or was it infatuation? He couldn’t have fallen for a more complex woman. She certainly had some baggage haunting her. Not to mention the ex who was threatening her.

  His shoes squeaked on the lobby floor. The grass around the track had been wetter than he thought. He’d have to set them on the heating unit in his room.

  Kenzie could certainly run like the wind. Or maybe it only seemed that way because when he ran, he got winded. He chuckled at his play on words. He pushed the elevator call button. What a great evening.

  Then he remembered the stacks of money hidden in the slag heap. “Okay,” he said to his reflection in the elevator mirror, “what an interesting evening.”

  It was midnight, too late to call the lawyer Mrs. McAvoy had suggested. That would have to wait until morning. Still, he needed to talk to someone. He needed reassurance that everything would work out. Maybe Thor wouldn’t mind filling him in on what he had discovered so far.

  Stretched out on his bed, cell phone on speaker, he called his cousin.

  “Thor? I hope I didn’t call too late.”

  “No, it’s fine. Ashley and the kids are in bed, Mom is tucked away in her little cottage, and Rocky is asleep at my feet. I’m looking at expense spreadsheets, so I’m actually grateful for the interruption.”

  Clayton made a face and an expression from his childhood emerged. “Boo devil.”

  “You got it. If I don’t keep up with it, January is a living hell. What can I do for you?”

  Clayton fiddled with the remote, clicking the TV on and off again. “I was wondering if you’d had time to find out anything new about Kenzie’s ex-boyfriend. He’s begun threatening her, sending foul-mouthed texts.”

  “Really? What’s that about?”

  Clayton sighed. “Okay, here’s the deal. Remember that Mustang I told you that Kenzie’s ex is looking for? I found out tonight that Kenzie…sort of…borrowed the guy’s car to drive home to Eagle’s Toe. And naturally he wants it back.”

  “Sounds like she should comply and be done with it.”

  “It’s a little more complicated than that.
I have a feeling this guy is real bad news.”

  “Strange that she didn’t know that.”

  “Oh, she suspects the same thing now. But you know, in the movies the bad guys keep their women in the dark. Could be something like that. I doubt Todd would have confided in her if he was doing something illegal.”

  “Like what?”

  Clayton hesitated. Then he said, “You might check to see if any Denver banks have been robbed lately.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Saturday morning, Kenzie didn’t even ask if her father was up to chores. She just went down and did them. After her shower, she took her time in her room, thinking about where to put the bundle of money so her mother could find it. She didn’t want to hand it to her in person. That would mean answering questions. She was hoping, by leaving the note on the envelope, that her mother would accept the gift and be grateful enough to forego the interrogation.

  She thumbed through another text from Todd. Her heart was closed to him now. It was as if someone else had run home to Eagle’s Toe and pushed his stupid car into the quarry. He was just a problem to be resolved. And Clayton was going to help her.

  She spent a few dreamy moments fondling the porcelain cowgirl and her horse. Maybe someday, she could have the horse she’d longed for as a child. That is, if her folks weren’t losing the ranch.

  At some point, she would have to ask her mother about that mortgage and where the money went. But for now, she pocketed her phone, on vibrate, for when Clayton called. He said he would after he reached that lawyer. She posed her figurines on the bed stand. She could finally hear movement downstairs, so she tucked the bundle of money into her shoulder bag and headed for the kitchen.

  The house felt gloomy, and it was starting to smell like a sick room. She shook that off and detoured to the front windows to open the drapes. That cheered it up a bit. But the cheer didn’t last. Her dad wasn’t at the kitchen table. Her mother looked stooped and worn this morning.