Lady Be Good (Wynette, Texas #2)(46)

Motivated by a combination of cowardice and dread, she showered and changed first. Then, hoping he’d had a chance to cool down, she set out to look for him only to discover that he’d left the house. Shadow was missing from the paddock, and she glimpsed a man on horseback riding away from the ranch.

Patrick came up from the darkroom and invited her to go into town with him while he shopped for groceries. She accepted the invitation, thinking she might find some sort of gift for Kenny by way of apology. But by the time they’d reached the town limits, she’d realized that no bottle of men’s cologne or expensive book would make up for the insult.

When they returned to the house, Shadow was once again in the paddock, but there was still no sign of Kenny. “He’s probably in the exercise room,” Patrick said when she asked.

“He exercises?”

“After a fashion.”

She followed Patrick’s directions to a room at the far end of the second floor. The door was partially ajar. As she pushed it open, she realized her palms were clammy, and she wiped them on her shorts.

Kenny was working out on some sort of rowing machine, or at least moving it back and forth a bit. He looked up as she walked in and scowled at her. “What do you want?”

“I want to apologize.”

“It won’t do you any good.” He slowly unfolded from the rowing machine and nudged a cordless phone out of the way with his foot.

“Kenny, I’m sorry. Really.”

He ignored her, dropping to the carpeted floor instead and beginning a set of push-ups. His form was excellent—she’d give him that—but he didn’t seem to be putting much effort into it.

“I had no right sticking my nose into something that was none of my business.”

He kept his eyes on the floor as he continued his push-ups. “That’s what you’re apologizing for? Sticking your nose into my business?”

“And slapping you.” She advanced farther into the room. “Oh, Kenny, I’m so sorry about that. I’ve never hit anyone in my life. Never!”

He said nothing, merely continued with his lazy push-ups, taking his time, just as he’d swum his laps. She thought she detected a faint whiff of male heat coming from his body, or at least male warmth, but she didn’t see any sweat.

The sight of his body in nothing but a pair of navy athletic shorts was distracting her, and she brought her attention back. “I don’t know what came over me. I got so upset, so disappointed in you. It was like some sort of temporary madness.”

He set his jaw and didn’t look up at her. “It’s not the slap I can’t forgive.”

“But—”

“Just get out of here, will you? I don’t even want to look at you right now.”

She tried to think of something she could say to make it all up, but there was nothing. “All right. Yes. I understand.” She backed toward the door, feeling ashamed and miserable. “I really am sorry.”

His push-ups grew a bit more rapid. “You’re sorry for the wrong thing, but you don’t even understand that. Now get the hell out of here! And if you want to call up Francesca and tell her I just cussed you out, you go right ahead.”

“I wouldn’t do that.” She turned toward the door, then turned back, needing to know. “If you can forgive me for hitting you, then tell me, what is it you can’t forgive?”

“I don’t believe you have to ask.” The push-ups continued. Muscles bunching without any apparent effort. Not a drop of sweat.

“Apparently I do.”

“How about the fact that a woman I consider my friend thinks I’m the type of slimeball who’d abandon his kid?”

“We only met three days ago,” she couldn’t help but point out. “I don’t really know you that well.”

He shot her a sideways look that managed to combine outrage and incredulity. “You damn well know me well enough to understand that much about me!” His breathing had picked up, but she got the feeling it was from anger, not the exercise.

“But Kenny, your stepmother is so young. She can’t even be thirty. It never occurred to me—”

“I don’t want to hear any more! I mean it, Emma, get out of here. I promised Shelby I’d bring you to the house tonight for dinner, so I’m going to do it, but believe me, I don’t want to. As far as I’m concerned, our friendship is over.”

Until that moment she hadn’t actually known they had a friendship, but now that she realized she’d lost it, she felt strangely bereft.





Chapter 10

Kenny was scrupulously polite that evening as he drove to his family’s home, but he didn’t tease her, try to manipulate her, or even criticize. Clearly she had offended his sense of honor. But how could she have known that honor was important to a man who, only three nights earlier, had led her to believe he was a gigolo?

As they pulled through a set of ornate gates into the Traveler estate, she wished she hadn’t agreed to accompany him tonight, but she was frustrated. She had apologized, and there was nothing more she could do.

As she focused on her surroundings, she realized his family home was actually an estate with a long drive winding through carefully landscaped grounds. A Moorish-looking structure came into view, built of rose-colored stucco with a crenellated rooftop. They drew nearer, and she saw that the house had several wings, along with arched windows and a tiled roof. An enormous mosaic fountain near the entrance made it look as if the entire place had come out of the Arabian nights instead of the Texas Hill Country.