Un-Hitched: A Camden Ranch Novel

by Jillian Neal

  “I ain’t leaving you period. They want to arrest me on trumped up charges they can go right ahead and do it. I’m far from being a lawyer, but wouldn’t you be the one that would have to say I’d kidnapped you and not let you go? I’m doubting you’re planning on doing that, so they got nothing on me. Now, simmer down and breathe for me. It’s all gonna be fine.”

  “It’s not going to be fine, but you’re right on the charges not being held up in court. You’re really smart. Did you know that?”

  “Trust me, sugar, I ain’t. I do what I know’s right.”

  “You haven’t ever committed a crime have you?” Another surge of panic swept through Kaitlyn. If they had him on something else, a kidnapping charge wouldn’t be necessary to arrest him.

  “Not that I’ve ever been caught doing. Did a fair amount of underage drinkin’. I’ve always seen the speed limits as more of a suggestion than a rule, but that’s about it.”

  “Okay, good.” She tried to breathe. Her heart broke out in a sprint, robbing her of a little more of her hearing as he turned into the driveway.

  “Come here to me.” He threw the truck into park and drew her into his arms. “It’s going to be fine. If you get scared just look at me or squeeze my hand tighter. I ain’t going anywhere. I’ll be right beside you the whole time. If I do get arrested, which I ain’t, my daddy and probably my big brother are already on their way here to get me out. And as soon as I’m out I’ll be right back beside you again.”

  “How do you know they’re on the way? Did they tell you that before we left? Your phone hasn’t rung the whole time we’ve been driving.”

  “I know ‘cause I know my daddy and Luke. That reminds me.” He reached into her purse and grabbed her cell phone. “Feels weird to be putting my number in after all this, but on the off chance they do cart me to the jailhouse you might need this.”

  Clinging to the last fragment of her sanity, she took his cell and entered her number as well.

  “Now, you ready? We can sit out here as long as you want.”

  “Let’s just get this over with. So help me God, if they put cuffs on you, I will end someone.”

  “There’s my little hellcat. Come on, Katy Belle.”

  “Just Katy with a y, remember?”

  His answering grunt said it all. The Belle portion of the nickname was going to be sticking around.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Irked with himself for being nervous, Grant ground his teeth while Kaitlyn slowly slid the key in the deadbolt. Judging by the cop cars parked everywhere and the sheer number of other cars in the driveway there were clearly a house full of people waiting on them. One of them could’ve opened the door. Choosing to focus on his annoyance about that instead of the gnawing fear that he was about to be arrested, Grant massaged the back of his neck.

  You could have cut the tension in the fancy-ass entryway of the mansion with a dull blade when they walked in. Josh and some other cop in uniform headed their way.

  “Are you aware there’s a warrant out for your arrest, Mr. Camden?” A man a half-head taller and a few decades older than Grant followed the cops. He looked like hell with red-rimmed eyes and a mask of pure rage chiseled in his greying beard.

  Her sister coward behind him.

  “I’m guessing you’re Mr. Sommerville.” Grant sighed. “I’d say it was nice to meet you, sir, but I ain’t much on saying something I don’t mean.”

  “I am Chief Sommerville. And you would be wise not to be insulting.”

  Kaitlyn narrowed her eyes. “Daddy, so help me, if you so much as mention the idea of arresting him, I will walk out of this house and I will never come back. Ever! I’m done with all of this ridiculousness from all of you. I left the wedding. I left Seth. I never want to see him again. I also keyed his car because he’s just such an epic asshole. I went with Grant. I intend to stay with Grant. And none of you will have anything to say about any of it, you got that? If you’re determined to arrest someone, go ahead and arrest me.”

  Grant lowered his head, hoping the brim of his hat covered his smirk. His girl had a hearty dose of sweet and innocent, but clearly she could tap right on into that red-headed hellcat status at a moment’s notice. That was yet another thing he loved about her.

  “You don’t even know the half of what you have done to me and to your mother, Kaitlyn Michelle Sommerville. What you’ve done to our home. The shame you’ve brought on our entire family. I’m thankful your brother didn’t have to see you behaving this way.”

  Grant’s head snapped up. “Say shit like that to her one more time, sir, and I’ll make damned sure you never see her again. Where the hell do you get off wanting her to take the blame for being cheated on?”

  “Grant,” Kaitlyn hissed through her teeth.

  The cops stirred like nervous cattle on sorting day. All watching for her daddy to tell ‘em to take a piss, he supposed.

  “We did not know where you were!” Her father raged in her face. Grant stepped between them, easing Kaitlyn behind him.

  “I’m sure you were worried sick about her. I would’a lost my mind if I didn’t know she was safe, but she couldn’t do anything about the storm or the downed cell towers. And you did know she was safe as soon as she called her sister.”

  “I wasn’t speaking to you.”

  “I won’t stand here and let you blame her for shit that ain’t her fault. She’s probably the strongest person I’ve ever met, but she’s been strong long enough. Don’t seem to me that any of you are man enough to stand up for her and be strong beside her, but I am. And I mean this with all of the precious little respect I can muster for you, sir, back the hell up.”

  “Arrest him,” her father menaced.

  “Daddy, no!” Kaitlyn screeched so loudly her own voice ricocheted through her head. No one had ever stood up to her father on her behalf. To her knowledge, no one had ever spoken to her father the way Grant had just talked to him.

  In that moment, she lost any semblance of doubt. She loved him. They had terrible timing. He was going to jail all because of her. It was too quick. It made no sense, but she loved him with every fiber of her being.

  “Langston, you will do no such thing.”

  Kaitlyn’s mouth hung open stupidly as every head in the foyer of her parent’s home snapped to the top of the staircase. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard her mother speak with any authority or strength. “Mama?”

  “Clearly, it is high time I stop hiding inside this ridiculous house and allowing you to make everyone’s life miserable because no one will stop you. Now, you,” she turned to Officer Harrington. “I have no idea who you are, dear, but if the only reason you are here is so my husband will give you a promotion for kissing his ass, leave. And Josh, darling, you were my precious son’s best friend and you will always be welcome in our home, but if your intention this evening is to arrest my daughter’s new friend, you can go as well.”

  No one spoke. No one even breathed. Evelyn Bellamy Sommerville appeared to be making a triumphant return. Kaitlyn refused to hope. She wasn’t strong enough to live through watching her mother come apart again.

  “Langston, you cannot arrest men simply because they have balls enough to stand up to you. Now, my daughter is back and she is safe, and for those reasons we are going to celebrate some way this evening. I’m sorry, sweetheart, I missed your name.” She extended her hand to Grant.

  “Uh.” He whipped off his cowboy hat. Kaitlyn couldn’t help but grin. “I’m … Grant Camden, ma’am. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “Yes, you as well. Now, Grant is going to be staying for dinner with all of us. Kaitlyn, sweetheart, would you mind cooking us something, anything you want. If I can help, you tell me.”

  Kaitlyn’s trembling hands steadied as her mother gripped them. Certain she was dreaming, she pulled her mother in for a hug. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “Evelyn, what do you think you are doing?” Chief Sommerville’s shocked gasp lo
st a little of his earlier fury.

  “I am telling you to sit down and shut up, Langston.” Her mother drew Kaitlyn into a warm embrace. “Thank you for coming back. I thought I’d lost you, too.” Her mother squeezed her tighter and Kaitlyn drank in the hug, one she hadn’t experienced in three long years.

  “Um, Grant’s father and brother are on their way to Lincoln. They live a long way from here. We could invite them for supper as well.” In for a penny, in for a pound, Kaitlyn figured.

  “Excellent. We’ll be happy to have all of them. Grant, why don’t you call your father and brother and give them directions.”

  “And your grandfather, too,” Kaitlyn added, mostly to gall her father.

  “I’m much obliged, ma’am, but they wouldn’t want to intrude.”

  Her father huffed but seemed to think better of making another retort to her mom.

  “It’s no intrusion at all. I get the impression we’re going to be seeing a great deal of you. And I would like it to go on the official record, Langston, that Seth Christenson never once in the two years you subjected our daughter to him referred to me as ma’am.” She turned back to Grant. “I was born and bred in Charleston, South Carolina. Manners go a long way with me. Speaking of manners, please allow me to apologize for my husband’s absurd behavior. We were worried, naturally, but this all got way out of hand. Now, Kaitlyn, why don’t you show Grant where to put your luggage. You can take my car and pick up anything you’d like to make for supper. Is it terribly clichéd to assume cattle ranchers like steak?”

  “Might be clichéd, but it’s also the truth,” Grant assured her. “I’ll take Katy grocery shopping, ma’am. Anything else I can do to help?”

  “Katy, oh, I used to call her that when she was a baby.” Evelyn patted Grant’s cheek. “I like you. I think this whole thing might just have been exactly what we all needed. Langston, if you can’t find it in yourself to apologize for being a jackass, go play golf.”

  Fishing around in her head trying to remember how to rejoin her lower jaw with her upper, Kaitlyn refused to blink, terrified if she closed her eyes the image before her would somehow disappear.

  “I’m quite certain I’m dreaming,” she confessed as she climbed back up in Grant’s truck.

  “I take it your mama ain’t always that …”

  “With it? No. Well, she used to be. I haven’t heard her talk to Daddy like that in years. They used to fight a lot. I think they kind of liked it. She’d argue with him just for the sake of arguing. The only thing they ever agreed on was how perfect my brother was. But I haven’t seen her like that … not since … well, you know. What if it doesn’t last? What if tomorrow she goes back to sitting in his room and not speaking? I don’t think I can go through that again.” Pre-emptive disappointment threatened her resolve. It wasn’t safe to hope for any other alternative.

  “Hang on to the good times, sugar. ‘Sides, I’d say we could use all the favors we can get. I thought I was done for before she came flying down them steps.”

  “Me too. I don’t know what to make of any of this. It’s too good to be true. It’s going to get bad again. It always does.”

  “Hey,” Grant squeezed her hand as he made his way out of the country club. “Good, bad, ugly, I’m right here. We’ll figure it out. Let’s just take this moment by moment. We still gotta get through a meal with three wool-dyed cattle ranchers and your daddy.”

  “Four wool-dyed ranchers, cowboy. Your father and grandfather and brother aren’t the only full-blooded cowboys who’ll be at supper tonight.”

  “All right, fine, I’m a rancher through and through. That don’t mean supper’s gonna pleasant.”

  “Is there a difference between a cowboy and a rancher? Should I not call you a cowboy?” Kaitlyn had been meaning to ask him this for the past few days. Now seemed as good a time as any and it was a welcomed distraction from the insanity of her life.

  “You can call me most anything you want, peaches, so long as you call me. But kinda.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “It ain’t a big deal and you’d have to have come up ranching to even care. I get called a cowboy plenty. It’s an honor really. No big deal.”

  “Grant, just tell me the difference.”

  “Cowboy generally refers to a rodeo cowboy. Kinda like my brother Austin. Now, he’s a real deal rancher, too, so he ain’t a good example at all. But the unspoken code of the Midwest is a cowboy gets himself thrown offa bulls and broncs to impress the buckle-bunnies. A rancher is a man who takes care of his wife, his kids, honors his land, and cares for his animals. He’s out there freezing his ass off when it’s twenty below because he ain’t worth nothing if he ain’t taking care of everything and everyone that depends on him. And if he don’t wanna work that hard and be the man that stands between his babies and the world, in my opinion, he oughta just go on and sell his saddle cause he ain’t worth a pile of cow shit.”

  “Wow.”

  “You know what a buckle bunny is?” The concern in his eyes when he was afraid she might not understand gave weight to his expectations of himself.

  “Yeah, that one is kind of self-explanatory. You’re amazing, by the way.”

  “Nope, I’m not, but I am a rancher, sweetheart, and I will always stand between you and anything that’s out to hurt you, even if it’s your family.”

  An hour later, Grant stood in a kitchen half the size of his entire house watching Kaitlyn prepare rib-eyes and chop potatoes. His mouth had been watering for the last fifteen minutes. She came alive in the kitchen. Not quite to the extent she did when she was in his arms, but her entire being seemed at peace.

  Her shoulders were back, her expression fierce. The pink glow in her cheeks said she knew what she was doing and to stand back and watch. He’d offered to help, but she’d told him just to keep talking to her so he was doing his best.

  “You’re so damned beautiful. Have I told you that today? I shoulda already said it if I haven’t.”

  “You tell me that all the time, even though I need to lose like thirty pounds or more.”

  “Who the hell told you that? I ain’t interested in dating a shovel handle in a dress.” Catching her hand before she added salt to the potato pot, he jerked her to his chest. “A real man wants something soft to hold onto when he’s driving himself in hard and fast.” Latching his hands on her delectable ass, he squeezed to make his point. “Wants something to jiggle when he swats her backside. And I must’a done something right in my life at some point, ‘cause darlin’, them titties spilling through my fingers when I grab you make me harder than a steel pipe.” Her teeth sank into her bottom lip as she stared up at him, producing a low growl from him. “I could do that for you, peaches.”

  “Have I told you today how much I like being yours?”

  “Nah, I don’t think you have, so go on with it.” He rocked her back and forth in the kitchen. The steam from the pots providing a slight screen to their flirtations. The heavenly scents of the food had nothing on the perfume of her.

  “I love being with you. I love you. And I know it’s too fast, and there’s all of this craziness, and I still haven’t dealt with Seth but I just do. I love you.”

  “I love you too, peaches.”

  “Do you think it’s okay?”

  “To tell me you love me?”

  “That we said it before and didn’t mean it. How do we know we mean it now?”

  “I just know. I told you I ain’t much on deeper thinkin’. I just know.”

  “You’re a lot smarter than you think you are, Grant Camden.”

  A distinctive sound of someone clearing their throat ripped them from the moment. Given the fact that Kaitlyn was still nuzzling her face against his chest and rubbing her hands along his ass, Grant assumed she hadn’t heard her sister’s entrance.

  Patting her backside both in an assurance that there would be more touching later, and to alert her, he took a slight step back and gestured to her sister.r />
  “Since Dad’s stalking around the house like a caged animal, you might want to keep your good ear off of his chest so you can hear him coming. Can I talk to my sister please?” Sophie cast a glare on Grant that could’ve frozen a hot summer day.

  He grunted his disdain. “That ain’t my call, but it’s a little easier on her if you stand on her left side. And if you’re lookin’ at me like that ‘cause you think I’m backing off and leaving her alone with you to talk, you’re crazier than a half-drowned cat.”

  “Grant,” Kaitlyn scolded though the broad grin on her face spoke much louder. “What do you want Sophie?” She went back to the potatoes. Keeping his vow, Grant stood his ground right beside her.

  “I just … I want to apologize.” The word sounded like it tasted mighty bitter. Grant eased his stance.

  “For?” Kaitlyn clearly wasn’t going to let out any more rope.

  “That’s my girl,” he whispered in her ear. That mischievous smirk formed on her features again. He mentally tallied the time it would take her to finish supper, for them to eat, and then for him to get her back to his bed. Too damn long.

  “For not being here,” Sophie choked on her admission. “I just … I didn’t know how to deal with Mom not being Mom and with Dad being insane. It was like all of the truths we’d ever learned growing up added up to nothing but a big huge lie. And you, you’re so much stronger than I am. You knew how to keep it all together. You’re good at this.” She gestured to her sister slaving over the hot stove. “I’m no good at taking care of people. I didn’t know how to deal with Keith’s death. I didn’t understand any of it. It was easier to not be here so I was a coward and refused to deal and I’m sorry. I left it all to you.”

  “And then you …?” Kaitlyn demanded hotly. For a moment, Grant wasn’t certain if the steam around her face was coming from the pot of boiling potatoes or from her ears.

  “And then I treated you like a child and was stupid enough to actually believe that you needed me to tell you what to do. And I also let myself believe that your hearing issues were affecting your thinking. The night we didn’t know where you were I’ve never been so scared in my life. I was over here, and I couldn’t handle it. On some level, I knew what you were living with every day, but I pretended it wasn’t as bad as it was. When you called me at my house, I’d just gotten home. I couldn’t be over here anymore. I don’t know how you did it for so long. I’m so sorry, Kit-kat. You did deserve a break, a long, long break.”