Correctly reading her tone, he backed off. “Are you hungry?”
“I could have a snack.” She thumped toward the kitchen, downplaying the awkwardness of her injury as much as possible.
Fortunately, she thought a few minutes later, awkward silences were rarely a problem when Shane was around. While she tended to babble to fill such moments, she didn’t have to resort to that as they sat around the kitchen table, eating the ham and cheese sandwiches and potato salad Kelly had sent for them. Having already dined, Shane had a cup of coffee while they ate, chatting with the comfortable ease that came so naturally to him.
“So, Kyle, you’ve got a place in the Smokies now. My dad and I went through there years ago, back when I was a kid. Before he even met Cassie. I remember it being really beautiful there.”
“Prettiest area I’ve ever seen,” Kyle answered simply. “First time I visited there, I knew I would live there someday. Just never thought it would be so soon.”
Molly remembered him saying there was nothing left for him in Texas, but maybe she hadn’t realized quite how permanently he had settled in Tennessee. Had she harbored some faint, secret hope that he would decide to stay here on the ranch with her? If so, how foolish of her.
She had known from the start that her time with Kyle was temporary. He had certainly made it clear enough that he wanted nothing more.
Though her appetite had dissipated, she finished her meal while Shane skillfully drew a few more remarks out of Kyle. Only when she noticed that Shane was starting to give her a few searching looks—probably in response to her uncharacteristic silence—did she make an effort to join the conversation. “How are the boys?”
A quick frown crossed her brother’s face. “They’re doing okay, I guess.”
“What’s wrong?”
Looking a bit rueful that he hadn’t done a better job of hiding his concerns, Shane replied, “It’s Jacob again.” Now it was Molly’s turn to frown. “What’s he done?”
“No, it isn’t him. It’s his father. Gene Hayes.”
“Oh, no. Don’t tell me he’s shown up again.”
“Yeah. He crawled out from under a rock during the weekend. Showed up drunk on my doorstep demanding that we turn his son over to him. Kelly had the phone in her hand to call the police when he finally decided to leave on his own—but I’m afraid he’ll be back.”
“He was driving drunk? Shouldn’t you have turned him in for that?”
“Someone was driving him. A woman—she stayed in the truck, so I never got a good look at her.”
“There’s a restraining order against him. He has to leave Jacob alone.”
She watched Shane and Kyle share a look before Shane murmured, “Yeah, well, sometimes restraining orders aren’t enough. Especially when you’ve got an aggressive drunk with no respect for or fear of the law.”
“Does Jacob know his father was here?”
“No. Kelly and I decided not to tell him.”
Molly glanced at Kyle, who was chewing the last bite of a brownie while listening to every word they said. “Jacob was taken away from his father almost a year ago,” she explained for his benefit. “The man is a mean, abusive, irresponsible alcoholic. When he was brought here a few months later, Jacob still had old bruises, poorly healed broken bones and slight hearing loss from being repeatedly hit in the head. He flinched every time anyone came close to him, and he suffered from nightmares. He was several years behind other kids his age educationally because his father hadn’t bothered to send him to school on a regular basis. He’s much better now, though he still has plenty of emotional healing to do.”
“How old is he?”
“He’s fifteen. He’s crazy about Mom and Kelly and seems fond of me, but he’s still a little skittish around Dad and Shane and Memo, even after almost two years.”
Kyle nodded. “Makes sense. He’s used to male authority figures using him as a punching bag.”
“Exactly.”
“What about his mother?”
“Gone,” Shane replied. “From what we’ve been told, she wasn’t much better than his father.”
“Yeah, well, not all women come equipped with maternal instincts,” Kyle muttered.
Shane’s expression darkened. “Tell me about it.” Molly’s throat went tight. She knew Shane was remembering his own early childhood with a neglectful, alcoholic mother and a cold, uncaring stepfather. Jared had been an absent father then, a sailor who spent months at seasomething he regretted tosomething he regretted to this day.
It had taken a drastic move on Shane’s part to change the situationsomething he regretted torunning away from home at the young age of twelve and living on the dangerous streets of Memphis until his father found him several weeks later. Jared had been so shaken by almost losing his son that he had left the navy and assumed full custody of Shane, vowing to be a better father from that point on. He had kept that promise faithfully, becoming the best father either Shane or Molly could imagine having.