Ditto for holding his other brother in reserve, too, though Austin was a widower with kids of his own. Two little girls. And, unlike Marty, Austin was actually a good dad who wanted to spend time with his kids. However, Austin was also grieving and might not ever get over losing his wife. As Austin had put it—you don’t get lucky finding your soul mate twice.
What a mess, Shaw thought as he ended the call with Leyton. And Marty being Marty just kept on piling on the reasons why Shaw had never felt the need to expand his own personal gene pool. Nope. There was enough Jameson DNA out there already.
Shaw was about to go back in the bathroom to start round two when his phone rang. He nearly sagged with relief when he realized it was Aurora. Finally! Kinsley’s mom definitely wouldn’t be reserve reinforcements. She was the front-runner for solving this situation.
“Mr. Jameson?” the woman greeted.
“Shaw,” he offered. “You’re Aurora Rubio?”
“I am. I gather from your voice mails that Kinsley went to your ranch, and then she left and ran away again.”
“Yes, but we found her. She’s pissed off and upset, but she’s safe.”
Judging from what Shaw heard, the woman uttered a sound of agreement. A rather mild one, considering what was going on.
“Kinsley’s mad at me for not telling her about Marty,” Aurora admitted. “But with Kinsley, there’s always something to be mad at.”
“Well, she’s fifteen.” Shaw tried to sound sympathetic. Best not to piss off the mom with some offhanded remark about Kinsley having a right to be angry. “I’ve got a younger sister so I know it comes with the territory.”
“I’m betting your sister was never as bad as Kinsley.” This time it sounded as if she huffed. “Look, I reported her missing when she stormed out of the house last night and took off running.”
The girl had been gone since then? Well, crap. “Where’d she spend the night?” Shaw asked.
“To heck if I know. My neighbor’s a cop, and when Kinsley wasn’t back by morning, he insisted I report her missing so I did. But you should know that Kinsley’s run off before.”
Shaw wanted to continue to dole out some sympathy, but he was getting a bad feeling here. This felt like...trouble.
A moment later, that trouble was confirmed.
“I’m fed up,” Aurora said. “I’ve had enough. You find Marty and give Kinsley to him.” And with that order, the woman hung up.
CHAPTER FOUR
SUNNY HAD NO trouble hearing Shaw curse outside the bathroom door. She didn’t know who he’d been talking to, but obviously the conversation wasn’t going well. Neither was what was happening in the bathroom.
Kinsley had stopped crying, which some would have considered a good thing, but she didn’t like the dark resignation in the girl’s eyes. Sunny didn’t have a clue about her past or her home life, but she was betting that Kinsley had experienced enough frustration and disappointment to make her believe that only frustration and disappointment would continue.
“I don’t know how much you know about the TV show, but this was one of the few rooms where the cameraman wasn’t allowed,” Sunny said while she glanced around at the dated mint-green tiles. “It became my sanctuary of sorts. Well, for the fifteen-minute blocks that I was allowed to hole myself up in here.”
Kinsley looked at her and frowned. “You were only allowed fifteen minutes?”
“Yep. I shared this with my sisters, and there were enough arguments that it forced my grandmother to come up with a schedule. Em tried to include my brother’s bathroom in the rotation so we’d get more time, but holing up near a boy’s toilet didn’t have a sanctuary feel. When I’d get desperate, I’d use Em’s bath in her room downstairs.”
It had smelled like lavender and lemons. Unlike her brother’s, which had reeked of eau de gym socks and pee.
“I’m not going to feel sorry for you,” Kinsley declared. “You grew up rich.”
“No, I didn’t.” But Sunny knew most people believed that.
There’d been some money, but it hadn’t lasted. And that was the reason Sunny still had some student loan debt from graduating with her art degree. Also the reason she’d come back here after ending her engagement.
After the surgery.
She’d moved out of the house she’d shared with Hugh, a sweet Colonial in an upscale Houston neighborhood, and into a small condo in a not-so-upscale area. Sunny had had the money to buy a bigger place, but it would have been a stretch of her budget. Especially if she ended up helping Ryan with his own college expenses, which she would do if Hugh didn’t step up to the plate. Hugh had plenty of money, but if he was still in me-time mode in the fall, he might not be man enough to realize his son would need to eat and sleep under a roof.
“Well, you grew up with people who loved you and didn’t lie to you,” Kinsley grumbled.
“Not exactly,” Sunny grumbled back. There’d been lies. But some love, too—from Em. Thank God for Em or they would have all turned out as messed up as many other child actors had.
Out in the hall, Sunny heard Shaw do more cursing and make another call. This time she heard him say Leyton’s name.
Sunny would have tried to hear what bits and pieces of the conversation she could manage to if her own phone hadn’t jingled with a call. She checked the screen and immediately hit the decline button when she saw it was from a reporter who’d been bugging Sunny for info on an article she wanted to write about the grown-up Little Cowgirls. Something she always did when it came to reporters. The request for articles had dwindled over the years, but she still got at least one a month.
It was a blessing that few people in town had her phone number. Em and Shaw, that was it. And Shaw had only gotten it today when she’d called him to let him know that Kinsley was there. That meant Josiah and the other men Em had mentioned wouldn’t be able to contact her directly. However, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t just show up. Or set a fire to get her attention.
“You knew my dad?” Kinsley asked after Sunny had put her phone back in her jeans pocket.
Sunny nodded and left it at that. Since she’d been born and raised here in Lone Star Ridge, she knew pretty much everybody, and most folks were decent enough. Marty, however, didn’t fall into the decent category, and that’s why Sunny hoped the girl wouldn’t want to know anything else about the irresponsible man who’d fathered her. She didn’t feel right bad-mouthing Marty, even if he deserved it. Besides, that sort of thing should come from Shaw.
“What’s my dad like?” Kinsley pressed.
Sunny sighed. So much for hoping Kinsley wouldn’t ask her for more details. “He can be charming,” she said, after pausing long enough to give her time to decide how to answer. “And he’s talented. He used to make up songs for me and my sisters when we were little, but then he hit it big and left town.”
“What else was he like?” Kinsley said when Sunny didn’t elaborate.
Again Sunny had to think about it. “Well, he’s good-looking or at least he was last time I saw him. It’s been a while.” She added one of Em’s favorite sayings. “Marty likes to try out lots of churns for his dasher.”
“Huh?” Kinsley said.
Obviously, the girl wasn’t schooled in Texas-speak. “It’s an ice-cream maker reference.” A sexual one that she shouldn’t have brought up. Em’s sayings were always G-rated but often with R-rated subtext. “Marty sleeps around,” she clarified.
Kinsley made a sound of frustrated agreement, and Sunny could see more questions brewing in her eyes. Questions that the girl thankfully didn’t get a chance to ask because Kinsley’s phone rang. Kinsley fished it from her pocket and groaned. Because Sunny was so close, she had no trouble seeing “Mom” pop up on the screen.
“She’s probably worried about you,” Sunny pointed out when Kinsley just stared at it.
This time Kinsle
y made a sound of frustrated disagreement, and she hit the answer button. “You don’t have to go,” the girl told Sunny when she got up to leave, and she started the conversation before Sunny could even move. “I don’t want to hear anything you’ve got to say,” she said to her mother.
“Well, you’re going to hear it anyway,” the woman snapped. Along with being plenty loud enough for Sunny to hear in the small room, there was no maternal warmth and fuzziness in the woman’s tone, but then Kinsley’s mom was probably stressed-out.
Or not.
Sunny got confirmation that this was about more than just stress when Aurora continued.
“I’ve already told your brother this, but you should hear it, too. I’m fed up, Kinsley, and you should stay there with your dad’s family. That’s the best thing all the way around. If they need me to sign papers or something, I will, but I don’t want you coming back here.”
Maybe Kinsley was too dumbfounded to respond. Sunny certainly was. But Kinsley regained her ability to speak much sooner than Sunny could.
“You lied to me,” Kinsley said to her mother.
“So?” Aurora tossed back. “If you hadn’t been snooping in my things, my personal things,” the woman emphasized, “then you wouldn’t have found out the cold hard truth about your so-called father. The man walked out on me. He didn’t want me, and he sure as hell didn’t want you.”
Good grief. Aurora’s parenting style seemed very similar to Sunny’s own folks. Kinsley didn’t start crying again, but Sunny could practically feel the anger expanding inside the girl like a steam cloud about to explode.
“My father knew you were pregnant with me?” Kinsley snapped.
“Yes, he knew. Or at least he knew that was a possibility,” Aurora amended. “He left anyway. Left me to deal with you. Well, I’m tired of dealing with you, Kinsley. You can spread your sunshine and sparkling personality there with your dad and his family.”
Even after Aurora ended the call, Kinsley just sat there and continued to stare at her phone.
“I’m sorry,” Sunny muttered because she had no idea what to say.
She wanted to add that maybe Aurora would call back and apologize once the fit of temper had run its course, but that might not be true. The woman could have meant every single word she said.
Including the part about dumping Kinsley on Shaw and his family.
Sunny was betting that Shaw wouldn’t put up with that. For years when they were growing up, she’d listened to Shaw vent about never wanting kids. That had plenty to do with Marty and his penchant for procreating. It also had something to do with the fact that getting Austin and Cait through the teenage years had fallen mostly to him. Lenore was a sweetheart, but she was, well, a ditz. Cait had once told Sunny that she’d survived on bananas, Ding Dongs and the triweekly pizza deliveries that Shaw had set up.
“I’ll talk to Shaw,” Sunny said, getting to her feet. She’d tell him about Aurora’s call and let him vent before he chatted with Kinsley. That might not be a fast or easy process.
“No,” Kinsley snapped. She got to her feet, too, and she did it a lot faster than Sunny. On a repeated and very mean sounding no, Kinsley threw open the door, banging it against the wall and the edge of the tub. The girl stormed out, nearly knocking Shaw over in the process.
Shaw groaned out more of that same profanity she’d heard from him earlier. “Did her mother call her, too?” he asked.
Sunny nodded, and while Shaw would want to compare the conversations Kinsley and he had had with the woman, this wasn’t the time. “Kinsley will probably try to run away again.”
“I’ll go after her,” Ryan said, coming out of his room. Obviously, he’d been listening, and judging from the quick glance at her chest, he didn’t want her having to chase down a teenager.
Ryan barreled down the stairs, taking the steps two at a time as Kinsley had done. Sunny and Shaw followed but at a slower pace. And with a lot of heavy sighs.
“Any sense that Aurora will change her mind and come and get Kinsley?” Sunny asked.
“None,” Shaw answered readily. “But I have to believe she will. The woman’s raised her for fifteen years. Hard to think she could wash her hands of her now.” He froze, his forehead bunching up. “Sorry.”
The apology was because Sunny’s father had done exactly that. Hand washing, walking out, vamoosing.
The timing for her dad’s departure had been particularly bad, too, because it’d happened mere hours after they’d lost the Little Cowgirls show and therefore their income. It hadn’t helped either that her father had drained as many of the bank accounts as possible. It especially hadn’t helped that those accounts had been in his name and there hadn’t been any way to recoup the funds he stole.
There was some new money coming in from the reruns, and Sunny had made sure her father’s name wasn’t anywhere on that account. Nor had she or her sisters touched it. In a rare show of agreement, they’d decided to keep it tucked away in case Em needed long-term care or a nursing home.
“No worries,” Sunny said. “We both got screwed over in the daddy department.”
At least Marty hadn’t stolen from his family, but then again her own father didn’t continue to slam the family with indiscretions from his past.
Once they’d made it downstairs, Sunny didn’t see any signs of Kinsley. She went to the front door when she noticed it was wide open, and from there it didn’t take long for her to hear Kinsley.
“No, I don’t want to see your bunny garden,” Kinsley snarled.
Obviously, the offer for that particular viewing experience had come from Em, who was in the front yard. So were Bernice and Ryan, though Bernice seemed more to be viewing the scene like a train wreck than someone willing to step in and try to help. The housekeeper was holding the red spiked bra.
“This was on the ground,” Bernice told her. “You should have left your sex stuff in Houston.”
Sunny snatched the bra from her and didn’t bother to explain what she couldn’t explain. Just saying it was Hadley’s wouldn’t have clarified the reason the garment had been made in the first place. As for why it was on the ground, it’d likely fallen out when Ryan had been getting the grocery bags.
Em moved closer to Kinsley and gave the girl a once-over as if sussing out something. Then the woman leaned in, whispering at a volume that in no way qualified as a whisper. “There’s a hot cowboy back there by the barn who’s nice to look at. We could ogle him while you watch the hummingbirds. He came here to ask out Sunny, but I don’t think she’s feeling up to hot cowboys.”
As offers went, it was a bad one what with Kinsley only being fifteen. Also, what with her ready to blow a fuse. Or cry. Or run.
“We can talk if you want,” Ryan said to Kinsley in that quiet voice of his. “It might help.”
Kinsley’s huff and eye roll let him know she didn’t believe that for a second. Still, she didn’t run, cry or do any fuse blowing. The girl just stood there, eyeing them as if they were all participants in the hurtful crap her mother had just doled out.
It was a contrast seeing the teens there, facing each other as if in an angst-ridden standoff. There was angst on Kinley’s part anyway. Ryan had been brushed off by his dad, too, and he wasn’t acting out like this.
Then again, being brushed off was Ryan’s norm.
Maybe it was for Kinsley, too, but this time the girl had gotten it with an extra topping of having the rug pulled from beneath her feet. Kinsley was hurting, and whether she wanted to or not, she should talk with someone. Then they could figure out what to do.
Sunny suspected they’d need to involve Leyton so he could try to convince Aurora to take her daughter back. Maybe Leyton could even work in the suggestion of counseling.
“Nothing can help,” Kinsley finally declared, just as Sunny stepped closer to the girl.
And just as K
insley moved forward. Maybe to step around Sunny, but that wasn’t what happened. With what felt like the move of a seasoned linebacker, Kinsley plowed into her, knocking the tit spikes right into Sunny’s chest.
The pain sent Sunny to her knees. She could have sworn she saw entire constellations, but the pain was too much for mere stars. The sound that left her mouth was a garbled gasp.
“Help her,” Ryan begged to no one in particular. He ran over and held on to her. Shaw did the same thing on her other side. “Help her,” Ryan repeated, sounding frantic.
“What’s wrong with her?” Em asked, hurrying in front of Sunny and stooping down.
“She had surgery,” Ryan blurted out, his wide, frightened eyes nailed to hers. “Surgery because the doctors thought she had cancer. We need to get her to the hospital. Now.”
CHAPTER FIVE
SHAW PACED THE ER waiting room, the plastic Fred’s Grocery shopping bag he carried occasionally bopping against his leg. Normally, that wouldn’t have been a particularly risky thing, but the bag held the spiked bra.
He hadn’t been the one to think of bringing the blasted garment. That’d been Em’s doing. While they’d been getting Sunny into her SUV to drive her to the hospital, Em had said she thought that maybe the doctor would want to see it. Sort of like some weird weapon preserved from a crime scene. Em had thought the doctor might want to examine it so he could better treat Sunny’s injury.
It hadn’t seemed right to make the teenagers haul around what might have been designed for S and M or some other sexual shenanigans. Ditto for giving that “burden” to Em because it could throw her off balance and send her into the ER, as well. Since Bernice hadn’t made a move to come with them, and Shaw hadn’t wanted to just leave the bra lying around, he’d done the honors.
Definitely not a scenario he’d imagined first thing that morning.
Of course, he hadn’t thought he’d be in a hospital waiting room, either. Or that he’d be worried about Sunny. Or that he’d have another half sister sobbing in one of the chairs. This was a day for the unexpected, all right.
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