Just weeks before their nuptials, she’d received a major network job offer she couldn’t resist. When he told her he didn’t feel comfortable leaving the ranch, which had hit a rough patch, they’d called off the wedding. She couldn’t understand why he felt more responsible for taking care of the ranch than being with her, and he couldn’t understand why she cared more about a job than him... Clearly their priorities hadn’t been in sync.
Now as much as then it seemed...
They studied each other for a long moment then she shook her head, her face an open wound. He was pretty sure he didn’t look much better. “You’d hate it there.”
“And you hated living here. Deep down I knew this wasn’t the life you wanted. You love the spotlight and I’m...”
“Closed off,” she finished for him. “We were too young to make such a big decision.”
A gust of wind fluttered a strand of hair across her face, and he gently tucked it behind her ear. “We’re lucky we avoided making a big mistake.”
“Very lucky,” she said quietly, sounding immensely sad.
“Will you talk to someone about canceling the episode?”
“I can’t.”
He reined in his frustration. “Then promise me this won’t turn into a circus. You’ll stick to the feud story and nothing else. Not my mother’s suicide or the ranch’s troubles.”
“I’ll follow wherever the story takes me, and I’ll do my best to prevent anything from harming your pa’s big day. I care about him, too.”
“I guess we still have that in common at least.”
Then she smiled, just a flash, and something moved in Cole’s chest. Something warm, and something he hadn’t felt in a long time. “Let’s go back,” she said, jumping from the fence.
He paused to study the mother and calf a moment longer, his mind on Katie-Lynn and the danger she posed...not just to his family, but to his susceptible heart if he wasn’t careful.
LATER IN THE AFTERNOON Katlynn knocked on her parents’ screen door and peered into the modest, cluttered home. Strange how small it looked. Foreign. She was the outsider looking in.
“Hello?” she called for the third time. “Anybody home?”
She paused and listened for footsteps.
In the distant kitchen, red-orange flames curled beneath a kettle set on a gas stove. Open cereal boxes, empty bottles of soda and scattered corn chips littered the counters. Flies buzzed around a thawing package of ground beef. When was the last time this place had been cleaned? She made a mental note to contact a local housekeeping service for her arthritic mother.
“It’s Katlynn!” she hollered.
Steam rose from the kettle, and her nose curled at the smell of burning plastic. What was cooking? White foam frothed over the pot’s lid and spilled down its sides, sizzling when it hit the grate.
“You’re going to start a fire!” Katlynn dashed inside. She leaped over children’s toys as she crossed the living room’s obstacle course, skidded to a stop before the stove and flicked off the burner.
The volcano of lather settled, revealing baby bottles, teething rings and, inexplicably, one warped plastic flip-flop.
“Fire? Who said fire?”
Katlynn twisted around and spied her mother. Her short hair was smashed flat against one side of her skull as if she’d been sleeping or lying down. White frizz sprung from the opposite side, fluffy as a seeded dandelion. An oversize housecoat covered all but her sharp collarbones, bony elbows and swollen ankles.
“I handled it, Ma.” Katlynn bussed her mother’s creased cheek. “Why are you boiling a flip-flop?”
“Frankie’s teething. It’s his favorite chew toy.” Her mother brushed past Katlynn and poured the kettle’s contents into a strainer perched atop a stack of dishes in the sink. “What are you doing home? You didn’t lose your job, did you?”
“I’m taping episodes here.”
Katlynn used every facial muscle trick to keep her expression neutral. Lose her job... What a crazy idea...only it wasn’t, not with Scandalous History on the chopping block. Everyone associated with the show, from the producer down to the maintenance crew, depended on her to pull off a hit, a story brimming with intrigue and scandal, all the while not harming the Lovelands’ truce with the Cades or creating a media storm.
She’d promised.
And she never went back on her word.
Except once, as Cole reminded her.
Spending time with him this morning had been like stepping into the past. She’d felt disoriented, her perspective turned upside down, her body, her feelings, her thoughts, drawn to Cole. When he’d held her, briefly, she’d wanted to lay her head on his broad shoulder and share her troubles the way she once had. But that’d be owning up to failure, something her pride wouldn’t allow.
“This is a nice surprise.” Her mother pulled open the fridge and stooped to rummage inside it. A moment later she produced a box of animal crackers.
“You refrigerate those?”
“Timmy likes to eat them cold.”
As if on cue, Katlynn’s nephew galloped past her and tugged on his grandmother’s hem. “Are you gonna play with me, Grammy?”
“Hey, Timmy.” Katlynn scooted down to his height and mussed his wispy brown hair. “I’m your aunt Katlynn.”
The four-year-old buried his face in her mother’s housecoat then peeled back the material to peek at her, one-eyed.
“Who’s that?” he whispered loudly.
“Your aunt, honey.” Her mother smoothed down his cowlick. “Why don’t you give her a hug?”
“No.” Timmy snatched the animal crackers and bolted down the short hall to the house’s three bedrooms.
“Don’t mind him. He’s just never seen you before.” Her mother motioned for Katlynn to follow her into the living room then shoved a pile of coupon flyers off the couch, clearing a space.
The sofa sagged to the ground as Katlynn dropped into it. She hauled herself back to the edge and examined the shabby furnishings, dismayed by the conditions. Crate boxes served as a TV stand for the old set. A shadeless table lamp, its lightbulb exposed, stood on the floor beside a torn armchair. Stuffing spilled from the back of the seat and covered the matted maroon carpet as if it’d snowed.
“How are you, Ma? Did you get my check last week?”
“Keeping busy. Haven’t had a chance to deposit it yet, but thank you. Though you know you don’t have to do that.”
“I know,” Katlynn assured her mother. “It makes me feel good to help out.” Since her father’s work injury a couple years ago, her parents survived on his disability checks and Katlynn’s contributions, which, she now saw, were woefully inadequate. She’d instruct her assistant to send three times the amount.
What would happen to them if Katlynn’s show was canceled? Her determination to nail this episode rammed into a higher gear. The Cade-Loveland segment would be the show of the season...no...the series.
Her ma patted Katlynn’s knee with a gnarled hand, the sight raising her alarm. Her crooked fingers looked worse than she remembered. “You’ve always been a hard worker. Had your first job when you were, what?