The SEAL's Secret Heirs

Kyle could pretend all he wanted that he’d enlisted because he’d caught her with Liam, but that had been—by his own admission—the last straw. Not the first.

“Yeah.” He jerked his head in acknowledgment. “I was honorably discharged due to my busted leg. I didn’t have anyplace else to go. But when I saw Maddie and Maggie for the first time...and then you came back into my life... Well, things are different now. I want to do things different. Starting with you.”

“No.” Her heart nearly split in two as she shook her head. “We’ve already had one too many do-overs. You shot first and asked questions too late.”

She’d begun to trust him again, only to have the carpet ripped out from under her feet. She couldn’t do that again. She could be single and happy. It was a choice; she just had to make it.

“Don’t say that, Grace.” Kyle threw the bouquet on the wicker chair closest to the door and captured her hand, squeezing it tight so she couldn’t pull away. His green eyes beseeched her to reconsider, hollowing her out inside. “I lie awake at night and think about how great it would be if you were there. I think about what it’s going to be like for the girls growing up without a mom. It’s not a picture I like. We need someone to keep us sane.”

This was delivered with a lopsided smile that she ached to return. If only he’d mentioned the condition of his heart in that speech and how it was breaking to be away from her. How he couldn’t consider his life complete without her. Anything other than a string of sentences which sounded suspiciously like an invitation to make sure Maddie and Maggie had a mother figure.

And she wanted a family so badly she could picture easily falling into the role of Mama to those precious babies. At what cost, though?

“You have Hadley for that,” she said woodenly. “I’m unnecessary.”

“You’re not listening to what I’m saying.” He held her hand against his chest, and she wanted to uncurl her palm so she could feel his heartbeat. “Hadley is Liam’s wife. I want one of my own.”

It was the closest thing to a proposal she’d ever gotten. She was certifiably insane for not saying yes. Except he hadn’t actually asked her. As always, he couldn’t just come right out and say what he meant. That’s what had led to the Liam fiasco in the first place, and nothing had changed.

None of this was what she’d envisioned. Kyle was nothing like her father. What about her standards? Her grand romance and fairy-tale life? How in the world would their relationship ever stand the test of time with staged jealousy-inducing ploys and the inability to just talk to each other as their starting point?

“I can’t do this, Kyle. I can’t—” Her voice broke but she made herself finish. “I thought we were starting something and the moment things get a little rough, you bail. Just like before.”

“That’s an excuse, Grace.” He firmed his mouth, and then pointed out, “I’m here now, aren’t I?”

“It’s too late,” she retorted, desperate to get this horrific conversation over with. “We have too many trust issues. We don’t even want the same things.”

His green eyes sharpened as he absorbed her words. “How can you say that? I want to be together. That’s the same.”

“Except that’s not what I want,” she whispered, and forced herself to watch as his beautiful face blanked, becoming as desolate as a West Texas ravine in a drought. “Goodbye, Kyle.”

And before she took it all back in a moment of weakness, she shut the door, dry-eyed. The tears would come later.

* * *

Now that Johnny and Slim had a grudging respect for Kyle as the boss, they got on okay.

Which was fortunate, because Kyle drove them all relentlessly. Himself included, and probably the hardest. Spring calving season was in full swing and eighteen-hour days fit with Kyle’s determination to never think, never lie awake at night and never miss Grace.

At this point, he’d take two out of three, but the hole where Grace was supposed to be ached too badly to be ignored, which in turn guaranteed he wouldn’t sleep. And as he lay there not sleeping, his brain did nothing but think, turning over her words again and again, forcing him to relive them because he deserved to be unhappy. He couldn’t be with Grace because she didn’t want to be with him. Because she didn’t trust him.

All the work he’d done to get over his trust issues, and she’d blindsided him with her own. Because he’d left when life got too difficult. When all he’d wanted was to find his place in the world. And when that place spat him back out, he came back. To forge a new place, put down roots. It had been hard, one of the toughest challenges of his life, and yeah, when it got rough, he dreamed of leaving. But he hadn’t. Only to have that thrown back in his face.