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Lincoln rocked slowly as she held Morgan in her arms, as if nothing I was saying was out of the ordinary. It wasn’t really, when it came to me and Ty. We constantly bickered. At times it was fun; other times, not so much.
There were only two times in the past year when we hadn’t tried to kill each other and had actually gotten along. One was when we’d found out Lincoln was pregnant with Morgan. Which even Lincoln didn’t know at the time.
The second was in Brock’s kitchen when we’d shared the second kiss. My heart had broken in two because I could see the torment on Ty’s face as he looked at the bottle of pills. I walked over, took the pills from him, and did the only thing I could think of doing. I kissed him. He had kissed me back, and for one moment my world felt whole again. That small empty feeling inside me was fulfilled, if only for the shortest amount of time.
When I pulled back from him and saw nothing in his eyes, I turned and walked away.
Ty Shaw wasn’t interested in me, and I needed to let that sink in.
“What did he do now?” Lincoln asked, smiling down at Morgan, then looking my way.
“He called me a slut.”
Lincoln’s eyes went wide and she stopped rocking. “Brock will kill him.”
“Well, he didn’t actually call me that.”
She frowned. “Then what did he actually call you?”
I shrugged. “He made it sound like people in town would think I was easy, all because I was doing some innocent flirting with Channing.”
Lincoln’s brow rose. “You were flirting with Channing? The fire chief?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. A little.”
“Do tell,” Lincoln said with a giggle and a naughty smile.
“Well, I needed a bit of harmless flirting. And the idea of going out with a guy who actually wants to spend time with me is tempting. I’m tired of being alone. Crawling into bed every night without a warm body to snuggle up to is messing with my head.” I closed my eyes and sighed. “I just want to stop thinking about him.”
Lincoln stood, and that caused me to open my eyes and look her way. She walked over to put Morgan in her bassinet, then leaned down and kissed her daughter before she faced me.
“Let’s go for a walk. I’ll let Brock know.”
Oh, great. My comments now had Lincoln’s radar up and running, and her need to protect me was pushed to DEFCON 5.
After grabbing my coat, I slipped it on and stepped outside onto Brock and Lincoln’s large wraparound porch. The view of the mountains nearly stole my breath. Almost a year of living here and I still got lost to the mountains. Half the time they looked fake, and I felt like I was staring at a picture. Today they were covered in snow, the sun shining off their peaks and making them look like a million sparkling diamonds. I couldn’t help but smile. This was home now, and I would never get tired of this massive blue sky and beautiful country.
“One of these days I’m going to hike you,” I said to myself and to no particular mountain.
“Okay, Brock is on duty . . . let’s walk for a bit.”
Lincoln wrapped her arm around mine and guided us down the steps and to the trail that led down to the small gazebo Brock had built Lincoln for Christmas.
“Do you want to talk about John?”
My head snapped around to look at her. “John?” I asked with a surprised voice. Instant guilt swept over my body. Lincoln had thought I’d meant John, when in reality, it had been Ty I’d spoken about. I chewed nervously on my lip.
Lincoln stopped walking and faced me. “Isn’t that who you were . . .”
I felt my cheeks heat and tears threatening to build, but I held them back.
Shaking her head, Lincoln took my hand in hers. “Oh, it wasn’t John you were thinking about. I didn’t mean to make you feel sad.”
“I’m not sad—I feel guilty,” I said, a bit too defensively. It was okay if I still felt sad about John. I knew that. I had loved him. I was going to marry him. But the feelings I now had for Ty were much more intense.
“You know he would want you to be happy, Kaylee. It’s been years, and you haven’t gone out with anyone.”
“I’ve gone out on a couple of dates.”
She raised a brow. “Did you feel anything for those couple of guys?”
“Well, no, but no one has caught my attention.”
“Until Ty.”
With a nod, then a sigh, I replied, “Yeah. Ty. The pain-in-my-ass brother-in-law of yours whom I can’t stop thinking about. In every way. Every position. Hell, I even have weird, kinky dreams where he ties me up with a rope.”
