Page 77 of Kayla's Cowboy

A shiver went across Kayla’s shoulders as she remembered Curtis asking for a divorce. Her world had fallen apart that day.

Drifting into the living room, she saw her grandparents working on a jigsaw puzzle. It was easy to spend time with them; they didn’t insist on constant attention and understood the need to help Alex become acquainted with Jackson.

Grams looked up and smiled. “Get your emails done, dear?”

“Yes, but it’s humbling to realize my company is doing so well without me.”

Hank nodded. “Sometimes our best work makes us redundant.”

“I never thought of it that way.” Kayla laughed. “Come to think of it, that’s probably a good job description for parents. You want your kids to become strong and independent and not need you for everything.”

“And when you succeed, you wonder why you wanted it so badly,” Elizabeth said. “It’s obviously a cosmic joke.”

“Too true.”

Kayla sat down and pulled several blue puzzle pieces toward her; the sky had always been her favorite part to do on a jigsaw.

“It’s wonderful to be with you again,” she said. “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you or myself enough to come back before.”

“Hey, stop that,” Grams admonished. “We agreed, no regrets. We’ve got the future to think about.”

“Does that mean you’ll visit us in Seattle sometimes? We’ll come here, too, but it’ll be hard during the school year.”

“You couldn’t keep us away.”

Underneath the table, Kayla knew, her grandparents were holding hands. She couldn’t suppress another stab of melancholy...and the wish to be holding hands with Jackson, perhaps walking under the stars and stopping for a long, sweet kiss. Pure romance. Except it had never been that way with him; with Jackson, any romance was just foreplay.

Stupid.

She wasn’t in love with the guy; she just had a mild case of lust. Years ago she’d recovered from a teenager’s crush on Jackson, and she could certainly recuperate from this.

* * *

“TAKE THE NEXT LEFT,” Jackson told Kayla.

She was driving and he was directing her through the country roads from the Crazy Horse to his parents’ spread. He’d expected to take his pickup, but the Volvo was already loaded with the kids’ extra clothing and other things they’d wanted for a sleepover.

Morgan and the others were riding their horses over to the Rocking M, and the silence in the Volvo made Jackson distinctly uncomfortable.

“And then the next right,” he said. “It leads straight to the house.”

His folks had planned another barbecue at their home, though it was a smaller gathering than the one at his place. After that the kids were spending the night in the backyard to watch a partial lunar eclipse, his father being the closest thing to an astronomy expert they had in Schuyler.

Kayla parked under a huge black cottonwood tree and Jackson watched her stare, expressionless, at the home where he’d grown up.

“Something wrong?” he asked finally.

She jerked as though startled. “Not really. I was just thinking about the last time I was here. I haven’t thought about it in a long time, but I always felt as if I was intruding.”

“I should have realized my folks weren’t treating you that well.”

“Your mother has already apologized. But maybe I let it become too important back then, because I already felt I wasn’t good enough.”

“I never thought you weren’t good enough.”

Her head turned. “No, you didn’t. I really liked you for that.”

Jackson grinned. “Was that the only reason?”

Kayla’s lips pressed together a second and he thought there was a spark of laughter in her eyes. “I can’t recall,” she answered lightly.

“Damn. Try to remember, or I might get an inferiority complex.”

“You’re so in danger of that,” she said drily.

“You never know.”

“We’ll just have to risk it.”

Kayla opened her door and climbed out, and he was treated to a terrific view of her tight behind. Letting out a heavy breath, he stepped from the car.

He started pulling the kids’ backpacks from the trunk and trotting them into the house.

“Hi, Mom,” he called, dropping the last set in the living room and urging Kayla into the kitchen.

Elizabeth Garrison had already arrived, and the two women seemed to be getting along splendidly. He’d known that Elizabeth and Sarah had worked together on community projects, but now that they shared a grandchild, they were becoming fast friends. From the window he saw his father and Hank in an animated discussion on the deck above the pool, complete with gesturing arms and the wide stance of two men on opposite sides of an issue.

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