them.
“Just walking,” Mackenzie answered without even looking back at him. But he was walking now, too, and it didn’t take him long to catch up with them.
Her heart jumped so high she felt it in her throat.
Because it was Lucky.
Except he’d changed clothes real fast because he was wearing a suit jacket, and he didn’t have on that big rodeo buckle that had caught Mia’s eye. And he was standing in front of a big building. Probably once it’d been somebody’s house because it sort of looked like Dixie Mae’s place, but this one had a sign on the front of it.
McCord Cattle Brokers.
Mackenzie didn’t know what a cattle broker was, but McCord was Lucky’s last name. Maybe it meant he owned the place.
Mackenzie thought about taking off running, but he looked fast. A lot faster than Mia would be anyway. Mackenzie could get away on her own, but there was no way she’d leave her little sister behind.
“Are you ladies, uh, girls, lost?” he asked as if he didn’t even know them.
Mia looked at Mackenzie, probably for her to explain this. Maybe Lucky had got hit on the head or something and had amnesia, like what happened on the TV show that Dixie Mae watched.
“We were just headed to the bus station to meet one of our friends,” Mackenzie explained.
“What happened to the bull?” Mia asked before Mackenzie had even finished the lie.
“What bull?” Lucky asked.
Yeah, amnesia all right. Or maybe he could just be pretending that he didn’t know them so he wouldn’t have to take them. Grown-ups played all kinds of stupid games to get out of doing things they didn’t want to do.
“The shiny bull that looks like this.” Mia opened her hand and showed him the silver ball she’d made from the gum wrapper.
Lucky got a funny look on his face. He also glanced around before he tipped his head to the big building. “Why don’t you come in, and I’ll draw you a map to show you how to get to the bus station.”
Mackenzie didn’t like the sound of that at all. She’d met Lucky, but he was still a stranger, and if he got her into the house, he might call the police. Or try to do something even worse.
She stepped in front of Mia. “I already told you I’ll bust your face if you try to hurt my sister.”
Lucky held up his hands. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” He mumbled something Mackenzie didn’t catch. “Let me guess—you two know my twin brother, Lucky?”
Twin? Mackenzie eyed him, trying to figure out if that was true, but she didn’t have time to decide because someone called out her name.
The lady doctor.
She was running toward them, and she wasn’t alone. Lucky was with her. At least it was a guy wearing a shiny bull buckle. Maybe there were three of these men who looked alike.
“Why did you run off like that?” the lady doctor asked at the same time Lucky asked, “What the heck were you thinking?” Both seemed to be aiming those questions at Mackenzie.
“So, you do know my twin brother, Lucky,” the other man grumbled. “Please tell me you have this, whatever this is, under control,” he said to Lucky.
“No, I clearly don’t.” Lucky knelt down in front of Mia. “Are you okay?”
Mia smiled and handed him the silver ball. It was just a gum wrapper, but it also made him smile. People usually smiled around Mia. But Lucky didn’t give Mackenzie a smile when he stood back up. Didn’t give his twin one, either.
“Remember that letter Dixie Mae gave me?” Lucky said to him. He didn’t wait for an answer. “Well, Cassie and I need to take these girls for a day or two.”
“Cassie,” the twin said in the same friendly way some people said hello. He didn’t look angry at her, only at Lucky.
“We need to take them to your house,” Cassie explained. “But they slipped out of Bernie’s office while we were trying to make arrangements to get them there.”
The twin glanced at all of them, like he was the boss or something. Even the boss of Lucky. He pulled Lucky aside, the way the lady doctor had at the lawyer’s office.
“Are these your kids?” the twin whispered to Lucky. He probably thought he was saying it soft enough, but Mackenzie had good ears.
“We’re not,” Mackenzie told the question-asking twin.
But Mia must have heard it, too. “Our daddy and mommy die-did,” Mia said.
“Died,” Mackenzie corrected. She huffed.
The twin had actually thought they were Lucky’s? No way. Of course, Lucky seemed to feel the same about them. In addition to her good ears, Mackenzie had also learned to pick up on that kind of stuff.
The boss twin studied them a few seconds longer as if trying to decide if that was true or not. Then he finally tipped his head to a fancy silver car next to the fancy building. He took some keys from his pocket and handed them to Lucky.
“Use my car,” the twin told him. “I’ll have somebody drop me off at home later. Good to see you again, Cassie. I’m sorry for your loss.”
Lucky made an I’m-watching-you gesture with his fingers, pointing to his eyes first, then aiming those pointed fingers at Mackenzie. He stooped down when he made eye contact with Mia.
“Will you promise me you won’t run off again?” he asked her.
Mia nodded. Smiled, even. “Yes, I promise.”
Lucky turned to Mackenzie next. “And now I need that same promise from you.”
She hated having to do what anyone said, but she wasn’t in a good position here. Not with these two staring at her.
“Say it, Kenzie,” Mia pressed, giving her skirt a tug.
So Mackenzie did because she knew if she didn’t that Mia would just keep at it. “I won’t run.”
It wasn’t a lie. Next time she wouldn’t run. Mackenzie would somehow get a ride to the bus station or else just walk. But first chance she got, she was getting Mia and herself out of there.
THREE CARS AND four trucks. That’s how many vehicles Lucky spotted in the large circular drive that fronted the ranch and house. Obviously, he was not going to be able to make a quiet entrance with Cassie and the girls.
“It’s really big,” Mia said, looking up at the place as Lucky drove closer.
Yeah, it was. Too big. Or at least it had been after his folks died and after both Anna and Riley had moved away. Of course, Lucky had moved even before that, and despite the pretty exterior, he didn’t see a home, not anymore. It was just a house where he used to live with his family.
Oh, man.
He tried to push all that back down into the pit of his stomach. It would churn there, but it was better than dealing with it now. Especially when he had a crap-load of other stuff to deal with.
“You told them we were coming?” Cassie asked.
Her nerves were showing. Her mouth was tight. She was gripping her purse. Of course, the nerves likely had more to do with all the things ahead of her rather than walking into what appeared to be some kind of gathering. Things like him. Dealing with Dixie Mae’s death. Their temporary custody of these kids.
But especially him.
Cassie had always had this oil/water thing when it came to him, and she wasn’t going to like being under the same roof. Lucky