As Tyler made his way through the dining room, he was stopped by several guests, just like he usually was anywhere he went on the ranch. He glanced at the corner table to toss his siblings an apologetic look. But instead of finding four people watching him, there was only one.
Kinsey. And she was stunning—so much so that he halted his stride, stopped talking mid-sentence, and stared at her.
She was sipping from a glass of wine and peering out the window, her face aglow from the candles on the table. An elegant and form-fitting dark-blue evening gown showed off her well-honed body, and her hair was pulled back into a French twist with loose strands framing her cheeks, exposing her neck and shoulders and displaying her sparkling necklace and matching earrings to great advantage.
She was easily the most beautiful woman in the room, easily the most beautiful in the state, maybe even the most beautiful in the country.
He stood in the middle of the dining room, unmoving like a marble sculpture. He could feel even more attention from surrounding diners shifting his way. He needed to move, but the air in his lungs constricted, and he couldn’t take his next breath. He could only stare at her, his heart racing crazily with keen need.
Need for what? For her?
He didn’t want to feel attraction to Kinsey, but helping her dismount at the corral had only fueled the fire he needed to douse.
Earlier, when he’d arrived in the barn and noticed her taking a riding lesson, he’d watched…to make sure the ranch hand wasn’t flirting with her. Then Wyatt had shown up and joined in offering advice, and Tyler hadn’t been able to drag himself away from the cuteness of it all.
If only he’d walked away then. But no, he’d had to stay. When the ranch hand had offered to help with the dismounting, the thought of that young man putting his hands on Kinsey had riled Tyler more than he’d believed possible. He hadn’t been able to stop himself from storming out into the corral faster than an angry bull.
Even though he’d known he needed to keep his hands to himself too, he’d decided that he was better than some randy cowboy who might not respect Kinsey the way she deserved.
All that had been good and well at the time. But clearly, he was letting his contact with her, the nearness, and her beauty all go to his head.
When Kinsey’s gaze finally flickered toward him, he forced his feet forward.
Who had invited her to their sibling dinner? Her presence wouldn’t be ideal if they wanted to speak honestly and openly about Dad and his care. But it was Kinsey’s day off, and after how hard she’d worked, she deserved to enjoy one of the impressive meals served in the dining room.
With each step that drew him nearer, her eyes widened, almost as though she hadn’t expected him. Emberly had been the one to set up the dinner, and maybe she hadn’t clarified to Kinsey who would be present at the sibling dinner, although the wordsiblingseemed pretty self-explanatory.
As he pulled out a chair and sat down across from her, he had the urge to fidget with his tie and coat again. In his suit, he knew he was fine-looking, especially because he’d taken the time to trim his scruffy face and slick back his dark hair.
But clearly he wasn’t appealing to Kinsey, because she turned her attention back to the window and resumed slowly sipping her wine. Either that, or she was still angry with him for his resistance to having her at the ranch as Dad’s nurse.
He needed to man up and be the one to break the ice between them. Even if they’d gotten off to a rough start, that didn’t mean they couldn’t put that behind them and at least be friendly to each other.
“You look nice tonight.” He said the first thing that came to his mind, something he’d say to his mom or Emberly. But oncethe words were out, they felt too intimate, and he wished he’d come up with a better line.
“Thank you.” She didn’t look at him and continued to gaze out the window.
He scrambled to find a topic that wasn’t so personal. “It’s a beautiful view, wouldn’t you agree?”
“It’s incredible. I love it.” She seemed to relax in her chair. “I was just thinking that whoever planned for the restaurant to be here is brilliant.”
“Thank you. Thatbrilliantperson was me.”
Her gaze swung to him. The blue-green of her eyes and the full impact of her beauty hit him in the lungs and drove the air from him. With her hair twisted up, her face was even more slender, showing off the high angles of her cheeks. The dangling earrings seemed to tantalize him, so close to the smooth stretch of her neck.
“You planned the location of the restaurant?” Her voice held a note of surprise.
“The first year I moved back after graduation from college almost ten years ago.”
“So there was another dining room before this one?”
For a short while he explained the original structure of the ranch and then the projects he’d instituted after he’d taken over. Of course, he hadn’t been able to make all the renovations at once. But gradually, over the past ten years, he’d turned an upscale ranch into a luxury destination.
During their discussion, a waiter poured him wine and brought out his favorite appetizer—steak and blue cheese bruschetta. By the time the waiter came to take their order, Tyler glanced at his watch and realized an hour had passed. None of his siblings were in sight. Had he mixed up the time of their dinner?
He pulled out his phone to find that he’d missed texts from all three, each of them giving him an excuse for why they wouldn’t be able to make it to dinner after all. After he’d already arrived and sat down.
How convenient of them.
