Daddy's Girls (47)

“You two need to talk at some point,” Gemma said sensibly, “and have an honest conversation about it. He needs to level with you about her, and what she really means to him.”

“I don’t know if he will. He hasn’t tried. Maybe he’ll marry her,” Caroline said with tears in her eyes. His silence seemed like a bad sign to her.

“If he does marry her, then you lost him a long time ago. This isn’t just about what you want. He needs to figure out what he wants now. A twenty-three-year-old, or his wife. He’s being an idiot.” And they all knew that only time would help make the decision. For Caroline, it was going to be a long summer. And she wasn’t sure she could ever forgive him.



* * *



—

    With both sisters settled in their cottages at the ranch, Thad and Kate were discreetly managing to spend nights together. He didn’t come to dinner every night, but tried to make it more sporadic, when Kate didn’t have plans with her sisters. But he did show up every night around midnight to spend the night with her. He said he couldn’t live without her anymore.

“I’m addicted to you,” he said happily, as he slid into bed with her, and she laughed. Their romance had taken off so suddenly, and with such force that neither could imagine being without the other now. They spent much of their days together, and now nights as well. She liked talking to him over dinner, but sometimes that was harder to manage. Either Gemma or Caroline dropped by in the evening sometimes, especially Caroline to talk about the situation with Peter. She was hearing very little from him. A few emails, mostly about the children, but not much more. After his initial denial, she had hardly heard from him again. And he hadn’t tried to fight the separation for the summer, or the children going to the ranch with her. He hadn’t asked to see them yet, which Caroline found very suspicious, and so did her sisters. Kate had talked to Thad about it, for a male opinion, and he was shocked at the way Peter was behaving. He felt sorry for Caroline and her kids. It didn’t sound to him like the situation could be fixed. He was obviously besotted with the young girl, which Caroline thought too. He had lost his mind over her.

Caroline had just left Kate and headed back to her cottage minutes before Thad arrived to spend the night.

“Wow, you just missed my sister,” she said when he got there and let himself in. She never locked her doors at the ranch. They’d never had a problem. He looked at Kate seriously.

“Is that going to be a big deal if they find out?” He was worried.

    “I don’t think so.” Kate smiled at him. “But they’ll be surprised. I don’t usually tell my sisters about my personal life,” she said demurely, and then laughed at herself, “but then again, I haven’t had one in a long time.” She had given up on men for several years. After her one serious boyfriend in college died in a car accident, and several left her and cheated on her, she focused mostly on the ranch, and time had just sped by. Her father kept her too busy and monopolized her time, and dumped everything in her lap, and she never turned him down. He knew she was free at night, so he took full advantage of it, and expected her to take projects home. She was trying to do less of it now, especially since Thad had started spending the night.

“They won’t think I’m good enough for you, will they?” He looked worried and upset when he said it. “I never finished high school and never went to college.” She knew he had gotten his GED certificate and had taken college classes online for a few years, even if he didn’t have a degree. And he was intelligent and read a great deal about anything that related to their work on the ranch. He was essentially self-educated, which Kate admired, but he was sure her sisters wouldn’t, particularly Caroline and Peter, who were highly educated, with graduate degrees.

“Gemma didn’t go to college either. And I was a lousy student. The only brain in the family is Caroline, and my father thought her going to college was a waste of time.” She smiled as she said it. “She writes juvenile books, she’s not a nuclear physicist.”

“I’m just a ranch hand, though,” he said, in a funk about her sisters, and Kate knelt in front of him where he sat on the couch and looked him in the eye.

“You’re an extraordinary person, Thad. You run this ranch like a well-oiled machine. The employees, the livestock, our breeding operation. My father respected you more than anyone else, and relied on you, and so do I. You’re up to date on all the modern technology. I’m lucky to have you in my life, and luckier still that you love me. You’re more than ‘good enough’ for me, and my sisters will think so too. I just don’t want to get them all wound up about us yet. I like having time to get used to each other before the whole world knows and has an opinion, even if it’s a good opinion. Right now our future belongs to us. This happened very fast, like lightning. I want to get comfortable with it before we share it. I’ve never been this serious about anyone before. It’s all new to me.”

    “You look pretty comfortable to me, Ms. Tucker,” he teased her, slid a hand into her blouse and a moment later, took it off, and her bra, and pulled her up the stairs with him to her bedroom, where he took off all her clothes and his own. She forgot about her sisters for the rest of the night, until she had dinner in town with them the following night.