His father and brother could manage without him. Now that they’d worked out their differences, he’d been able to convince the old man to try the new methods Damian had learned in college, and the profits on the ranch had soared. They’d hired several new employees to manage the extra stock, and were on their way to being one of the biggest family-held ranches in Texas. No small feat.
He grinned. Yes, a few days with Kerry. See if this attraction was real, and more importantly, if Kerry felt it, too. It sure seemed so earlier tonight when their eyes met over the miracle birth.
Damian reached for the cell phone by his bed and left a quick message for his dad.
Yes, tomorrow, he’d begin his campaign to convince Kerry to allow him to tag along.
Chapter Four
Warm sunlight bathed Kerry’s face. She slowly opened her eyes, taking in the strange room. Where was she? Then it all came back in a rush. The flat tire. The waitress in the bar, the baby. And Damian Greer.
Oh yes. Damian.
Her gaze flicked to the still locked bedroom door.
She shifted to her side, tucking her hands under her cheek. Her heart did a double thump when she remembered the look they shared after Bev’s baby slid into her hands. As insane as it seemed, she’d felt an instant connection with Damian like never before in her life. Almost as if they’d known each other forever. It had taken years of knowing Cody before she’d felt a similar bond.
Get that out of your mind right now, girl.
The first anniversary of Cody’s death last month had been a difficult day. The visit to his grave, the requisite dinner with his parents, the photo album they’d dragged out. It was while they told her again how they would always consider her their daughter, and they knew she’d buried her heart with their son that she realized she had to move.
She and Cody had been friends all through middle school, and lovers toward the end of high school. Three months after they graduated they married. Six years of marriage, while she went to nursing school and he started his landscaping business, had been happy ones. His parents had a little too much to say about their life, but she’d grown used to it.
Then Cody kissed her goodbye one morning and left to take his flying lesson. The plane crashed, killing him and his instructor.
In a quest to console herself and fill her empty hours, she’d taken numerous classes, not finishing any of them. Her condo was riddled with partially finished puzzles, embroidery, and scrapbooking. Projects that were supposed to distract her from her loneliness. The expensive camera she’d bought for a photography class gathered dust on a closet shelf, and she’d lost her tuition again for an unfinished online class in Chinese.
Chinese? Seriously?
A light knocking at the door jerked her from her musings.
“Kerry, are you awake?”
Damian.
She sat up and rubbed her palm over her face. “Yes.”
“I’m putting coffee on. I heard from Boz. I’ll give you the news about your car when you join me in the kitchen.”
“Okay. I’ll take a quick shower.” She flipped the covers off and headed to the bathroom.
Refreshed from her shower, the enticing aroma of coffee led her to a sunny kitchen. Damian leaned against the counter, ankles crossed, sipping from a cup with the picture of a bull on it.
He gestured with his head toward the coffee pot. “Help yourself.”
“Thanks.” She glanced sideways at him as she fixed the coffee. He looked even better in the light of day than he did last night. His hair still wet from his shower, it curled along his neck and over his ears. The snug, checkered western shirt he wore emphasized his broad shoulders and chest. Well-worn jeans hugged muscled legs, the bottom of the pants covering the better part of scuffed cowboy boots.
“Delicious.”
He raised his eyebrows.
Kerry held up the cup. “The coffee, I mean.” Heat rose to her face. How long had he watched her ogling him?
Damian waved her to a chair, then straddled another one, placing his cup on the table. “I ran the keys out to Boz’s shop early this morning. He called about a half an hour ago and said the flat tire and spare are no problem, but you also have a busted water pump. Since your car is an older model, it’s gonna take him a couple of days to get the part and fix it.”
“No.” Kerry shook her head. “I have to be in Albuquerque by two o’clock tomorrow for my appointment with the realtor. She’s going out of town the next day, and I really don’t want to make this trip again.”
Damian ran his fingers through his hair. “I have an idea.” He stood, rested his hands on his hips and grinned. “I have a well-running truck that’s hankering to get out on the highway.”