it open With a sigh, she crossed the room, plucked a mug from the cupboard and filled it with coffee.
Well, there was nothing to hold her back now. Her father was gone. Grant, Cade and Zach had returned to their own lives. It was time to go about hers. But what kind of life did she want? Did she want a job? A career? A college degree?
Kyra didn’t have a clue. She only knew she needed to do something. Something she chose, for herself, by herself, with no advice from anybody—not even from her brothers.
It wasn’t that she didn’t love them. She did, with all her heart. It had been wonderful, having them home the week of the funeral, but it had only reminded her that, as far as they were concerned, she was still just a kid.
Cade had spent every moment—very sweetly, of course—telling her what to do and how to do it. Zach had asked a hundred times if she didn’t want him to take a look at the household accounts or show her how to balance her checkbook. And Grant had done everything but pat her on the head and call her his good little girl.
It had all come close to driving her crazy but she’d gritted her teeth and endured—until the reading of the will. In retrospect, she knew it was the will that had finally tipped her over the edge.
Charles had left his private fortune, the mansion and all its vast acreage to Kyra; he’d left Landon Enterprises, his multimillion-dollar empire, to his sons.
Anger had swept over her as the attorney’s voice faded to silence. Her father had done it again, she’d thought bitterly; even in death, he’d managed to keep her from the real world.
And, as soon as the attorney was gone, her brothers did it, too, giving her benevolent smiles and saying how happy they were that the mansion would be hers.
“We’re so happy for you, Princess,” Grant said, putting his arm around her shoulders. “We know how you love this house.”
And before she could say hell, no, I hate it, he turned to Cade and Zach and they began discussing the quickest way to divest themselves of Landon Enterprises. They wanted no part of the Landon legacy but she—she was expected to jump for joy over her inheritance!
The realization left her tight-lipped with fury but she said nothing. What could she say in the face of such damnable male insensitivity?
And then, just as she was getting over her anger, Grant met with Victor Bayliss, who’d been their father’s second-in-command at Landon’s, and came back with news that put a halt to her brothers’ plans to sell the company.
There were serious problems to deal with in Dallas, Hollywood and New York, Grant told Cade and Zach, ignoring Kyra even though she was in the room. She told herself it was understandable; thanks to Charles’s will, she didn’t have anything to do with Landon Enterprises. But the more she listened, the shorter her temper got.
Didn’t Cade or Grant or Zach see the obvious solutions to the difficulties facing them? She certainly did, but no one was asking her for her opinion. No one ever had.
That was when she exploded.
“For goodness’ sake,” she snapped, “are you all stupid? The answers to your problems are right under your noses!”
She pointed out how easily Cade could deal with the Dallas crisis, how readily Zach could handle the problem in California. There was a moment’s pointed silence and then, to her amazement, her brothers agreed
No, Kyra thought grimly as she remembered the scene, no, they’d done more than agree. They’d acted as if the ideas were theirs, not hers. Not a one of them had thought to say, wow, Kyra, that was pretty good thinking. Thanks for your help. We really needed it!
But how could they? The big jerks had been too busy flashing each other goofy grins and putting on that disgusting display of male bonding they’d called, since childhood, the Deadeye Defenders’ secret handshake.
“Damn,” Kyra muttered.
She could not, she would not, go on being treated like a child! She would not settle into the life that was expected of her, chairing dumb committees for causes she didn’t believe in, attending silly functions where she was supposed to smile prettily and pretend she was having fun…
…and where a man like the Spaniard could say the things he’d said and then vanish into the blue.
Her coffee mug clattered against the table top.
The Spaniard? What on earth had made her think of him? Not that it was the first time. Like it or not, the man had been lurking inside her head for days.
Well, it was understandable. It wasn’t easy to forget such a pretentious, self-important cretin.
Impatiently, she rose from the chair, kicked it back into place, and dumped her mug into the sink To think she’d let him get away with such rude behavior. Why hadn’t she told him he was a jerk? In Spanish, of course, Spanish every bit as perfect as his. Her mouth twisted in a wry smile. According to her father, learning to converse in three different languages had been part of the education of a proper lady.
So why hadn’t she hurled an insult straight back into his handsome, insolent face?
You are a toothless dog, she could have said. You are a worm. You are an animal…
Except he was none of those. That was the trouble. He was the best-looking hunk she’d ever set eyes on and he knew it. It was why he thought he could get away with eyeing women and then sidling up to them and insulting them…
“Hello! Anybody home?”
Kyra spun around, her eyes wide with surprise. “Cade?”
“Squirt?”
“Cade!” She gave a screech of delight, raced from the kitchen, and threw herself into her brother’s arms.
He laughed as he twirled her around. “That’s what a man wants,” he said as he set her on her feet, “a greeting that really makes him feel welcome!”
Kyra grinned up at him. “What a wonderful surprise! But why didn’t you phone and tell me you were coming? I’d have met you at the airport.”
Was it her imagination, or did his smile dim before he answered?
“Well, it was kind of a last-minute decision. Anyway, I figured I didn’t need to make a formal announcement that I was coming, now that the old ma—I mean, now that Father’s not…”
“Of course you didn’t.” Kyra looped her arm through his. “You’ll always be welcome—wherever I live.”
Cade smiled. “Thanks, Squirt.”
“What are you thanking me for?” She hugged him. “I love you, you big jerk. Now, come on. Tell me all about Texas while I get you something to eat.”
“To tell the truth, I’m not hungry.”
“Coffee, then. I’ll put up a fresh pot while you tell me what Dallas is like.”
There was no doubt this time; she could definitely see his smile dim.
“There’s
