mother. She loved her parents dearly, she really did. Teresa had been born into a huge Sicilian family and had come to America more than forty years ago to marry Sal Torino. And despite the fact that Sal had been born and raised in America, he tended to side with his wife when she clung to Old World values—namely, that daughters who hadn’t found husbands by their thirtieth birthday were destined to be old maids.
Sadly, Gina’s thirtieth birthday had come and gone two months ago.
“Mom…” Gina took a breath, blew it out and prayed for patience. She’d hoped that having her own small house built on the family ranch would give her more privacy. Would make her parents think of her as a capable adult. She should have known better. Once a Torino child, always a Torino child.
Maybe she should have just moved away from the ranch entirely. But even if she had, she’d have been spending every day here anyway, since the Gypsy horses she raised and trained were her life. So she’d simply have to find a way to deal with being her mother’s great disappointment.
“I know, I know,” Teresa said, holding up one hand as if to stave off a familiar argument. “You are a grown woman. You don’t need a man to complete you.” She gave an impatient huff. “I should never have let you watch those talk shows when you were growing up. They fill your head with—”
“—sense?” Gina offered, smiling. She did love her mom, it was just so aggravating having to apologize for not being married and/or pregnant all the damn time.
“Sense. Is it sense to live alone? To not have love in your life? No,” Teresa snapped, not waiting for an answer. “It is not.”
It would be easier to argue with her mom if a part of Gina didn’t agree. Okay, a small part. But a tiny voice in the back of her mind whispered that she wasn’t getting any younger. That she should give up on old fantasies that should have died years ago.
Yet somehow…she couldn’t quite manage it.
“I’m fine, Mom,” she said, willing herself to believe it.
Teresa laid one hand on her daughter’s forearm and gave her a pat. “Of course you are.”
Okay, Gina was willing to accept that, even if her mom was placating her. At least it had stopped the conversation. “Where’s Papa?” she asked. “He was going to come look over the new baby this morning.”
Teresa waved one hand. “He has a ‘meeting’ he said. Very important.”
“Yeah? With who?”
“You think he tells me?” Teresa huffed out a frustrated breath and Gina smiled.
Nothing her mother hated more than not knowing what was going on at all times.
“Well, while Papa’s in his meeting, you can meet the new baby.”
“Horses,” Teresa muttered. “You and your horses.”
Gina laughed and took her mother’s hand. “Come on.”
As they walked to the fence gate, a rumble of noise drifted to them and Gina turned to watch a car approach down the long driveway leading in from the main road. Dust billowed behind the black luxury SUV and Gina felt a stir of something deep inside her when she recognized the car. Despite trying to ignore that feeling, her breath caught and held in her chest and her mouth suddenly went dry.
She didn’t even need to read the license plate…KING 1 to know without a doubt that Adam King was in that car. She felt it as surely as she felt the rocky ground beneath her feet. What was that, anyway? Some sort of inner radar that leaped into life whenever Adam got close?
“So, Adam King is the important meeting,” her mother mused. “I wonder why.”
Gina wondered, too. She knew she should just go about her business, but somehow, she couldn’t make her feet move. She just stood there and watched as Adam parked his car and opened the door. When he stepped out and looked around, his dark-eyed gaze sliding across the ranch yard, something inside her jumped in reaction. Stupid, she told herself. Stupid to feel anything for a man who didn’t even know you existed.
Adam’s gaze kept moving, as if he were cataloging the Torino ranch and would be given a test on it later. Finally, his gaze moved over Gina. She stiffened. Even from a distance she felt the power of his stare as if he’d reached out and touched her.
He nodded at her and her mother, and Gina forced herself to lift one hand in a halfhearted wave. Almost before her fingers had stopped moving, though, Adam had turned for the house.
“A cold man, that one,” Teresa said in a quiet voice from right beside Gina. Crossing herself she added, “There is a darkness in him.”
Gina had felt the darkness, too, so she couldn’t really argue the point. But she’d known Adam and his brothers all of her life. And she’d always wanted to be the one to ease the darkness back for him.
Stupid, she supposed. What is it with women that we all want to be the one to “save” a guy? she wondered.
She was still standing there, watching after Adam, even though he’d already gone into the ranch house for his meeting with her father. And finally, Gina felt her mother watching her. “What?”
“I see something in your eyes, Gina,” her mother whispered, worry tightening her mouth and flashing in her gaze.
Gina immediately turned away and started walking toward the horses in the meadow. She still felt a little shaky so she made sure her steps were long and steady. Lifting her chin, she whipped her hair back out of her eyes and said, “I don’t know what you mean, Mom.”
Teresa wasn’t so easily put off, however. She hurried after her daughter, took hold of Gina’s arm and dragged her to a stop. Looking into her eyes, Teresa said, “You cannot fool me. There is something there in you for Adam King. And you must not surrender to it.”
Surprised, Gina laughed. “Excuse me? This from the woman who not five minutes ago was telling me to get married and start having babies?”
“Not with him,” Teresa said. “Adam King is the one man I do not want for you.”
Unfortunate.
Since Adam King was the only man Gina wanted.
Two
Adam knocked on the front door, waited impatiently and then jerked to attention when a shorter, older man opened it and smiled out at him.
“Adam,” Sal Torino said, stepping back and waving him inside. “Right on time, as always.”
“Sal. Thanks for seeing me.” Adam stepped into the house and glanced around. It had been a long time since he was last here, but he noticed that the place hadn’t changed much.
The entryway was wide and lit from above by a skylight that spilled sunshine in a wash of gold across the gleaming pine floors. The hall leading to the back of the house was covered in framed family photos of smiling kids and proud parents. The high, arched doorway that led into the living room where Sal gestured for Adam to follow had been unchanged, as well. The walls were still a soft, warm yellow, the furniture was oversize and comfortable, and a stone
