Just like that, she had no kids.And no car—Claudia had ridden with her buddy Zach.She left with Auggie’s kids, and Auggie’s keys.And a promise from Cal to see to it that Auggie made it home.
Claudia was his favorite sister now.
Calvolunteeredto drive Auggie home, fast.Before her cousin Gil could.He was going to get some time with the woman he wanted tonight.Come hell or high water.He was going to get that woman alone.
She was looking at him.Cal smirked as he readjusted his now drool-covered tie.“I would love to drive you home, tonight, Miss Tyler.I’m looking forward to it.”
“Behave yourself,” her cousin Fletcher just had to add.His fiancée, or whatever that Talley girl was to him, kicked him audibly under the table.
Auggie wasn’t escaping Cal now.
He captured her.Even though she’d called Junie to check on the girls, even though she’d called her aunt to check on January and Jules, too.She’d called Clancy, Claudia and Em to get her babies back.But…she was almost certain they’d somehow all conspired against her.Because ofhim.
Cal took her to the vintage movie theatre north of town and acted like they were on adate.Auggie wasn’t going to lie to herself.That was exactly what it had turned out to be.She was alone—sort of—with the man who wanted her.And it gave her those particular kinds of chills every woman knew and understood.
He was paying for the popcorn when she finally got her senses about herself.The man hadkissedher in the parking lot.Just helped her out of his truck andkissedher.Right there, in the slushy rain.In front of a bunch of teenagers—including her younger cousin Deacon.Who had practically given him the third degree after.What were Derrick and the rest of those cavemen teaching that boy?
“Your cousins take it seriously, don’t they?”
“Every last one of them.I strongly suspect even Robin’s boys will turn into Tyler Cavemen when they are older.Phil’s boys are already starting.”
“You are lucky to have such a large family.My mom was an only child, and my dad’s brother died before Clancy was born.He had left Wyoming decades earlier.I don’t even know if he ever married.There may be Grady cousins out there, but we just don’t know.So other than my little pack of siblings, we really don’t have any Gradys left in Masterson County.”
It was a shame; the original Grady was a founding father, she thought.Just like a Tyler was.“Well, there are five of you.You and Cadell could marry and have kids someday.”
They’d probably both be good at it.She was one hundred percent convinced of that.“You’ll make a good daddy someday.”
“IfI ever have kids, however I get them, I will do my damnedest to be the best father I possibly can be.”He looked at her, as they waited for the movie to start and the lights to dim.“My dad was a good father.He wasn’t always there—he couldn’t be, considering he was working and how sick my mother was—but we always knew he loved us.I’m not sure what sent him over the edge.I’m still not.Even he doesn’t know.I think it was that that guy was stalking Clancy that did it, or the threat to Claudia, but I have never for a moment doubted he loved us.”
“I am sorry.”She had always liked Jasper Grady.Had felt safe with him.She understood the confusion and pain in Cal’s words.Claudia had said she thought their father’s actions had affected Cal the most.She had to wonder if Claudia wasn’t correct in that.
“I’m not going to be like him.”He shifted his arm around her shoulder.The popcorn was between them.It was so stereotypical and cliched.She’d only been to the movies with one man in her life.A boy, really.He’d been twenty-two at the time.She half-suspected he’d really just wanted her ranch.
It wasn’t anything like this.
As the movie played, he pulled her closer.And midway through—he kissed her.
The hottest kiss of her life.And she knew…
Everything about her situation was so damnedcomplicated.
She didn’t know what she was going to do about this man at all.
22
Kameron really didn’t wantto do this.Going to his father’s house always brought rising anxiety lately.He just didn’t know how much more he could take this from Jacob.Jacob had run into Quinn’s twin Kiya in the diner, apparently.And called her a damned whore.Told her that Quinn was just after Kameron’s money or something.People had heard him, too.
Quinn was beyond upset, and Jacob had been banned from the diner and the inn, by General Talley, who had told Jacob no realmanever spoke to a woman that way.The Talleys were going to go with another waste removal service—they were one of Jacob’s main customers.And they had a lot of business contacts in the region.
Jacob had royally screwed up.
His brother was on some sort of self-sabotage mission lately.But Kameron wasn’t going to have him making trouble for Quinn.Or her sisters.He just wasn’t.
If that meant he had to reeducate his brother, then so be it.
Kameron stepped through the melting snow and slush in front of his father’s house and headed up on the porch.The step held beneath his two hundred fifty pounds.This time.
His dad had said he meant to fix it or tell the landlord about it.The landlord was a total asshole.Most of his properties were run-down.Kameron had heard about six lawsuits against the guy, just in the last year, from previous tenants.
