Authors: Lorelei James
Tags: #Romance, #Contemporary, #Adult, #Western, #Red Hots!, #Western Romance
Raising Kane (10 page)
“Hey, look! There’s the signup sheet for the halftime race,” Hayden said.
“Let’s get you on the list.” Kane spoke to Dash. “You wanna wait here until we’re done so we can find seats?”
“I have to stay in the handicapped section on the main floor. You two go on, I’ll be fine on my own.”
“But Grandpa, I wanna sit with you.”
Dash looked at Kane briefly, then back at his grandson. “We can sit in the same vicinity, but the handicapped section is small. If you sit by me, that means someone in a wheelchair won’t have a seat.”
Dash set his twisted hand on Hayden’s shoulder. “Go sign up. Hayden raced to the table. Dash glanced at someone behind Kane and muttered, “Crap.”
“Why, Dash Paulson. Long time no see.”
Kane recognized his cousin Keely’s voice and turned around.
She squealed, “Kane! I hoped you’d be here.” She hugged him effusively and punched him in the stomach.
“Hey, what was that for?”
“For not inviting me to the last McKay poker game. You macho guys were just pissed because I handed you your collective asses last time.”
“I seem to recall you bein’ out of town.” His eyes narrowed on his only female McKay cousin. Circles darkened the pale skin beneath her tired eyes. Her sunny smile seemed a tad forced. “Whatcha been doin’?”
“Workin’, workin’, and more workin’.” She sighed. “I was coming to this basketball game to support my lamebrain brother Colt, but he backed out at the last minute.”
Kane said, “That’s too bad,” without any disappointment.
Keely ignored his sarcastic reply and invaded Dash’s personal space. “So Mr. Paulson…happy as I am to see you out and about, you wanna tell me why you’ve been ditching our physical therapy sessions?”
Dash scowled at Keely. “They’re pointless. I’m never getting out of this chair.”
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“Probably not. But you don’t want to lose what strength and agility you have now, do you?”
“No.”
“Does Ginger know you’re skipping class?”
Another grimace. “No. I also know you can’t tell her because of patient confidentiality, so you’d best be keeping this to yourself, missy.”
“Mr. Paulson, we both know there are ways around those pesky rules. So if you don’t show…”
“I’ll show,” he grumbled.
“Excellent.” Keely rubbed her hands together with utter glee. “Fair warning. Wednesday is gonna suck. I’m putting you through the wringer. See you then.” She gave him a finger wave and a haughty grin before she whirled on her boot heel and vanished into the crowd.
Dash pointed at Kane. “Not a word to my daughter about this business.”
“You have my word. But I agree with Keely. And I’ve seen firsthand how much her therapy has benefited my cousin Cam. Think about that.”
Kane wandered off in search of Hayden. They found two seats in the lower bleacher section. Kane kept Hayden’s junk food intake to a grape snow cone and a box of red licorice. With the kid’s food allergies, he was careful to stick to the tried and true. The guilt would eat him alive if Hayden got sick on his watch.
At halftime, Kane headed down to the main floor and crouched beside Dash as Hayden participated in the footrace.
Hayden finished third. Kane snapped a couple of pictures of the ceremony and the green ribbon with his cell phone and sent it to Ginger.
Near the end of the third quarter, he saw the back of Dash’s wheelchair as he exited the gym. He and Hayden followed.
Dash was parked outside the restroom, wearing a scowl.
“Is everything all right?”
Two spots of color dotted the man’s sallow cheeks. “I need to use the facilities but this handicapped bathroom isn’t conducive to my needs.”
Kane scratched his head. “How about if you repeat that in plain English?”
“This particular bathroom is impossible for me to use.”
“Do you need help?”
The muscle in Dash’s jaw tightened. “No. That’s not the issue.”
Like hell that wasn’t the issue. Like father like daughter. Neither one wanted to accept his help.
Rather than snap, or embarrass the man, or point out the obvious, Kane said, “Fine. Let’s get you back home.”
“I thought you’d prefer to stay until the end of the game.”
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“In the future, maybe it’d be better if you asked my plans instead of assuming they’ll conflict with yours.”
Dash had no response.
Kane buttoned his sheepskin coat and slipped on his gloves. “Everyone ready to go?”
“Wait a sec. I gotta say goodbye to someone.” Hayden raced off and ducked beneath the bleachers.
The silence between him and Dash was decidedly chilly and didn’t owe a damn thing to the frigid temperatures outside.
“McKay, I apologize. I can be a bit of a curmudgeon sometimes.”
At least the members of the Paulson family didn’t have a problem admitting when they were wrong.
“I understand. We’re cool. Know what’s funny? My mama used that same word to describe my grandpa. Course, me’n Kade thought it meant mean.”
Dash smiled. “Thanks for bringing me here today.”
“You’re welcome.”
Hayden bounded back, grinning from ear to ear. “This is so great. I wish we could do guy stuff like this with all of us every weekend.”
Kane looked at Dash, who rather pointedly focused his gaze on his hands in his lap and didn’t respond.
“Me too, sport,” Kane said. “Me too.”
59
“Kimi, don’t feel obligated to stay if you have other things to do,” Ginger said, after twenty minutes of general small talk.
“I’m happy to stick around. And to be honest? You’d be doin’ me a favor by lettin’ me stay.”
Ginger eyed the petite blonde. How this small woman birthed twins boggled her mind. “How would you getting stuck with me be a favor?”
Kimi cracked open a can of diet soda and poured the fizzy liquid over a glass of ice. “First off, it’s Sunday. Which means football, which I don’t care a lick about. But my husband and his brother Carson are huge fans. They turn the TV so damn loud I can’t stand to be in the same room with them.” She winked.
“I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re countin’ on.”
“You’re left to your own devices every Sunday?”
“It ain’t so bad. About half the time I head over to my sister Caro’s place, since Carson is parked in my den. But today, Caro has all her grandkids over. Now don’t get me wrong, I adore my grandnephews and grandnieces. There are just so darn many of them. Cryin’, fightin’, screamin’, kids and dogs runnin’ in and out of the house. Plus diapers, and at least one of them always vomits. Caro’s in her element, but she’s used to bein’ surrounded by kids, as she had half a dozen.”
Kimi set the soda on a coaster next to Ginger, and then poured herself a soda on ice too.
“Of course, my granddaughters are perfect angels. Here. See for yourself.” From a saddle-shaped purse, Kimi whipped out a four-by-six photo album and handed it over. “Since Sky works so much during the week, her and Kade’s weekends are devoted to their girls, and I can’t fault them for that. Even when I don’t get to see my girlies as much as I’d like.”
“Do you ever hang out with Kane on Sundays?”
“Rarely.”
“Why’s that?”
Kimi shrugged. “Used to be he’d still be enjoying female companionship from his Saturday night adventures in whatever bar he’d been trolling in the night before.”
“Used to be?”
“Not for lack of women vying for his attention. My boys are good lookin’ men. Lord, they’ve been rating a second and third glance from women of all ages since they turned fourteen. Kane took advantage of
Raising Kane
that female attention, way more than Kade ever did. But in the last few years, it’s like Kane had a complete personality makeover.”
Getting the goods on Kane McKay straight from his mother’s mouth? Too good an opportunity to pass up. “How’s he changed?”
“His cousin Dag died. Colt went into rehab. Cord got married. Kade got married. Then they sold the Boars Nest to Cam. It was like everybody grew up and moved on. Everyone but him. And don’t get me started on that ridiculous name change.
“I’ve thought a lot about it and the bottom line is this—I don’t think Kane wanted to give up his party-boy ways. It’s made him a little bitter, so he keeps to himself. It bugs the crap out of me that he’s alone so much.” Kimi sighed. “Then again, near as I can figure, he’s not bouncing on every woman with a pulse in the tri-county area. Good Lord. That man had lousy taste in women.”
Cheeks burning, Ginger sipped her soda, keeping her mouth shut.
But Kimi was perceptive and recognized Ginger’s intentional silence. “If you’ve got something to say about Kane, by all means, spit it out.”
Her internal debate lasted all of fifteen seconds. “No offense, Kimi. I hate to say you’re wrong about your son…but you’re wrong. Kane keeps to himself because he’s just plain tired. Sounds to me like he’s picked up a considerable amount of slack since Kade became a family man.” Ginger lifted a finger when Kimi started to argue. “He wasn’t whining or complaining when we talked about it, just explaining.
“Kane spends time with Hayden at least once a week. Maybe he isn’t hanging out with his married McKay cousins, but he plays poker with his single McKay cousins every other week. Maybe the difference is Kane doesn’t feel compelled to live up to his former wild reputation. And near as I can tell? He isn’t bitter. But I suspect he is lonely.”
Kimi flat-out gaped at her. Then she got up and walked into the kitchen. She stared out the window, keeping her back to Ginger.
Way to insult Kane’s mother first thing. Sometimes you have the tact of
your
mother.
Ginger waited for Kimi to either leave in a huff or lash out at her, figured she deserved either or both reactions.
Finally she came back and sat next to Ginger on the couch. Ginger’s stomach churned seeing tear tracks on Kimi’s face.
“Sorry if I stepped over the line.”
“You didn’t.” Kimi laughed. “Okay, you did. It’s just…you think you know your child. Straight down to the bone. Then someone shows you how arrogant that is. I should never assume anything. It makes me mad when other people do it, and I’ve done the same damn thing with my own child. So I don’t know which is worse, how impressed I am by your insight into my son, or how embarrassed I am because of my lack of it.”
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Somewhat relieved, Ginger sagged into the couch. “I entrust Kane with the most important thing in my life—my son—so I probably see him in another light than you do.”
A shrewd look entered Kimi’s eyes. “How do you see my son?”
I’d like to see the gorgeous, thoughtful, kind, sweet, funny man naked a whole lot more, especially
with his innate ability to make my earlobes sweat when he puts those calloused hands on me.
“Not only is Kane multi-faceted, Kimi, he’s great at multi-tasking. I don’t know what I would’ve done if he hadn’t volunteered to stay here and take care of us after my accident.” Ginger tilted her head back and stared at the ceiling.
“Speaking of caretakers, are you Dash’s primary caretaker?”
“Yes. And no. We built this one-level house to accommodate his wheelchair. Everything is handicapped-accessible. I hired a male nurse to deal with Dad’s personal hygiene stuff because the stubborn man refuses to let me help him.”
“Men need their pride,” Kimi said softly. “My father hated being seen as weak. But Cal’s dad, God rest his soul, accepted he’d never be the man he was and kept a great sense of humor about his ‘failings’
until the day he died.”
“At this point…my Dad is between those two mindsets. Luckily he’s still a social guy, so he’s off to the senior center or community center three times a week. Although he’s retired, he comes into the office and helps me.”
“Cal said Dash intends to pass all the McKay legal work on to you.”
“There’s a lot more to it than I imagined.”
“Big ranch. Big secrets. I hope you’re up for it.”
That was a strange thing for Kimi to say.
The silence didn’t last long and Ginger appreciated Kimi kept the conversation rolling.
“I’m not surprised Dash kept his health issues a secret while he was dealing with Linda’s illness.”
Kimi clucked her tongue. “Linda was such a sweet woman.”
“That’s what I hear. I didn’t know her at all.”
“Is that because you were close with your mother? I don’t believe I’ve ever heard her mentioned.”
Ginger tensed up at the mere mention of her mother. “As you probably know from local gossip, my parents’ divorce was less than amicable. My relationship with my mother wasn’t that great growing up, but it worsened after I left for college.”
“Why? You’d think she’d be proud to have such a successful, smart, driven woman for a daughter.”
“Wrong. She hated I’d followed in my dad’s footsteps. Then Hayden’s birth knocked her for a loop, because frankly, she wasn’t ready to be a grandma. Plus, it embarrassed her I’d become an unmarried single mother and refused to disclose the name of Hayden’s sperm donor. She cut all ties with me when we moved to Wyoming.”
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“Where does she live?”
“No clue. Last I heard it was…Australia? Or New Zealand.”
Kimi’s eyes widened. “She doesn’t have any contact with Hayden?”
“She’s never seen him, besides in pictures. It’s a pretty screwed up situation.”
“Sounds like it. But then I’ve learned that there’s no such thing as the perfect family.”
Her cell phone buzzed. She opened the picture message from Kane, showing Hayden receiving his third place ribbon. How much did it suck she couldn’t be there?
“Honey? What’s wrong?”
She passed the phone to Kimi. “Mother’s guilt. Kane sent me a picture of Hayden and his award.”
“How thoughtful.”
“I know. He’s always doing stuff like that. But it makes me feel so guilty.”
