by Joanne Rock
But seeing her again reminded him of how good that weekend had been and how hard it had been to hang up on her when she’d called and said she wanted to see him again.
She glanced up as he approached her.
“I hate to do this, but I can’t make coffee this morning. I have to get my office set up here, and my boss has a potential couple scheduled for 10:00 a.m.”
“Rain check, then?” he asked.
“Yes, that would be great,” she said. She held her hand out to him.
She wanted to shake hands. Did she think this was a business deal? He took her hand, noticing how smooth and small it was in his big rough rancher hand. He rubbed his thumb over the back of her knuckles and then lifted her hand to his mouth to drop a kiss there.
“I’ll be in touch,” he said, turning and walking out of the bank. He went to his truck and realized his hangover was gone.
* * *
Kinley put Nate out of her mind as she unpacked the office and got the client meeting room set up. She glanced at her watch as she worked. The day care she’d signed Penny up for was two blocks down. Kinley wanted to get the room ready for the meeting with the basketball player and his fiancée and then go to see Penny before the meeting.
Her thoughts drifted back to Nate.
Damn.
He’d surprised her. Though she’d known she would run into him, she hadn’t been prepared for it to be today. She’d sort of hoped to establish herself here first. She stood in the doorway and looked at the table she’d set up with a variety of faux cakes and flower arrangements.
Her phone rang and she glanced down. It was Jacs on the Skype app. She answered the call.
“Do you hate me now that you’re back there?” Jacs asked.
“No. I don’t hate you. But I could have used a little more time before seeing the client this morning,” Kinley said.
“Sorry about the rush, kid, but these two are hot to get married. They want to expedite the timeline but still make sure everything is one of a kind. You are going to have to really work your contacts to get this done. But I have confidence in you. Also don’t let Bridezilla bully you. She was full on this morning with me.”
“I won’t,” Kinley said. Actually, it would be good to get straight to work. “I’m seeing the local baker this afternoon for the Caruthers-Gainer wedding. If she doesn’t work, I’m going to see if I can get Carine to fly in from LA.”
“Good. Do you need anything from the office here?” Jacs asked.
“I might after I talk to my ten o’clock. We still have the dress from the O’Neill-Peterson cancellation. She was very demanding. Maybe it will work for this bride if she doesn’t know it was designed for another woman,” Kinley said.
“I like your thinking. I’ll have Lori email the sketches so you can use them,” Jacs said. “Have a good one.”
Jacs disconnected the call, and Kinley gave the room a final once-over. She nibbled on her bottom lip as she realized that she was rubbing the back of her right hand...the hand Nate had kissed.
She shook her head. This was a horrible idea. For one thing, she’d never really gotten over him. She hadn’t been pining over him; she was too sensible for that, or at least that’s what she told herself. But she still thought about him.
Still remembered all the things that had gone on in that big king-size bed in the Vegas penthouse suite. Sometimes she woke up in a sweat thinking about Nate.
Usually it only took a moment to shove those thoughts away. She’d been telling herself that he wasn’t as good-looking as she’d remembered, but the way those faded jeans had hugged his butt this morning had confirmed he was.
And the spark of awareness that had gone through her, awakening desires that had been dormant since she’d given birth to her daughter, couldn’t be ignored. Maybe it was like Willa had suggested to her last month. It was time to start dating again.
Yes, that was it. She’d find a nice guy, a townie, and ask him out for a drink. Or maybe she’d go to the local bar and see if she could find someone...to do what? She wasn’t the party girl she’d once been.
She was a mom, and frankly the idea of going out and hooking up sounded like too much work—and not the kind she wanted to do.
She left the office, grabbing her purse and keys on the way out and locking the door behind her. She needed to see Penny.
Her daughter grounded her and made her remember what was really important.
As she walked down the streets of the historic district, she took stock of how far she’d come. When her parents had divorced, Kinley was a tomboy, the daughter of a housekeeper for one of the wealthiest families in Cole’s Hill. Now she was living in one of the houses her mom used to clean and planning a wedding for the son of her father’s boss. She felt like she’d come a long way.
Not that there had been anything wrong with her parents’ careers, but she was different. She always had been.
She entered the day care facility and was shown to the room where Penny and the other two-year-olds were playing. Her daughter was right in the middle of a group that was clustered around some easels. She walked over to her daughter and stopped next to her.
“Hi, Mama,” she said, dropping her marker and turning to hug Kinley’s legs.
“Hey, honey pie,” Kinley said, stooping down to Penny’s level. “What are you making?”
“A horsey. That boy said he has his own,” Penny said.
Kinley tucked a strand of her daughter’s straight red hair behind her ear and brushed a kiss on her forehead. “There are a lot ranches around here.”
“Like Pop-Pop’s?” she asked.
Penny had seen the ranch on the many video chats they’d had with her father. And the last time they’d talked, her dad had taken his tablet into the barn and shown her his horse. The toddler couldn’t wait to visit her Pop-Pop and meet his horse.
“Just like that one. But Pop-Pop just manages the hands. It’s not his ranch.”
“I can’t wait to see it,” Penny said.
“We might not get to go out there,” Kinley said. She didn’t want to take Penny to the Rockin’ C and chance her running into Nate. She had no plans to tell Nate about Penny; he’d made it clear a long time ago where his interest lay, and it wasn’t with raising a family. “Pop-Pop is going to come to town and visit us.”
“Okay,” Penny said.
Kinley hoped that would be the last of Penny talking about going to the ranch. She visited with her daughter until snack time, and when it was over, Kinley left after giving Penny a hug and a kiss.
She got through her meeting. She’d talked the bride, Meredith, into looking at the sketches for the dress they’d already had made. Meredith liked the design but wanted a few changes. Kinley was still thinking about that as she drove over to the Bluebonnet Bakery to sample the cakes for the Caruthers wedding.
She saw a familiar pickup truck with the Rockin’ C logo on it parked out front but told herself not to jump to conclusions. The Rockin’ C probably had a lot of F-150 pickups. It was probably just Hunter.
But when she walked into the bakery, she found her gut had been right. Nate stood at the counter along with his middle brother, Ethan, Hunter and a woman who had to be Hunter’s fiancée. Derek, the second-oldest Caruthers, was a surgeon and probably not available to sample cake.
“Hello, everyone,” Kinley said.
She just had to be professional. She could do that.
“Hi, I’m Ferrin Gainer,” the woman said, stepping over to her. “It’s so nice to meet you.”
“I’m looking forward to working with you and helping you plan your special day. I’ve arranged for us to have a tasting in the back room,” Kinley said, motioning everyone in the right direction. “Why don’t you go through there and I’ll be right with you.”
Everyone went into the room but Nate. He hung back.
She shook her head.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m the big brother of the groom. He asked me to come, so I did,” Nate said. “This is why I wanted us to chat earlier. Just clear the air. Like I said, I was a jerk, and I’m sorry. I don’t want anything to mess up Hunter’s wedding.”
Oh.
When he said it like that, he sounded so reasonable. And she realized that coming to Cole’s Hill had more consequences than she’d thought. She was losing her professional edge because of Nate. Part of it was the way he made her pulse speed up; another, bigger part was the fact that he was her daughter’s father and she hadn’t told him. And the cost of keeping that secret seemed higher than she might be able to pay.
“Sorry. I’m just a little short-tempered today. Must be the jet lag.” Though with only a one-hour time difference between here and Vegas, she knew jet lag was a bit of an exaggeration.
“Don’t be. It happens to the best of us. After the tasting we can get a drink and talk. It’s obvious we’re going to need to.”
She nodded. She had to check in with her nanny, Pippa, and make sure that Penny would be fine for the evening. “I have one more appointment, and then I can meet you for a drink.”
It would have been so much easier to just say no if Nate wasn’t...well, so likeable and charming. And if she didn’t have Penny. But she did. And now she was going to have make a decision that she’d thought she’d already made.
Copyright © 2017 by Katherine Garbera
ISBN-13: 9781488011610
The Magnate’s Marriage Merger
Copyright © 2017 by Joanne Rock
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