Million Dollar Cowboy (Cupid, Texas #5)(65)

"I resisted too." Granny Blue laid her wrinkled, sun-spotted hand atop Kaia's. "It's only natural. Finding your soul mate can be quite scary at first."

"Honestly, I did not think it was real. I thought it was just a story you told us, like Cinderella. I never believed I would actually hear . . ." Kaia fanned her palms beside her ears. "This."

"I cautioned you," Granny Blue said. "But you had to have proof, and now you do."

Her soft words held such unyielding faith, Kaia's gut squeezed, sloshed with peppermint tea and cookies. She was glad she'd chosen peppermint now, hoping it would soothe her jittery stomach.

"What happened between you and grandfather? Was it love at first sight?"

"Oh no! The first time I saw him I thought he was the cockiest rooster in the barnyard. Although . . ." She took a sip of her tea and grinned. "He was the most handsome man I'd ever seen."

"So you had no idea when you met him that he was your true love?"

Her grandmother's smile turned wistful. "Not at all. It wasn't until he kissed me under the starry night sky and I heard the Song of the Soul Mate that I knew he was the one."

Just to have something to do with her hands, Kaia ate another cookie.

"I miss that man, his kisses and that humming, every single minute of my life."

She heard the heartbreak in Granny Blue's voice, felt the depth of her grandmother's sorrow all the way through her bones. "Aww, Granny." She squeezed her grandmother's hand.

"Don't feel sorry for me." Granny Blue smiled past the single tear streaking down her cheek. "I'm blessed beyond measure. And now you"-she reached out to stroke Kaia's chin-"whether you believe it or not, have heard the Song of the Soul Mate. It is a great gift." 

"But who's to say it's not just some genetic malfunction in the brains of the women in our family and it has nothing to do with love at all?" Kaia fretted, alarmed at her tightening chest muscles.

"But you didn't hear the hum until after this man kissed you, correct?"

Kaia nodded. She couldn't deny it, no matter how much she might want to. Ridge had kissed her, and then she'd heard the humming. Every single time.

"You have doubts, it's understandable. But like it or not, once you've heard the Song of the Soul Mate, he is inevitably yours."

"But what if he is with someone else?" Kaia said. "What if he's married?"

"Is he?"

"No."

"Did you know that your grandfather was engaged to be married when I met him?"

"What?" Kaia pressed a hand to her mouth, slightly scandalized. "You stole grandfather away from his fiancée?"

The dry desert breeze made her skin feel hot. Fig Newton crumbs sprinkled the tablecloth in front of her. In her rapt attention to Granny Blue's story, she'd finished off the entire sleeve of cookies. With the flat of her hand, she swept the crumbs into a straight line, and then brushed them off the table into her saucer.

The dogs sat up, watching her, curious as to what she harbored in the saucer. The ceiling fan overhead rotated in lazy circles.

Her pulse pounded, and her head hummed. Just the thought of Ridge's kisses set it humming. She felt weak, dazed.

Granny Blue's eyes were pinned on her. She smiled a faint, faraway smile, remembering something she did not share.

"What would have happened if he'd married the other woman?" Kaia asked.

"He didn't."

"But what if he had?"

"Then we both would have been miserable for the rest of our lives." Her bittersweet gaze came back to Kaia. "When he stole that kiss from me, he broke his vow to his intended. His tribe took it as a sign he had a fickle character." She paused. "They did not understand the Song of the Soul Mate. It was not a gift his people possessed. That's why we moved to the Trans-Pecos. For a start fresh."

"It must have been hard. Leaving your home and your family for a man you barely knew. Did you ever have moments of regret?"

"Never." Granny Blue breathed out a fierce breath, the thin line of her nostrils flaring. "How could I regret finding the other half of my soul?"

"Wow."

"Although," Granny said, touching an index finger to her chin, "your grandfather and I regret that we caused the other woman pain. But when you hear the Song of the Soul Mate"-she shook her head-"everything changes and there is nothing you can do to stop it."

"It sounds awful. Out of control."

"It is awful only if you resist," Granny Blue said with ironclad conviction. "If you embrace what is . . . well, it is like a fairy tale. Happily-ever-after."

"Until one of you dies," Kaia whispered.