to the front side of the mansion, where a sunroom overlooked the picturesque valley. Decker suspected his mother had something to do with the round linen-covered table with a candle burning and soft piano music playing. Two chairs flanked the double French entry and plants lined the stone wall.
Decker pulled out a chair for Kendall and then sat across from her, looking out the arch-topped window beside them.
“This is awkward.”
He turned back to Kendall. “Our parents are determined to put us together.”
“Hm.” She lifted a glass of red wine and sipped. “Not my mother.”
“She’s against it?”
“She wants to see me marry for love. She only agreed because I wanted to have this dinner with you and decide for myself.”
“I’m not sure what my mother thinks,” Decker admitted. “She probably agrees with my father. She’s just as ambitious as he is when it comes to the success of the business.”
“No wonder he came up with this plan. He sounds like my father.” Kendall smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“Business first.”
“Always. But he does have his redeeming qualities and I do know he loves me.”
“I feel the same about my father,” Decker said. “He’s forgotten how to show love, but it’s there. Maybe he never learned how to show it.” He sometimes resented that and wondered if the constant fight to win Russ Colton’s love had compelled him to do anything his father asked or expected. Sometimes he wished he would have followed his brother’s path. Wyatt dropped out of college to join the rodeo. Only when he inherited the Crooked C Ranch from their grandmother did he return to Roaring Springs.
“Well, now that they have us where they want us, what shall we talk about?” she murmured.
He leaned back as a servant delivered the first course. More interested in her, he ignored the artful display of sliced seared scallop topped with alaea red salt and lemon olive oil.
“What have you been up to since high school?” he asked.
“I went to college and got my masters. After that I went to work for the Forest Service. Then I returned to Roaring Springs when my father said he needed me home, to help with the company. He’s getting older and, as I mentioned earlier, thinking about retiring.”
“Is that all? What about relationships?”
She lifted her brow marginally, as though she hadn’t expected the question. “I’ve had boyfriends. Nothing worth talking about.”
“Those are usually the most important to talk about.”
“If that’s what you think, then tell me about your past girlfriends.” She sipped her wine and sent him a coy look with those incredible blue eyes.
Well, he’d stepped right into that one. “Nothing too serious. I thought I loved the girl I was with after high school but then I grew up.”
“The prom queen?”
He grunted because it all seemed so meaningless now. “Yeah.” Then he contemplated her a moment, such a beautiful woman and she’d never stepped out into the spotlight. “You kept a low profile in high school.”
“I was more into real friends.”
He had run across a lot of students who had befriended him because of his popularity. It hadn’t bothered him, though. He’d had his close group of companions.
“What about after the prom queen?” she asked.
She wouldn’t give up. “I dated someone in college.”
“All through college?”
“Yes, and then she didn’t want to move to Roaring Springs so she broke up with me.”
“Did that hurt?”
He’d be lying if he said the breakup didn’t. His first love had gone to college for business like he had. He thought they made a great team. She was someone his father approved of and she was pretty. Back then pleasing his dad had been priority number one.
“Yeah, but I graduated and went to work for my dad.” It struck him then that maybe part of the reason he had done that was to forget about that woman.
“No more time for love.”
He paused at her sarcasm because it felt truer than something to joke about. “What about you? Why haven’t you been snatched up by someone?”
“Oh, I was. A few times. I had a couple of year-long relationships that ended mutually, and then closer to graduation I met someone special and we moved in together. I imagined that was going to be it for me until I came home one day to him in our bed with another woman.” She sighed. “I never thought I’d be one of those women who so sorely misread a man. Walking in on your lover with someone else happened to other women and only in the movies.”
“Not to you?” He chuckled. “I didn’t walk in on one of my girlfriends, but she told me she had been with someone else. That was after college. I was working a lot and I guess she got sick of it.” He drank some wine as he remembered how much that had stung. The realization that he’d become his father had been difficult to swallow. That’s when he’d begun to think how different his life would be had he not listened to the great Russ Colton. He’d envied his brother Wyatt for defying their father and going off to the rodeo before inheriting the Crooked C.
“I’ve found that waiting for them to come to me works best, rather than actively looking for it,” Kendall confided.
He set down his glass as the servants brought in the next course, which was creamed pea-and-leek soup with croutons.
Decker didn’t miss how Kendall appreciated the presentation of the dishes. Although she was no stranger to fine dining, she didn’t bask in the elegance for the wrong reason, though. The way she took it all in, smelled the aromas, told Decker she loved the art and the tastes more than the privilege. She hadn’t lost her humble nature and took nothing for granted.
Like now, she lifted her spoon and smelled with her eyes closed before sampling the soup. When she finished she looked at him and said, “You know what I love most about dinners like this?”
He felt a shot of warmth as he observed her. “No, what?”
“I don’t have many meals like this, but when I do, they’re always special because they take time. It’s more than good food. It’s the entire experience, and the social aspect.”
He concurred, especially about the time. His curiosity of her grew and he needed to know more. “Is that why you agreed to this dinner?”
She stopped eating the soup. “No, of course not.”
It had to be more than him, or more aptly, their fathers coming to her. “Then why even consider marrying me?”
“Why did you even consider marrying me?” she volleyed back.
