by Lexi Post
Mac glanced at her mother. “Because we’re going to need the wagon to get them all down here.”
“What?” She looked at her mom. “What did you bring? The kitchen sink?”
Her mother’s lips formed a slow, smug smile. “I would have if I could have cut the pipes.”
Airlines charged per bag. Her mother didn’t have that kind of money. In fact, she couldn’t have received the airline ticket yet, since it had just been mailed two days ago. “Mom, how did you get here?” Even if she took the bus, a cab ride to Poker Flat would have been over a hundred dollars from the Phoenix station.
Her mother shrugged. “I drove.”
She widened her eyes. “Drove? You and Fred bought a second car?” Could the man who produced her have pulled his act together after all these years?
Her mother laughed. “Not even close. I took the car, everything I could fit in it and all the money in our account. I’ve left your father. I’m going to live here while the divorce goes through. Aren’t you happy?”
In complete shock, it took her a moment to notice the vibration in her back pocket. Turning away from her mother’s triumphant smile, she answered the phone. “Yes?” Her voice came out in a whisper.
“Kendra, what’s wrong?” Wade’s voice on the other end had her heart clicking into a more normal rhythm. Only he had the sixth sense when it came to her emotions.
Taking a few steps away from her mom, she kept her voice low. “Mom just informed me she’s divorcing Fred and plans to live here until she’s a free woman.”
Wade’s low whistle on the other end reassured her he understood exactly how impossible the situation was. “That’s a big pile of shit to deal with at this early hour in the morning. Just bring her over here, and we’ll hash it all out later.”
“Right.”
“That’s awfully rude.” Her mother’s voice carried as it always did. “It’s the middle of the fucking night and she has to take a phone call? I thought this was a nudie resort. Why do you have sweats on?”
Mac’s low tones floated over. “Because staff are not allowed to go nude while working.”
“That seems weird. You’d think everyone would be nude here.”
Kendra took a deep breath. “We’ll be right there.” Ending the call, she spun around and strode toward her mom. “Okay, let’s get you to bed.”
“Who was that? Don’t they know it’s the middle of the night? I’ve been driving for hours just to see you and you take a call? What’s wrong with this generation?”
She ignored her mom’s complaining, something she’d learned to do at an early age. “Mac, I’ll take it from here. You can grab another golf cart.”
“Will do.” Her crazy-fit female security guard wasted no time jumping into another golf cart and beating a hasty exit. Kendra didn’t blame her.
Finally, she turned back to her mom. “If you’d like to climb back in, I’ll take you over to the stable manager’s office. It’s a whole separate building and has everything you’ll need including a full bathroom.”
Her mother stepped up into the passenger side of the cart still grumbling. “Now you’re putting me in a stable. What do I look like, Mary Magdalene? I’m not pregnant. I’m not fat either. Things just shifted. It’s called post menopause and it will happen to you, too. Just wait. Hey, what about my stuff? Is that amazon going to bring it?”
She turned the cart on and pressed the pedal. “Not tonight. I want to get you a real room, so you can have your own space. There are no trail rides scheduled tomorrow, but I’m sure Jorge and Crystal will need to use the office at some point.”
Her mother grabbed a hold of the side of the cart as they went over a rock. “So now I’m an inconvenience?”
“Of course not. We just weren’t expecting you until next week. Every guest room is booked right now. It’s winter and high season for tourists.” She glanced at her mom. “I wanted to make as much money as possible so I can afford to feed all our wedding guests.” That her mother would get.
“That’s my girl. You take after me, you know. Your father couldn’t keep a nickel in his pocket if it was stuck in there with chewed gum. But me—” Her mother’s smile became devious. “I know how to stretch a penny and save. What your father doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
Her stomach lurched. She didn’t want to know, but her gut told her she would soon be learning all the sordid details. She was torn about her mother’s announcement. Half of her was damn proud of her. Fred had always treated her mother like crap. She’d even stopped calling him dad at the age of nine because she couldn’t stand the thought that they were related in any way.
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 herself 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 was
n’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, he drove toward 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.”
Wedding at Poker Flat (Poker Flat: Book 5)
Also by Lexi Post
Contemporary Cowboy Romance
Cowboys Never Fold (Poker Flat Series: Book 1)
Cowboy’s Match (Poker Flat Series: Book 2)
Cowboy’s Best Shot (Poker Flat Series: Book 3)
Cowboy’s Break (Poker Flat Series: Book 4)
Wedding at Poker Flat (Poker Flat Series: Book 5)
Christmas with Angel (Poker Flat Series Book 2.5/Last Chance Series: Book 1)
Trace’s Trouble (Last Chance Series: Book 2)
Fletcher’s Flame (Last Chance Series: Book 3)
Logan’s Luck (Last Chance Series: Book 4)
Dillon’s Dare (Last Chance Series: Book 5)
Riley’s Rescue (Last Chance Series: Book 6) Coming 2019
Aloha Cowboy (Island Cowboy #1)
Military Romance
When Love Chimes (Broken Valor Series: Book 1)
Poisoned Honor (Broken Valor Series: Book 2)
Paranormal Romance
Masque
Passion’s Poison
Passion of Sleepy Hollow
Heart of Frankenstein
Pleasures of Christmas Past (A Christmas Carol Series: Book 1)
Desires of Christmas Present (A Christmas Carol Series: Book 2)
Temptations of Christmas Future (A Christmas Carol Series: Book 3)
One of A Kind Christmas (A Christmas Carol Series: Book 4)
On Highland Time (Time Weavers, Inc. Book 1)
Sci-fi Romance
Cruise into Eden (The Eden Series: Book 1)
Unexpected Eden (The Eden Series: Book 2)
Eden Discovered (The Eden Series: Book 3)
Eden Revealed (The Eden Series: Book 4)
Avenging Eden (The Eden Series: Book 5)
Beast of Eden (Eden Series: Book 6) Coming 2019
About Lexi Post
Lexi Post is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of romance inspired by the classics. She spent years in higher
education taking and teaching courses about the classical literature she loved. From Edgar Allan Poe's short story “The Masque of the Red Death” to Tolstoy’s War and Peace, she's read, studied, and taught wonderful classics.
But Lexi's first love is romance novels. In an effort to marry her two first loves, she started writing romance inspired by the classics and found she loved it. From hot paranormals to sizzling cowboys to hunks from out of this world, Lexi provides a sensuous experience with a “whole lotta story.”
Lexi is living her own happily ever after with her husband and her cat in Florida. She makes her own ice cream every weekend, loves bright colors, and you will never see her without a hat.
www.lexipostbooks.com
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