The SEAL's Secret Heirs(20)

“It’s not better,” Liam muttered darkly. “Are you out of your mind? You can’t come in here and throw your weight around. Danny’s been handling the cattle side. I told you that. This is his territory and you came in and upset the status quo in less than five minutes.”

Kyle shook his head. “Not his territory anymore. It’s mine.”

“Seriously?” Liam’s snort was half laugh and half frustration. “You don’t get it. These men respect Danny. Follow him. They don’t like you. What are you going to do if they all quit? You can’t run a cattle division by yourself.”

Yeah, but he’d rather try than put up with dissension in the ranks. Catering to the troops was the fastest way to give the enemy an advantage. There could only be one guy in charge, and it was Kyle. “They can all quit then. There are plenty of ranch hands in this area. I need men who will work, not drama queens all bent out of shape because a bigger fish swam into their pond.”

“Fine.” Liam threw up his hands. “You have at it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Just keep in mind that we have a deal.”

His brother stomped to his truck and peeled out of the clearing with a spray of rock. Kyle resisted the urge to wave, mostly because Liam was probably too pissed to look in his rearview mirror and also because the hands were eyeing him with scowls. No point in being cocky on top of clueless.

His girls were worth whatever he had to do to figure this out.

Johnny approached him then. Kyle had just about had enough of cattle, his aching leg, difficult ranch managers and a hardheaded brother.

“What?” he snapped.

“Uh, I just wanted to tell you thanks.” Johnny cleared his throat. “For your service to the country.”

The genuine sentiment pierced Kyle through the stomach. And nearly put him on the ground where a day of hard riding hadn’t. It was the first time anyone in Royal had positively acknowledged his time in the military. Not that he’d been expecting a three-piece band and a parade. He’d rather stay out of the spotlight—that kind of welcome was for true heroes, not a guy who’d gotten on the wrong end of a bullet.

Nonetheless, Kyle’s bad day didn’t seem so bad anymore.

“Yeah,” he said gruffly. “You’re welcome. You know someone who served?”

Usually, the only people who thought about thanking veterans were those with family or friends in the armed forces. It was just a fact. Regular people enjoyed their freedom well enough but rarely thought about the people behind the sacrifices required to secure it.

Johnny nodded, his eyes wide and full of grief. “My dad. He was killed in the first Gulf War. I was still a baby. I never got to know him.”

Ouch. That was the kicker. No matter what else, Kyle and this kid had a bond that could never be broken.

Kyle simply held out his hand and waited until Johnny grasped it. “That’s a shame. I’m sorry for your loss. I stood in for great fallen men like your dad and helped continue the job he started. I’m proud I got to follow in his footsteps.”

The younger man shook his hand solemnly, and then there was nothing more to say. Some things didn’t need words.



Kyle hit the shower when he got back to the house. When he emerged, Liam and Hadley asked if they could take the babies for a walk in their double stroller before dinner, and would he like to come?

A walk. They might as well have asked if he’d like to fly. He’d have a hard time with a crawl at this point. After the fishhooks Johnny had sunk into his heart, he’d rather be alone anyway, though it killed him to be unable to do something as simple as push his daughters in a stroller. He waved Liam and his new wife off with a smile, hoped it came across as sincere and limped into the family room to watch something inane on TV.

There was a halfway decent World War II documentary on the History Channel that caught his interest. He watched it for a few minutes until the doorbell rang.

“That was fast,” he said as he yanked open the door with a grin he’d dare anyone to guess was fake, expecting to see Liam and Hadley with chagrined expressions because they’d forgotten their key.

But it was Grace. Beautiful, fresh-faced Grace, who stood on the porch with clasped hands, long brown hair down her back, wearing a long-sleeved sweater with formfitting jeans. It was a hard to peel his eyes from her. But he did. Somehow.

“Hey, Kyle,” she said simply.

His smile became real instantly. Why, he couldn’t say. Grace was still a bundle of trouble tied up with a big old impossible knot. But where was the fun in leaving a tangle alone?

They’d agreed to forget about the past and start over. But they hadn’t fully established what they were starting, at least not to his satisfaction. Maybe now would be a good time to get that straight.