A Family Homecoming. Laurie Paige

married on the run these days. Not a good thing, if you ask me. People should take time to get to know each other.” She eyed Kyle. “What kind of work do you do? I might know of an opening you can check on.”

      “Thanks,” he said, “but I don’t need a job.”

      “Hmm, independently wealthy, huh?”

      Danielle shifted impatiently at the woman’s nosiness but said nothing. Kyle was an adult. He didn’t need her help in fending off the inquisition.

      “Seems odd that you haven’t visited your family.” Lily Mae turned to Danielle. “You and young Sara here have been in town about two years now, haven’t you?”

      “Yes,” Danielle said.

      Janie, their waitress, who also managed the place, brought plates of steaming food. “Lily Mae thought Wayne Kincaid was an escaped convict when he showed up in Whitehorn and wouldn’t confess his life story to her. She had everyone thinking he was out to murder us in our beds.”

      Lily Mae glared at the saucy young woman. “Well, how was I to know? He acted as if he had dire secrets, not telling anyone where he came from or why he took a job at the Kincaid ranch when everyone knew it had a curse on it. And probably still does.” Her heavily mascaraed eyes narrowed on Kyle. “It makes a body wonder is all.”

      Before thinking about what she was doing, Danielle snapped, “My husband’s business is his own, but I can assure you he has no prison record. For your information, he’s a good and honorable person. He works for the…” She noted the four pairs of eyes staring at her. “Well, he isn’t a criminal,” she concluded hotly.

      “I’m with the FBI,” Kyle said quietly.

      “Well, the FBI,” Lily Mae said, obviously flabbergasted at this piece of news. “Well, I never. The FBI.”

      Danielle clenched her hands together in her lap. She was mortified by her outburst. A large hand closed over hers and squeezed gently. She glanced at Kyle. He withdrew his hand, but his eyes stayed on her.

      His gaze roamed her face like a summer breeze, caressing her sweetly, conveying his thanks for her defense. The tension oozed out of her. She looked down, embarrassed but somehow glad…and maybe a little proud.

      “Are you working on the kidnapping case?” Lily Mae demanded, recovering.

      “I think that’s in good hands,” Kyle responded. “Shane McBride and Rafe Rawlings are on top of it. I’m home on an extended vacation.”

      Lily Mae’s face lit up. “Rafe Rawlings. Now there’s a story. Did you know he was called Wolf Boy because he was found in the woods when he was just a tadpole? Turns out he belonged to Lexine Baxter. Illegitimate, of course. She abandoned him, poor thing. But he was adopted by a local rancher, so it turned out all right in the end.”

      She continued the tale of how another rancher had been accused but acquitted of killing the man who had been Rafe’s father. Turned out Lexine had done that, too, although that had probably been an accident. And then there was the case of Clint Calloway who, it was finally discovered, was the illegitimate son of that old scalawag, Jeremiah Kincaid.

      Kyle frowned. “So how did Jenny McCallum get to be the Kincaid heir?”

      “Oh, she was another of Jeremiah’s bas…” Lily Mae glanced at Sara, who had lost interest in the grown-up talk and was busy loading her fries with ketchup. “She belonged to Jeremiah, too. Her mother died bringing the child to him. That’s how come Jessica and Sterling adopted her. Lexine tried to get rid of Jenny, too.”

      “My heavens, she must have been the most terrible person in the world,” Danielle said, shocked.

      “Believe me, there are others just as bad,” Kyle told her, his expression becoming harsh and forbidding.