Million Dollar Cowboy (Cupid, Texas #5)(71)

"What?"

"That's the third time you've sucked in water."

Huh? Was it?

"Let's head for the shallows."

Shallow water. Yes. Perfect. Good idea.

He followed her as she swam effortlessly the length of the springs toward the other visitors. She found a spot where they could be off by themselves and sit on the bottom of the springs with their shoulders above water.

They settled in.

She waited, watching him, not speaking.

"Like I said." He inhaled. "My story is not going to live up to the buildup. It's certainly not going to live up to yours."

She crossed her arms, leveled him a get-on-with-it look.

He shook his head, amused by her tenacity. "All right," he said, and started the tale he'd not ever shared with anyone, not even Archer.



"After I left Cupid," Ridge said, "after my father and Vivi . . . well you know . . . I was a train wreck. I spent an entire week in a drunken stupor, but then I shook it off and went in search of my mother's people. I was seeking some kind of connection, for the place where I belonged."

He scratched his chin. The raspy sound of his fingernails against beard stubble peppered the pause.

They'd been born in the same place, raised together, but there was a lot she did not know about him. He'd been gone a long time, and he'd never been one to dig deep into feelings. As if skimming along on the surface of life would keep him safe.

"You'd never tried to contact them before?" Kaia asked, keeping her gaze trained on his face, studying every nuance, every shift of expression, trying to ferret out what he was feeling.

He shook his head. "I'd done some research when I was a teen. Learned my grandmother's name and where she lived, but I wasn't brave enough to call or show up on her doorstep."

Kaia pushed her wet hair back from her forehead, tried to suppress the uneasy feeling crawling under her skin.

"My maternal grandmother was living in San Antonio in a rough section of town. I worked up the courage to ring the doorbell and when I told her who I was, she asked me what I wanted from her."

"Not exactly the reaction you were hoping for?"

Ridge snorted. "No openhearted embraces. No."

"Bitch," she said it succinctly, pulling no punches.



       
         
       
        

Ridge burst out laughing, but it was a brittle sound, dark and dry. "I learned she'd kicked my mother out of the house when she was fifteen, claiming my mother had come on to my grandmother's boyfriend," he explained.

"Lovely woman," Kaia said, lacing her voice with sarcasm. "I take that back. That word I said before? Go ahead and insert it here again."

"You're good for my ego, Kaia Alzate."

"Why, thank you." She beamed. "You're welcome." She stuck a toe out of the water, wiggled it at him. "Go on."

"I'd rather come over there and play piranhas like when we were kids."

"Piranhas!" she squealed, feeling eight years old again. "Don't get none on ya."

He gnashed his teeth like a hungry piranha and came for her, but she giggled and swam away. "Nope. Not until you finish the story."

"You're not letting me off the hook."

"No, so you might as well get to talking."

"Here goes." He spoke fast, his words tumbling over each other. "My mother called her when she was seventeen and pregnant with me, wanted to come home. Good old grandmother told her no and sent her money for an abortion. Apparently, she thought Mom had gotten rid of me. Because I came as a big surprise. She told me she wasn't giving me any money if that's what I was there for."

Kaia reached out a hand and gently touched his shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

His muscles tensed beneath her fingers, but he didn't shake her off. "Hey, I don't need pity any more than you do."

"I get your point," she said, keeping her hand on him. "It wasn't the family reunion   you were hoping for. What did you do?"

"What was there to do? I left." His voice was quick, clipped. "And I got a job in a silver mine in New Mexico. I craved hard, backbreaking work to clean my head of all that crap. In the meantime, long-lost grandma did some sleuthing, discovered I was a Trans-Pecos Lockhart, and called me a few weeks later to put the bite on me for money."

"Oh no, she didn't," Kaia stretched out the last syllable and lowered her voice to show her disgust.

"Yep. She makes Duke look like a Prince Charming."

"Did you give her money?"

He looked chagrined. "She was going to get evicted."