The SEAL's Secret Heirs
“What do you want, Kyle?” She didn’t even wince at her own rudeness. She got a pass after being shown the door while still undressed and warm from the man’s arms.
“I brought you these,” he said simply without blinking at her harsh tone. He held out the bouquet. “Thank-you flowers. Because I owed you.”
Wasn’t that romantic? She didn’t take the bouquet. “You owed me? You definitely owe me, but not flowers. An explanation would be better.”
Kyle dropped the bouquet, his expression hardening. “May I come in then? Your next-door neighbor is out on the porch with popcorn, watching the show.”
“Mrs. Putter is seventy-two.” Grace crossed her arms and propped a hip against the doorjamb. “This is all the fun she gets for the year.”
“Fine.” Kyle sighed. “I came to apologize. I shot first and asked questions later. It’s the way I do things, mostly because people are usually shooting at me, too.”
Not an auspicious start, other than the apology part. “And yet I still haven’t heard any questions.”
“Grace.” Kyle caught her gaze, and something warm spilled from his green eyes that she couldn’t look away from. “You meant something to me. Back then. You have to understand that I had a lot of stuff going on in my head that I didn’t want to deal with, so I didn’t. I shut down instead. That wasn’t fair to you. But you were the best thing in my life, and then you were gone. I was a wreck. Seeing you with Liam was the last straw, so I left Royal because I couldn’t stand it, assuming that you’d found the Wade brother you preferred. There was never a point when I would have confronted you about it.”
Openmouthed, she stared at him. That was the longest speech she’d ever heard him give and it loosened her tongue in kind. “I get that I messed up with Liam. I was young and stupid. I should have been more up-front about my feelings, too.”
Kyle nodded. “Goes for both of us. But I still owe you a thank-you. I joined the military because I wanted to be gone. I figured, what better way to forget Royal and the girl there than to go to the other side of the world in defense of my country? But instead of just a place to nurse my shattered ego, I found something I didn’t expect. Something great. Being a SEAL changed me.”
Yes, she’d seen that. He’d grown up, into a responsible, solid man who cared about his daughters. “You seem to have flourished.”
“I did,” he agreed enthusiastically. “It was the team I’d been looking for. I never fit in at the ranch. That’s part of what was weighing me down back then. The stuff inside. I was contemplating my future and not seeing a clear picture of what I should do going forward. If you hadn’t staged that ploy with Liam, I might never have found my unit. Those guys were my family.”
The sheer emotion on his face as he talked about his fellow team members—it was overwhelming. He’d clearly loved being in the military. It had shaped him, and he’d soaked it up.
Her heart twisted anew. If he didn’t fit in at the ranch, why had he taken over the cattle side? During one of her site visits, he’d told her that was his job now—he hoped to create a stable home for his daughters. He planned to stick around this time. Was that all a lie? Or was he just doing it because she’d forced him into it, despite hating that life?
“I don’t understand,” she whispered. “If you liked being in the military so much, why did you come home?”
“My leg.” His expression caved in on itself, and it might have been the most vulnerable she’d ever seen him. She almost reached out to comfort him, was almost physically unable to prevent her heart from crying in sympathy at what he’d lost. He was hurting, and that was so hard for her to take.
But she didn’t reach out. “You came home because you were injured,” she recounted flatly.
That was the only reason. Not because he missed Grace and regretted splitting up. Not because he wanted his daughters, or the simple life on a ranch with his family. He’d been forced to.
And what would he do when he got tired of an ill-fitting career? What would happen when the allure of the great wide open called to him again?
He’d leave. Just as he’d done the first time, only he’d take his babies with him—there was no law that said he had to stay in Royal to retain custody. He’d go and crush her anew, once she’d fallen in love with three people instead of just one.
He hadn’t confronted her about Liam ten years ago because he hadn’t wanted to stay in the first place. Not for her, not for anything. If he had, he’d have fought for their love; she had no doubt.