brain activates during delivery?”
Skye laughed. “I’ve always been the nurturing one. While you were busy being successful in college and in business, I was learning about people and taking care of things around here.”
Taking care of Jed and doing what he said, Lexi thought. Giving up herself to be his surrogate hostess. Or was that fair? Lexi knew she couldn’t have done it, but she and her sister were different people. Maybe Skye was content with her choices.
“Don’t you ever wonder what would have happened if you’d married Mitch instead of Ray?”
“No.” Skye glanced at Erin, as if making sure the girls couldn’t hear them. “That was over a long time ago. Mitch is gone.”
“Because you refused to marry him.”
“It wouldn’t have worked.”
“Why not?”
“It just wouldn’t, okay? I married Ray. I loved Ray and now I have his daughter.”
“I’m not trying to fight with you, I’ve just been thinking about things lately.”
Skye sighed. “I know. I’m sorry. You’re madly in love and you want everyone else to be, too. It’s okay. Maybe someday, when Erin is older, I’ll find someone. But it won’t be Mitch.”
Because of how things had ended? Because he wasn’t the kind of man who could forgive what Skye had done? Lexi knew better than to ask. Besides, she was more caught up in her sister’s assumption that she was in love with Cruz. Although thinking a woman was in love with the man she was going to marry wasn’t totally crazy thinking.
What would it be like to be in love? Really in love? She’d wanted to love Andrew, but some instinct had caused her to hold back. Before him there had been a few boyfriends but no one who made her heart beat faster. No one who made her dream and wish and ache…Except Cruz.
Not that she loved him. He wouldn’t be interested and she wasn’t that much of a fool.
“How did you know that you were in love with Ray?” Lexi asked. “You didn’t love him when you got married.”
“It happened slowly,” Skye told her. “He was nice and I liked him, but it wasn’t love. I wasn’t sure I could ever love anyone like I loved Mitch. Still, he was wild about me and he wasn’t afraid to show his feelings. Not in a way that made me feel obligated, but in a way that made me feel…safe.”
That, Lexi could relate to. Skye wasn’t talking about physical safety, but an emotional place to be secure.
“By the time we got married, I knew I really cared about him, but I didn’t know I loved him until the night Erin was born.” She hesitated, then laughed. “He fainted in the delivery room. He hadn’t been there when any of his other children were born and didn’t know what to expect. I thought he’d had a heart attack and died and I totally lost it. They brought him around and I knew that he’d become everything to me.”
“He adored you and Erin.”
“I know. And he died knowing he was my world.”
Lexi wondered what it would be like to know that she was someone’s world. Then she wondered if she was brave enough to risk that-to give that much of herself. It was easier to stay safe, but did it get her what she wanted? Were the best things in life gained when one took risks?
They reached the top of a slight rise. Kendra had turned so that she could see the house behind her. Glory’s Gate looked large and impressive on the horizon.
“Seriously?” the teen asked. “You grew up there?”
Lexi and Skye followed her gaze. Lexi nodded.
“Wow.”
“It’s not as impressive as it seems,” Lexi told her.
“People always say that, but they’re lying. Why would you ever want to leave?”
“Don’t you want to grow up and get your own place one day?” Lexi asked.
Kendra wrinkled her nose. “Sure, but I live in a town house. Not a castle.”
“It
The place had always meant more to her than to either Lexi or Izzy. Skye didn’t care about Titan World-she wanted the house. Had that been part of the deal to get her to marry Ray? Had Jed hinted he would leave her the house? And how did Garth fit into all this? What was he angry about? That he hadn’t grown up at Glory’s Gate? That his father hadn’t acknowledged him? Or was it something else? Something she couldn’t begin to imagine?
“Come on,” Erin said. “Let’s go faster.”
“Let’s not,” Kendra muttered and turned back in the saddle to face front. At the same moment, she tugged on the reins. She went one way, Oliver went the other and almost in slow motion, she slid off her horse and onto the ground.
Lexi practically threw herself off her horse as she scrambled to the teen’s side.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “Did you hurt yourself?”
Skye and Erin gathered around as they all stared down at Kendra, who startled them by starting to laugh.
“If you could see your faces,” she said, giggling. “I’m fine.” She turned to Erin. “It was my fault. I zigged and he zagged, but I felt him trying to shift back, like he was hoping to catch me.”
Erin grinned. “See. Oliver’s really nice.”
Kendra stood and brushed off her butt. “For a horse, but that’s okay. I’m ready to try again.”
Lexi put an arm around her shoulders. “Very impressive. Getting back on the horse is an old Texas tradition.”
For a second Kendra leaned into her, then the teen roughly pushed her away.
“Don’t,” she said stiffly. “Don’t pretend to be nice to me.”
Lexi didn’t know what she’d done wrong.
“You’re just going to leave anyway,” Kendra said, tears filling her eyes. “They all leave.”
The last words came out on a choke, then she turned and nearly ran toward the house.
Kendra’s pain lingered, like a cold, haunting fog. Lexi understood her pain-the fear of caring about someone who would only disappear. She ached for the girl’s wounded heart and wished she could do something to help.
How many people had come and gone from Kendra’s life?
“You can fix this,” Skye said. “Once you and Cruz are married, she’ll see that you’re not going anywhere.”
Words that were supposed to help, but only made Lexi feel worse. Because Kendra was right-in a few months Lexi would be gone.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE PHONE IN CRUZ’S home office rang. “Yes?”
“It’s Manny. I’m at the hospital. It’s Jorge.”
Jorge was one of their best drivers. “What happened?” There hadn’t been race.
“I don’t know. He was brought in by the paramedics. They said he overdosed on something.”
Cruz felt cold. “He doesn’t do drugs.” Drivers knew they couldn’t screw with their reflexes by taking drugs. Just in case one of them thought he could use a little something to keep himself more alert, Cruz insisted on an aggressive random drug-testing program.
“I know,” Manny told him. “He’s not that kind of guy. They’re working on him right now.” He named a hospital. “They said it would be a couple of hours until they know something. They say he’s going to pull through, at least.”
Cruz clutched the phone. “I’ll be right there.”
Manny gave him the floor number, then they hung up.
Thirty minutes later Cruz walked into the room. Manny stood next to Jorge, who looked as if he’d been rode hard and put away wet. His eyes were swollen and bloodshot and his normally olive-colored skin had a pale-green tinge.
“I didn’t do anything,” he said weakly. “Boss, you gotta believe me. I don’t do drugs. Ever. I think it’s stupid,
