Kate frowned. “What do you mean ‘the way things went with my parents?’”
Landon’s gaze shot to hers, his eyes suddenly uncertain. She could tell he was reading her expression, judging her reaction.
“What did my grandfather tell you about my parents?”
“Cal wasn’t gossiping. Back when Jax found out his girlfriend was pregnant, Cal told him about your parents as an example of a couple who’d made things work. They had a happy marriage and a good life.”
Had she heard him right? Kate’s jaw went slack and it took her a moment to snap her mouth shut again. “Are you saying my parents had to get married?”
Landon muttered a curse and straightened. “I’m sorry, Kitty. I thought you knew.”
She coughed in disbelief, in indignation. Her parents had married young, just after their first year of college, but that was different than a shotgun wedding. “It’s not the truth. I can prove it. I just went through a box of my grandparents’ memorabilia, including one of my parents’ wedding invitations.”
Landon shifted uncomfortably on the couch. “You don’t have to prove anything. Just forget I mentioned it.”
Little chance of that. She stood, marched into the hallway, and gingerly fished a blue album out of one of the boxes stacked there. She returned to the living room with the album. “My grandfather never forgave my mother for not wanting to live on the ranch, and so he considered my parents’ marriage some sort of tragedy.” Handling the book with bandaged hands wasn’t easy. She flipped through it with her fingertips. “I turned twenty-two in January, and my parents will have their twenty-fourth anniversary this June.”
She found the invite and triumphantly flounced over to Landon to show him. “See, this June will be…” She stopped because she’d just done the math. According to the date on the invitation, it would be their twenty third anniversary. And then she did the rest of the math. June fourteenth to January seventh was a week shy of seven months.
That couldn’t be right. She recounted. Still seven months. A high-pitched squeak escaped her throat.
“I’m really sorry,” Landon murmured. “I wouldn’t have said anything if I’d known—are you okay?”
“Yes,” she managed. She could have come premature. Only, she’d weighed seven pounds and that didn’t seem like a preemie weight.
Landon’s eyes went wide with concern. “Are you sure you’re okay? You look pale.”
Her parents had told her they hadn’t waited to have a family because they knew they had infertility issues. Shouldn’t they have told her the truth at some point? She’d thought she had known them. Now the world seemed like it had shifted and was off center. The album slipped from Kate’s hands and crashed onto the floor, pages fluttering like the wings of downed bird.
She hadn’t seen Landon get off the couch, but he was beside her, taking hold of her elbow. “You need to sit down.”
“I’m fine.” People received worse news than this all the time. However she’d arrived, her parents loved her. They were still together. “I’m…”
The word sounded disconnected, as though spoken by someone else far away. Her vision was starting to go dark around the edges. She really was going to faint. This was so uncalled for. So tacky.
Her legs went limp and the room tilted. Before she sunk to the floor, Landon grabbed hold of her. He lifted her into his arms like she weighed nothing and laid her on the couch. The room slowly jumbled back into place.
Landon leaned over her, watching her with his snowflake speckled eyes. “Kitty?”
Kitty. Her Arizona name. The version of herself that rode horseback under a wide-open sky.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yes.” Her vision was normal again. She just felt lightheaded. And maybe breathless because he was so close.
She shifted to sit. He put his hand on her shoulder. “Rest for a few minutes.” He sat on the edge of the couch, probably to make sure she didn’t try to get up again.
Fine. She lay back down. She felt so stupid, like some antebellum Southern belle who wilted at bad news. “I don’t know why they didn’t tell me.”
Landon’s gaze flicked over her. “Maybe they were afraid you wouldn’t take it well.” The man knew how to deliver an understatement.
“I’ve never fainted before. This was… I don’t know what this was.”
“Are you diabetic? Hypoglycemic?”
“No.”
“Did you keep hydrated while you were out shoveling in the sun?”
The smell and the flies had stifled any desire to eat or drink. “Oh. I guess not.”
He nodded. “That probably had a lot to do with it, then. I’ll get you some water.” He stood and headed into the kitchen.
Kate had meant to get some water when she’d come inside, but she’d been in a hurry to shower and dress. “The glasses are in the…” Maybe she still wasn’t thinking clearly. She’d forgotten where the glasses were. As she pictured the cabinets, her only thought was that they really needed to be painted. They were ugly orange oak, an unfortunate style from the nineties.
Sooner than expected, Landon returned with a large glass. “You found them,” she said.
“This isn’t my first time in your kitchen. Your grandmother fed me nearly every time I was over.” He handed her the glass, opened a drawer in the coffee table, and pulled out a box of Thin Mints. “Cal always kept a stash in here. These will get your blood sugar up.”
Landon knew where her grandfather kept treats. They really had been close. Kate hadn’t even bothered checking the drawers of the coffee table to see if anything was inside. She took a long drink and then ate one of the cookies. Mint and chocolate. One of the tastes of her childhood.
Missy trotted over to sniff the cookies to see if they were perhaps dog food. She decided they weren’t and lay down again, resigned.
Landon seated himself on the opposite couch, hands on his knees, and watched her. Kate sat up straighter to prove she felt better and took another drink. In the future when she worked outside, she’d have to make sure to keep a water bottle nearby.
Landon’s gaze remained on her. “Again, I’m real sorry about breaking the news that way.”
“It’s fine.” Her voice only shook a little. “Like you said, they have a happy marriage. I guess it doesn’t matter how it started.”
“Exactly.”
She ate another cookie. “I’m okay now. You don’t have to keep worrying.” This was going to be another memory to add to the list of mortifications—the time she fainted in front of Landon Wyle after finding out she was an unplanned pregnancy. Really, how many embarrassing moments could the man be a part of?
“Good.” He paused and shifted on the couch. “Well, anyway,” he said, as though the whole interruption to their conversation hadn’t happened, “now you understand why your grandfather overreacted the way he did. He was worried because he loved you.”
That was stretching Grandpa’s reaction a bit. “Right. He was all about love. That’s why he cut his only child out of his inheritance.” Saying the words were a reminder of her dad’s pain at the lawyer’s office. “My father didn’t deserve that.”
Her accusation didn’t faze Landon. “Cal left your father everything else he had. He just didn’t leave your dad things he didn’t appreciate.”
Did Landon really not understand that her grandfather’s will was an insult? “The stuff in the house is worth nothing. He didn’t even leave my parents the money in his bank account. He tied that up with the ranch too.”
“Because he knew you’d need it to run Coyote Glen.” Landon’s voice took on the tone of a teacher. “The land and cattle are worth a lot of money, but the profit you’ll make every year is slim. It’s eaten up by your costs. If you need new equipment, that’ll set you back thousands. Cal wanted to give you the tools to succeed.”
Landon seemed earnest enough in his trust of her grandfather’s motives, but she couldn’t help wonder why he was sayin
g all this, why he was telling her what she needed to do to run Coyote Glen. Landon didn’t, couldn’t really want to help her. “You keep offering me help. Do you want me to succeed?”
He didn’t speak for a moment. “Can’t say I do. Not when my ranch’s water is at stake. But it seems a shame that you think so little of your grandfather when he thought highly enough of you to trust you with the things he loved best in life.”
Landon was right about that. Grandpa had loved the ranch best: the rock and dirt, cacti and ocotillo. Landon edged off the couch to stand. “Since you’re feeling better, I’ll go. Lie here and take it easy for a while.”
As he headed toward the door, Kate realized she’d been a horrible hostess. He’d finished her chore, bandaged her hands, carried her to the couch, and gotten her water. In return, she’d argued with him about her grandfather. She needed to make it up to Landon somehow.
He pulled on his boots.
“Thanks again for helping me with the manure,” she called to him. “Will you let me buy you dinner sometime as payment?”
Jaxon would have probably thought this was poor flirting technique, a too blatant way of setting up a date, but she didn’t like being in anyone’s debt. Spending time with a handsome man would just be a pleasant bonus.
“Sure,” he said. “But it wasn’t any trouble at all.” He put on his hat and winked. “I need to make sure you fertilize the land right so it’s in good shape when I inherit it.” He opened the door and strode outside.
Earlier, when she’d wondered why he’d helped her, she shouldn’t have overlooked self-interest.
Missy followed Landon outside, trotting happily beside him and wagging her tail. The little traitor. Kate didn’t bother calling the dog back. She was half afraid the dog wouldn’t obey, which would be proof that Landon belonged here more than she did.
Chapter Seven
“So,” Jaxon said, “you straight out told Kitty that her mom got knocked up as a teenager? You just plunked down that family secret?” He and Landon were stringing wire between some fence posts. They each held one end of a pipe with a large roll of barbed wire between them, uncoiling it as they hiked to the next post.
“Not on purpose,” Landon said. “I went over to be neighborly.”
“Well, that’s not really the best way to go about it.”
Yeah. Landon was painfully aware of that. “I’m only telling you about this so you won’t do something to make the situation worse.”
They stopped at a wooden post and Jaxon wrapped the wire around it. “I don’t think my skills are needed to make the situation worse. You’re doing a fine job on your own.”
He was right. Landon was used to being the one who fixed problems, who always knew what to do. Not this time.
“You don’t have to keep groaning.” Jaxon finished with the post and picked up his end of the roll again so they could head to the next post. “I’m sure she’ll get over it. And this probably won’t even make her parents’ dislike you more. There isn’t a level past red-hot hatred.”
Yep. Landon was undoubtedly the Bentons’ least favorite person right now. He didn’t want to imagine the conversation Kitty had with her parents after he left. His mind kept replaying how she’d looked when she’d fainted—colorless and shocked. And it was all his fault.
Landon hammered a clip onto the pole to keep the wire in place. “I don’t want Kitty to hate me. She’s already spent enough of her life doing that.”
“So you ought to be used to it by now.” Jaxon laughed, then glanced over and saw Landon wasn’t joining in. Jaxon’s grin faded, replaced by an attempt at comfort. “She’s never hated you. She’s not that sort.” As though to prove the point, he added, “You know as well as I do that before the year is up, she’ll take in every stray cat from here to Bisbee. And cat ladies are never the hateful sort.”
When Kitty was younger, she’d been vigilant about making sure Cal’s cats stayed in the barn at night so coyotes didn’t get them. Cal may have seen the kittens that roamed the yard as expendable, but Kitty never had. She was so tenderhearted and sweet…and had grown into such a beautiful woman. “Don’t let her hear you calling her a cat lady,” Landon said.
“I have more tact than that. More tact than you have, it seems. In fact, the next time we need to do business with Coyote Glen, I should be the one who talks to Kitty.”
“No, you shouldn’t,” Landon said firmly. “I’m the one who…” he couldn’t come up with a good reason for making this demand, “…is the head of the family.”
Landon and Jaxon walked toward the next post, unrolling the wire as they went. “Ethan’s the oldest,” Jaxon pointed out. “Doesn’t that technically make him the head of the family?”
“Not since he left. It’s all me now.”
“Yeah, but you made Kitty faint.” Now Jaxon was just goading him. His brother shook his head as though contemplating Landon’s faults. “You clearly don’t have a way with women.”
“I can talk to her just fine. So keep your way with women…away.”
“Or at least out of your way?” Jaxon’s tone made it clear he was asking if Landon had interest beyond the neighborly sort.
Landon shouldn’t. Granted, he’d had a hard time taking his eyes off her today, and he admired her work ethic. She wasn’t above tackling even the worst sort of manual labor. When they’d been younger, she’d always been exuberant and quick to laugh. Those qualities had turned into a quirky self-confidence and a dry wit. She clearly felt things deeply, which was a weakness when it came to wounds of the past. But at the same time, well, when a woman like that loved someone, she no doubt loved them with her whole heart.
He could tell from the way she’d looked at him today that the attraction between them wasn’t one-sided. She’d smiled at his offer of kissing therapy. But despite their flirting, Kitty didn’t want to be a rancher even when a ranch was outright given to her. She’d never want to be a rancher’s wife. The two of them had no chance of a future.
Landon and Jaxon reached the next post. Landon twisted the wire around it, perhaps with more force than was needed. “If I set my sights on her, I’d be setting myself up for disappointment.”
Jaxon hammered the clip over the wire. “With legs like hers, she might be worth some disappointment.”
Landon didn’t answer. His mind was suddenly on Kitty’s legs. Long and slender. They curved into a beautiful pair of hips. And a nice waist. Truth be told, all of her was put together well.
Mercy, he was fixating on the woman.
Jaxon tucked the hammer under his arm. “But if you’re not willing to risk disappointment, you shouldn’t mind if I am. I’m so used to disappointment that it doesn’t bother me.”
“Don’t.” Landon picked up his end of the pole. “Do us both a favor and stay away from her.”
Jaxon hadn’t shown much interest in seriously dating anyone since the end of high school. He’d been busy raising a daughter and nursing a broken heart over Malia Kalana, the girl who’d gotten away. But Kitty was the sort of woman who might cure his brother’s streak.
Instead of taking offense at Landon’s command, Jaxon laughed. “It’s going to be an interesting year.”
Chapter Eight
Kate debated whether to tell her parents she knew about the unplanned nature of her birth. Any way you looked at it, that conversation would be awkward. And what her parents had done as teenagers—that was their business, not hers. They hadn’t ever brought up the reasons for their wedding, so why should she?
On the other hand, if she told them she knew the truth, they wouldn’t have to keep worrying about how to break the news to her. They must realize she’d figure it out someday. She could show them she wasn’t freaked out, she didn’t think less of them, and they could all put it behind them. That would be for the best.
After dinner, she called her parents and mentioned she’d seen the invitation in her grandparents’ photo albums. Landon didn’t need to be dragged into it, so
she didn’t mention him. “I’m sure getting married was a hard decision, but I’m glad you made it. I’m glad I’m your daughter.” Until today, she hadn’t considered that they could have made other choices.
Her mother got choked up and mumbled a few things about being young and rash. “We were going to tell you both when Libby was older. We didn’t want either of you to think that because our story ended happily, you didn’t have to be careful.”
Kate wouldn’t have thought that, but Libby was still sufficiently young and rash that her mother might have a point.
Her father said, “We should have known you’d find out the truth if you moved down there. A lot of old timers still live in the area, and they talk. That’s one of the reasons we didn’t want to stay in Arizona. We didn’t want people talking about us.”
“I doubt people talk about you. Or if they do, they’re probably understanding.” Kate stopped before she admitted that Grandpa had discussed their situation with Jaxon Wyle. That was news she was still digesting. Despite Grandpa’s fears about Kate repeating her parents’ mistakes, he’d held them up as an example of success to Jaxon. Perhaps one of the reasons he hadn’t apologized to her when she was fifteen was that he couldn’t explain why he’d freaked out without implicating her parents.
“Was Grandpa really upset when he found out about Mom’s pregnancy?”
“Of course,” her father said. “Upset, disappointed, and worried. When you came along, though, he never uttered another word about it. He was just happy you were part of our family.”
Her hard feelings toward her grandfather melted a little. He’d been happy she was part of the family, and that seemed like proof he’d cared about her, even if he’d never been the sort that showed it. He’d never come to Seattle for a visit, but he’d taught her horseback riding, even though—she now realized—he had many other things to do. He’d helped her build a fort out of old plywood, an eyesore that stuck around for years. And he’d let her pick Missy from the litter to be his dog.
The Cowboy and the Girl Next Door: (A Clean, Enemies to Lovers Romance) Wyle Away Ranch Book 1 Page 7