Chapter 5
Kinsey
“Good morning, Landon.”
His blue eyes swerve towards me and my whole body goes still. Like a deer facing a predator. My breath hushes in my lungs and I don’t hear anything around me but the beat of my own heart in the quiet. I can’t look away from the flash of sapphire and gold in his blue eyes.
My mouth goes dry and my hand comes up to clutch at my throat. Like I can force my body to come back online.
His full lips quirk in a little half-smile. I lick my lips and his gleaming eyes follow the path of my tongue. “Good morning, Kins. I can’t believe how different you look.”
Rolling my eyes, I glare at him. “My name is Kinsey. You know that Landon.”
“You telling me that an old friend of the family like me can’t call you Kins? I mean, I’ve known you my whole life. What does it take to be able to use a nickname?”
Rolling my eyes, I turn away from him. “A little bit more than just showing up in the middle of the night just one time.”
“That one time was when you needed me. So essentially I’m like your hero.”
“Humph!” I snort. “Wow. You appear to have a pretty big ego there, Landon. I don’t think I need to stroke it.”
He mutters something under his breath and I jerk back to look at him.
“What did you say?”
“I said that the goats can take care of themselves.”
My brows lift and I eye him curiously. “I know that you’re older than me. Are you starting to go senile?”
“Nope. I’m good. How about you, princess?”
“Just don’t call me princess. Only Karter got to call me that. You’re not him.”
I turn away and busy myself making coffee in the one-cup pot that Karter must have bought after I left.
After I left him alone.
After I deserted him.
My gut tightens and I lean against the counter, old images flashing in my mind. Karter and Landon laughing in the kitchen on their way out to work.
Landon helped Karter whenever he could. They were two peas in a pod.
Two good guys. But Karter’s gone now.
“Are you alright?” Landon whispers in my ear.
The kids are chattering behind me, the screech of silverware scraping their plates as they eat their pancakes and laugh at their own silliness.
Karter turns to me and his quick smile flickers over me as he taps my nose. “Hey, pay attention, Squirt. I’ll be home late.”
Tears squeeze past my lashes. I’ve lost so much in my life. I didn’t want my brother to be one of those things.
“Red. Come on, Kins. Don’t let the kids see you like this. You’ll scare them.”
Landon’s soft voice calls to me like a hand through the dark, pulling me out of my own hurt.
My eyes open and he’s right there, his soft blue eyes locked on me.
“You’re a strong woman, Kins. I know you loved Karter.
He knew you loved him. You needed to live your life and he understood that.
He’d be so happy that you’re back to Wildwood.
” He nods to the table where the kids are still goofing off.
“He’d be ecstatic to see the next generation of Martin’s ready to take up the mantle. ”
“What about you? Why aren’t you working?”
His mouth twists angrily and he steps away. “The business is gone.”
“What do you mean…gone?”
“Dad’s business partner mismanaged the business and he wasn’t paying enough attention. Before he knew it, the bills were piling up and not getting paid and we owed so much that it just wasn’t ever going to come back. Had to sell out.”
“I’m so sorry, Landon. I know that you loved that business.”
He nods and there’s something closed-off in his blue eyes. “As much as Karter loved this place. But sometimes you just can’t save something.”
My eyes drift around the warm, homey kitchen. Even that can’t hide the cabinets that are hanging off the hinges and the faucet that’s so old it sticks and doesn’t want to shut off.
Landon smiles but it’s sad. “He was always working so hard on the farm that he didn’t have time to take care of the house.”
“I wish he’d found someone to love him. Love the farm.”
He shrugs his broad shoulders and my mind buzzes at the way his muscles flex and bunch under the soft, worn fabric. “He never met the right woman.” He grins sheepishly at me. “Doesn’t mean that he didn’t enjoy himself.”
My nose crinkles and I glare at him. “Ewww. You could have kept that thought to yourself. I didn’t need to know that about my brother.”
“Karter didn’t regret his life. The only thing he regretted was feeling like he failed you.”
Jerking back, I stare at him. “He didn’t fail me. I just had to get away. Felt like there was more out there than this place for me. It had nothing to do with him or how I felt about him. I talked to him all the time. Even FaceTime’d him once or twice.”
Landon grins. “Yeah. He loved that. Lived for when he got to see your pretty face.”
Snorting, I hand him a plate of pancakes. “Here’s some food. You don’t need to shovel shit my way just to get fed.”
He chuckles. “Still the same old Kins. Don’t know how to take a compliment.”
“I know how to take a compliment. But I know my brother didn’t call me pretty.”
He shoots me a sparkling look as he sits with the kids. “I never said he did.”
My breath catches. Did he just call me pretty?
Did Landon Winters just call me pretty? I must have hit my head last night or I’m still asleep. There’s no way that he said that.
But yet as the kids chatter a mile a minute at him and he answers all their questions with a seemingly unending supply of patience, his blue eyes find mine over and over and he smirks at me like he knows something I don’t know.
Like he’s got a secret that I’m dying to know. No matter how good or bad it is.