Читать книгу Tycoon Cowboy's Baby Surprise - Katherine Garbera - Страница 11

Three

Kinley had a rushed dinner with Penny and her nanny before leaving to meet Nate. Tonight was important, and she needed to be stronger than she’d ever been before. She’d dressed carefully, choosing a gray cap-sleeve dress that nipped in at the waist before ending at the knees. She’d paired it with a piece of costume jewelry she’d purchased at a vintage shop in Melrose the year before her mom had died.

Wearing it always made Kinley think of her mom. She touched it like a talisman, trying to glean a little of her mom’s courage before Nate showed up. She was scared.

She’d made the only choice she felt she could make when she’d decided to have Penny and to raise her daughter on her own. But circumstances had changed, and it was time to make another choice.

She pulled her phone out of her purse for the tenth time since she’d texted Nate that she was waiting for him at the Peace Creek Steak House, not because she expected him to respond, but because she felt so vulnerable just standing there waiting for him.

She heard a group of people approaching the entrance and looked up to see Bianca Velasquez walking toward her. Her mom had cleaned the Velasquez home way back when, and Bianca and Kinley had been really good friends. She smiled when she noticed Kinley, waved her friends on and came over to give her a hug.

Her friend had thick black hair that she wore long and falling around her shoulders and olive skin Kinley had always envied. She was wearing a pair of slim-fitting white jeans and a flowy navy-colored blouse.

“I didn’t know you were back in town,” Bianca said.

“I didn’t know you were, either. I thought you were still in Spain,” Kinley said. Bianca’s young husband had recently died in a fiery car crash, leaving the window with an eighteen-month-old son to raise. Kinley and Bianca kept in touch by email and had a lot to share since they both were single moms.

“I recently moved back. Mom and Dad were really persistent. And I missed Texas,” Bianca said. “Do you have plans tonight? You can join us.”

“I’m only back for a few months to plan Hunter’s wedding,” Kinley said. “I’m meeting someone but I’d love to catch up sometime.”

“Me, too. I’m looking for a job, believe it or not,” Bianca said in a sort of self-effacing tone. “I have your number, so I’ll text you and we can find some time to meet up with our kiddos.”

“Sounds great,” Kinley said, hugging her friend and realizing how nice it was to see Bianca. The combination of secrets and guilt had been weighing on her, but seeing a friendly face, making some normal plans, made her feel better.

Bianca waved goodbye before going into the restaurant. Kinley felt someone watching her and glanced up to see Nate at the end of the driveway, walking toward her. He hadn’t changed since their earlier meeting; he still wore dark jeans paired with what she knew was a designer shirt and hand-tooled, custom-made leather boots. He walked like a man who knew his place in the world. He was confident and sure, and a part of her truly resented him for it.

She’d been struggling to figure out her place her entire life. She might not have been aware of it when she’d been younger, but these days it felt like a yoke around her neck. Like she’d been carrying it for too long. Part of it, she knew, was the burden of what she had to tell him and her own uncertainty about how to do it, but she knew another part was the fact that she felt like she was always running to catch up.

Probably that could be traced back to living two different lives for most of her upbringing: the weeks in town with her mom at the Velasquez home and the weekends on the ranch with her father.

“Nate, I’m glad you could make it,” Kinley said. To her own ears, her voice sounded too bright. Like she was trying to force out a happiness she didn’t feel. But she put a smile on her face, determined to keep it in place until she actually could smile around him.

“It was my idea, so I wasn’t about to say no.” He winked at her as he reached her, putting his hand at the small of her back to turn her toward the entrance.

She moved forward, trying to ignore the pulsing that had started as soon as she felt his hand on the small of her back. His hands were big and hot and made her very aware of the last time he’d touched her there.

They’d both been naked and he’d rolled her onto her stomach in that big king-size bed to give her a massage, which had ended with him deep inside her as she’d climaxed again and again. A shiver of pure sexual need went through her.

It had been a long time since any man had touched her save for her ob-gyn, and Kinley, who had been too tired to think of dating before this, now thought that might have been a huge mistake.

She wished she’d had at least one other man since Nate so she’d have some sort of buffer. He reached around her to hold open the door, and she was both elated and disappointed that he broke contact.

She stepped inside, waiting a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dim interior. She was losing control of herself, which would mean loss of control of the situation if she didn’t pull herself together.

She skimmed the bar and spotted a booth in the back that looked like it would give them some privacy from the other patrons in the steak house.

“I see a spot,” Kinley said, walking toward it quickly, not giving Nate a chance to touch her back again.

* * *

Touching her had been a mistake, because as he watched her walk through the bar, images of the last time he’d touched her back ran through his mind. He remembered the afternoon sunlight shining into their room and how creamy her skin had looked against the white hotel sheets. She had freckles on her back, and he’d taken his time to touch and caress each of them before he made love to her.

A jolt of need went through him, and he knew whatever lie he’d been telling himself about meeting up with Kinley to clear the air was paper-thin. He wanted her. And pretending that there was anything other than that motivating him would be a mistake.

She slid into the booth she’d spotted in the corner. It was darker back here, lit only with an electric fixture mounted on the wall that was made to look like a gas lamp. The bulb flickered like a live flame. They had more privacy than he’d expected.

He started to slide in next to her, but she shook her head and gestured for him to sit across from her. He sat down on the hard wooden bench, hoping it would cool him down, but it didn’t. Instead his legs brushed against hers under the table, and every time he inhaled all he could smell was her perfume. It was some kind of flowery, summery scent that made him more determined that they should spend the summer together.

He was a temporary guy and she was here temporarily; it should be easy enough for both of them. But his gut warned it wouldn’t be. It couldn’t be. First of all, her job was going to bring her into contact with his family—a lot. Second, her dad was his foreman, and Nate didn’t want to do anything to compromise that relationship. Plus—and this was the big one—he was pretty sure that Kinley had already written him off.

So he was going to have to figure out how to convince her that he was more than a wealthy playboy. Was she worth it?

Even as he asked himself that question, he knew the answer was yes. There was something in her big chocolate-brown eyes that made him determined to figure out what he needed to say or do to claim her as his own.

“What are you drinking?” he asked. His voice sounded almost too loud in the quiet intimacy of the booth.

“Sparkling water with a twist of lime,” she said.

“I can’t order that at the bar or they will laugh me out of here,” he said.

“Then I’ll order it. What do you want?” she asked. He noticed that her tone was all business, and he realized that while he was thinking this was the first step to renewed intimacy, she wasn’t.

“I was joking, Kin. I’ll get the drinks,” he said. “I’m ordering something to eat as well.”

“Thank you,” she said as he left the booth to go and place their order.

A good five minutes had passed before he returned to their table. He put the glasses down before retaking his seat.

“I’m sorry about overreacting about the drink. I’m a little on edge tonight,” she said.

“Planning weddings is stressful work?” he asked. He took a swallow of his beer and leaned back, stretching one arm along the back of the wooden bench.

“Sometimes. Ferrin’s such a sweetie, so she’s making my job pretty easy. But I’m working with another client who is a bit more demanding,” Kinley said.

“I never would have pictured you as a wedding planner,” Nate said. When he’d known her as a child, she’d been so rough-and-tumble. The kind of cowgirl who could do anything the boys could on the ranch. His parents had always treated his brothers and him the same way they did all the kids whose families worked on the ranch. That meant they all did chores together and they all got a horse of their own to take care of. It was a tradition that Nate had followed when he took over running the ranch from his dad a few years ago.

The Caruthers fortune derived from the cattle they ran on their property as well as oil and mineral leases they’d had for generations and the newer stud operation that was just fifteen years old. The stud farm had been Kinley’s dad’s idea for diversifying the ranch.

“I guess you don’t know me,” she said. “I like planning weddings.”

“You might be right that I don’t know certain things about you,” he said. “But I’d argue there are parts of you I know very well.”

She flushed. Her skin was so creamy and pale that any time she was aroused, angry or embarrassed it flashed in a pinkish red across her face.

“Don’t, Nate,” she said. “Please do not bring up that weekend in Vegas or our intimacy again. I really would rather your brothers and parents didn’t know about it.”

He leaned forward over the table. “There isn’t anyone here but you and me, Kin, and we both know what happened.”

“We do. And we both remember how it ended...or is that just me?”

“I already apologized for that,” he said, sitting back. Damned if it wasn’t just like a woman to keep reminding him of how he’d screwed up.

“I know. And I accepted your apology. All I meant by my comment was that we’re like oil and water—we don’t mix very well.”

He thought they’d mixed just fine. But arguing now would just get her back up more and not move them any closer to the ending he wanted for them. He knew he had to ease up, and he did. “I’m not the same man I was three years ago.”

She gave him a small smile and nodded. Then she laced her fingers together, and he noticed she wore a small thin ring on her middle finger. “Fair enough. I’m definitely not the same woman. So what’s changed with Nate Caruthers?”

* * *

Kinley knew she was stalling, but honestly she needed more time. She toyed with the lime on the side of her glass, rubbing it around the rim to distract her from the fact that Nate’s big frame dominated the corner booth. His legs were on either side of hers, the rough fabric of the denim abrading the bare skin of her legs. She tried to shift but just ended up rubbing her leg against his.

She glanced over at him to see if he’d noticed. He had.

He didn’t say anything. Instead he took a sip of his beer, and she watched the muscles of his throat work as he swallowed and then leaned back, stretching his legs out under the table, brushing them against hers again.

“I’m still doing some investment stuff, but my main focus now is running the ranch. Dad wanted to ease off on the everyday running of the Rockin’ C. And as you know, it’s a full-time job. So I stepped up,” Nate said.

The Rockin’ C was one of the largest ranches in Texas. They ran cattle, had oil, operated a stud farm and employed more than one hundred families on the property. They weren’t gentleman farmers; they were more like the Ewings of TV’s Dallas.

“Where are your folks living now?”

“Still on the property. Mom wanted a smaller house, so they built a five-bedroom ranch house out near the small lake.”

“That’s small?” she asked with a laugh.

“For her. Plus she said she wanted enough room to spoil her grandkids once we all settled down,” Nate said.

Once again Kinley felt the white-hot needle of guilt pierce through her. “When is that going to happen?”

“Not any time soon, as far as I’m concerned. Hunter is the only one who seems interested in getting serious. But after ten years of hell, I think it’s about time he had a break.”

“That stuff about him... It was really hard to watch when I was in California. I mean, there was the Hunter I grew up with and then this other guy I was seeing stories about on TV. I’m glad they finally caught the man responsible.”

“We all are. Mom spent a lot of time at St. Thomas Aquinas Church praying,” Nate said.

When he spoke about Hunter, Kinley heard the love and concern in his voice. She’d been in high school when Hunter had first been accused of murder, but all that was in the past now. And Hunter had Ferrin.

“He’s got the happy ending he deserved,” Kinley said. It gave her hope that once she came clean with Nate she’d be able to move on. Maybe keeping Penny’s paternity a secret was one of the barriers that had kept her from dating over the last few years.

But she knew it wasn’t. She knew it was her own fear of trusting a man again. Or, to be more honest, trusting her heart. She’d thought what she felt for Nate had been the beginning of something more solid, but in the end it had only been lust.

Which was raising its hotter-than-hell head once again.

“He has. How many weddings have you planned?” Nate asked. “How did you get started doing that?”

She sipped her sparkling water and took the reprieve he’d unintentionally given her. “I’ve planned close to twenty weddings. All of them high-end, destination-type affairs. I got started when I answered an ad for a personal assistant and starting working for Jacs. She had one of her planners flake out and gave me a trial run. I guess she saw something in me and decided to promote me to planner.”

“I’m not surprised she saw something in you. I’ve never known you to be a woman to back down,” Nate said. “No matter how much the outer packaging has changed over the years, that solid core of steel still remains.”

It was one of the nicest things that anyone had ever said to her. That Nate Caruthers was the one saying it made her heart heavy. “Thank you.”

“It’s okay. I should have remembered that when you called me. Instead I felt trapped, and I wasn’t ready for that. Despite the fact that we spent a weekend together, you’re not the kind of woman a man should ever be casual about.”

She didn’t know what to say to that. The fact that he hadn’t been ready to settle down gave her pause in her determination to tell him about Penny. Was he ready now? How would she know for sure?

She wanted to make things right. For Nate. For Ma Caruthers. For herself. But her duty was to Penny. And Kinley had to determine if it would be better for her daughter to never know who her father was or to know and have him disappoint her.

It was a tough call.

One that was going to take more than a sparkling water and a single conversation to figure out. She wasn’t sure if it was cowardice or not, but she decided she needed to get to know the man that Nate was today before she let him know he had a daughter.

It was the only fair thing to do for herself and Penny. And for Nate, who was still running wild, if word around town could be believed.

“I’m not sure that I was ready for anything more during that weekend in Vegas,” she admitted. “But I am definitely not as casual now.”

“Can I talk you into dinner?” he asked.

She hesitated, but she’d already said good night to Penny, so she knew her daughter wasn’t expecting her home until after bedtime. Kinley had promised to call at seven thirty and could still do so.

If she was going to figure out how and if to tell Nate, they were going to have spend more time together, and dinner seemed like a safe enough way to start.