“When Skylar saw the name on my check, she stammered and couldn’t get rid of me fast enough. I knew that baby had to be yours. Or Kane’s.” A pause. “But Skylar is too classy and ambitious to be Kane’s type. Then something triggered my memory. Kane mentioning after Dag died you’d suffered a bad break-up with a woman. Is she the reason you were so eager to disappear last year and take a job in the boondocks that no one else wanted?”
“Partially, but I sure didn’t know she was pregnant because I never woulda left. Never. You know that, Ma.” This was so unbelievable he was having a devil of a time focusing. “Did you ask her if…?”
“Of course I didn’t ask her.” She leaned forward again. “Do you know how hard that was? To see that darlin’ little girl baby, all pretty in pink ribbons and bows, smilin’ and cooin’ at me, knowin’ she was my granddaughter?”
“Skylar had a girl?”
“Yep. Only the second McKay girl born in a hundred and twenty-three years. And she’s yours.”
His. He had a baby daughter. “Holy shit.” If Kade hadn’t been sitting down, he’d’ve been falling down. He repeated inanely, “A baby? Skylar had a baby? I’m a father?”
“It appears so.”
“What’s her name?”
“Eliza.”
Eliza. Pretty. His head spun. “Why didn’t she tell me?”
“I don’t know, son, but I suspect you’d better find out.”
Kade heaved himself out of the chair. “Damn straight.” He snagged his hat off the coat rack and stormed out to his truck.
Chapter Two
On the drive into town, Kade replayed his first meeting with Skylar Ellison. He’d thought of her and his dumb mistake in the endless days he’d lived alone up on the most remote part of the McKay ranch. He’d obsessed about her to the extent he’d memorized every damn word of every encounter. Every kiss, every touch.That afternoon from last summer floated into his mind in perfect detail.
As Kade had stood on the sidewalk debating on whether to eat lunch before heading home, click click had sounded and he’d turned to see a woman in heels hustling down the sidewalk.
Mercy. She was all curves: hips, ass, thighs, and breasts. He loved women who looked like women and not a skeleton with skin. Her straight brown hair had a hint of red in the bright sunlight. Kade tipped his hat to her and stepped out of her way, figuring she’d pass right on by.
But Miss Sexy Curves bumped her pointy-toed purple shoes against his shit-covered boots and glared. “You were a total jerk to me the other night, Kane McKay. I don’t appreciate you ditching me at the restaurant. What kind of shithead—”
“Whoa. Wait a second. I’m not—”
“—the least bit sorry, yeah, I can tell. Why are you here? Trolling for a new woman who’ll give you a piece of ass on the first date since I wouldn’t?”
That fucker Kane was such an asshole. At times like this it plain sucked they were identical twins and few people could tell them apart. This woman must be Kane’s date from the other night.
His brother was an idiot too. He’d just up and walked away from such a smoking hot firecracker?
“Got nothing to say, McKay?”
A really good idea occurred to him on how to make this right.
No. It was a bad idea. A terrible idea, his conscience warned.
The devil on his shoulder screamed, Do it. You and Kane used to switch places all the time. You’re not misleading her; you’re protecting the McKay name from another round of nasty gossip
Big surprise the pitchfork side won the battle.
“Actually, I do have somethin’ to say to you.” What the hell was her name again? Something hippyishly weird. Aha. “Skylar.”
“I’m listening.”
“I’m sorry. I lost your number or I woulda called to apologize for bein’ a first class jerk. But I’d…ah…taken some allergy medicine and did it do a number on me. Normally I don’t act like that. Not that I remember a whole helluva lot besides goin’ home and crashin’.”
Skylar stared at him skeptically.
Crap. She wasn’t buying it. “Can I make it up to you? Buy you lunch? I swear I won’t run out again.”
“When?”
“How about now?”
“Sure. You don’t mind vegetarian?”
Fuck. Kade slapped on a fake smile. “Not at all.”
She laughed; it made him think of bells. “You are such a liar. Your family raises cattle. You probably shoot vegetarians.”
“Only if they’re part of PETA protestin’ inhuman treatment of our stock. That pisses us off.”