“I wouldn’t mind getting out of this dress and these shoes,” Kim said without thinking.

David gave her a lopsided grin, letting his gaze travel down to her feet and back up again.

“Don’t get your hopes up.” Too late, she realized how her remark might have sounded. “It’s hot, and my feet hurt, that’s all.”

“Ah, here’s the Kim we all know and love,” he drawled. “You’ve been so nice to me today that you had me worried. I thought an alien had taken over your body.”

“Better an alien than you.” Instantly she wanted to bite her tongue. “I’m sorry.”

He held up his hand. “No, no. I needed the reality check.”

His wry grin sent shivers through her. More than anything, she wanted to throw her arms around him and kiss that clever mouth. Obviously what she desperately needed after all the enforced togetherness of the last hours was a breather.

Dear Reader,

Breeze into fall with six rejuvenating romances from Silhouette Special Edition! We are happy to feature our READERS’ RING selection, Hard Choices (SE#1561), by favorite author Allison Leigh, who writes, “I wondered about the masks people wear, such as the ‘good’ girl/boy vs. the ‘bad’ girl/boy, and what ultimately hardens or loosens those masks. Annie and Logan have worn masks that don’t fit, and their past actions wouldn’t be considered ideal behavior. I hope readers agree this is a thought-provoking scenario!”

We can’t get enough of Pamela Toth’s WINCHESTER BRIDES miniseries as she delivers the next book, A Winchester Homecoming (SE#1562). Here, a world-weary heroine comes home only to find her former flame ready to reignite their passion. MONTANA MAVERICKS: THE KINGSLEYS returns with Judy Duarte’s latest, Big Sky Baby (SE#1563). In this tale, a Kingsley cousin comes home to find that his best friend is pregnant. All of a sudden, he can’t stop thinking of starting a family…with her!

Victoria Pade brings us an engagement of convenience and a passion of inconvenience, in His Pretend Fiancée (SE#1564), the next book in the MANHATTAN MULTIPLES miniseries. Don’t miss The Bride Wore Blue Jeans (SE#1565), the last in veteran Marie Ferrarella’s miniseries, THE ALASKANS. In this heartwarming love story, a confirmed bachelor flies to Alaska and immediately falls for the woman least likely to marry! In Four Days, Five Nights (SE#1566) by Christine Flynn, two strangers are forced to face a growing attraction when their small plane crashes in the wilds.

These moving romances will foster discussion, escape and lots of daydreaming. Watch for more heart-thumping stories that show the joys and complexities of a woman’s world.

Happy reading!

Karen Taylor Richman,

Senior Editor

A Winchester Homecoming
Pamela Toth

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dedicated to readers everywhere who are separated

from their loved ones, whatever the reason, with the

sincere hope that you find your way home again soon.

PAMELA TOTH

USA TODAY bestselling author Pamela Toth was born in Wisconsin, but grew up in Seattle where she attended the University of Washington and majored in art. Now living on the Puget Sound area’s east side, she has two daughters, Erika and Melody, and two Siamese cats.

Recently she took a lead from one of her romances and married her high school sweetheart, Frank. When she’s not writing, she enjoys traveling with her husband, reading, playing FreeCell on the computer, doing counted cross-stitch and researching new story ideas. She’s been an active member of Romance Writers of America since 1982.

She loves hearing from readers and can be reached at P.O. Box 5845, Bellevue, WA 98006. For a personal reply, a stamped, self-addressed envelope is appreciated.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Prologue

Kim Winchester stood frozen in the open stable doorway, her initial shock turning to disgust as she stared at the couple locked in a passionate embrace between the rows of stalls.

She had never dreamed he could act this way, too caught up in kissing the woman coiled around him like a snake to even care that his betrayal would break Kim’s heart. He had insisted over and over how important she was to him, but right now it was clear he’d forgotten her very existence.

Tears filled Kim’s eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She felt devastated and sick, but she had no intention of slinking away quietly and pretending she hadn’t seen the two of them.

“Oh, isn’t this just too, too cozy,” she drawled, sauntering into the light as though she didn’t have a care in the world, pleased beneath the hurt as the couple sprang apart. “You two make me want to barf.”

She’d half expected to see a gleam of triumph in Emily’s eyes, but instead the other woman looked totally mortified.

“Kim,” she pleaded, eyes wide.

Kim ignored her entreaty. “I knew you were after him!” She shook an accusing finger in Emily’s face. “I could tell by the way you practically drooled when we saw you in town.” Did Emily think she was blind or just naive?

It was obvious that the older woman could think of nothing to say in her own defense, but Kim’s feeling of vindication was immediately wiped away when he stepped in front of Emily. Protecting her.

He didn’t look embarrassed. Quite the contrary. His thick brows were bunched into a thunderous frown, and he was glaring at Kim. Bristling with disapproval.

How could he be so mean, siding with this woman he barely knew, against his own daughter?

Chapter One

David Major was headed in the general direction of Denver with classic country cranked up on the stereo and the car windows rolled down to let in the rush of warm air. Idly he glanced at the fields of dried stubble on either side of the road, the barren expanse occasionally broken by a cluster of jutting buildings before it marched to the distant horizon. Each fancy new hotel complex, set well away from the main road and dwarfed by the empty prairie surrounding it, managed to appear as out of place in flat, rural Colorado as satin panties on a sow.

Who would have thought a decade ago when he’d first moved here from noisy, smelly, crowded L.A. that he’d grow to appreciate the open spaces, the distant mountains and the clean, dry air? That he’d find work he enjoyed and a home he loved on a cattle ranch, of all places?

Up ahead of him appeared the jagged line of manmade white peaks that topped the Denver airport terminal. They were supposed to symbolize the Rocky Mountains, but looked instead more like a row of oversize canvas teepees than anything found in nature.

Adam Winchester had broken his leg the day before, so David was here in his stepfather’s place to meet Kim’s plane from Seattle. It was hard to believe that she’d been David’s first real friend in Waterloo, where he’d felt as out of place at the rural school as a sports car at a tractor pull, or to remember that at sixteen he’d been on the brink of a hormone-driven adolescent crush. She had looked beyond his dyed hair and bizarre clothes, much to her father’s initial horror, and befriended him.

Their bond had been broken when she’d left a few months later without saying goodbye, to live with the mother she barely knew. Since her father had married David’s mother, Kim was technically his stepsister, but he’d only seen her a couple of times over the years. The woman he was meeting today was a stranger. He just hoped her flight was on time.

He followed the sign directing him to visitor parking and speculated on how her appearance might have changed in the five years since he’d seen her. Did her dark hair still fall past her shoulders? Was her figure still slim? Not that he cared, except that picking her out of a crowd would be easier if she hadn’t colored her hair or put on a lot of weight.

He parked the car, which he’d borrowed from Adam instead of driving his own pickup truck, and headed for the terminal and baggage claim. Would she be disappointed to see him waiting for her instead of her father? Of course she would, even though her visits home had been few and she’d always come without her husband, the overworked preppy attorney.

David wondered why she was here now, and traveling alone once more. He hadn’t asked Adam how long she was staying. Not his business.

Following a young family through the doors into the slightly cooler main terminal, he allowed himself one bit of curiosity. Would Kim treat him like an old friend or the stranger she’d made sure he had become?

Kim doubted that she had ever been so tired in her life. It seemed as though she’d been exhausted ever since she and Drew had first separated over three months before. She went to bed tired, but she didn’t sleep all that long or well, so she woke up tired, too. Just getting through the day wore her out, even though she didn’t do much. She supposed that she would have to find a job when she got home, but she hadn’t even started looking. Maybe the clean, dry air of Colorado would revitalize her, restore her spirit.

Heal her.

She hadn’t yet told her father that she’d left Drew, which she had convinced herself wasn’t the kind of news you gave over the phone or in an e-mail. Of course it also relieved her of having to make explanations. Between her husband and his family, she’d already had enough drama to last for a lifetime. When she’d called to ask her father if she could come home for a while, he hadn’t even wanted to know why.

If he’d been curious, he’d kept it under wraps, just as he always had hidden his feelings behind a stern mask. After Kim’s mother left, he had been a single parent to Kim. When she became a teenager he still treated her like a child, so they had frequently butted heads. Since his marriage to David’s mother, Emily, he had started opening up, but for Kim it had been too little, too late.

She would have to admit, at least to herself, though, that he was always there for her when she needed him. Until now she just hadn’t allowed herself to need him.

She smothered a yawn behind her hand as she marched up the toasty warmth of the jet way and headed toward the baggage area. For once she actually looked forward to her father’s reticence, if it meant that he wouldn’t pelt her with questions all the way home.

Tears misted her eyes as she walked. To be fair, his quiet strength was just what she needed.

For the first fifteen years of her life, he had been her entire world. Then she’d walked in on him with Emily. Jealousy and betrayal had sent Kim running to the mother she hardly knew. Pride and obligation kept her there until she broke away and married Drew.

Absently Kim touched the scar on her cheekbone. She had paid for her choices, but part of her still felt guilty for hurting her father. On her wedding day, he had unbent enough to say he loved her, but he hadn’t said he was proud of her. At least now she had outgrown the need for anyone’s stamp of approval, but it was still nice to be home.

Stopping to hunt for a tissue in her shoulder bag, she didn’t immediately scan the waiting crowd for her father’s tall figure, perhaps topped by the Reba cap Kim sent him last Christmas.

“You cut your hair.”

The voice at her elbow made her jump. Her head jerked up, snapping her teeth together. She stared into a pair of familiar brown eyes as her fingers strayed to the short hair at her neck.

“Where’s Daddy?” Exhaustion and disappointment combined to make Kim’s tone sharper than she had intended, but she didn’t try to soften it. As she looked past David Major, he shifted his weight from one hip to the other and pushed back the brim of his Stetson. His smug expression made her bristle. How long had he been watching her search the crowd for her father?

Cowboy wannabe, she thought with a mental curl of her lip.

“Adam couldn’t make it,” David drawled, rocking back on the heels of his boots and tucking his thumbs into his belt. The buckle, she noticed, was a flashy silver oval, probably something he’d won at a local rodeo. At least it didn’t have his initial outlined in turquoise stones.

Since she knew darned well David had spent his formative years in southern California, she wanted to ask where the drawl had come from. Before she could, his words registered and a band of fear closed around her throat like a hangman’s noose.

Her father wouldn’t have disappointed her, not if he had a choice.

“What do you mean, he couldn’t ‘make it’?” she mimicked, hiding her concern. If there was anything she’d learned over the past few years, it was the wisdom of keeping her emotions hidden. She must not have been entirely successful, because David’s cool expression relaxed slightly and he touched her shoulder with his hand. Before she could prevent herself, she stiffened and pulled away.

Immediately his expression hardened again.

“Don’t worry,” he said gruffly. “Adam broke his leg yesterday, that’s all. The doc says it’s clean, just a hairline fracture, but he didn’t think the ride here would help any.” For a moment, a grin tugged at David’s mouth. “Not that Adam didn’t do his damnedest to change Doc’s mind, but he didn’t stand a chance once Mom got involved.”

Part of Kim’s mind resented his proprietary comment about her father. David wasn’t even related, except by his mother’s marriage into the Winchester family. Was he trying to show Kim that she didn’t belong here anymore?

“How did he break it?” She ignored his smile. “And don’t tell me Daddy was thrown from a horse. I wouldn’t believe that if I’d been away for a hundred years.” The horse that could unseat Adam Winchester hadn’t yet been foaled.

By unspoken consent, she and David had both started walking toward the baggage carousel that was already spitting out a steady stream of luggage, cardboard cartons girded with tape and various pieces of sporting equipment.

“It was actually one of the new ranch hands who got thrown,” David explained. “He managed to land square on Adam and knock him down. The rest, as they say, is history.”

She stopped to gape at David. “Daddy must have been furious.”

“Livid. Turned the air blue.” David’s gaze was on the carousel, his chiseled profile a sharp reminder of how much he had changed. The cute boy had become a ruggedly attractive man, and this was the longest conversation she’d had with him in years. Good thing she was immune.

“Which one is yours?” he asked without bothering to glance her way.

His disinterest reminded her that she, too, had changed. Besides her chopped-off hair, she’d lost weight. Not a bad thing, since Drew had been telling her she was getting too fat, but now her slacks and top hung on her and there were probably circles under her eyes, right next to the fairly recent scar on her cheek.

Lovely. Not that she cared what David thought, anyway.

Kim searched the carousel and then she pointed. “That big one and those two by the skis.”

His dark brows lifted. “Three bags?” He didn’t try to hide his smirk. “Gee, is this all?”

“For now.” Head high, she walked toward the exit, the fingers of one hand wrapped tightly around the strap of her shoulder purse as she left him to struggle with her luggage. Served him right for thinking she was a clotheshorse.

As soon as she’d taken a dozen steps, her burst of bravado was replaced with a new wave of exhaustion. Feeling dizzy, she sank gratefully into an empty chair and let her head fall back.

“What’s wrong? Are you sick?” David demanded as he caught up with her and dumped her bags to the floor.

Opening her eyes or answering was too much of an effort, as was shaking her head.

“Stay here,” he ordered her in a bossy tone. “Put your head between your knees if you feel nauseated. I’ll find you some water.”

Panic swirled around her. “No!” she finally croaked out, forcing open her eyes. Relieved to focus on his concerned face. “Don’t leave me.”

She hadn’t meant to say that. Biting her lip in self-punishment, she watched his expression change from concern to something more difficult to read. Angry tears over her slip blurred her vision, but she blinked them away and glared up at him.

Immediately he squatted down next to her chair, his gaze level with hers as he took her hand in his larger, stronger one. His warmth was a welcome surprise. She was so cold, always cold.

“Your hand is like ice!” he exclaimed.

She pulled away from his loose grasp. “It must be the air-conditioning in here. They always overdo it.”

“Actually, it’s fairly warm,” he contradicted. “When’s the last time you had anything to eat?”

“On the plane.”

He leaned closer. “Kim, what’s wrong with you?”

She wondered if he realized it was the first time he’d called her by name since she arrived.

“I cut my hair several years ago,” she said, hoping to distract him with a reply to his initial question. “It was just too much of a nuisance, and long hair’s gone out of style on the coast.” It wasn’t really true, but he wouldn’t know that.

She’d hacked it off to pay back Drew for being overly friendly with a short-haired paralegal in his office. He’d been furious and he had, of course, retaliated against Kim’s rebelliousness. Besting him, however briefly, had nearly been worth it, even though she’d never worn the yellow diamond pendant he’d eventually bought her as a peace offering. It had gone into her jewelry drawer, along with several other nice pieces she had acquired under similar circumstances.

Nor had she ever grown her hair long again, despite Drew’s insistence. But of course she didn’t tell David any of that while his unreadable gaze stayed on her like some kind of laser.

“Water would be nice,” she said when he didn’t comment. “Chilled, if you don’t mind, and bottled, not tap water.”

He straightened, a shutter sliding down over his expression, and tugged at his hat brim in a gesture she figured was more mocking than polite. “I’ll be right back. Stay here with the bags.”

She watched him walk through the crowd, his long strides eating up the distance to the nearest vendor, as if he couldn’t get away from her fast enough.

Well, why should he be any different? she asked herself silently on another trembling note of self-pity. What was there about Kim Winchester Sterling for anyone to like or admire?

As usual, not one thing came to her tired mind.

After Kim had gulped down the chilled bottled water David brought her and surprised him by stepping out of her ice-princess role long enough to thank him, he escorted her out to the car. She had spurned his suggestion of a wheelchair and he, in turn, had refused her offer to help with her bags. As he stacked two of them and hiked the strap of the third on his shoulder, she dug sunglasses out from her purse and slipped them on like a shield to hide behind.

“I’ll bet the weather seems different from what you’re used to,” he said conversationally as he wheeled the largest bags behind them.

“I grew up here, remember?” She pressed her lips together and turned away, as if she regretted her comment.

“I haven’t forgotten,” he replied. He might have said more, but instead he let the silence hang between them for a moment. When she didn’t lift her head, he shifted the bag on his shoulder and kept walking.

On the drive back to the ranch, he thought she might ask about her father or their mutual half brother, Jake, who was nine, and sister, Cheyenne, eight, or the rest of her extended family, but she didn’t.

“The old church on Dammer Road burned down,” he volunteered, his gaze on the road ahead. “They’re rebuilding already, brick instead of wood this time.”

Her response was a noncommittal hum in her throat as she looked out the window. Frustrated, David fell silent. She had grown up in Elbert County, but if she wanted news, she would have to ask.

Traffic wasn’t especially heavy and the road didn’t demand much of his attention, which left him free to speculate about the reason for Kim’s visit, her first in several years, and to wonder about the absence of a wedding ring. Perhaps she had lost it or was having it repaired or just didn’t wear one. Unlike some women with successful husbands, she wasn’t flashing a lot of fancy jewelry.

Back in school she had been a pretty girl with a warm smile and a budding figure. Now her face was all cheekbones and angles, big green eyes behind the tinted lenses and a scar she kept touching with her fingertip. Slim tan pants and a long-sleeved pink shirt made her look thinner. Her short hair bared her neck and ears.

He’d stuck his tongue in her ear once, but she had squealed and pulled away, embarrassing them both. He liked to think his technique had improved since then.

She’d had issues when he’d known her before, rebelliousness against her father’s strictness, possessiveness of the only parent she’d known up till then and jealousy of David’s mother. He had figured Kim found what she had needed in Seattle, but now he wondered.

For a woman who had it all, she seemed more brittle than content, and she looked tired. Remembering how she had once bothered to search behind his own prickly shell, he tried again.

“Did you know that Cornell Hobbs and Bonnie Gill finally tied the knot?” he asked. “They’ve been together since high school, so it was no surprise.”

When she didn’t answer, he glanced in her direction, expecting to see her staring out the side window with a bored expression. Instead her head had tipped forward. Her eyes were closed, her full lips slightly parted, and the rise and fall of her breasts was slow and regular.

Apparently, his fascinating conversation had lulled her right to sleep.

The gentle bumping of the car across the cattle guard at the entrance to Winchester land woke Kim from a jumble of dreams. She took a deep breath and sneaked a glance at David, but he was looking at the Appaloosas grazing in the near pasture. Whenever she saw a horse with the breed’s distinctive markings, she thought of her father and the ranch.

“You okay?” David asked as he slowed to allow a Jeep to pass from the other direction and returned the driver’s wave.

Her first reply was a rusty croak, so she cleared her throat and tried again. “Yes, I’m fine. Thanks for meeting my plane.”

“No problem.”

They passed a traditional two-story farmhouse, painted light blue with fresh white trim. The backyard jungle gym was new, as was the weather vane on the roof. The familiar riot of brightly blooming pots and hanging baskets on the wide front porch was a testament to Aunt Rory’s green thumb, but the driveway in front of the matching garage was empty.

Kim was relieved that they didn’t have to stop and say hello to Uncle Travis and his brood. There would be time enough to visit later, after she had reassured herself that her father was really all right except for his leg.

She couldn’t wrap her mind around the image of him on crutches. He was too powerful for that, too strong, just like the large immovable boulder in the northeast section of the range.

“Mom’s cleaned your old room for you,” David added as he took the fork in the road that would lead them to the big house where Kim had grown up. “She and Adam are looking forward to seeing you.”

The idea that Emily would be as eager as Kim’s father to see her was ludicrous. Although the two women got along, they weren’t close.

Was David sending up a trial balloon to test Kim? To deduce what her attitude toward his mother might be?

“That was nice of Emily,” she replied quietly, slipping off her sunglasses and tucking them into her purse. They had been expensive, but she couldn’t seem to care whether or not they got scratched.

The light glinted off her birthstone ring. Self-consciously she touched the bare spot where her platinum wedding set had been, wondering if David had noticed its absence.

Drew certainly had when she’d first removed it. He had gone ballistic.

Determinedly Kim pushed aside the memory as the car rounded the familiar last curve. Despite her catnap, she was still tired. Maybe she would have time for a real rest before dinner. Even though her dad and Emily had two more kids, they’d kept Kim’s bedroom available for her. It was the one refuge in the large house that hadn’t been taken over by her stepmother.

“Are you still living at the Johnson place?” she asked David. Even though Emily had bought the small spread from Ed Johnson when she and David first came to town and it had since become part of the Running W, everyone still referred to it by the name of its previous owner and probably always would.

“Yep.” He turned into the wide driveway and pulled up next to a bike lying on its side.

Toys had never been left out when Kim was small. Fighting the mixed emotions crowding up into her throat, she unbuckled her seat belt with hands that trembled. Swallowing hard, she focused on her simple relief at being here. All the rest—the questions, the explanations, the decisions she needed to make—could be sorted through and dealt with later. For now, she would just enjoy.

Even though David hadn’t honked, the front door burst open and her half brother and sister spilled out as though they had been watching through the window. They were followed by her father on his crutches.

The sight of him brought tears to Kim’s eyes. He was bareheaded, his thick, black hair laced with more silver than she remembered. His face, creased now by a wide grin, was weathered by a life spent out of doors. Hunched slightly over his crutches, he appeared older than he had the last time she’d seen him, when he had insisted on flying out to Seattle for her birthday.

Hovering at his elbow was Emily, looking trim and perky. She even managed to appear pleased by the arrival of her uninvited houseguest.

Instantly the snide thought made Kim feel guilty. As always, Emily’s smile was cordial. Even after Kim’s outburst in the stable when she’d caught the two of them making out like teenagers and her father had been so angry at her, Emily had pretended to be understanding. If she had done so to impress her new boyfriend with her niceness, it had certainly worked.

Kim had desperately needed his reassurance, so she’d lashed out like a jealous lover. When he’d taken Emily’s side against her, she’d been totally humiliated. The memory of her bratty attitude still embarrassed her, but the important thing was that Emily made him happy.

Kim would have to try harder to like Emily while she was here. Her father would be pleased to see the two of them getting along.

“Hi, Kim!”

Jake and Cheyenne’s headlong dash and noisy greetings reminded Kim a little of her mother-in-law’s cocker spaniels. She dragged up a big smile, feeling as though her cheeks would split.

“Hey, how are you two?” she asked, holding out her arms.

They’d both grown a lot since the last time she had seen them. Cheyenne, blond like her mother, threw her arms around Kim in an exuberant hug. Jake, with their father’s dark hair, skidded to a stop, hands jammed into his pockets. With a young boy’s wariness, he appeared ready to bolt if Kim even tried to hug him. She patted his head instead and he rewarded her restraint with a grin.

“How long are you staying?” Cheyenne demanded, grabbing her hand.

The blunt question caught Kim by surprise. She hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“Why don’t you and Jake help me with the bags while she says hi to your folks?” David suggested, opening the trunk.

Kim’s attention turned to her father who’d been waiting patiently.

“Hey, princess,” he said, balancing on one crutch as he held out his free hand.

“Hi, Daddy.” With a little sigh of relief, she wrapped her arms around his waist while he gave her an awkward hug. When he let her go, she and Emily exchanged air kisses near each other’s cheeks.

“Welcome home,” Emily said gently.

Kim’s guilt increased tenfold. She had stopped being jealous years ago, and Emily was way nicer than her own mother, so what was Kim’s problem other than a whisper of disloyalty?

Before she could puzzle it out, David and the younger kids joined them with the bags.

“I guess you didn’t have any trouble finding her,” her father said to him.

“I haven’t changed that much!” Kim protested.

“You’re thinner,” her father replied with typical male bluntness and a frown she knew stemmed from concern.

His implied criticism still stung, making her cheeks go hot with embarrassment.

“Some people say a woman can’t be too thin or too rich,” Emily commented smoothly, dispelling the awkward moment with a hostess’s effortless smile. “Come inside, Kim, and we’ll get you settled.”

Even though she appreciated Emily’s tact, part of Kim felt like insisting that she would rather stay outside, just to be contrary. And maybe she could throw herself down in the driveway and drum her heels on the pavement, just to show her maturity.

“Thank you,” she said instead.

“You might like a nap before dinner,” Emily continued. “It’s just the five of us tonight.” She glanced at David. “Unless you’d like to join us, honey?”

To Kim’s relief, he shook his head. “Thanks, Mom, but I’ve got stuff to do back at my place.”

Kim’s father patted her shoulder before his hands returned to the grips on his crutches, his gaze steady on hers. “I’m glad you’re here, Kimmie,” he said quietly.

“Me, too.” Her chin wobbled, so she turned away to give David a bright, blank smile. “Would you mind taking my bags up to my room before you leave?”

“Sure thing, princess,” he drawled with a mocking grin.

Ignoring his jab, Kim followed her father up the front steps. Despite his height and bum leg, he took them with surprising agility, but he’d always been a natural athlete.

Feeling a little like a spectator at a play about family dynamics—or perhaps a TV sitcom—David hitched up the strap of Kim’s shoulder bag as Jake and Cheyenne both began tugging on the handle of the wheeled suitcase. To head off a skirmish, David dug his keys from his pocket.

“Who wants to lock the car?” he asked, dangling them like the proverbial carrot.

Both kids missed the irony of his question. The chance of anyone stealing the sedan from the boss’s driveway was right up there with the likelihood of the two kids being able to get the heavy suitcases up the stairs. Kim must have it filled it with rocks from Puget Sound.

Jake’s hand shot up first. “I’ll do it!”

When David tossed him the keys, which he caught with a triumphant shout, Cheyenne’s eyes filled with tears.

Thinking fast, David grabbed the handle of the largest suitcase. “Honey bun, would you hold the front door open for me?”

The brewing thundercloud on her face was replaced by instant sunshine. She was going to be a heartbreaker. As her oldest sibling, he would have to stay in shape just to keep the boys in line.

The idea of testosterone-driven adolescent males sniffing around her at some point in the not-too-distant future was enough to make his head ache.

“Sure thing,” she crowed, running up the steps.

Jake opened his mouth, but David froze him with a warning stare. “Don’t lose my keys,” David told him, turning away.

He might be a childless bachelor, but he’d spent enough time baby-sitting his half siblings to learn a few tricks, he thought as he noticed that his mother was waiting for him in the entryway.

“Nicely done,” she said after he had thanked Cheyenne for holding the door and she had skipped ahead.

“You taught me all I know,” he replied, shifting the bag on his shoulder. A fresh flower arrangement sat on a side table, no doubt from her own garden. Adam and Kim had gone into the spacious living room. “I’d better get these right up to sis’s room, in case she needs them in the next couple of minutes.”

His mother smothered a chuckle. “Behave yourself,” she scolded softly. “And you know the two of you aren’t actually related.”

“Thank God,” he muttered back, leaning down to peck her cheek. He rolled the suitcase across the tiled floor. “I’ll come back for this.” Once he had, he planned to sneak out through the kitchen.

He would have liked to say something encouraging to his mother, since he knew how hard she worked at being the perfect stepparent. It burned him to no end that she blamed herself for coming between Adam and his daughter and sending her away. It wasn’t true.

“Kim!” Adam exclaimed from the living room, the urgency in his voice drawing both David’s and his mother’s attention.

He turned in time to see Adam struggling to his feet as Kim slid gracefully to the floor.

“Is she dead?” Cheyenne shrieked as David dropped the suitcase and ducked around his mother.

“No, dear,” Emily replied calmly. “I think she’s fainted.”

Adam’s frustration at his temporary limitations was easy to read on his contorted face. “Kim!” he shouted again.

When David bent over her, she was as pale as milk, but already her eyes were beginning to flutter open. The others gathered around to see if she was all right as David bent down and scooped her into his arms. Compared to bucking hay bales and wrestling livestock, lifting her was easy. He was surprised at how little she weighed. No wonder she’d gone down like a heart-shot buck.

“I’m fine,” she insisted, already starting to struggle. “Put me down!”

He was about to make some smart-alecky comment in order to lighten the tension when he got a look at her face. He’d expected to see confusion, embarrassment, perhaps even annoyance at the proprietary way he had hauled her up. What he read instead in her wide green eyes made him set her carefully back onto her feet.

In the instant before she managed to hide it, her face had been filled with fear.

Chapter Two

“I told you calling a doctor wasn’t necessary.” The irritation in Kim’s tone when she spoke to her father was a ruse intended to cover her embarrassment. “She said all I need is a nap.”

Emily had gone back downstairs to show the doctor out, and Kim’s father sat on the edge of her bed, his crutches propped up next to him and his callused hand covering hers.

“You fainted. What Dr. Wilson actually said was that you haven’t been taking very good care of yourself, so you’re dehydrated and probably exhausted.”

His tone was bland, but the concern in his eyes only increased Kim’s guilt. He probably deserved an explanation, one she wasn’t yet ready to give. She had gotten herself into this mess and it was her fault, all of it, but what she wanted to do right now was to regroup in the familiar surroundings from her youth.

“Like I told you,” she replied, “a rest and some water will fix me right up.”

She jutted her chin, gaze daring him to argue. For a moment she thought he’d push it as he assessed her.

The unyielding expression on his weathered face brought back so many memories of her frustration in dealing with him, of rebellious youth butting up against parental authority, of tears and tantrums on her part and refusal to bend on his.

Then he patted her hand, positioned his crutches and pulled himself to his feet. Just coming upstairs must have been a real struggle for him, she realized with a stab of remorse.

“I’m glad you’re here, Kimmie,” he said as he found his balance.

“Me, too.” Relief washed over her. Eyes misting, she managed a shaky smile, hoping it would ease his concern. “Thanks, Daddy.”

“Anytime. You know that,” he said gruffly. “Emily’s bringing you up some soup. If there’s anything else you need…” His voice trailed off, an open invitation for her to confide in him, but she wasn’t ready to lay out her mistakes.

“I’ll be fine, really,” she said.

Still he hovered. “I’ll see you in the morning, then.” He frowned at his leg as though it had deliberately let him down by allowing itself to get broken. “Emily won’t let me come back up here tonight.”

As if on cue, his wife appeared in the doorway carrying a tray.

“I feel useless,” he grumbled when he looked at her.

“Knock it off,” she responded cheerfully. “That hangdog expression isn’t fooling anyone, and I know you’d whisk the tray right out of my hands if you could.”

Husband and wife exchanged meaningful glances that told Kim they’d be discussing her later. She hoped they wouldn’t tell her aunts and uncles that she had collapsed in the living room.

It was bad enough that her stepbrother had been here to see her swoon like a Victorian maiden, worse that he was the one to lug her up the stairs with no more concern than a bag of feed. As her head cleared, she’d become too aware of his strength and her own vulnerability. The big show-off hadn’t even been breathing hard when he’d laid her on the narrow bed with its ruffled coverlet, but their gazes had locked for an instant before he straightened to flash her a mocking grin.

“I knew you were faking,” he’d whispered.

Now Emily set the tray across Kim’s lap. “How are you feeling?” she asked brightly.

“Better, thank you.” Kim glanced down at the steaming bowl of soup. As the appetizing aroma teased her nostrils, her mouth began to water.

“It’s homemade chicken and noodle,” Emily said as she transferred a small pitcher of ice water and an empty glass to the nightstand. “I had some in the freezer and I remembered that you liked it the last time you were here.”

That was surprising, since Kim hadn’t been home in five years. “It was nice of you to fix it for me.”

Emily glanced over her shoulder at Kim’s father, who hovered in the doorway. He must be waiting for Emily to help him down the stairs. Knowing how independent he usually was, Kim was surprised that he hadn’t just barreled ahead without assistance, even if it meant falling on his hard head. Risk had never slowed him down before, not that Kim could remember, but he’d sure blown up when he caught her riding on the back of David’s motor scooter, even though she had been wearing a helmet.

Emily clasped her hands together and leaned closer. “This is your home, dear,” she said quietly. “It always was, and it always will be.”

“I know that.” Kim’s voice faltered. Spreading the napkin beneath her chin, she blinked rapidly to prevent herself from bursting into tears and embarrassing herself even more than she already had.

“You’d better go help Daddy before he gets tired of waiting and falls down the stairs.” Wasn’t one patient enough for the woman to flutter over?

If Emily was offended by the abrupt dismissal, she didn’t show it. Instead she smiled patiently.

“Eat your soup before it gets cold and then have some rest. I’ll check on you again later to see if you need anything else.”

Before Emily had reached the doorway, Kim was already spooning up the soup. It was the first time she could remember being hungry in a long while.

From the landing at the base of the staircase, David watched Adam’s slow, careful descent. David itched to help him, but the rancher’s thunderous glare was a good indication that any offer of assistance would be forcefully rejected.

“I’m here to break his fall,” David’s mom joked, her hand on the curved wood banister as she reached the landing ahead of him. She must have realized that trying to keep him downstairs after Kim’s collapse would have been a waste of her breath, because she hadn’t objected when he’d gone up earlier.

She was the only person David knew who was completely unfazed by the force of Adam’s personality. He didn’t lose his temper often, but his intimidating stare was enough to make anyone who was thinking about crossing him reconsider immediately.

Anyone except his wife. Once, he’d stated dryly that the reason he laid down the law was so she would have something to step on.

“If you think you’re going to cushion me, you’d better put on some weight pretty damn quick,” he growled now in response to her comment about breaking his fall.

“Thank you, sweetie.” Her voice was teasing as he thumped down the stairs next to her. “You always know just what to say.”

Dressed in light-green shorts and a sleeveless print blouse, she was still as slim and pretty as she’d been when she’d relocated her newly divorced self and her hostile, defensive son from L.A.

To David she’d always been the most beautiful mom in the world, even when he was angry over being dragged away from everything that was familiar. Despite a few gray strands mixed in with the honey blond, and faint smile lines bracketing her mouth, she was still gorgeous. Adam must think so, too, from the way he was ogling her. Although the awareness between them still made David uncomfortable, he envied what they had found together.

His biological father, a hotshot entertainment attorney, had made a big mistake in trading his mom in for a younger model. That marriage hadn’t lasted very long, despite the early arrival of David’s half brother, Zane. Its demise had been quickly followed by wife number three, who was only a few years older than David. By now she, too, had probably joined the ex-wives’ club. Not that he would know, since he had finally stopped returning his father’s infrequent calls.

“How’s the princess doing?” David asked after Adam braced himself with one hand on the newel post.

“Who really knows?” He shrugged, nearly losing one of his crutches.

David figured the only way his mom was going to get Adam off his bum leg would be if David went home.

“I’ve got animals to tend to, so I’ll see you in the morning,” he said.

Technically, Adam was his boss. Over the years they had developed an easy working relationship that usually started with coffee at the bunkhouse with the other men. Since Adam’s little accident, David had been dropping by here instead.

“Did you want to say goodbye?” His mother glanced upward. “She’s probably still awake.”

“No, that’s okay.” He’d had enough of Kim’s company for one day. “I’m sure I’ll run into her again soon.”

Too soon.

“Thanks again for going to the airport for me,” Adam told him.

“No problem.” Excusing himself, David followed his mother toward the back of the house where he’d parked his truck.

“Call me if you need anything,” he told her when they got to the kitchen.

“Let me give you some of the casserole,” she replied. “I made extra.”

“You always do.” He leaned against the granite counter while she dished up a generous portion into a plastic container. When she added four homemade dinner rolls and a big piece of apple pie, he didn’t protest. Eating his own cooking was one of the many prices of “baching it” that he willingly paid in exchange for having his own place, but he wasn’t about to turn down a meal he didn’t have to cook.

“Was Kim very talkative when you picked her up today?” she asked innocently as she loaded the food into a small box.

David straightened away from the counter and helped himself to one of the sourdough rolls. “Not really. I already told you she nearly keeled over while we were going to the car, though.” Devouring the roll in two bites, he took the box out of his mother’s hands. “What exactly did you think she might say?”

She held open the screen door for him. “Oh, nothing. I was just curious.”

He didn’t push it, partly because he wasn’t all that interested and partly because he didn’t want to risk her taking back the pie. Instead he leaned down to kiss her cheek.

“I’ll be working on the bathroom, but I’ll hear the phone if you need to call.” Since he had decided to remodel the master bath in the old rambler, he was eager to get the room finished and put back together.

She waited on the deck while he backed the truck around, and then she gave him a final wave. He glanced up at Kim’s room, but all he could see was the lacy curtains blowing in the open window. He wondered how she felt about being home again after so long.

A few moments later David drove his one big splurge out the front gate. The house he shared with a dog and a one-eyed cat was only five minutes down the main road. As much as David loved every member of his extended family-by-marriage, living by himself gave him the breathing space he’d realized he needed when he’d come back after graduation from Colorado State.

The old rambler where he had lived for the past few years had been well built by the original owner. Updating it was a work in progress that often seemed to David like more work than progress, since he was doing most of it himself.

His mother had bought the property without realizing that it nearly bisected the neighboring cattle ranch, which just happened to belong to Adam and his two younger brothers. After she had married him, the little rambler sat empty until David reclaimed it.

As he drove slowly down his driveway, Lulu came running out to meet him. Because of his Aunt Robin’s weakness for strays, he owned what had to be one of the ugliest dogs in all of Colorado. Lulu was part Airedale, part Lab, and the rest was anyone’s guess.

Good thing she had big brown eyes and a great personality.

“Hey, Lulu.” He got out of the truck, holding the box of food and the mail he had stopped to collect out of her reach with one hand as he patted her head with the other.

Her short coat was an unfortunate mixture of wiry black and brown waves, like a perm and dye job gone wrong, but her eyes brimmed with intelligence, and her loyalty was as solid as the hand-hewed beams of his house.

Thrilled to have him home, Lulu followed him up the steps to the wide front porch. The boards he’d used to replace those weakened by time and weather felt solid beneath his booted feet. Calvin, his cat, sat on the new railing and washed one orange paw, ignoring the arrival of his master as only a cat could.

“Hello to you, too,” David said in passing.

Just to annoy Calvin, the dog poked her muzzle against his fur and blew out a noisy breath, then barely managed to dodge the retaliatory swipe of claws as Calvin laid his ears flat to his head and spat.

“Behave, you two,” David scolded absently as the cat jumped down, still growling low in his throat, and followed them inside. What a ragtag parade they must make.

David took the food his mother had sent home with him straight through to the kitchen and set the box on the counter he’d redone in ceramic tile two winters before, after he and Karen Sanchez quit hanging out together. With a considering look at both animals, he picked the box back up, set it inside the cold oven and closed the door. No point in taking unnecessary chances.

Not with his mother’s cooking.

Flipping through his mail, he took a beer from the refrigerator, popped the top and poured a good part of it down his throat. He figured limo duty to the airport and back had earned him a brew or two.

There was nothing in his mail except a couple of bills, a home repair magazine and a check for a saddle he’d sold. Sipping the rest of the beer more slowly, he grabbed a baseball cap and went back outside. He crossed the yard and driveway that separated the house from his mother’s old studio. Beyond the small structure where she had restored rare books were the stable and corrals.

A breeze had come up to stir the hot, dry air, so he leaned on the fence that separated him from his horses and watched them graze while Lulu plunked her butt down beside him, panting softly.

David didn’t usually dwell on the past, but Kim’s arrival had stirred up a slew of memories. For a long time he had blamed the move to Waterloo on his parents’ divorce, and he had blamed that on his mother. Eventually he’d figured out that a combination of things had brought them here and that David himself had been at least partially responsible.

Mothers tended to freak out when you got expelled for taking a gun to school, even when it belonged to your father and you’d only borrowed it for self-protection after being shot at by someone you refused to identify when you were out jogging.

It hadn’t been his fault that some dude from a different high school thought David had been hassling his girl, which he hadn’t. Before he knew what was happening, his mother had decided L.A. was no longer safe, so she had bought the Johnson place, a baby-blue pickup truck and a Stetson with a flowered band.

Well, maybe he was wrong about the hat.

What followed was too-cool teen rebel meets rural hicks and hayseeds. The local kids had taken one look at David’s dyed orange hair with the sides shaved, his pierced ear and retro wardrobe, and avoided him like a bad case of hoof rot.

While he put aside the memories and drained the last of his beer, one of his mares moseyed close enough to see if he’d brought her any carrots. Polly was marked like one of Adam’s Appaloosas, but she was actually a breed called Colorado Rangers.

“Sorry, girl.” He rubbed her outstretched nose. “Maybe next time.”

Her colt, a miniature copy of its spotted dam, approached David warily, its scruff of a tail flipping comically while its ears swiveled back and forth.

Lulu started to rise, so David signaled her with his free hand. She obeyed instantly, haunches lowering back down to the ground, but the slight movement had already spooked the colt. With a squeal of apprehension, Bandit spun away on spindly legs, followed at a more matronly pace by his mama. She looked back at David reproachfully.

“See what you did?” he teased Lulu. “Come on. Time for dinner.”

After he had fed his furry roommates, putting Calvin’s dish up where Lulu couldn’t reach it, he set about microwaving the casserole for his own dinner. Usually eating alone didn’t bother him, but tonight when he sat down at the table, the silence seemed hollow instead of peaceful. Refusing to analyze his feelings, he got up and turned on the TV news so that voices filled the room while he finished his meal.

Kim glanced around self-consciously as she followed her father out of the school auditorium where Sunday services were being held until the new church on Dammer Road was completed. She’d forgotten how most of the congregation always stayed around outside afterward, weather permitting, in order to show off their nice clothes and visit with their friends while their kids ran loose.

The Winchesters were no different. All of them, right down to Uncle Charlie’s new baby in a pink lace dress and booties, were slicked out in their Sunday best.

While Kim stood hugging herself and wishing she was back in her room, unchanged since she’d been a teenager, an elderly rancher in a Stetson and a bolo tie approached her father. He had reminded Emily twice on the drive over that he had a doctor appointment first thing tomorrow, and Kim knew he was counting on being able to ditch his crutches.

“Not without a written note,” Emily had retorted as she parked the car.

A pregnant woman with two toddlers in tow greeted Emily as Jake and Cheyenne joined a group of children in a noisy game of tag. After an hour of sitting still, they had energy to burn. Kim’s cousin Steve and another boy his age were ignoring two girls who strolled by in minis and cropped tops. One of them tossed back her streaked blond hair and they both giggled.

How was it possible that little Stevie was old enough to be interested in girls?

Kim raised tentative fingers to her own short hair. The last time she’d been here, it had been long and straight. She’d worn it that same way all through school.

Despite her father’s strictness, she’d always had a lot of friends, taking her popularity for granted. When David came along, so different from the kids she’d known all her life, she’d felt sorry for him. Soon the two of them were friends and allies.

Now that was all changed, their friendship, her ability to fit in and certainly her confidence. Seeing Steve and his buddies made her feel old and worn-out at twenty-five.

She resisted the urge to touch the scar she had covered with concealer, fiddling instead with the belt of her rose-pink dress. At least the fitted style turned the weight she’d dropped into an asset, but she still felt a wave of unexpected shyness as she darted glances at the knots of people scattered across the expanse of dry brown lawn. Most of them she remembered, of course, but she wondered if anyone recognized her behind her trendy sunglasses.

Melinda Snodgrass, a girl Kim had never liked, was walking purposefully in her direction. Before Kim could figure out an escape, one of her aunts headed Melinda off. The same thing happened when a young couple from her class approached with a towheaded boy riding on the man’s shoulders. Uncle Travis drew them into a conversation before they reached her.

Slowly Kim realized that the other adults in her family had formed a protective ring with her in the center. Apparently they’d somehow gotten the impression that she was still too fragile to deal with people.

Why would they think that unless her dad had been talking to them about her? She stared at him, still deep in conversation. As if he could feel her gaze, he glanced over and raised his eyebrows.

She ought to be annoyed, but instead she felt as though she were standing on the prairie circled by wagons guarding against a renegade attack. Somehow she didn’t figure the people here would appreciate the comparison, but the image made her want to laugh. Quickly she pressed her fingers to her lips before anyone could notice her grin and wonder about her.

“What’s so funny?”

The question, muttered directly into Kim’s ear, spun her around to see David lurking there. Unlike most of the men present, he was bareheaded, the bright sun bringing out the auburn streaks in his dark hair.

“You missed the service,” she said. “Do you always sneak up on people or just me?” Still feeling embarrassed by her melodramatic collapse two days before, she had breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t join them earlier in the family pew.

“I got caught up in something, but I figured you’d all still be here,” he replied. “Now fill me in on what you were grinning about just now, and don’t try to tell me it was old Mrs. Baker’s new flowered hat.”

For some reason Kim found herself blurting out her impression of the Winchesters circling their wagons against their marauding neighbors. If David thought she was being ridiculous, he managed to hide it behind an attractive grin.

“Oh, yeah?” He lifted his head to glance around with a considering expression while she took the opportunity to study his profile.

He looked nothing like his mom except for his brown eyes. Kim had always thought they were his best feature, set beneath arching brows and framed by dark lashes as thick as a girl’s. He topped six feet, and the reason he’d been able to carry her up the stairs so easily was evident in the way his shoulders filled out the white dress shirt he wore tucked into snug black jeans.

“Are you feeling better today?” he asked her.

She blinked, disconcerted that he’d turned and caught her staring, but at least she hadn’t been checking out his butt as she’d been tempted to do.

“Yes, thanks. I just needed some rest.”

He raised his brows skeptically as though he might wonder how someone who didn’t even have a job could be so tired, but he didn’t challenge her reply. Not that the state of her health was any of his business.

A burst of laughter from two couples standing nearby gave Kim the excuse to look away from David’s probing stare.

“How did you scratch your face?” he asked.

Realizing that her habit of touching her scar must have drawn his attention to it, she immediately dropped her hand to her side.

“I got cut by flying glass from a broken window,” she responded automatically.

Most people were too polite to mention the scar in the first place, but those who did usually accepted her explanation.

Not David, of course. He leaned closer and peered at her cheek. “You were lucky your eye wasn’t injured.”

“Yes, I was.” Refusing to elaborate, she took a step back, wishing that someone, anyone, would come along and interrupt them. Of course no one did.

There was a real downside to a protective circle.

“How come you missed church?” she asked bluntly. If he could be nosy, so could she. “Did you oversleep? Late date last night?”

When she’d been back before, he was seeing Joey Parker, but that was a long time ago and Kim had heard that Joey got married. Perhaps she had gotten tired of waiting for David to make a commitment, or maybe they hadn’t been serious.

David hooked his thumbs into his wide black belt and stuck out his chin. “I’ve been doing some remodeling on my house and I guess I lost track of the time.”

His comment didn’t give her a clue as to whether he was seeing someone, but his love life was of no interest to her anyway.

“What are you remodeling?” She’d only been in the house once or twice and didn’t remember much about it, but she was just trying to be polite.

“I’m redoing the master bath, and I put in a jetted tub.”

“Really?” She managed to lace her tone with innuendo as she let her gaze slide over him. “Sounds like you’ve turned into quite the party animal.”

If someone had threatened David with a hot branding iron, he wouldn’t have admitted to Kim that his main intention in adding a bigger tub was to soak away the aches from a long winter day in the saddle chasing strays. If she wanted to picture him surrounded by women in bikinis, he wasn’t about to disillusion her.

Let her think he had an active love life. Someone in the family was bound to let it slip sooner or later that he hadn’t been on a date in months. He’d look like even more of a chump if he tried to explain that his current celibacy was voluntary.

The loose circle of family members that had surrounded Kim when he first arrived was beginning to break up, as though her overprotective relatives expected David to watch out for her. The idea that he could be trusted with Adam’s precious princess, even now, carried with it a certain amount of irony. At one point, Adam’s overprotective attitude had nearly derailed his own romance with David’s mother.

David was about to ask Kim why her husband hadn’t come with her this time, but someone crashed into him from behind and distracted him.

“David, David, save me!” shrilled Cheyenne as she ducked between him and Kim.

“Hey, take it easy.” He grabbed Cheyenne before she could knock Kim over. “Why don’t you take your game over by the swings where there aren’t so many people.”

“Okay.” She darted a subdued look at both of them. “Sorry.”

“That’s okay,” David admonished her gently. “Just be a little more careful.”

Kim remained silent until after Cheyenne had run off again. “She’s gotten so big, and so has Jake,” she murmured. “Your mom sent pictures, but I still wouldn’t have recognized either of them.”

“Kids grow in five years,” David replied dryly. As soon as the words were out, he wanted to suck them back in.

Kim’s expression grew mocking, and she cocked her head to the side. “Been keeping track?”

“No,” he snapped, annoyed with himself. “But I’ll bet Adam has.” Although the older man had never shared his feelings, at least not with David, he must have been devastated by her choice to go and live with the mother who had walked out on both of them. What a slap in the face that had to be to the father who had raised her by himself.

Now Kim’s eyes flashed with the first spark of real emotion David had noticed since she’d come home. “You don’t know anything, so don’t judge me.”

Anger surged through him and he leaned closer, gratified when her eyes widened. “I wouldn’t waste my time.”

Leaving her gaping, he turned on his boot heel. He didn’t want their exchange to turn into a full-blown argument. Before he could stalk away, his mother touched his arm, her concerned expression making him wonder how much she might have overheard.

“We’re leaving now,” she said with a glance over at Adam, who glared back. “Iron man needs to rest his leg. We’re all getting together for dinner at our house later. You’re coming, aren’t you?”

David shot a look at Kim, who was studiously ignoring him as she examined her nails. Knowing she didn’t want him around, and feeling perverse, he grinned back at his mom. Making her happy and annoying Kim at the same time was too good an opportunity to pass up.

“I wouldn’t miss it. What can I bring?”

Kim couldn’t help but overhear his reply. She had been hoping he would be too busy ripping up his house to accept, but of course he considered himself one of the family now. After his last dig about how long Kim had been away, it was clear he figured he had more right to be here than she did.

He was probably correct. One bad choice had led to another and then another, until she’d ended up feeling trapped and powerless. She wasn’t about to tell David, who obviously had no use for her, how much she had longed to come back sooner.

About six months after she’d first left, if her mother hadn’t begged her so hard to stay with her. And if Kim’s father hadn’t already been married to David’s mother by then.

Chapter Three

A burst of masculine laughter from the back deck and children’s shouts from the yard blended with the familiar sounds of women’s chatter, drawing Kim reluctantly to her stepmother’s large kitchen. After church Kim had changed out of the rose-pink dress into her usual uniform of khaki pants and long-sleeved shirt. This one was light blue with thin white stripes. In deference to the heat of the afternoon, she had rolled up the sleeves and left the top button undone.

The women of the Winchester dynasty were of course grouped in the kitchen, setting out the food. The men were outside supervising their progeny, Kim’s siblings and cousins.

Feeling like the star attraction or, more likely, the star witness, and braced to field a slew of questions, she sucked in a deep breath, licked her dry lips and stepped into the arched doorway.

Predictably, all conversation died as her uncles’ wives stared. Emily was the first to greet her, followed by statuesque Aunt Rory of the blazing red hair, the green thumb and the angelic voice, then Aunt Robin, a diminutive and dark-haired veterinarian from Chicago. For the first time, Kim realized that all three Winchester brothers had chosen brides from other states.

Kim waited for the inevitable questions: Why are you home? Where’s your husband? How long are you staying? When are you going to start a family of your own?

Aunt Rory, the mail-order bride from the Bronx who had come out to see Uncle Charlie and married Uncle Travis instead, came forward with a big smile and open arms.

“Hi, sweetie. Welcome back.”

“Thank you,” Kim murmured, taking comfort in Aunt Rory’s enveloping embrace and the familiar scent of her perfume. As a teenager, Kim had spent many hours baby-sitting Rory’s kids.

After a final squeeze, Rory released her so she could greet Robin, the aunt she barely knew. While Rory’s height dwarfed her, Robin made Kim feel oversize and gangly.

“It’s nice to see you again,” Robin said. Her midnight-black hair was cut as short as Kim’s and her smile was a little shy.

“Thanks,” Kim replied, feeling awkward. “Where’s Amanda?”

At the mention of her baby, Robin’s elfin face brightened. “Charlie’s got her. He hardly lets her out of his sight.”

“Well, he’s always been a bit of a ladies’ man,” Rory reminded her with a wink.

“Listen to you,” Emily exclaimed, waving hands that were encased in flowered oven mitts. “As if Travis hasn’t taken to fatherhood like a kitten to cream.”

“Winchester men,” Rory replied with a grin. “You gotta love ’em.”

Watching the interplay between the other three women, all friends and all happily married, stirred a mixed brew of feelings in Kim—envy, resentment and a dash of self-pity. It wasn’t fair. She had tried so hard to do everything right, so why had it all turned out so badly?

Dismissing the silent question, she turned to the woman she had blamed for a long time for usurping her own place in her father’s life and heart.

“Anything I can do to help?” Kim asked.

The counter was lined with bowls of salads—pasta, potato, mixed greens and shimmery jello for the kids. Next to a large platter of fried chicken on the center island was a bowl of baked beans.

“Everything’s ready, so you could start carrying the dishes outside,” Emily replied with a sweep of one hand. “Rory, would you tell your hubby to get the kids settled? Robin, why don’t you help Kim with the food?”

“And just what are you going to be doing while we’re all slaving away?” Rory returned with a mock glare.

She had married Travis when Kim was ten, an alien goddess from New York who worked briefly as the bunkhouse cook. Now she sang at Charlie’s dinner club in town when she wasn’t raising children and flowers.

Robin had moved to Waterloo and married Uncle Charlie five years ago. She seemed to be as quiet as he was outgoing. Maybe opposites did sometimes mesh, rather than grinding against each other until only one was left whole.

Pushing her blond hair off her forehead, Emily made a sweeping gesture toward the open French doors. “I think I’ll go mingle with all that prime male Winchester beef waiting outside.” She added a shimmy of her hips for emphasis.

“In that case, dab some salad dressing behind your ears and take this with you,” Rory drawled, thrusting a bowl of greens at her as the others hooted with laughter. Even Kim had to grin at their antics.

“Jake, quit picking on Chuckie!” Adam called out as David dug a cold soda from the cooler.

As Jake looked up at his father, his chubby redheaded cousin took the opportunity to push him.

“Hey!” Travis shouted at his younger son. “Any more of that and you’re benched.” He grinned over at his own older brother. “Tough little suckers. Probably future football stars.” He looked back at the two boys, who were now both scowling fiercely. “Play nice.”

“Yeah, like your dads never did,” Charlie added with a sly wink at David. Charlie was holding his two-month-old baby in the crook of his arm. Oblivious to the sounds around her, Amanda slept soundly.

Even though David wasn’t really into babies, she was pretty cute with her tiny fist tucked under her pointy chin. It was plain to see that his uncle, the former sheriff, was a cream puff when it came to his firstborn.

“When are you going to tie the knot and raise a passel of little Winchesters?” Travis asked him jokingly.

“He’s not a Winchester!”

The heads of all four men seated around the picnic table swiveled to look at Kim, who was standing in the doorway with a platter of chicken. David couldn’t tell if the color on her cheeks was caused by annoyance or merely embarrassment from suddenly finding herself the center of attention.

David got to his feet as Adam broke the awkward silence.

“But David is family just the same,” he said firmly, his gaze steady on his daughter’s.

Kim’s knuckles were nearly as white as the platter she gripped so tightly. Somehow that tiny bit of vulnerability spurred David forward, that and the memory of a younger, gentler Kim pushing through a crowd of students to ask his name.

“Let me help you with that,” he offered, reaching for the platter. “It’s got to be heavy.”

Her gaze clashed with his and he thought she was going to refuse.

“Rory makes the best fried chicken in the state,” he added. “I’d eat it off the floor if I had to, but I’d sooner not.”

“Oh, Lord, don’t drop my wife’s chicken, Kimmie, or I’ll never hear the end of it!” Travis exclaimed dramatically. “Somebody set that plate down.”

His comment broke the tension. Kim blinked and then she thrust the platter at David. When their hands touched, he could feel her tremble.

“Thanks.” Her voice was husky. “I didn’t mean anything by what I said. I was just stating a fact.”

“No problem,” David replied. Adam didn’t deserve whatever resentment she felt, but that was for the two of them to work out. David had no intention of getting in the middle.

Kim flapped her hand in the direction of the kitchen. “There are some more things I need to get.” She turned abruptly, barely avoiding a collision with Rory, who was bringing the potato salad.

“Hey, kid, would you make yourself useful and help me move the tables?” Charlie asked, distracting him.

Adam reached for Amanda, his normally stern expression replaced by a goofy grin as he cuddled her. Like the Pied Piper, Travis had already led the other kids inside the house to wash up.

“What do you think is going on with Kim?” Charlie asked David after the two of them had put two tables together. “She sure seems tense.”

Charlie grabbed his beer. His observation didn’t surprise David as much as it might have if it had come from some other big macho guy. When he had served his term as the town sheriff, he would have had to be able to read people and to be observant. Not much got past him. David remembered that a few of his buddies had found that out the hard way.

He wasn’t about to admit that he’d even given Kim a thought. He no longer had any idea of what made her tick, and perhaps he never had.

“Who knows,” he replied carelessly. “Maybe it’s jet lag.”

“It’s a three-hour flight from Seattle,” Charlie pointed out dryly. “You’d think she would have recovered by now.”

David shrugged. The aroma from the chicken was making his stomach growl as more food was brought out to a long side table. “Have you met the missing husband? I never did.”

“Yeah, I have.” Charlie took a drink of his beer. “First time at the wedding, and once when I flew out to Seattle with Adam to surprise Kim.”

“Yeah?” David prompted, curious despite himself about what kind of man had managed to win her heart, and her hand.

“Piece of work,” Charlie said flatly. “Ritzy wedding and a reception straight out of the movies. Food, music, booze. More attendants than a president’s funeral and flowers everywhere. I heard the old man telling someone they’d flown the orchids in from Holland, and the roses from South America.”

He chuckled, making David shift impatiently. It wasn’t the wedding he was curious about, it was the marriage.

“When they released the white doves outside the church, I was braced for a shotgun blast,” Charlie added with a grin.

“What’s he like?” David asked.

“Good-looking, I guess, but cold.” Charlie looked over at Kim, who had come out with a pitcher of juice for the kids and a stack of cups. “She seemed happy at the time. I s’pose most brides are on their big day, Lord knows Robin was. But now, with Kimmie, I don’t know.”

“What about Christie?” David asked. “Are she and Kim still close?” Kim had first gone to live with her mother in Denver, but he’d been stunned when she moved with Christie to the Northwest.

“Didn’t you hear?” Charlie’s brows waggled in surprise. “That gold-digging witch finally managed to bag herself a rich, decrepit old husband. They moved to Italy not too long ago.”

“Huh. I didn’t know that.” David wondered if Kim resented her mother’s remarriage as much as she had Adam’s. At least Adam hadn’t left the country afterward.

Everyone was beginning to gather, drawn by the food like ants to a picnic. David’s mother clapped her hands together. “Okay, everyone,” she said briskly. “You all know the drill. Food’s on, so let’s eat.”

After Kim had gone through the buffet line, she carried her plate to an empty place at the end of one table, right after her father, David and Emily sat down at the other with some of the kids. Kim wasn’t avoiding them, not really, but someone was bound to start asking her questions she didn’t feel like answering today.

Robin sat down across from Kim and glanced at her plate. “Is that what you’re having?”

Kim hadn’t even realized that all she had selected was green salad, jello and a few olives. “I’m just getting started,” she replied, feeling defensive.

“I’m sorry.” Robin looked remorseful as she unfolded a gingham checked napkin. “I’m the last one to grill you about what you’re eating.” She indicated her own loaded plate with a jab of her fork. “I’m still trying to lose weight from my pregnancy, but today I’m splurging.”

For a few moments they talked about babies and dieting. Robin was short but more curvaceous than she had been at her wedding to Charlie.

“Are you back to work yet?” Kim asked to fill the lull before Robin could ask her anything.

Robin was a veterinarian, specializing in large animals despite her diminutive size. Kim remembered that she had first come to town at the same time someone was poisoning Winchester cattle. It turned out that a huge corporation had hired a couple of thugs to help persuade her dad and uncles to sell them the ranch. Charlie had gotten shot during the chase and subsequent arrest, but not seriously. The corporation had paid a large settlement, but Kim didn’t know the details.

“I’m only working at the clinic part-time so far,” Robin replied after she’d swallowed a bite of potato salad. “Doc Harmon was nice enough to wait to retire until after I had Amanda, and we’ve hired two more vets. So far they’re working out pretty well.”

“Are they both straight out of school?” Kim asked, pushing around the food on her plate. Who else would come here, besides Winchester brides and greenhorn veterinarians looking for experience?

“Todd’s a young guy, but great with animals,” Robin replied. “Sophie is older. She went back to school after her divorce.” To Kim’s surprise, Robin blinked away sudden tears.

Kim nibbled on an olive while she waited for her aunt to compose herself.

“Sorry,” Robin said with a sniff. “I’m just so proud of Sophie.”

“So you two have gotten to be pretty good friends?” Kim asked.

Robin nodded. “I don’t know if you heard from anyone in the family, but I’ve been going to a support group over in Elizabeth for a few years now.”

Kim shook her head, curious and yet reluctant to pry. Especially since she wasn’t willing to reciprocate.

“When Sophie joined the group, she had just bailed out of a horrible marriage,” Robin continued. “She had left with nothing. She was living with her kids in a shelter.”

“That’s awful,” Kim said. She felt bad for women who were so desperate that they had nowhere else to go, especially when there were children involved. It had to be heart-wrenching to see your children going through that and know it was because of choices that you made. “Sophie must be a very determined woman.”

Robin broke a piece off her roll, staring at it thoughtfully for a moment. “Not when I first met her. She had no self-confidence, no self-esteem and no fight left in her. It can’t have been easy, but she’s come a long way.”

“That’s great.” Kim was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable that Robin was telling her so much about someone else’s life.

Rory, who was sitting next to Robin, must have been listening, even though she had been talking to a couple of the kids. Perhaps Rory already knew Sophie’s story.

Robin touched Kim’s hand, distracting her. “I’m not just passing on idle gossip,” she said quietly. “I would never break a confidence that way, but Sophie is proud of her accomplishments and so am I.”

Kim nodded, not sure what Robin expected her to say. “So your support group is mostly social, a group of friends?” she asked.

Now Robin’s smile was rueful. “I wish.” She glanced at Rory, who surprised Kim by giving her sister-in-law an encouraging nod. “I started going to the group after I got involved with your uncle,” Robin said. She glanced over at Charlie, her face softening. He was deep in conversation with Steve and his sister.

“You see,” Robin told Kim quietly, “I had been raped by a date back in college, but I never really dealt with it before I started seeing Charlie. I’d shut myself off, but he’s a very persistent man.”

“Some would say stubborn,” Rory drawled.

“They’re entitled to their opinions,” Robin replied. She turned her attention back to Kim, who was still trying to deal with the way Robin had said the word raped, as calmly as if she were talking about being involved in a minor traffic accident. “Since he was the sheriff, Charlie knew about the group. After I told him what had happened to me, he encouraged me to go. He wouldn’t give up until I did.”

“I’m sorry.” Kim wasn’t sure how to respond. “That’s awful.” Her comment was so inadequate that she bit her lip. Having someone you went out with force himself on you must be a hundred times worse than just having your husband demand sex when you weren’t in the mood, even if he did lose his temper when you tried refusing.

She started to touch her cheekbone, but then she stopped herself.

Robin waved her hand dismissively. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago, and your family has been wonderful in helping me to deal with it.”

So everyone knew? Kim couldn’t imagine telling everyone about something so personal, so devastating.

“Do you ever go back over it and wonder what you could have done differently?” she blurted without thinking.

“Of course I have,” Robin replied calmly. “I must have played back a thousand times in my mind everything that happened. For a long time I blamed myself.”

“But it wasn’t your fault,” Kim protested. “You didn’t ask for it.”

“Of course not. No one ever deserves to be raped.” Robin took another bite of potato salad, as though they’d been discussing the weather.

“Sometimes a woman just flat-out makes a dumb decision about something, and then she’s got no one else to blame if it ends up a disaster,” Kim mused without thinking.

Robin glanced at Kim’s plate and the food she’d barely touched. Her expression was compassionate. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. Sometimes all we can do is learn from our mistakes and move on.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do,” Kim admitted, “but even though my divorce was my idea, moving on afterward is hard.”

As soon as the words were out, she covered her mouth with her hand and wished she could stuff them back inside. The decree had only been final for a couple of weeks, but she hadn’t meant to make a general announcement until after she had a chance to talk to her father.

“You’re divorced? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Even though she’d been talking quietly, she hadn’t heard the sound of his crutches clumping up behind her. From the surprised expressions around her, her father’s comment had been overheard. Embarrassed, Kim ducked her head and stared at her plate.

Hers certainly wasn’t the first divorce in the history of the mighty Winchester dynasty. Her parents had split up, as had David’s. Aunt Rory had been married before she came out here from New York, but she, too, appeared stunned by the news of Kim’s divorce.

Embarrassed, Kim stuck her bare left hand above her head, waggling her fingers for everyone to see.

“Okay,” she cried out, knowing she wasn’t being entirely fair, but past caring. “For anyone who missed my father’s big announcement, yes, I’m divorced, okay? Any other personal questions I can answer while we’re on the subject?”

“I didn’t realize you were having problems.” Aunt Rory’s voice was low as she leaned closer. “Honey, are you holding up okay?”

Kim bobbed her head, feeling immediately ashamed of her outburst.

“What can we do to help?” Aunt Robin asked.

Her aunts’ sympathetic smiles and her father’s firm hand on her shoulder were almost more than Kim could deal with. She looked around, her gaze meeting Emily’s.

Afraid she would cry and humiliate herself further, Kim shot to her feet, bumping into her father so that he staggered before he caught himself.

“I’ll be right back,” she mumbled.

“What’s wrong with Kim?” she heard one of the kids demand in a piercing voice as she fled through the French doors.

Feeling like a fool, Kim kept her head down as she walked quickly toward the powder room. She wished she could hide out for a while, but where would she go? She was staying here at the house, and she didn’t even have a car.

Blinking away tears, she turned the corner of the hallway and barreled into David, who was coming from the opposite direction. Colliding with his chest felt like slamming into a concrete wall.

“Whoa!” He gripped her upper arms to steady her. “Where’s the fire, princess?”

One second David had been walking down the hall, minding his own business and looking forward to his mom’s chocolate layer cake, then the next instant he was nearly taken out by a human dynamo.

Kim twisted out of his grip. He was about to say something sarcastic about people who didn’t watch where they were going when he saw the tear tracks on her cheeks. Like most rough, tough cowboy types, he wasn’t scared of much, but flash floods and crying women probably topped the list.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as he looked down at her bowed head. Even hacked boyishly short, the strands of her hair caught the light like threads of silk.

“Nothing! I’m fine.”

He grabbed at her reply with the same sense of relief he might a life ring that had been tossed to him in a rip tide. He had done his duty, now it was on to dessert before the cake was gone.

“Good. Okay, whatever.” He backed quickly away.

Ignoring him, she bolted into the powder room and slammed the door. An instant later he heard water running.

David was eager to get back outside to the company of people who weren’t showing awkward emotions or having embarrassing meltdowns. Kim had told him she was okay and she could have asked for his help if she wanted it. Besides, no one had ever died from crying, not as far as he knew. So how much more reassurance did he need before he could make himself walk away?

The silent argument he was conducting with himself wasn’t working. His feet stayed rooted in place, refusing to move. Knowing that his stepsister, his former best friend and love of his life was in some kind of distress, his conscience just plain wouldn’t allow him to leave.

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