Page 94 of Kayla's Cowboy

Then there was Jackson and his damned marriage proposal.

She’d been trying to keep from thinking about it. A proposal was the last thing she’d expected, though maybe she should have realized it was a possibility. He cared about his daughter and wanted to be close to Alex; he was also big on responsibility, and money wasn’t the only way he wanted to take care of his son.

It was admirable, but it didn’t mean she could marry him. And it made no difference that Jackson had said he loved her. She knew better. After so many years of distrusting women, he’d suddenly decided to give love and the wedded state another go? Hardly. His proposal must have been an extremely rash impulse.

* * *

AS THEY APPROACHED SEATTLE, Kayla called Keri’s and Sandy’s families to let them know they were getting close. The Garzas and the Kellers had already arrived when she pulled into the driveway. They stood and talked while the kids chattered about their Montana adventures and gathered their belongings.

It was odd to step into the house that was so familiar yet now also felt foreign. Could she have changed that much in the weeks they’d been gone? Nothing was altered on the surface—it had to be the way her brain perceived it.

Their favorite Chinese restaurant stayed open late and she called in an order to be delivered, hoping it would help make everything seem normal again.

“It tastes different,” DeeDee complained.

“We’re just spoiled by Grams’s cooking,” Kayla said, though she agreed with her daughter. It did taste different. “And we’re tired.”

Before going to bed she phoned her grandparents and emailed Jackson. Then she crawled between the sheets to stare at the darkened ceiling; it was hours before she finally fell asleep. Her insomnia had never been this bad before.

In the morning Kayla followed her daily routine, going for her run before returning to fix a pot of oatmeal. The kids, still on Montana time, weren’t quite as groggily comatose as usual.

DeeDee yawned. “Why couldn’t we sleep late today?”

“School starts next week,” Kayla reminded her.

“Uh-uh,” DeeDee objected. “Not for a couple of weeks.”

“You’re thinking about Morgan’s school,” Alex told her. “She starts later than we do.”

“Rats.”

Kayla nodded. “So you need to start getting used to being awake earlier.”

Alex and DeeDee groaned in chorus.

“Did you call Jackson?” DeeDee asked as she poured sunflower seeds into her oatmeal. “He wanted to know when we got here.”

“I emailed him last night.”

“And I told Morgan all about our trip,” Alex added.

“Have you been Facebooking with her?” Kayla asked.

“Yeah. She, uh, sort of found me...before we met.”

“That’s what I figured. You already seemed to know her when we left for Yellowstone.”

“Morgan and me text each other, too,” DeeDee said.

DeeDee appeared glum, with Alex not far behind, and it didn’t appear to be from sleepiness. Kayla reminded herself that an emotional letdown was to be expected after an extended vacation, even for someone as naturally buoyant as her daughter.

She left for the office and found everything operating smoothly. Everyone seemed glad to see her and she spent several hours meeting with employees and a doctor who dropped by, but she wasn’t needed that badly, so she left after lunch. Her chagrin was balanced by her grandfather’s reminder that she’d done her job well enough to have become redundant.

Admittedly, she was depressed herself, but that would surely pass, as it would for the kids.

So what if she was in love with Jackson? The issues between them hadn’t changed, and he was probably devoutly grateful that she’d turned down his rash proposal.

Alex and DeeDee were in the kitchen when she got home and she gave them a determinedly upbeat smile. “There’s a game at Safeco tonight. Want to go? We can eat junk food for dinner.”

“Awesome,” DeeDee said, and Alex nodded. They weren’t as excited as she’d expected, but maybe she was reading too much into it.

She had to be sensible. If she ever got married again, it would be to someone in the city that she could count on. Her feelings for Jackson had nothing to do with true love—and if she told herself that often enough, surely she’d believe it.

* * *

JACKSON REINED IN Thunder and gazed at the cattle scattered along a low swale. It was his second day riding fences since Kayla had left, but the familiar task had done nothing to lessen the pain in his chest and gut.

He flexed his arm, his elbow throbbing where he’d slashed it on a wire. It had been the result of inattentiveness, but at least the ragged cut hadn’t required stitches.

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