But if Belinda got wind of his holding Jana’s daughter, then that might fuel some jealousy and hope that Kace didn’t want Belinda to have. Still, if he handed Marley back to Jana, then the crying might start up again. Jana clearly looked as if she needed a break from that, and having a quiet Marley would help speed things along.
Marley must have been resigned to the current situation, too, because she cuddled the hat against her like a blanket, stuck her thumb in her mouth and started sucking. Kace could practically feel the kid’s muscles go slack.
“Thank you,” Jana muttered. After drinking more water, she looked up at him with her intense blue eyes.
Eyes that could apparently still do a number on him.
Like her butt, those baby blues gave him a few tugs on the heartstrings. So did her mouth, but it tugged at a different part of him. That mouth had always been a hot spot for him. Kace silently cursed himself for recalling that and shoved that notion aside.
“Marley’s always cranky when she gets back from visits with her dad,” Jana went on.
Visits, as in a custody thing, and even though he tried to stop his attention from going to her left hand, he looked anyway. No wedding ring. That must mean the divorce was final.
“Since I doubt you brought your daughter in so I could arrest her for extreme crankiness, care to explain why you’re here?” he prompted, making sure he sounded and looked like a cop.
Of course, his stern demeanor was somewhat diminished by the fact he was holding a thumb-sucking baby wearing pink overalls and tasseled cowboy boots. Plus, Marley’s wispy curls kept landing on his mouth, and he had to blow them away since they were tickling him.
Jana nodded and gave another sigh, but she didn’t say anything until she’d stood and met him eye to eye. “Kace, we have to stop this wedding.”
He was sure he blinked twice, and Kace searched back through his memory to see if he’d missed something. “Are you talking about my brother?”
Because that was the only wedding Kace knew anything about. His brother Judd, and his fiancée, Cleo, would be having a small private ceremony once they set an actual date, but there was no reason for Kace or anyone else to stop it. Judd and Cleo had been in love since they were teenagers, so nobody would question why they were taking the “I do” plunge.
Jana pulled back her shoulders, shook her head. “You haven’t heard?”
Well, hell. That gave him a new jolt of concern. “Heard what?”
She stared at him. Really stared. And she mouthed some profanity. “I just assumed your father had told you.”
Now, that wasn’t just a jolt. It was more like an avalanche. “Told me what?” Kace snarled.
Jana’s hands went on her hips. “Your father asked my mother to marry him, and she said yes. They’re making plans for a wedding, Kace.” Her eyes narrowed to fiery slits. “Plans that you and I are going to stop.”
Don’t miss A Coldwater Christmas by Delores Fossen, available October 2019 wherever HQN Books and ebooks are sold.
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Copyright © 2019 by Delores Fossen
ISBN-13: 9781488098963
Sweet Summer Sunset
Copyright © 2019 by Delores Fossen
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Sweet Summer Sunset (A Coldwater Texas Novel) Page 29
