“She doesn’t work on Fridays,” Kenny managed to say.
“Do you know where I can find her?”
Kenny didn’t want to lie, but he reasoned that he didn’t know for certain that Taryn would be at home. When he called her on Friday nights, she answered, and she usually said she’d spent the day cleaning or shopping or wandering the town. She could be anywhere.
“Sorry, I don’t.”
Kenny held his breath, hoping this guy wouldn’t ask for her phone number. But someone else in the world must’ve needed a bigger miracle than his, because the man did ask.
Kenny leaned all his weight on his right leg, trying to figure out who this man was. In the end, he asked, “Who are you? I’m not sure she wants you to have her number if she didn’t give it to you.”
The man’s eagle eyes sharpened, and he glared up at Kenny. “Taryn used to work for me. I’m not going to hurt her.”
“In Corpus Christi?”
The man picked invisible lint from his impeccable suit. “You seem to know quite a bit about Taryn.”
Kenny put on his mask. “She’s worked here for a couple of months. We’ve eaten lunch together a few times, that’s all.”
“I’m not going to hurt her,” he repeated.
“What do you want with her?”
“I need her back,” he said.
A balloon of sub-zero liquid expanded in Kenny’s chest. Taryn couldn’t leave Three Rivers. He didn’t want to be without her.
“She’ll be in on Monday,” Kenny said, perching on the edge of Lawrence’s desk.
The man glared, and Kenny gave his attitude right back to him. It was obvious that this man was used to getting what he wanted, when he wanted it. But Kenny didn’t care. He didn’t have the right to give Taryn’s phone number out to men whose names he didn’t even know.
“Very well.” The man turned on his designer heel and left the administration trailer. Kenny didn’t waste another moment—he hurried down the aisle, his fingers already pulling up Taryn’s number on his phone. He could get her a vacation tomorrow, but he wanted her to know about her old boss now. He wasn’t sure what the fallout would be—Please let her stay in town, he prayed—but it was a risk he needed to take.
Her line rang while he continued a steady stream of silent prayers to keep her in his life. He would propose on Christmas Day if he thought Taryn was ready. But he knew she wasn’t. Even with several sessions with Peony, she wasn’t ready. And Kenny didn’t want to end up like the boyfriend on the video he’d watched.
Pushing his own fears and insecurities aside, he muttered, “Come on, Taryn. Answer.”
“Hey, there,” she finally said, obvious happiness in her voice.
“Hey,” he said. “So there was just a man here….”
Taryn had been in the triangle yoga pose when her phone started ringing. She’d almost let the call go to voicemail so she could keep the positive energy she’d been gathering. But in the end, something whispered to her to get up and get the phone.
Now, as she listened to Kenny talk, she wished she hadn’t. Well, that wasn’t quite true. She was really glad he’d called, she just didn’t like what he had to say.
“Thanks, Kenny,” she said when he finally finished. She’d never heard him speak so fast, with such urgency.
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you want me to come in?”
“No,” she said. “I’ll deal with Stanley.”
“Taryn,” he started, and a twinge of annoyance twisted through her.
“It’s fine, Kenny. I’m fine.”
“I don’t think you are.”
Her annoyance bloomed into full-fledged frustration. He’d been kind to her; patient and gentle; never pushed her farther than she wanted to go. He let her initiate the hard conversations, and he kissed her whenever she felt like her world was about to implode. She’d come to rely on him, something she’d never really done with Chris—or anyone else in her life.
“This has nothing to do with you,” she said.
“How can you say that?” Kenny exhaled, maybe the first angry sound she’d heard him make. “I’m in love with you. What happens to you affects me.”
“I—” She stalled completely. He couldn’t love her after only a few weeks together. Could he? She didn’t even love herself yet, though her training with the horses had helped her in more ways than she could enumerate.
“Just tell me you’re not going to leave town. That I’ll pick you up for church on Sunday, and we’ll go together, and then I’ll be able to come back to your place and fall asleep on your couch while you make those meatballs I can’t get enough of.” His voice held a hint of desperation, a ton of anxiety, and his usual level of playfulness.
She found a smile pulling at her lips. “Of course I’ll be here on Sunday,” she said. “I’m not going anywhere, Kenny.”
“Maybe I can come into town tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry so much,” she said. “You’ll ruin your perfectly handsome face.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll call Stanley, and I’ll call you back.”
“Okay,” he said and they hung up. But Taryn didn’t call Stanley immediately. She paced from her living room to her kitchen and back, biting her lip while her mind ran down a road she hadn’t unleashed it on in months.
She knew why Stanley had tracked her down—he wanted her to come back. Kenny had confirmed Taryn’s suspicion. She also knew Stanley was one of the most persuasive men on the planet. What he wanted he usually got. She was actually surprised that he hadn’t been able to get her phone number from Kenny.
Her gaze fell on the sheaf of paperwork she needed to sign. The paperwork for her new house in Pinion Ridge, a new community going in on the southwest side of town. She hadn’t told Kenny about it. Had wanted to surprise him on Christmas Day. She’d imagined the look on his face a hundred times.
“You need a plan,” she told herself as she gripped her cell phone. “Stanley just won’t accept a no.”
But though she paced for another ten minutes, she couldn’t come up with a plausible plan, an extraordinary excuse, nothing. She only knew she wanted to stay in Three Rivers. She’d fallen in love with the town, and she suspected she could fall in love with Kenny if she’d let herself.
Needing a bit more time, she texted Stanley that she’d meet him for dinner at the steakhouse—he’d be paying—and she stepped into the shower to put on her professional face.
She sat in the booth, her right leg bouncing a mile a minute. She’d waved the waitress away from refilling her water twice now, and she checked her phone again with a scowl. Stanley was almost thirty minutes late.
So typical. She glared out the window, but all she could see was her own displeased face. Five more minutes. And then she’d leave. She didn’t owe him anything. She’d given her notice, worked out her last two weeks in the booth, and come back to town to get her final check. So she’d gone to the station in the middle of the night when she knew Stanley wouldn’t be there. So what?
She didn’t owe him anything.
Seven minutes later, she looped her purse over her shoulder and stood. She turned toward the exit and came face-to-face with Stanley Summers. “You are so late,” she growled. “I was just leaving.” She brushed past him and held her head high as she strode toward the front doors.
“You know I’m a vegetarian,” he said as he matched his stride to hers.
She burst into the night beyond the steakhouse, her breath seizing at the temperature difference. It never got this cold in Corpus Christi, though it still wasn’t considered cold by most standards.
“I’m not coming back,” she said.
“I need you. Our ratings have tanked since you left.”
“I’m happy here.”
He tugged on her arm, and she stopped to face him. “You’re cleaning cowboy cabins.”
“So what?”
“You have a degree in journalism. You�
��re an excellent reporter.”
“I’m really good at a lot of things.” She folded her arms to protect herself from his penetrating gaze. “I’m not leaving town. I like it here.”
Stanley glanced around like he couldn’t fathom what she could possibly like about Three Rivers. “There’s nothing for you here.”
“I have a job here. Friends.”
“Friends?” Stanley chuckled. “Taryn, you lived in Corpus Christi for two years before you knew your neighbor’s first name.”
“I’m not the same person anymore.” She liked that Kenny thought she was someone different from the woman on the video. She wasn’t that person anymore. She’d only existed in Corpus Christi, and Taryn didn’t want to be her again.
“Name one friend you have here.”
“Gene.”
“Landlords don’t count.”
“Pete,” she countered.
Stanley cocked his head in disbelief. “What about that Kenny cowboy?”
“Yeah, we’re friends,” she said, almost choking on the word.
“He’s an awful lot like Chris.” Stanley focused over her shoulder like anything and everything was more interesting than her.
“He is nothing like Chris.” Taryn started toward her car again. “We’re done here, Stanley. Go home.” Just because Chris and Kenny both commanded attention didn’t make them a lot alike.
“I can’t go back without you.” He stepped in front of her, effectively blocking the path to her car.
“I am not going with you.” His insistence that she return to Corpus Christi only fueled her fire to stay in Three Rivers.
“You’ve got to give me something. Your city needs a good-bye.”
“I don’t feel guilty about the way I left,” she said. “I put in my two weeks.”
“I needed you in front of the camera.” He softened, showing his true age of almost seventy. “I still do.”
She sighed and focused on the horizon to her right. “Three Rivers has quaint and festive celebrations during the holidays. Let’s say, I…I don’t know. Do a holiday spec piece for you. Then will you delete my number from your phone and never bother me again?”
A spark entered his eye. “You’re telling me you—the Taryn Tucker—really wants to stay in this little town? How many people live here? Like five thousand?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “And I don’t care. I like it here, and I’m tired of running.” The thought of packing up her car again tied her lungs into knots.
“There’s nothing to run from.” He quieted his voice into that grandfatherly tone that had won her over many times. “Chris left town shortly after you. He hasn’t come back, and no one misses him.” He gave her a warm smile. “It’s you they want to see.”
She shook her head, the image of Kenny’s chiseled face, the memory of his lips against hers too strong to give in. “I’ll do the special. You can call it an op-ed piece. Whatever you want. But I’m doing it here, and that’s it.” She glared at him, though most of her ire had evaporated. “Now, please move so I can go home. I still need to eat since someone so rudely showed up terribly late.”
Stanley’s eyes burned with curiosity, with intelligence, with acceptance. He moved out of the way. “Send me a proposal for the piece. You can do whatever you want, but it has to include a proper good-bye to your people in Corpus Christi.”
“Fine.” She wrenched the car door open and dropped into the driver’s seat. She roared out of the parking lot, her blood racing like it was trying to win a marathon. After a few blocks of erratic driving, she turned left when she should’ve gone right. The road out to the ranch had always soothed her, and tonight, as the street lights in town faded behind her, the stars in the wide, black sky twinkled like diamonds.
By the time she pulled up to Kenny’s cabin, the peaceful countryside had worked its magic on her overwrought system.
Kenny sulked around his cabin, eating a frozen pizza by himself as Charlie was in town with his girlfriend again. He had the TV on loud, because while he usually enjoyed the serene quiet of the range, tonight the silence felt suffocating. His phone rested on his knee just to make sure he didn’t miss a single buzz.
But none came.
He got up and made himself a cup of spiced apple cider and a stack of toast. He realized as he grumped around his kitchen that he was in a bad mood. He hadn’t felt this way in such a long time, he barely recognized the anxiety twining through his stomach and the way everything from Charlie’s dirty dishes to having to get out more butter made him frown.
His front door opened, and he turned toward the sound, surprised Charlie had returned so early.
But it wasn’t Charlie standing in the doorway, but Taryn.
“Do you even know how to knock?” he asked, his toast and cider completely forgotten. His foul mood seemed to have evaporated at the sight of her.
“I did.” She stepped into the cabin and closed the door behind her. “Your TV is so loud, you obviously didn’t hear me.”
Kenny scanned her, searching for signs of distress. She said she’d call, not show up on his doorstep wearing her flawless makeup and high-quality clothes. Besides those differences, she seemed whole and healthy. Her dark eyes sparkled, and her hair had grown out over the past several weeks, revealing her naturally honey-blonde color.
“Did you talk to your boss?” he asked, maintaining his position in the kitchen.
“He’s not my boss.” She shrugged out of her coat and collapsed on his couch. After turning off the TV, she leaned back and closed her eyes. “He wants me to come back to the station.”
Kenny practically ran to her side. “What—I mean, you’re not—” He closed his mouth, wanting to tell her how much he needed her to stay in town until they could see this through, but not wanting to influence her too strongly. She needed to make her own decisions, choose her own path in life. He wanted to be part of that life, part of her decision-making process, but she needed to include him in that on her own.
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
Without opening her eyes, she snuggled into his side. “I like it here.” She sounded sleepy and sexy, and Kenny’s hand cupped her bicep and kept her close. “I’m not going back to newscasting, but I do need another job. I can’t clean cowboy cabins forever.”
He caressed her arm, his mind whirling. “Well, I’m not sure there’s something for someone of your expertise in Three Rivers.”
“Mm.” She yawned. “I’ll figure something out.”
“So you’re not leaving.”
“No. Stanley really wants me to come back, and I agreed to do a special piece on the Christmas celebrations here in town in order to give my goodbyes to the people in Corpus Christi.”
“And that’s what you need to do?” He brushed his lips against her forehead. “Will that give you the closure you need?”
“I think so.” She opened her eyes and glanced up at him. “So that’s what I’m going to do. Stanley agreed to leave me alone after that.”
He grinned, glad she’d come instead of called. Glad she was staying.
“Now, I believe we have something else to talk about.” Her eyes burned with an emotion he couldn’t quite name, and he’d gotten really good at reading her over the past couple of months.
“We do?”
“Yeah, you said something pretty heavy on the phone earlier.”
His brow creased and he searched his memory for what he’d said. “Remind me.”
She ducked her head and rested her cheek against his chest. “You said you were in love with me.”
His heart catapulted to the back of his throat and back. “Well, I suppose I am.”
“You suppose you are?”
“I shouldn’t have said that,” he said. “I know you’re not ready to hear it, and you certainly can’t say it back. I guess…I guess it was just how I was feeling in that moment, because I was worried about you and wanted you to know you had someone in your corner.”
/> He took a deep breath to force himself to be quiet, to allow himself some time to think, to give her a chance to consider what he’d said.
She breathed next to him, her shoulder rising and falling evenly. He enjoyed the silence with her, knowing for dead sure that he did love her. He shouldn’t have said it, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t feel it.
“I have moments of loving you too,” she said.
He flinched like she’d shouted. “You do?”
She heaved a sigh and sat up. “You’re right—I’m not ready to say it back. I’m barely ready to hear it. But I want you to know that I feel strongly about you. And if you give me enough time, and keep kissing me when I’m unsure, I know there will come a day when we’re on the same page at the same time.”
“Did you just give me permission to kiss you whenever I want?” He quirked half a smile at her.
She giggled and pushed her palm against his chest. “You already do that.”
“Oh, honey, trust me when I say I don’t. If it were up to me, I’d kiss you a lot more.” He leaned down, his mouth hovering dangerously over hers. Everything in her relaxed, sighed against him, submitted to his will. Her eyes drifted closed and her lips parted slightly, ready and waiting for him to kiss her.
He sat up straight, satisfied that he could keep kissing her—and nothing more—until she was ready to fully commit to him.
“Tease,” she said, ducking her head again.
He lifted her chin and brought his mouth to hers firmly and kissed her with every ounce of passion and love he felt for her.
Taryn pulled into the parking lot in front of Courage Reins on the last Friday before Christmas, ready for her therapy. Reese sat behind the desk, looking tired and happy to see her at the same time.
“You okay?” she asked.
“No, but its Friday.”
“Is Carly in today?” Taryn glanced down the left hall.
“No, she’s gone to Amarillo for the weekend.” Reese’s face lit up. “I’m heading out after work tonight. A birth mom called her last night, and she left this morning.”
Christmas in Three Rivers: Three Rivers Ranch Romance Novella Collection Page 24