shirt made her look thinner. Her short hair bared her neck and ears.
He’d stuck his tongue in her ear once, but she had squealed and pulled away, embarrassing them both. He liked to think his technique had improved since then.
She’d had issues when he’d known her before, rebelliousness against her father’s strictness, possessiveness of the only parent she’d known up till then and jealousy of David’s mother. He had figured Kim found what she had needed in Seattle, but now he wondered.
For a woman who had it all, she seemed more brittle than content, and she looked tired. Remembering how she had once bothered to search behind his own prickly shell, he tried again.
“Did you know that Cornell Hobbs and Bonnie Gill finally tied the knot?” he asked. “They’ve been together since high school, so it was no surprise.”
When she didn’t answer, he glanced in her direction, expecting to see her staring out the side window with a bored expression. Instead her head had tipped forward. Her eyes were closed, her full lips slightly parted, and the rise and fall of her breasts was slow and regular.
Apparently, his fascinating conversation had lulled her right to sleep.
The gentle bumping of the car across the cattle guard at the entrance to Winchester land woke Kim from a jumble of dreams. She took a deep breath and sneaked a glance at David, but he was looking at the Appaloosas grazing in the near pasture. Whenever she saw a horse with the breed’s distinctive markings, she thought of her father and the ranch.
“You okay?” David asked as he slowed to allow a Jeep to pass from the other direction and returned the driver’s wave.
Her first reply was a rusty croak, so she cleared her throat and tried again. “Yes, I’m fine. Thanks for meeting my plane.”
“No problem.”
They passed a traditional two-story farmhouse, painted light blue with fresh white trim. The backyard jungle gym was new, as was the weather vane on the roof. The familiar riot of brightly blooming pots and hanging baskets on the wide front porch was a testament to Aunt Rory’s green thumb, but the driveway in front of the matching garage was empty.
Kim was relieved that they didn’t have to stop and say hello to Uncle Travis and his brood. There would be time enough to visit later, after she had reassured herself that her father was really all right except for his leg.
She couldn’t wrap her mind around the image of him on crutches. He was too powerful for that, too strong, just like the large immovable boulder in the northeast section of the range.
“Mom’s cleaned your old room for you,” David added as he took the fork in the road that would lead them to the big house where Kim had grown up. “She and Adam are looking forward to seeing you.”
The idea that Emily would be as eager as Kim’s father to see her was ludicrous. Although the two women got along, they weren’t close.
Was David sending up a trial balloon to test Kim? To deduce what her attitude toward his mother might be?
“That was nice of Emily,” she replied quietly, slipping off her sunglasses and tucking them into her purse. They had been expensive, but she couldn’t seem to care whether or not they got scratched.
The light glinted off her birthstone ring. Self-consciously she touched the bare spot where her platinum wedding set had been, wondering if David had noticed its absence.
Drew certainly had when she’d first removed it. He had gone ballistic.
Determinedly Kim pushed aside the memory as the car rounded the familiar last curve. Despite her catnap, she was still tired. Maybe she would have time for a real rest before dinner. Even though her dad and Emily had two more kids, they’d kept Kim’s bedroom available for her. It was the one refuge in the large house that hadn’t been taken over by her stepmother.
“Are you still living at the Johnson place?” she asked David. Even though Emily had bought the small spread from Ed Johnson when she and David first came to town and it had since become part of the Running W, everyone still referred to it by the name of its previous owner and probably always would.
“Yep.” He turned into the wide driveway and pulled up next to a bike lying on its side.
Toys had never been left out when Kim was small. Fighting the mixed emotions crowding up into her throat, she unbuckled her seat belt with hands that trembled. Swallowing hard, she focused on her simple relief at being here. All the rest—the questions, the explanations, the decisions she needed to make—could be sorted through and dealt with later. For now, she would just enjoy.
Even though David hadn’t honked, the front door burst open and her half brother and sister spilled out as though they had been watching through the window. They were followed by her father on his crutches.
The sight of him brought tears to Kim’s eyes. He was bareheaded, his thick, black hair laced with more silver than she remembered. His face, creased now by a wide grin, was weathered by a life spent out of doors. Hunched slightly over his crutches, he appeared older than he had the last time she’d seen him, when he had insisted on flying out to Seattle for her birthday.
Hovering at his elbow was Emily, looking trim and perky. She even managed to appear pleased by the arrival of her uninvited houseguest.
Instantly the snide thought made Kim feel guilty. As always, Emily’s smile was cordial. Even after Kim’s outburst in the stable when she’d caught the two of them making out like teenagers and her father had been so angry at her, Emily had pretended to be understanding. If she had done so to impress her new boyfriend with her niceness, it had certainly worked.
Kim had desperately needed his reassurance, so she’d lashed out like a jealous lover. When he’d taken Emily’s side against her, she’d been totally humiliated. The memory of her bratty attitude still embarrassed her, but the important thing was that Emily made him happy.
Kim would have to try harder to like Emily while she was here. Her father would be pleased to see the two of them getting along.
“Hi, Kim!”
Jake and Cheyenne’s headlong dash and noisy greetings reminded Kim a little of her mother-in-law’s cocker spaniels. She dragged up a big smile, feeling as though her cheeks would split.
“Hey, how are you two?” she asked, holding out her arms.
They’d both grown a lot since the last time she had seen them. Cheyenne, blond like her mother, threw her arms around Kim in an exuberant hug. Jake, with their father’s dark hair, skidded to a stop, hands jammed into his pockets. With a young boy’s wariness, he appeared ready to bolt if Kim even tried to hug him. She patted his head instead and he rewarded her restraint with a grin.
“How long are you staying?” Cheyenne demanded, grabbing her hand.
The blunt question caught Kim by surprise. She hadn’t thought that far ahead.
“Why don’t you and Jake help me with the bags while she says hi to your folks?” David suggested, opening the trunk.
Kim’s attention turned to her father who’d been waiting patiently.
“Hey, princess,”
