Lady Be Good (Wynette, Texas #2)(112)

Besides, she understood something about them that Kenny couldn’t seem to comprehend. Despite all their protests that they’d never speak to him again because he’d upset her, he was theirs, and they’d do anything for him.

It was Torie who finally seemed to realize how much she needed to be alone, and she’d suggested Emma wander down to the emu pen to see her “critters.” Now, as Emma propped her hands on the wooden fence post and gazed at the ungainly birds, she knew it was time to do what she should have done on Sunday. It was time to get on a plane and go home.

Kenny charged through the front door and nearly ran into his father, who was coming down the stairs into the foyer. “Where is she?”

“Where’s who?”

“Don’t you dare try to hide her! Torie already called and told me she’s here.”

“I just walked in the door,” Warren replied. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I do.” Shelby came into the foyer from the back of the house. As she spotted Warren, she smiled at him like a high school cheerleader looking at the hero of the football team. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

Even through his distress, Kenny noticed the way the old man’s eyes lit up as he gave Shelby a light kiss. “I was just coming out to find you. Where’s Petie?”

“On the patio.”

Kenny interrupted the love fest. “Somebody’d better tell me where Emma is.”

“Let’s talk about it on the patio,” Shelby said.

“I don’t want to go out to the patio. I want—”

“We’re your family, Kenny. The only family you have.”

The quiet intensity behind her words stopped him in his tracks. He looked back and forth between them and felt rattled. He’d seen those stubborn, worried expressions on their faces before, but he hadn’t taken them in, not like he did now. He saw concern there, and caring . . . even from Shelby, his father’s too-young bride, who, despite everything, was starting to seem like another sister. And maybe having another sister wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to him. He loved Torie and, in his own way, he guessed he was starting to feel the same about Shelby. She sure was a good mother. And she’d made his dad happy.

His father slipped his arm around Shelby’s waist, and Kenny felt as if he were staring into a mirror. All his life he’d heard how much he and his old man looked alike, but now he could see it for himself. And as he gazed into that older, but still familiar face, he finally understood exactly how a man could screw things up for somebody he loved, not meaning to, just being stupid.

He drew a deep, shaky breath. He couldn’t explain any of this to his father right now, although he’d have to find a way to do it later, so he just nodded and headed for the patio. But when he got there, he discovered he was in for one more shock in a day full of surprises.

“Boys they wanna have fun. Oh, yeah! Boys, they wanna have fun.” Torie stood in the middle of the patio swinging Petie around in her arms and singing to him with this smile spread all over her face. Petie was laughing to beat the band while Dex sat on one of the banquettes with a beer in his hand and a grin that stretched from one ear to the other. As Kenny absorbed the change in his sister—the same sister who’d barely been able to look at that little baby boy—he had this crazy urge to kiss Dex smack on the lips, just as Emma’d kissed Torie.

His sister saw him in the doorway and stopped swinging Petie. Petie let out a deep baby-chuckle as he spotted him. Warren and Shelby came out to the patio. His father walked over to the tray of drinks that had been set up, while Shelby sat on the banquette, pulled her knees up to her chest, and watched Kenny with anxious eyes. They were all gathering around to help him straighten out his life. Just yesterday the idea would have driven him insane, but now it was almost comforting.

Petie extended his chubby arms toward his brother and let out a demanding squeal. Torie came forward, her expression as worried as Shelby’s. Kenny took the baby, but his eyes remained riveted on his sister. “Where is she?”

“You screwed up bad this time, Kenny. She’s really leaving.”

“No, she’s not,” he said stonily.

“She’s made her plane reservations. Shelby and I tried to talk her out of it, but you know how she is. What took you so damn long to get here?”

“I was looking all over the place for her, and I didn’t get your message until a few minutes ago.” He dodged the wet fist the baby was trying to shove in his mouth. “Tell me where she is.”

“Inside calling Patrick and asking him to pack up her things,” Shelby said from the banquette. “We told her she needed to go back to the ranch first and discuss this with you, but she said there wasn’t any need, that even if she tried to talk to you, you’d refuse to talk back.”

That stung because he understood exactly what Emma meant. He spun toward the door to go and find her, only to come to a dead halt as he saw that she was already here.

She stared at him without saying a word, and the chill in her eyes went straight to his bloodstream. She was giving him her schoolteacher’s stare, a stare that told him, plain as anything, he might not be suspended from the tour any longer, but he’d been suspended from her life.

He realized he’d started to sweat through his golf shirt again. This was one hard-eyed woman. A woman who’d been done wrong by her man a time too many. And all because it had taken him too long to say the words he’d refused to let out of his heart.