Chapter Fourteen
There was an unfamiliar truck and an unhitched horse trailer in the ranch yard when Hayden and Roddy returned from loading a trailer full of livestock and delivering to the auction yard.
“Texas plates,” Hayden said to Roddy after getting out of his truck and Roddy got out of the hauler they used to pull the double-decker livestock trailer. “Must be Rhett.” His next-to-youngest brother, a single dad and an experienced ranch foreman.
Hayden’s mind had been drifting a lot today, from the memory of holding Evie and what might be if their marriage vows were sincere, to the doubt he was the right man for her. Evie could have any man she wanted.
“Looks like your brother brought a bunch of horses with him.” Roddy gestured toward one of the paddocks outside the barn where three brown horses watched them with interest. “More mouths to feed.”
“I’m sure we’ll manage.” With the livestock auction looming, Hayden held out hope for a positive financial outcome. They unloaded their horses from the trailer hitched to Hayden’s truck. It wasn’t long before they had a visitor in the barn.
Rhett strode into the breezeway. He was taller than Hayden, thinner than Hayden, and looked more rested than Hayden. “You couldn’t tell me you got married, bro?”
“I’ve been busy.” Hayden carried his saddle, pad, and bridle into the tack room.
He placed the bridle on a hook, the saddle on a rack, and then turned his saddle pad upside down so it could dry on top of his saddle.
Finally, he turned and drew his brother into a fierce hug. “It’s good to have you here.”
“I came as soon as I could,” Rhett said gruffly when they released each other. “Had a house to pack up and a moving truck to load. We’ll stay here until our stuff arrives, if that’s okay.” He was inheriting the ranch Grandpa had named Willow Creek.
“Of course it’s okay,” Hayden said just as gruffly. “I bet Katie is thrilled that your girls are here.” Rhett’s twin girls were about a year older than Evie’s daughter.
“It was a nice surprise to see Katie here.” Rhett nodded. “As were the kittens. Piper and Sadie fell in love. And Gran… Well, she’s in heaven, although…”
“She can’t recall anyone’s names.” Hayden nodded.
“She recognized me,” Rhett said with relief. “But she talks as if Grandpa is still alive.”
Hayden explained about the stroke’s side effects and how Gran’s progress had been slow.
“Hay-Hay!” Katie ran into the tack room wearing hot-pink leggings and a neon yellow T-shirt.
Her blond curls paled in comparison to her wardrobe choice.
She latched onto Hayden’s leg as if it were a pole and stood on his boot.
“My new cousins are here and now we each have a kitten. Uncle Rhett thinks kittens are beasties too. I told him he’s wrong. ”
“To us, beasties are any animal.” Hayden walked out to the breezeway with Katie balanced on his boot. “Siblings often say the same things.”
“Like you can’t pick out a good horse by its color,” Rhett said good-naturedly. “No one can guarantee a shiny yellow pony with a unicorn horn will be a good mount for a little girl.”
Ah, so Rhett’s heard about Katie’s unicorn dream.
Hayden smiled.
“But that’s what I want,” Katie said tartly. “I want a horse like Nugget but in my size.”
“With a unicorn horn,” Hayden murmured, ruffling Katie’s short blond curls, catching Rhett’s grin as he did so.
“Where is Mrs. Rhett?” Katie asked, clinging to Hayden’s leg. “Is she coming to visit too?”
Rhett sobered. “We’re divorced.”
“We’re divorced too,” Katie said matter-of-factly. “But now we’re married again. Mama and Hay-Hay are in love. You should get married again, Uncle Rhett. So you won’t be a lonely heart, like my mama was.”
Evie was lonely?
Hayden dutifully smiled but couldn’t seem to find his voice. He didn’t like the idea that Evie had been lonely, or wronged, or unloved. She deserved the emotional security true love would bring. He rubbed a tight spot over his heart.
“Hayden? Honey?”
Hayden jerked his head up because that was Evie’s voice and she never called him honey.
“Can I talk to you a minute?” Evie stood on the front porch. Her blond hair was down, just the way he liked it. Free and touchable. “Now?” That tone didn’t invite his touch.
As if sensing the tension in her mother, Katie stepped off Hayden’s boot.
“Somebody’s in trouble,” Rhett said, grinning once more. “Go on, honey. Kiss your bride and make up.”
Hayden gave his brother a dirty look. “Come on, Katie.” He walked toward the barn door, but his stepdaughter stood in his way, arms held in the air.
“Pick me up, Hay-Hay,” Katie demanded.
Hayden hesitated, having never picked her up before.
“Up,” Katie commanded, not budging.
Rhett’s laughter filled the breezeway. “Welcome to parenthood, bro.”
“Hay-Hay.” Katie pouted. She was a cute pouter. Adorable, even.
“All right. Up you go.” Hayden lifted the girl to his hip.
Hayden walked toward the house, marveling at how odd—and oddly right—Katie felt in his arms.
“I like being carried, Hay-Hay.” She sounded as superior as Evie used to back when he’d first dated Violet.
A wavemaker in training, just like Evie.
“And I’m the boss,” Katie said firmly.
He chuckled, smiling at Evie as they approached the porch.
Her answering smile was strained. “Katie, can you go inside and help Gran set the table?”
“Okay.” Katie squirmed her way to the ground, then scampered up the porch stairs and inside.
Hayden stared at Evie as he ascended the stairs toward her. “Why do I get the feeling I’m in hot water?”
“Come with me,” Evie said instead of reassuring him he wasn’t.
He followed Evie to his bedroom. “What’s up?” He closed the door to give them some privacy because his wife was wringing her hands.
And pacing. At least, until she turned to face him. “Rhett’s girls are going to share a room up here with Katie.”
“Fun.” Hayden had always loved bunking down with his brothers.
Evie’s eyes widened. “That means we have to share this room.”
Hayden’s mouth opened. But he had no words. None.
Well, he had words. None of them appropriate to utter, given his wife didn’t want to kiss him and risk falling in love.
But that didn’t keep Hayden from staring at the bed. It was king-sized, plenty of room for two bodies, platonically sleeping or otherwise.
And then Hayden stared at Evie. She didn’t look as if the bed was big enough for two, platonically sleeping or otherwise. In fact, she was staring at the bed as if it were the enemy.
“You…uh…” Hayden ran a hand around to the back of his neck, which was gritty from the day’s range work. He stared at the hardwood floor, hoping that wasn’t where Evie wanted him to sleep tonight. “I…uh…”
“You’re going to sleep on the bed,” Evie said in a shaky voice.
And it was those tremors that drove Hayden forward, intent on providing reassurance.
He took Evie’s hands in his. “Look, we didn’t plan on Rhett coming to stay.
” He would have made a plan if he’d thought about it.
But Hayden had far too much on his mind lately.
“We can put pillows between us or whatever you need to put your mind at ease.”
Evie blew out a breath. “I’m worried.”
“About what? If not the sleeping arrangements?”
“This is getting way too…personal. Too…complicated.” Her gaze darted around the room. She looked anywhere but at him. “In Irene’s state, we can fool her, but…”
Hayden threaded his fingers with hers the way he had in the barn the first night he’d brought Mike home. “Talk to me.”
“First off, I…touched your things.” Evie’s cheeks bloomed with color.
“I condensed your underwear and socks in the second bureau drawer to make room for my…unmentionables. Second, a pillow between us at night will be fine.” Her gaze flicked to the bed and then away, out the window and then toward the door.
“And thirdly…” Evie looked from the door to his lips and then to his eyes.
She swallowed thickly. “The third thing is…I’m not certain what the third thing is, but it involves how to convince your brother that our relationship is real. ”
“Is this about the no-kisses thing?” That hurt. “I could just tell Rhett about our arrangement.”
“No. A secret is only a secret if it’s only between two people.” Evie’s voice had firmed. Her posture lifted. “If word gets out, Steven will take it to the judge. And I can’t risk that.”
Hayden glanced up at the ceiling, considering their options. But the reality was that they had no options. They’d made their proverbial bed and now they had to lie in it. “Do you think the occasional kiss on the cheek will be enough to sell the idea that we love each other?”
“No,” she whispered.
He stared into her eyes. They were the color of the sky outside today, a clear, cloudless blue. “I could continue to guess what you want, or you could tell me.”
“Well…” Her fingers clenched around his. “We didn’t put kisses…real kisses…in the contract.”
“It was a verbal agreement, hardly legally binding.” Hayden took her hands and put them around his neck. And then he took his hands and rested them on her hips. It struck him how right that felt. “I wouldn’t mind renegotiating terms.”
“You know how I feel about kisses,” she said softly, almost too soft to hear.
“For you, kisses lead to love.” That statement crowded into his chest, making his heart pound. Hard. Only for once, it wasn’t fear that made his pulse race. It was the possibility of something he’d given up on—love.
“I need boundaries, Hayden,” Evie said in that shaky voice, staring at her toes.
“I can be a bad kisser, if that helps.” Not that he thought he could follow through on that promise. But he had to bring something to the negotiation table.
“One kiss a day,” Evie blurted, forehead resting on his chest. “That’s all.”
He didn’t think one kiss a day would convince his brother they were in love for real. “I think we need two kisses a day, at least. With appropriate witnesses.”
“Appropriate witnesses?”