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Ashley just had to look up, as her desk faced the door. Nash had to turn all the way around in his chair. He grinned and got to his feet. “Brother,” he said. He too took Kyle into a hug, and Kyle really didn’t want to talk to him about cornhole.
“What brings you all the way back here?” Nash stepped back, and he wore a happy smile on his face. He was a bit of a mystery to Kyle, who sat third in line in the children in the Stewart family. Then came Holly, Jesse, and Adam before it got to Nash. He’d spent a lot of time with Adam growing up, but now Adam and Jesse were thick as thieves.
Sierra came last, but she spent most of her time with Holly or Todd, leaving Nash without a true place to belong. At least in Kyle’s mind. He wondered what his brother thought of the sibling relationships and family dynamics.
“Blake—” Kyle cut off. That wasn’t the right way to start. He glanced over to Ashley, and she watched him with clear, blue eyes so different than Starla’s dark ones.
“I wondered if you’re playing cornhole this summer,” he said. After a quick swallow, he added, “I don’t have a partner either.”
Nash’s smile slipped. “Kyle, I thought you’d play with Maddy.”
“I haven’t even talked to her about it.” That much was true anyway.
“Ash and I are going to be partners again this year.” Nash gave her a blinding smile, but Kyle looked away before she could return it.
“Blake said you hadn’t signed up.”
Nash looked back at Ashley, and she said, “Oh, I forgot about that.” She started madly clicking around her screen. “I’ll find the email and form right…now…”
Nash nodded Kyle out of the office, and they left Ashley to find the form and sign them up. “You don’t want to play with Maddy?” Nash asked.
“I do, sure,” Kyle said. “I just didn’t want you to be left out.”
Nash studied him, the noise of the kitchen to Kyle’s right. He didn’t like being out in this small space either, even if it was away from Ashely. “You don’t have to worry about me, Kyle.”
“Someone should.”
Nash shook his head, no smile in sight. His dark eyes almost glittered with danger, and Kyle took a step back. Another couple and he’d run into the big, heavy door that went into the walk-in refrigerator. “I’m used to being on the outskirts and taking care of myself.”
With that, Nash turned and went back into the office. This time, he did close the door. In truth, he was shutting Kyle out, and his heartbeat flipped and flung itself around his body.
He had no idea when Nash had figured out that he was on the outskirts of the family, and Kyle had no idea how to bring him back into the fold.
He sighed and faced the kitchen. Gina raised her eyebrows at him as she kneaded something in a bowl, but Kyle shook his head. He’d talk to Todd first, and then Blake to see if there was anything they could do to help Nash feel more included. Or, at the very least, more loved.
Now that he knew that Nash had a partner, though, Kyle could talk to Maddy and see if she’d play with him. If she wouldn’t, he’d find himself on the outs of the family this time, and that made his stomach clench in the same darkness he’d seen swimming in his brother’s eyes.
ChapterNine
“Cornhole?” Maddy asked.
“Yeah.” Kyle led her across the gravel lot, and he nodded his black cowboy hat in front of them. Maddy needed to get a hat to shield her face from this wicked mid-summer sun. “We have several lanes here. We do a guest competition all summer long, and our family and staff pair up and compete too.”
He’d taken her from dinner that evening with the claim that he wanted to “walk and talk.” When he’d asked her if she’d ever played cornhole before, Maddy wasn’t sure how to answer.
“Who’s your partner?” she asked, and it felt like she was feeling him out to see if he had a girlfriend.
“I don’t have one,” he said. “I was wondering if you’d be my partner.” He gifted her with a quick smile, and Maddy warmed though she certainly didn’t need the extra heat running through her veins.
“Is it just a friendly competition?” she asked.
“Yep. Bragging rights. Trash talk. The whole she-bang when it comes to my family.” He chuckled, and Maddy joined him.
“I like your family.”
“And I liked yours.”
She hadn’t spent a ton of time with them, at least not as Kyle’s girlfriend. As an employee, she’d talked to Holly and Blake the most. Jesse and Adam had plenty of ideas for different kinds of art classes they could do, and she’d liked talking to them too.
