“But these last few months when I’ve gotten to know you? How I feel about you has nothin’ to do with Hayden. Besides the fact he’s such a great kid because he’s got such a great mom.”Tears flooded her eyes. “Kane—”“Let me finish. Yesterday, as soon as we finished calving, I stopped by Stacy Lynnwood’s office and resigned as a mentor in the Big Buddies/Little Buddies program. I didn’t give her a specific reason.” His eyes narrowed. “I assume Stacy told you about what’d happened with Brandi?”“Not in detail, just the general gist.”“Then you understand why I didn’t want our relationship to be dissected by the organization or anyone else?”She nodded.“So I resigned. That wasn’t something I was gonna tell you over the phone. I don’t want to be in your life only as Hayden’s mentor. I want to be in your life as your lover and your partner. I want us to be a family.”“Kane—”“Don’t interrupt.” He dropped to his knees and gathered both her hands in his. “I’d hoped to do this differently, b
Hayden had taken the news of them becoming a family far better than either he or Ginger anticipated.When Kane mentioned adoption, Hayden immediately stopped calling him Buck and started calling him“Dad”, which had been beyond cool in Kane’s opinion. But it also drove home the point there was a big difference between being a Big Buddy and being a father. But he couldn’t imagine loving any kid more than he did Hayden.Kane knocked on Ginger’s office door. He heard a muffled “Come in,” and entered the room.The redheaded woman of his dreams stood in front of the window behind her desk, her left arm braced across her lower belly, her left hand up by her face.“Ginger? Everything okay?”She shook her head and he was by her side instantaneously.Kane turned her to face him. His heart plummeted at seeing her tear-stained face and red-rimmed eyes. “Do you feel all right?”“No.” Her arms circled his waist. She sobbed against his chest. She cried so hard he couldn’t make heads nor tails of th
“Better for who?”“For all of you."“Bullshit.” Kane gave him a long, measured look. “Did you know that my Grandpa McKay lived with us from my fourth birthday until he passed when I was almost thirteen?”“I vaguely recall something about that.”“Since Carson was older than my dad by like ten minutes, Grandpop deeded him the family ranch house after my grandma died. Plus, Uncle Carson and Aunt Carolyn kept havin’ all them kids and needed the space. Grandpop didn’t much like his son Casper, so movin’ in with him was out as an option. And he wasn’t too fond of my Uncle Charles’ wife, Vi, neither. So he came to live with us.”“How’d your mama feel about that? Wasn’t there bad blood between the Wests and the McKays?”“For years. But my Ma never got along with her own father, and Grandpop never had a daughter, so surprisingly, the two of them hit it off like gangbusters.”“It’s hard not to like your mama.”“She is something else.” Kane smiled. “So Kade and I were raised by both our parents
(Prologue)“Who’s up for a threesome?”Whoops and catcalls echoed around the campfire while Brandt McKay seethed in the shadows of the pine trees.“And I mean anyone,” Mike, that little fucking prick, emphasized with a drunken leer. “Guys, gals.Hell, it don’t matter if it’s more than three. In fact, the more the merrier! Me’n Jessica here—” he whacked Jessie’s bikini-clad butt hard, “—are up for a good fuckin’ time tonight.”“Or a good time fucking,” someone shouted.“You got that right,” Mike shot back to additional wolf whistles.Jessica. The little fucking prick didn’t even know Jessie’s name, for Christsake. What the hell was she doing with him?Ain’t that why you’re spying on her like some lovesick peeping Tom? To figure out why she turned you down but she’s hooked up with a loser worse than you?Brandt ignored his sarcastic internal voice that resembled his father’s. He remained as still as a hunter tracking prey as he spied on his brother’s widow. The woman he’d purposely stay
“Goddammit, Jessie, look at me.”Miracle of miracles, she rolled over, angrily pushed her tangled hair from her face and squinted at him.Brandt didn’t let his gaze fall below her chin.Jessie had that glassy-eyed look from too much alcohol, and her reaction time was slower, but she didn’t react like he’d expected. No embarrassment. No trying to cover her naked body. Hell, she didn’t even shriek with surprise. She just stared at him.He stared back.“I forgot how much you and Luke sound alike.”“I wasn’t tryin’ to pretend to be him,” Brandt said softly.That comment brought her sad smile. “I know. There’s no comparison.”There was that kicked-in-the-heart sensation again.“Why did you stick around? I wasn’t very nice to you.”His thoughts skipped back to Jessie’s bored appraisal of him and her insulting parting shot. “I intended to take off. B-but…” Goddammit. Why was he such a stammering freakin’ idiot around her?“But you didn’t because you were worried about me.” She held his gaze.
He couldn’t believe Jessie had kept the wallet. She’d seemed embarrassed when she’d opened his present. Too late Brandt learned such a labor-intensive gift was appropriate for a girlfriend. Or a lover. Or a wife. None of which Jessie was to him. Luke had been a real prick about it, too, teasing him mercilessly.Ragging on Jessie. They’d both ignored Luke, and Brandt figured Jessie had probably thrown it out to keep the peace with her husband. Warmth expanded in his chest even as he called himself ten kinds of fool for feeling that spark of pleasure.He scrutinized the inside of the truck cab for anything else that might belong to her before he zipped up the purse and jogged back to his pickup.Jessie had wedged herself in the corner. Relief swept over her when he tossed the purse in her lap.“Thank you.”“You wanna check to see if anything is missing?”“No. Just take me home.”He let her be, even when he wanted to assure her that Mike’s reaction was a result of booze and pot, not a re
Soul patch? Gone. Despite the leaner appearance, Brandt’s angular face was still too rugged looking to be considered handsome in the classical sense, like Luke’s had been.What hadn’t changed about Brandt? His captivating smile that managed to be both cocky and shy.The stunning blueness of his eyes. His overprotective instinct. The first thing he’d done after seeing her for the first time in months was lecture her on hooking up with a douchebag like Mike.At that point, Jessie had told Brandt she was predestined to wind up with douchebags like Mike and Luke, and if he were smart, he’d continue to stay away from her.He’d started to argue and she’d glimpsed something dangerous in Brandt’s eyes she’d never noticed.But true to form, he’d walked away.Or so she’d thought.She’d been so eager to convince Mike and his friends she was good-time Jessie the party girl, not a mousy widow with a pathetic past, that she ended up drinking way more than was healthy or smart.The details were hazy
“Such a loving family,” Jessie muttered as Tell took her hands.“Miss us, doncha?”She smiled. “Not touching that one.”He laughed. “So what’s new?”“You’d know if you ever bothered to call me.” At his guilty look, she whapped him on the shoulder.“Tell. I’m kidding. Since my life is incredibly boring, why don’t you tell me what you’ve been up to?”“I’ve been hittin’ as many local rodeos as possible, tryin’ to complete my PRCA judges course.”Tell had been talking about doing that since the first time they’d met. “You actually followed through with it?”“Yep. I got tired of waiting for the right time to get certified and they accepted me as a candidate because of my past rodeo experience. I’ve been studying DVDs and scoring the rides. Then they match how I scored them to the real scores to see how I did.”“It hasn’t interfered with your ranch work?”Tell scowled. “To hear Dad talk, I’ve all but abandoned the ranch. Hell. I’m gone one day, two at the most in a month. Brandt and Dalton