“Then why does she need me?” Ethan asked.
“Well, we all know lawyers are sharks, so it must be that she remembers your gold buckle rodeo days and wants to have you as a cowboy in the lineup.” Nate liked to rib his brother about being a lawyer but he’d be welcome at the auction.
“How about I just make a large donation and sit on the sidelines?” Ethan said.
They all felt about the same way when it came to participating in events like the charity auction. “You can’t. One of the Carutherses already did.”
“Derek? He’s a doctor—he should be used to this kind of thing,” Ethan said.
“He is and he likes the attention, so he said yes as soon as she asked,” Nate said.
“You?”
Nate shrugged. “I have been dating her off and on, so she was willing to let me out of it.”
“Well, damn. Okay, I’ll do it,” Ethan said.
“Good,” Nate said. He thought it would do his brother some good to find a woman here in Cole’s Hill whom he liked instead of driving to Midland whenever he wanted to hook up. Or whatever Ethan did over there.
“So when’s your date with Kinley?” Ethan asked as he took a swallow of his beer.
“We’re having drinks tonight,” Nate said.
“Drinks? That’s not a date,” Ethan said.
“Isn’t it?”
“Hell, no. You and I are having drinks and this sure as hell isn’t a date,” Ethan said.
“Damned straight,” Nate said. “I’ve never had any problems turning drinks into something more.”
“None of us have,” Ethan said. “Can you believe Hunter is getting married? I thought...well, I guess we all thought that he was never going to find a woman who’d trust him.”
“I know,” Nate said. He didn’t like to think about how many times he’d defended his brother in places like the Bull Pit and in boardrooms whenever someone had brought up Hunter’s past. Gossip had it that their family had bought Hunter’s freedom, but the truth was the cops never had enough evidence to charge him with murder. Not that that had made any difference in the court of public opinion. “I’m glad to see him so happy. Damned if I could have ever seen any of us as married, but being engaged looks good on him.”
“It does. Ferrin seems to be an important part of his new life. And I’m going to deny saying this if you bring it up, but he seems like a new man now.”
Nate had to laugh at that. Hunter was a new man. A man freed from the past and the guilt that he’d carried for ten years.
“Guilt did weigh on him. That’s why I lead a free and easy life. The only thing that weighs on me is the family business, and to be honest I like a good tussle in the boardroom, so that’s not really a big deal.”
Ethan laughed. “You said it, brother. Speaking of a business, Dylan Gallagher has a Cessna he wants to sell us. He’s thinking of buying a big jet.”
“What does he need a jet for?”
“Apparently, he has a lady friend on the East Coast he wants to visit,” Ethan said. “I’ll drive over and look at it this afternoon. It would be nice to have it as a backup for the older one we’ve been thinking of getting rid of.”
“It would be. Ranch assets are your domain, so if you think we should buy it, I’ll agree with you.”
“Wish all things with you were this easy to settle,” Ethan said.
Before Nate could respond, his phone beeped and he glanced down at the screen to see he had a text message from Kinley. Nate finished his beer and stood up. “I’m easy to get along with. You’re the troublemaker.”
Ethan’s laughter followed him out the door. He left his pickup in the parking lot at the Bull Pit and walked across town to the restaurant where Kinley was waiting for him. The sun was setting as he came around the corner and he saw her standing to the left of the entrance. She was backlit by the sun, which silhouetted her curves and seemed to highlight her reddish-brown hair. He stopped for a minute as he realized that he didn’t want to screw this up.
He’d hurt her with the way he’d behaved when she’d called him from Vegas, and this was a fresh start. The kind of thing that he needed with her, because no matter what he’d said to her on the phone, one weekend hadn’t been enough to get her out of his system.
Kinley had a rushed dinner with Penny and her nanny before leaving to meet Nate. Tonight was important, and she needed to be stronger than she’d ever been before. She’d dressed carefully, choosing a gray cap-sleeve dress that nipped in at the waist before ending at the knees. She’d paired it with a piece of costume jewelry she’d purchased at a vintage shop in Melrose the year before her mom had died.
Wearing it always made Kinley think of her mom. She touched it like a talisman, trying to glean a little of her mom’s courage before Nate showed up. She was scared.
She’d made the only choice she felt she could make when she’d decided to have Penny and to raise her daughter on her own. But circumstances had changed, and it was time to make another choice.
She pulled her phone out of her purse for the tenth time since she’d texted Nate that she was waiting for him at the Peace Creek Steak House, not because she expected him to respond, but because she felt so vulnerable just standing there waiting for him.
She heard a group of people approaching the entrance and looked up to see Bianca Velasquez walking toward her. Her mom had cleaned the Velasquez home way back when, and Bianca and Kinley had been really good friends. She smiled when she noticed Kinley, waved her friends on and came over to give her a hug.
Her friend had thick black hair that she wore long and falling around her shoulders and olive skin Kinley had always envied. She was wearing a pair of slim-fitting white jeans and a flowy navy-colored blouse.
“I didn’t know you were back in town,” Bianca said.
“I didn’t know you were, either. I thought you were still in Spain,” Kinley said. Bianca’s young husband had recently died in a fiery car crash, leaving the window with an eighteen-month-old son to raise. Kinley and Bianca kept in touch by email and had a lot to share since they both were single moms.
“I recently moved back. Mom and Dad were really persistent. And I missed Texas,” Bianca said. “Do you have plans tonight? You can join us.”
“I’m only back for a few months to plan Hunter’s wedding,” Kinley said. “I’m meeting someone but I’d love to catch up sometime.”
“Me, too. I’m looking for a job, believe it or not,” Bianca said in a sort of self-effacing tone. “I have your number, so I’ll text you and we can find some time to meet up with our kiddos.”
“Sounds great,” Kinley said, hugging her friend and realizing how nice it was to see Bianca. The combination of secrets and guilt had been weighing on her, but seeing a friendly face, making some normal plans, made her feel better.
Bianca waved goodbye before going into the restaurant. Kinley felt someone watching her and glanced up to see Nate at the end of the driveway, walking toward her. He hadn’t changed since their earlier meeting; he still wore dark jeans paired with what she knew was a designer shirt and hand-tooled, custom-made leather boots. He walked like a man who knew his place in the world. He was confident and sure, and a part of her truly resented him for it.
She’d been struggling to figure out her place her entire life. She might not have been aware of it when she’d been younger, but these days it