Parker (7 page)

Then there was the television interview
coming up and the photoshoot….

She sniffled. More than a little. And her
eyes stung.

How in the hell had all of these things
happened to her in less than twenty-four hours? Just a day ago
she’d been on cloud nine. Her blog had been deemed a success, the
launch of her YouTube channel was coming in a few weeks, and the
Bekah’s Cottage
book deal was the icing on the cake. Life
was so good!

Her dreams were coming true, thanks to Jack.
Dear Jack
.

The thought of him made her want to cry even
more.

“Reba, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at
you.”

She whirled back. “No, you shouldn’t have.
Please, just take me home.” Then she did the unthinkable. Something
she hadn’t done for months. Something she wouldn’t let herself do
so much when Jack was dying.

She burst into tears. Not just tears but a
full-blown, butt-ugly, gut-twisting, sob-sucking crying attack.

****

“Ah, hell.”

Parker glanced into his rearview mirror, saw
no traffic behind him, and started slowing down. He quickly perused
his surroundings and spotted a pull-off up ahead. Not saying
anything to Reba, he moved over as far as he could, got out and
rounded the cab, and made his way to the passenger side and to
Reba. Opening her door fully, he stepped up to her side, carefully
undid her seatbelt, and angled her legs toward him, a little.

“Reba,” he said softly. “I’m sorry. Look at
me.”

Her gaze was downcast, and she was still
sobbing in hiccups. “No. I don’t want you to look at me.”

Ah hell!
“Reba, sweetheart, it’s okay.
Look at me.”

Slowly, she lifted her face and his gaze
caught hers.
Shit
. Big, fat tears were hanging onto her
lower lids, and all he wanted to do was kiss them away.

Can’t do that, McKenna.

“I’m a mess. I’m a swollen, bloated,
tear-faced mess. I really don’t want you to look at me.”

He reached for the clean handkerchief in his
pocket. “Here.” He carefully dabbed the cloth underneath both her
eyes. “Now yes, that was a lot of ugly crying, but it sure doesn’t
make you any less pretty. Gosh, Reba, I didn’t mean to go and get
you that upset.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s not you. It’s
just
everything
.” She sniffled and glanced off.

“Want to talk about it?”

She must have because she started in
immediately. “It’s me, Parker. It’s all of this stuff. Things were
going so well until yesterday, and now I have this,” she raised her
left arm with the splint, “and how am I supposed to type and blog
and edit when I can’t even move my fingers…and what about this!”
She pointed to her eye. “I have a big job thing coming up, and I
will be on camera and all of this crap,” she waved both her arms,
“is going to get in my way!”

“That was one big damn sentence, honey. I’m
not sure if I got it all but—”

“Never mind!”

He nodded. “Okay. No worries.” He patted at
her eyes again and then handed her the handkerchief. “Here. Let me
take a closer look at you.”

It was the first time he’d looked deep into
her eyes. He wanted to look at her bruising and the bump a little
closer, but as he carefully brushed back her hair, he got lost in
that one big glistening emerald eye, shimmering with a few unshed
tears.

“You are beautiful, you know,” he told her.
“Even with this.” He grazed a thumb beneath her left eye, trailing
the edge of the bruise. He loved the look of her porcelain skin and
the smattering of small reddish freckles over her nose. He didn’t
know too many women who still had their freckles into adulthood. It
was mighty cute.

He grinned. “I don’t know what camera thing
you have, but I bet some big Jackie-O sunglasses would hide this
shiner slick as a button, and you’d look pretty sexy wearing
them.”

Reba physically gulped. “Wha— What?”

He stepped back. “I’m sorry. I think the
words in my head escaped my mouth and obviously, I need to get more
control on that.”

She nodded. “Kind of like when I said I
wanted to kiss you last night?”

Parker shoved his hands in his pockets. “Yes.
Like that.”

Reba continued, glancing to her lap. “We said
we were going to forget about that, right?”

He nodded. “We did.”

Silence fell between them for a few long,
tortuous seconds.

“Okay, that’s good, because with this eye
thing going on, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want to kiss me again
anyway.”

Closing his eyes, Parker exhaled. Long. It
didn’t matter if her entire face was purple, he still wanted to
kiss those pink, pouty lips of hers.

“Parker?”

He stepped forward. “Yes?”

Slowly, her face lifted and once again, she
turned those sparkling emeralds up on him. He reined in control for
a brief moment and then leaned forward to cradle her face in his
hands, angling her mouth toward his, and kissed her.

Her lips were dewy-sweet and soft as a calf’s
ear. He nibbled and caressed their plumpness, her touch sending a
wicked spiral of desire straight through him, her honey taste
revving up his libido to a higher gear. Her sighs slipping through
her parted breaths and landing on his mouth were nearly his
undoing.

He pulled back, slightly. “Reba…” he
whispered. “I’m sorry. I….”

She put two fingers on his lips. “Shh. Kiss
me again, cowboy,” she told him. “Don’t stop.”

And he didn’t.

Chapter Seven

Sunday morning

Parker had managed to avoid his stepmother
for the entire day after his father’s funeral. Not deliberately, of
course. Mostly by happenstance. He’d had a full day, what with
keeping Reba awake the night before, the meeting with Tom, and then
the emergency trip back to Livingston—he’d been hopping every
minute with very little time to spare.

Avoiding Liz and the rest of the family was
not going to be an option today. She’d called not long after he’d
dropped Reba off at her cabin last night and requested they all
spend some time together in the morning. Sunday morning breakfasts
at the new house generally were the rule of thumb, so why was Liz
making a special effort to make sure they were all there
tomorrow?

He agreed it was necessary. It would give
them time to talk and process the past couple of weeks and the
funeral and to speculate a bit about what comes next. Of course,
some things couldn’t be dealt with until the details of the will
were disclosed later next week.

Then, there was the part about all of the
siblings and Liz getting along. He reminded himself of the talk
he’d had with Tom. Spending time with them today would be a good
thing.

Even though he’d rather finagle some time
with Reba.

Reba
. Her face had saturated his
dreams last night. He liked the way her name rolled around in his
head and off his tongue when he said it aloud. He imagined saying
her name on a whisper in her ear, when he was making love to
her….

Down boy. Don’t go there so early in the
morning.

Her kisses were intoxicating. He had left her
last evening with a sweet, lingering kiss on her lips and a promise
to call her. She’d gone inside with a small wave and a smile and a
semi-confused look on her face.

Probably not unlike the look that was on his
face.

Things were moving too quickly between them,
and that likely was not a good thing. He had a lot on his plate
this next week or so, and with the future of the ranch on the line,
how could he even think about starting a relationship? Plus, he’d
not had a moment to let the grief surrounding his father’s death
settle in, never mind trying to deal with it.

He shouldn’t have kissed her so much. But
standing there in the open door of the cab, looking into her sad
face and wiping away her tears, all he could think about was he
wanted to be the person to make her tears go away. To hold her and
kiss her until she felt beautiful again. To be the man taking her
out to dinner. Not Mike.

He just couldn’t
stop
kissing her.

Jealous. Yes. The green-eyed monster had
reared its head the moment Mike said he’d wanted to ask her out.
What was Parker supposed to do with that information, anyway? Be
happy for him?

He didn’t know. And that’s why he’d gotten
all pissy and silent in the car. And made her cry. What an ass.

But
when
he’d kissed her… All he could
feel was he wanted to make things better, keep her safe, protect
her from—everything. Make her his. Claim her for his own with each
and every kiss. He wanted her to remember those kisses in case Mike
did call. Hell, he needed to just tell Mike the truth.

He’d lied. It was more than casual for him.
More than just friendly neighbors.

Those feelings surprised him. He’d not
experienced this strong of an emotional attraction toward a woman
in a long time. Maybe never. Physical too. No doubt Reba Morris was
a sexy, interesting woman. A strong and capable woman, too—but
there was a part of her, he was pretty darned certain, who needed
and wanted a man to take over from time to time. She’d probably go
screaming and kicking, but for some damn crazy reason, he wanted to
be that man to drag her into his world.

And yes, he would save her and protect her
and take care of her, whether she knew she wanted it or not. The
thought made him smile and chuckle.

The ringing of his phone brought him out of
his contemplation. He reached for the device rattling on his desk.
“Yes.”

Brody. “Hey, man. Just wanted you to know
that we’re all down here for breakfast. You joining us?”

Yeah. Might as well get this started. “I’m on
my way,” he responded. “Ten minutes.”

Parker pushed the button to end the call and
turned to stare out the window. He’d grown up in this house. His
father had given it to him when he and Liz built the new house.
Surely James McKenna wouldn’t jerk his home out from under him.
Would he?

He didn’t think so. Likely, he was worrying
about nothing.

****

“I understand there is a meeting with Tom on
Friday.” Liz wasted no time. She caught his eye the second he
stepped over the threshold and held his gaze. Hell, she was likely
as nervous about all of this as he was. He thought about Tom’s
message and decided to cut her some slack. The large great room was
the family gathering spot, and it seemed everyone was already
there.

“Yes, ma’am. Two o’clock in Tom’s office. I
can drive us both if that works best for you.”

“I suspect I should drive myself. I have a
few other errands to run while in town. But thank you, Parker.”

He nodded. “Not a problem, Liz. Let me know
if you change your mind.”

She smiled and handed him a coffee cup.
Parker took it. One thing for certain, this family couldn’t
function without buckets of black coffee first thing in the
morning.

He stared at the cup for a moment. His dad
never started his day without half a pot of coffee.

A breakfast buffet had been set up in the
kitchen area. For years anyone who was on the ranch gathered at the
new house on Sunday morning for breakfast. There would be an empty
seat at the table from now on.

Parker stuffed that feeling deeper inside him
and concentrated on the food. Everyone else had already filled
their plates and were sitting at the large dining table. Parker
went straight to the coffee pot, poured himself a cup, and then
moved to the table to claim a seat.

“Mornin’ everyone.”

“Mornin’,” came the chorus of voices in
response.

Callie and Murphy sat to his left. Murphy had
worked and lived at McKenna Ranch since he was seventeen, but only
recently convinced Callie he was the one she needed in her life—and
he’d been right under her nose the entire time. It was great to
have his little sister back from New York permanently and even
better to know she and Murphy would soon marry and live on the
ranch.

At least he hoped that’s what would happen.
That all depended on the next week or so.

Brody and Stef were also present, along with
their daughter Livy. Stef had grown up on the ranch, too, and now
managed the dude ranch’s fly-fishing business. It was good to see
them happy and together. That relationship had been rocky from the
start, with the reconciliation a long time coming. For their sakes
and Livy’s, he was glad they were on their way to a happy life
together.

And then there was Mercer, his half sister.
He wondered how she was holding up. She’d been awfully close their
daddy, who had spoiled her rotten simply because she was the
youngest. Nevertheless, she’d grown into a fine young woman, ready
to head out into the world.

He just hoped not too far away. He’d prefer
to have all of his siblings close by, if possible. They needed each
other. Especially now.

The hot cup of coffee marking his spot,
Parker ambled toward the food. Detached. No spouse or girlfriend.
Mercer was still young, and no doubt she’d find a man to tame her
one of these days. And he was damned happy for Callie and
Brody.

That left him, the oldest of the crew and
single. How had that happened, and at thirty-five, how had he let
life slip by so quickly without finding a wife?

Work. Ranching. That was part of it.

Plus there had never been a woman who
captured his interest, or his heart, long enough to take hold.

Could Reba do that?

His plate filled, he headed back to the
table, where a lively conversation was happening about which
sibling was their father’s favorite. It was all in fun, of course,
because they all knew James McKenna really didn’t have a
favorite—although each sibling was making a mighty strong case for
themselves.

Liz laughed, listening to them banter, and
Parker watched her face. She was still young. He imagined a man
would come along one day and sweep her off her feet. And then where
would the ranch be?