by Lexi Post
But the other half of her worried about the repercussions of her mother’s decision, both in what might happen for her mom and how it would affect her and Wade. Fred wouldn’t take his housekeeper and cook skipping out on him laying down.
She drove the golf cart up the slight incline toward the barn and office. Despite knowing she’d probably regret it, she had to ask. “Why did you finally leave Fred? He didn’t hurt you, did he?” The thought of him hitting her mother had her hands squeezing the steering wheel.
“Of course not! If he dared lay a hand on me, I’d beat his flabby ass from here to kingdom come.”
She relaxed. Fred was an unfaithful asshole and a drunk, but he’d never done anything physically abusive. He didn’t have to, his mouth did it all for him.
“Then why did you leave him now?”
Her mother grinned. “When you called and said you owned a resort and were getting married, I figured you had finally settled down.”
Okay, that might be true, but what did that have to do with leaving Fred? “I don’t understand.”
“It’s simple. Sally left the park after her husband died and moved in with her son and daughter-in-law. Betty’s daughter renovated her garage into a mother-in-law apartment so Betty could leave that falling apart trailer she was living in. And now I can move here to be with my daughter.”
Kendra was back to squeezing the steering wheel as she pulled to a stop in front of the stable manager’s office next to the golf cart already parked there, her shock and fear so complete she wasn’t sure she could move.
Luckily, Wade opened the door and strode out. Her broad-shouldered, thin waisted cowboy had a smile on his face as he walked toward her mother’s side of the golf cart. “You must be Donna. I’d know you were Kendra’s mother even in a crowded fair. You’re obviously where she got her good looks.”
Her mother looked at her and rolled her eyes before turning back to Wade. “Well now, if that ain’t a crock of shit I don’t know what is.” She waved him toward her. “And you just keep piling it on, honey.”
Wade chuckled as he tipped his hat, barely revealing his short chocolate-brown hair beneath. “I’ll do my best, ma’am.”
Her mother looked over at her again. “Is he for real?”
She managed a weak nod.
“Well, damn me to hell and back. I’m gonna like it here.” Her mother turned toward Wade, who offered her his hand to help her out. “Oh, yes, I’m going to like it here a lot.”
As Wade guided her mother into the office, she forced her fingers to let go of the steering wheel. Already her mind was racing with one disastrous scenario after the other. Her mother insulting a guest. Her mother getting drunk at the bar. Her mother spinning out on a golf cart and it toppling over. Her mother walking into her house when she and Wade were having sex. Her mother stalking into the kitchen to complain to Selma about her meal.
She lowered her head onto the steering wheel and closed her eyes. Maybe if she wished hard enough, she’d discover this was all just a bad dream.
“Hey.” She looked up to find Mac standing next to the golf cart.
She scanned the area but didn’t see another cart nearby. The woman was as quiet as Hunter, her other security guard, and both of them did a fantastic job. Would they be willing to escort her mother off the property? She shook her head. That wasn’t an option. Nothing was an option, and that scared the hell out of her.
“Anything I can do?”
She shook her head. “No. Not yet anyway. She just informed me she plans to live here. Indefinitely.”
Even in the low illumination of the single spotlight on the outside of the barn, Mac’s shiver was clear. “That will be…interesting.”
“Hah.” The understatement was laughable. “Far worse than that.” She pulled herself together and exited the cart. “Did you need something?”
Mac’s mouth formed a grin. “Yes, I was wondering what you wanted me to do with the dogs.”
“What dogs?” She scanned the dirt area in front of the barn, but didn’t see any dogs. She didn’t even hear a coyote, which was odd.
“Her dogs.” Mac pointed toward the office. “They’re in her car. I didn’t realize they were there because they were so quiet, but I was just up there and they must have woken up because they are yapping like crazy.”
Dogs? Her mother didn’t have any dogs. Last she knew her mother didn’t like dogs. For that matter neither did she. They were too much like coyotes for her comfort. As if her childhood trauma had happened yesterday, her left leg started to itch. She really didn’t like dogs. “Are they big?”
Mac shook her head. “I’ve owned cats bigger than these dogs.”
Her tension eased. That was the first good news she’d had all night, which in itself was pretty sad. “You better bring them down here. Put them in the unfinished Saloon.”
“I’ll check and bring anything in the vehicle that might help. She was adamant about locking her car, but then she handed me the key to bring down her bags.”
Kendra waved the idiosyncrasy off. “That’s typical. I’ll have Wade and Jorge get the rest of her things once I find out from Lacey where and when we can move her.”
“Got it. I’ll be back.”
Mac strode off, disappearing into the desert beyond the circle of light. She knew far more about Mac than anyone on the resort and she was proud at how the woman had fit in. She’d kept more than her fair share of vandals off the property. That and the teenagers with more curiosity than brains.
Squaring her shoulders, she moved toward the office. If she left Wade alone in there with her mother any longer, he might think twice about marrying her. Even at the thought, her gut twisted. Here she was the one who had delayed the wedding plans and now she wished they’d eloped before he ever met her family.
Luckily, there was just the one. Fred was not family.
Wade barely kept himself from laughing out loud as they exited the office and he guided Kendra to his golf cart. Her mother both shocked and amused him, mainly because she was the complete opposite of her daughter.
Kendra sat in the passenger seat and opened her mouth to speak.
He put a finger over her lips and shook his head.
After she nodded in understanding, he walked around to the driver seat and sat next to her, turning the cart on and driving back to their house, the only two-story adobe place on the resort. Once they had passed the Old West town, the newest addition to the resort, he glanced at her. “Go ahead. Spill.”
She frowned, which was far better than how she used to register her frustration, which had been showing no emotion at all. Still, he knew the frown was just the tip of the iceberg with his soon to be wife.
“She wants to live here. Did you hear that? On a nudist resort. The wedding isn’t for another week and she’s already moving in. And what the hell are we going to do with her until then? I can just see her making fun of a man’s penis and the next thing you know, we’ll be all over the nudist internet as the place to avoid. I didn’t build this place just so she could kill it.”
Kendra took a breath, so he jumped in. “I’m sure she doesn’t want to ruin your livelihood. You’re her daughter.”
“You don’t understand.” She shook her head. “I’m not saying she will purposefully ruin me. You heard her in there? She doesn’t have a clue what she’s saying.”
He chuckled. “You mean about how she understands now why you went for such a big piece of meat?”
Kendra groaned. “Everyone except you would be pissed off by that. I can just imagine what she’ll say when she—Oh, hell.”
“What?” Even in the dark, he could see the mortification in Kendra’s face as she looked at him.
“Your parents. She’s going to totally embarrass me.”
He brought the golf cart to a stop in front of their door, then took her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. “They’ll love her because she’s your mother.”
She shook her head. “Now
you’re outright lying to me. I’ve met your parents. They are polite and caring and…and…nice. They’ll spend three minutes with her and run the other way.”
“Kendra, listen to me. My parents won’t break because your mother says things most people don’t. My grandmother is like that, and we all do just fine.”
Her eyes rounded. “Freak. Tomorrow’s the manager’s reception. What are we going to do with her while we’re hosting our guests? There’s no way I’ll let her see me nude.”
Obviously, his fiancé was going off the deep-end fast and that actually scared him. She’d faced an opinionated sheriff bent on destroying her dream with more backbone than this. “Kendra, listen to me.”
She looked at him but she wasn’t seeing him.
Screw that. Grasping her by the neck, he pulled her to him and kissed her. It only took a second before she responded. As their tongues entwined he held her until her hands started to burrow under his shirt.
As much as he wanted to make love to her, they weren’t doing it outside on the golf cart and they weren’t doing it until he got through to her. Breaking the kiss, he leaned his forehead against hers. “Let’s go inside and talk about this calmly, okay?”
She nodded, her breaths already short from her desire.
“Good.” He let her go and met her in front of the cart, taking her hand as they walked to the door.
Chapter Two
Wednesday continued.
Kendra remained silent until they entered, then she plopped down on the couch and stared at the coffee table. “Maybe I can get Lacey to take mom to Last Chance for a few days.”
Wade moved into the kitchen and turned on the coffeemaker manually since it wasn’t due to start for another couple of hours. Then opening the refrigerator, he twisted open a beer and brought it to Kendra. “Here, it will help you think.”
She glanced up at him. “I’d rather it help me forget.”
He shook his head and sat next to her, putting his arm around her shoulders. “The problem would still be there. Now let’s take this one step at a time. First, the manager’s reception tomorrow.”
She groaned even as she lifted the beer bottle to her lips.
He forced himself to look away from her mouth, lowering his gaze which gave him a perfect view of her bountiful cleavage. She continued to dress to cover her large chest and her scarred left leg though she stripped for the Manager’s Reception on Wednesdays.
At that realization, he leaned back. She still wasn’t comfortable with who she was. He took a minute to digest that. Kendra was one of the most confident women he’d ever met. She’d made it through her first marriage despite the man’s callous attitude, become a very successful professional poker player, and created a haven for nudists who wanted a top-notch resort for vacations despite all the hurdles thrown in her way.
Yet for all that, she was still insecure about two things, her body and her upbringing in a trailer park. He’d been trying to help with the first insecurity, but had missed the second. As husband material, that was a significant strike against him.
“So, do you have any solutions?”
Her voice had him returning his attention to the problem at hand. “I do. One of us can go and one of us can distract your mother. Maybe take her into town for dinner.”
She nodded. “That’ll work. I’ll let Buddy and Ginger know mom is here so they don’t make a big deal over one of us not being at the reception.” She rose and walked toward the kitchen, the smell of coffee starting to drift in. “I have no idea how mom is going to react to seeing Buddy and Ginger here.” She opened a cupboard and pulled out a coffee mug.
He stifled the urge to smile. His soon-to-be wife was usually sound asleep when he woke up in the morning, so the fact she thought to pour him his coffee had his heart warming. “You didn’t tell her when you spoke to her on the phone?”
She leaned against the island that separated the kitchen from the living room, her weight thrown over to her right hip, a clear indication she was agitated. “No. I had planned to tell her on the drive from the airport to here. I thought it would give me enough time to answer any objections.”
“Objections?”
“Yes. Mom was one of those who was happy to get rid of the ‘nudie people’ when that all went down at the trailer park. But when she found out I had opened a nudist resort, she only asked if it was making money and if I had a section for trailers. That made me think that maybe mom was glad to see Ginger and Buddy thrown out because she resented me spending time with them when I was young. Either way, I have no idea how she feels now.”
The coffee maker beeped and Kendra turned away.
He enjoyed the sight of her in the kitchen as she lifted the pot. He’d never thought that he’d be living on a nudist resort with a woman who didn’t rise at the crack of dawn with him. He owed a lot to his friend Dale for asking him to work at Poker Flat for three months. If it hadn’t been for him, he would have missed out on an amazing woman and a unique community that took him in with open arms.
She brought him the coffee and handed it to him.
“Thank you. You could tell your mother at dinner and I can host the reception.” It wasn’t as if he had to do anything besides welcome everyone and talk. Lacey and Selma had the weekly event going off like clockwork.
“That could work.” She returned to stand by the counter, her former outburst forgotten as she buried it under her poker façade.
That used to bother him, but he understood her now. It was a defense mechanism. He didn’t mind because he had many ways of getting her out of her closed place. Taking a sip of coffee, he barely kept from closing his eyes in satisfaction. He was an early riser, but not this early. “And today, I’ll have Jorge take your mom for a trail ride.”
As he expected, Kendra’s eyes widened. “A trail ride? My mother? I’m not sure she’s even seen a real live horse before, never mind ridden one.”
He shrugged. “If Jorge can’t convince her to try horseback riding, I’m sure he could get her on the wagon at least to a spot where they could walk to. Maybe Selma could pack them a picnic lunch.”
“I’m not sure.”
“Why?” He took another sip of coffee. He saw nothing wrong with his plan.
Kendra pulled away from the counter to walk across the living room then sat beside him. “I think Selma likes Jorge.”
“What?” He hadn’t seen that coming. Sure, Jorge flirted with the older woman, but he flirted with every woman. The man made very good tips.
“It’s just a hunch, but she complains so much about him, I think she likes him.”
That made absolutely no sense, so he let it go. “Tell you what. I’ll ask him anyway. If Selma does like him, we’ll know right away.”
“I’ll say.” Her lip finally quirked up into a small smile. “You’ll have to tell me exactly how she reacts. If I was betting, I’d lay money down that she likes the man.”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “Did you want to make a bet on it?”
Her blue eyes sparkled with mischief. “That depends on what the stakes are. It’s not like I haven’t seen you naked already, so that’s no incentive.”
Her reminder of the first time they played poker —strip poker—made him pause. He took another sip of coffee, the caffeine helping him to think. She was very good at reading people. She’d done it for a living. If she was right, and as surprising as it might be that the two fifty-somethings might be interested in each other, he needed to make the win worth it for Kendra.
She raised her eyebrows at him. “Well?”
“What would you want?”
Her smiled turned devious, which immediately heated his blood. “If I’m right, I choose where we go for our honeymoon.”
He froze, his coffee cup halfway to the end table. “I thought you said we couldn’t take a honeymoon because it’s the busy season.” He’d been irritated that she’d put the business before them, but had sucked it up. Just getting her to commit to a wedding da
te had been a major win for him. He’d never expected to be the one itching to get married.
“Oh, I don’t mean right now. But I thought about what you said last year and you’re right. We do deserve a honeymoon. We hardly get anytime to ourselves living here on the resort. So I was thinking maybe we could go this summer. Things will be slower and the staff should be able to handle it, or we could simply close for a couple weeks and give everyone paid time off.”
He finished setting his cup down. She surprised him on a daily basis with the way her mind worked and with the size of her heart. He’d take the bet just to get her to commit to the honeymoon alone. “And if I win, I choose the spot?”
She shrugged. “Sure.”
Her utter confidence had him holding back a smile. Most likely she was right about Selma, but he knew his fiancé. If she had to work at something, it made her even more determined. “Deal.”
“Good.” She gave him a nod, but he recognized the loosening of her shoulders.
Something told him she had a place in mind that he may not like. He hoped he was wrong.
“So that covers distracting mom today and tonight. At least that gives me time to figure out what to do with her for the following four days.” Even as she said it, Kendra leaned her head back against the couch and closed her eyes.
It was now just past four in the morning, a time neither of them was usually awake. Moving off the couch, he knelt on the throw rug and lifted her foot. Taking off first one cowboy boot and then the other, he smiled sadly at the memory of the first time he’d seen her scarred leg. It had taken months, but she didn’t flinch anymore when he touched her there.
“Wade, you don’t have to do that.”
He looked up at her, but she hadn’t opened her eyes. “I know.” He set the boots aside before taking off her socks. He gently massaged her feet, wishing he could take her worry about her mother completely off her shoulders.
