planner.
“Thank you.”
“Told you you’d be in good hands with this one,” Ma Caruthers said. “She’s always had a good head on her shoulders.”
“You’ve been wonderful to help me so much. I really appreciate it,” Ferrin said to her future mother-in-law.
“Well, I never had any daughters and am hoping that you are going to give me a granddaughter one day. Thank you for letting me help out,” Ma Caruthers said.
Kinley felt the heat in her chest and cheeks as she blushed. She hadn’t considered anyone besides herself and Nate when she’d made the decision to keep Penny a secret from him. He was wild and not ready to settle down—she wasn’t sure he ever would be—but his mother and father...they were nice people. People who wanted a grandchild.
And they already had one.
Kinley excused herself and left the bakery. Guilt weighed heavy on her shoulders as she walked to her car. It was hot on this summer afternoon, and she wished she could blame the heat for the feeling in the pit of her stomach. But she knew the truth. She’d let the secret of Penny go on for too long. There was no way to casually introduce her daughter to the Carutherses without them getting angry—justifiably so. She realized she might have bitten off more than she could chew by agreeing to come to Cole’s Hill.
Now she was stuck between a rock and a very hard place. She could either stay here and hope that no one noticed Penny and that the guilt that had started to grow inside her would be bearable, or she could quit her job and run away from life.
She knew which option she wanted to choose. But she’d never been a coward, and she didn’t want Penny to grow up thinking that she could run away from her problems. Kinley was going to have to figure out how to tell Nate he had a daughter, and she knew the sooner she did it the better it would be for everyone.
* * *
Nate had half expected Kinley to cancel on him and had gone to the Bull Pit with Ethan to have a drink while he was waiting for her to finish up with her afternoon appointments. What was it about Kinley that always made him feel on edge? With most of the women he dated he usually fell into a comfortable feeling pretty quickly. He knew what they liked and how to give it to them.
But not with her.
“Dad wants me to go to San Angelo to check on one of our mineral contracts. It’s set to renew, and he’s not sure if we should renew it or sell it,” Ethan said. He was the family lawyer but also worked for a big-time law firm. He used to work in Houston but now handled his clients from his home office here in Cole’s Hill. “Then I’m probably going to fly to LA and be back a few days later.”
Ethan had a woman in Los Angeles. They all knew it but he never mentioned her, so Nate had figured she was either casual or married. And since he didn’t want his brothers nipping in his own business, he’d never asked.
“Sure thing. We aren’t doing anything major this week. Mitzi is looking for men for the Fourth of July bachelor auction... She’s suckered a few of those astronauts into doing it and has a theme of American Hero for this year’s event. She wanted Hunter, but since he’s off the market he promised to get a friend from Dallas.”
“Then why does she need me?” Ethan asked.
“Well, we all know lawyers are sharks, so it must be that she remembers your gold buckle rodeo days and wants to have you as a cowboy in the lineup.” Nate liked to rib his brother about being a lawyer but he’d be welcome at the auction.
“How about I just make a large donation and sit on the sidelines?” Ethan said.
They all felt about the same way when it came to participating in events like the charity auction. “You can’t. One of the Carutherses already did.”
“Derek? He’s a doctor—he should be used to this kind of thing,” Ethan said.
“He is and he likes the attention, so he said yes as soon as she asked,” Nate said.
“You?”
Nate shrugged. “I have been dating her off and on, so she was willing to let me out of it.”
“Well, damn. Okay, I’ll do it,” Ethan said.
“Good,” Nate said. He thought it would do his brother some good to find a woman here in Cole’s Hill whom he liked instead of driving to Midland whenever he wanted to hook up. Or whatever Ethan did over there.
“So when’s your date with Kinley?” Ethan asked as he took a swallow of his beer.
“We’re having drinks tonight,” Nate said.
“Drinks? That’s not a date,” Ethan said.
“Isn’t it?”
“Hell, no. You and I are having drinks and this sure as hell isn’t a date,” Ethan said.
“Damned straight,” Nate said. “I’ve never had any problems turning drinks into something more.”
“None of us have,” Ethan said. “Can you believe Hunter is getting married? I thought...well, I guess we all thought that he was never going to find a woman who’d trust him.”
“I know,” Nate said. He didn’t like to think about how many times he’d defended his brother in places like the Bull Pit and in boardrooms whenever someone had brought up Hunter’s past. Gossip had it that their family had bought Hunter’s freedom, but the truth was the cops never had enough evidence to charge him with murder. Not that that had made any difference in the court of public opinion. “I’m glad to see him so happy. Damned if I could have ever seen any of us as married, but being engaged looks good on him.”
“It does. Ferrin seems to be an important part of his new life. And I’m going to deny saying this if you bring it up, but he seems like a new man now.”
Nate had to laugh at that. Hunter was a new man. A man freed from the past and the guilt that he’d carried for ten years.
“Guilt did weigh on him. That’s why I lead a free and easy life. The only thing that weighs on me is the family business, and to be honest I like a good tussle in the boardroom, so that’s not really a big deal.”
Ethan laughed. “You said it, brother. Speaking of a business, Dylan Gallagher has a Cessna he wants to sell us. He’s thinking of buying a big jet.”
“What does he need a jet for?”
“Apparently, he has a lady friend on the East Coast he wants to visit,” Ethan said. “I’ll drive over and look at it this afternoon. It would be nice to have it as a backup for the older one we’ve been thinking of getting rid of.”
“It would be. Ranch assets are your domain, so if you think we should buy it, I’ll agree with you.”
“Wish all things with you were this easy to settle,” Ethan said.
Before Nate could respond, his phone beeped and he glanced down at the screen to see he had a text message from Kinley. Nate finished his beer and stood up. “I’m easy to get along with. You’re the troublemaker.”
