grocery store she spotted a sketch pad. On impulse she tossed it in her cart.
That evening Karyn didn’t think she would sleep but she drifted right off, which meant she’d made the right decisions, she thought when she awakened hours later, clear-headed, at 3:45 a.m. Traffic was heavy, even then, at least until she got about an hour out of town. Then it was just a long drive with only music and her thoughts to keep her company.
She stopped every couple of hours and stretched, had something to eat, then got going again. She hit traffic again in Sacramento. After that it was smooth sailing until, almost thirteen hours after she’d started, she pulled into the motel parking lot, feeling like she’d played a game of tackle football.
It would be dark soon. She would find a place to get a warm meal then go to her room and crash.
But as she walked toward the office, she slowed, then stopped. Her brother’s daughter could be thirty miles away....
Karyn got back into her car, grabbed her directions and started driving. She didn’t know what she would tell Vaughn when she got there. She didn’t even know if she could find his house within the ranch property, but she’d spotted what looked like might be his on Google Earth. She assumed the small, private roads visible from high in the sky would be marked in some way. Except if she didn’t get there before dark, she would probably have to abandon her quest.
For today.
Luck was on her side. The ranch itself was marked with a large sign. She followed her Google photo of the property, took a side road, then another, then another. Just when she thought she was lost, a house appeared, two stories and beautiful, surrounded by trees and with a paddock and barn behind it. A hitching rail stood in front of the house, which made her smile.
“Well, Karyn, you’re not in Hollywood anymore,” she said, staring.
As she sat in her car admiring the house and land, awareness of her actions the past twenty-four hours washed over and through her. She’d reacted emotionally to Gloriana Macbeth’s normal behavior—she’d overreacted, that is. She hadn’t thought through the potential consequences of showing up here. There was a child involved who had already been hurt by her mother’s abandonment. Karyn couldn’t contribute to that pain.
She restarted her engine. She would return to the motel, as planned. She would be patient and wait for the test results. So what if she was alone for Christmas?
As Karyn put the car in gear, the front door opened and the cowboy lawyer came out.
He didn’t look happy.
Chapter Four
Annoyance wrapped around Vaughn like a lasso on a bucking bronc, pulling tighter and tighter as he went down his steps and headed to the electric blue VW Bug parked in front of his house.
She climbed out. Even angry, he acknowledged he was as impressed with her now as he was the first time he met her. Her super-tall heeled boots gave her height, and her fashionable clothes showed off a body he’d recalled with clarity several times in the past few days, but she also looked totally out of place for the environment.
And...fragile.
Which didn’t stop him from laying into her. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Leaving,” she said, looking panicked. “I’m sorry. Honestly, I wasn’t thinking. I’ll go right now.” She eyed the house. “Did Cassidy see me?”
“She’s baking cookies with my mother at my parents’ house.”
Some of the tension left Karyn’s face. “Thank goodness.”
“Why are you here?”
She closed her eyes briefly, as if in pain. “You invited me.”
“I believe I told you there was a motel nearby where you could wait for the test results, which won’t be in for at least a week.”
“I needed to get out of town.”
“You made the FBI’s Most Wanted list?”
She shook her head but said nothing.
“Why did you need to get out of town?” She hadn’t seemed like a flighty woman, but appearances could be deceiving. He’d learned that the hard way.
“Christmas isn’t a...good time of year for me. I usually fly to Vermont to see my parents, but I canceled the trip.”
The fragility was there, still, in her face, especially her eyes. “Why isn’t it a good time of year for you?” Then he remembered. He’d learned that her brother had died on Christmas Eve. It took some of the steam out of him, allowing a little sympathy to worm its way into his irritation.
“You ask hard questions,” she said, sort of smiling. “A lot of factors went into my decision, including getting angry at Gloriana Macbeth. I’m always well behaved in public, but this time I wasn’t.”
An image of the many-times proclaimed sexiest woman alive flashed in Vaughn’s head. “I read she was a client of yours.”
“She was.”
“Ouch. That bad?”
Karyn shrugged. “It was suggested that I take some time off.”
He didn’t want to know more, didn’t want to see the hurt in her eyes any longer. Didn’t want any kind of attachment to her. He’d always been drawn to women who needed taking care of. He recognized it as his fatal flaw.
“I just wanted to meet my niece,” she said quietly.
“That hasn’t been—”
“Confirmed. I know. I just feel it in my bones.”
“I need hard fact.”
She sighed. “I know.” She looked around. “It’s gotten dark. I need to go while I can still see the roads. I’m sorry I bothered you.”
She was too late. He heard his mother’s truck head up the driveway. As soon as the vehicle stopped, Cassidy jumped out and raced to Vaughn. She had red and green frosting not only on her clothes but also in her hair, the same sprung curls as Karyn’s, although blond rather than light brown.
Vaughn stumbled over the introductions, especially when Karyn’s eyes glistened. He gave her name but nothing else. His mother, her short blond hair hidden by her usual straw cowboy hat, looked at him curiously, but Cassidy just offered her hand to shake.
“Nice to meet you,” his daughter said, like an adult, to Karyn.
“Same here.” Karyn looked like she wanted to scoop up Cassidy and never let go.
Cassidy peeked into Karyn’s car. “Do you live in there?” she asked, her green eyes going wide.
Karyn laughed. “No, but it’s full, isn’t it? I’m traveling.”
“Are you staying with us?”
Karyn didn’t take her eyes off Cassidy. “I have reservations at a motel nearby.”
“But why are you here?”
“She came to paint, Cass. She’s an artist.” He ignored the way Karyn fired daggers at him with her eyes as he winged an answer he hoped his daughter would accept.
“Paint what?” Cass asked.
“Whatever interests me,” Karyn said.
“Oh!” Cassidy’s eyes went wide, then she jumped up and down. “It’s my turn! It’s my turn, isn’t it? Finally. Right, Daddy? My official family portrait.”
“Um...” Karyn took a couple of steps back, panic having replaced the daggers. “I don’t—”
Cassidy hugged her father. “Oh, boy! Come on, Karyn. I’ll show where it’s going to go.”
“Sweetheart,”