“Not your damn business.”
“You made it my business when you slept with him.”
She gasped and too late saw the trap. “Damn you. How did you guess?”
“Let’s just say it seemed inevitable. I was never sure about the doc. But I knew how Kye felt. That’s why I sent him here.”
“Now you’re lying. Kye told me he didn’t even know we were related until you called him.”
“True. But he talked about you before that. A lot. While we were stationed together. Afghanistan was a place of interminable boredom interspersed with moments of high drama and/or terror. In between there was nothing else to do but argue, play sports, watch TV, and talk. Kye’s the talkiest guy I ever met.”
Yardley nodded. “He talked about me? To you?”
“Like you said. He didn’t know who we were to each other. He was just a lonely man in a dangerous place with the sense that maybe his life might not have a future. So he talked about the past. And this girl he’d met when he was first starting out as a dog man. At first he just talked about the woman who got away. Most men have that story. Finally, one time, he mentioned Harmonie Kennels and I knew it was you that got away.”
“Why didn’t you say anything to him? To me?”
He just stared at her.
“Right.” She and Law shared a love of privacy that bordered on paranoia. “It wouldn’t have mattered. I know now he was married.”
“There was that, too. I thought he was just trying to make sense of his life’s choices. Roads not traveled and all.”
“What changed your mind?”
“Jori. Finding her. Being with her. I finally saw a relationship from a woman’s point of view. She made me deal with my emotions. Love is not interchangeable. It’s not easy. And when it comes, it leaves its mark on a person. Sometimes you carry it to the grave. Some of the boneheaded things I said and did were because I wasn’t ready. Sometimes a man isn’t ready. Even when the right woman comes along.”
This was all too much, coming from her brother. Deep thoughts on love and emotional trauma and love and genuine emotion and … love.
She had to turn it off before she drowned. “Are you going to go all proselytizing reformed man on me? Because I don’t think I can stand this new Doctor-Phil Law.”
“Don’t worry, Sis. I still prefer boobs and beer to Masterpiece Theatre. But what I’m trying to say is, Kye wasn’t ready back then. I can’t say that about you.”
“I loved him. He broke my heart.”
Law shrugged. “I heard about how Bronson threatened him. I think Kye didn’t have any options. Neither did we, back in those days.”
Yard’s face screwed up. “I think he broke us, Law. Bronson broke us.”
“He tried. But you did better than I did. You stood your ground and fought your way through. I never stopped moving long enough for anything to stick until something literally cut the legs out from under me.” He tapped his prosthesis. “I don’t want you to wait for your IED moment. You might not be as lucky as I was.”
“So, what am I supposed to do? I can’t just walk away from this and go find my bliss.” She waved her arms around.
“Why not?”
“Because there are people here depending on me. A dozen or more livelihoods are at stake if Harmonie Kennels closes.”
He sat down and looked his her, his head cocked to one side. “Is that really all that keeps you here?”
“Honestly? Yes.” She took a deep breath. “I’m tired, Law. I’ve given Harmonie Kennels all my adult life. I’m—” She wouldn’t say scared. “I’m missing my life.”
He grinned. “Funny. I think I’ve just found mine. I’ve got a proposition for you.”
She folded her arms.
“I’m out of a job. I’m looking for something permanent. Something with a solid future and a place to raise a family. Maybe. Sometime. If I can get a certain woman to think about it after we’ve been together a year. I figure that’s about how long it’ll take me to determine if I can be the decent sort of person I want to be for Jori. She needs an all-time man. What I’m saying is, I’d like to try my hand at running Harmonie Kennels. Of course, you’ll still be the owner.”
Yardley opened her mouth and shut it three times before words would form. “We could split it fifty–fifty.”
He wagged his head. “I lost my right to anything but a salary from this place.”
“Fifty–fifty, dammit, or you can go find another job.”
She came at him, right up into his face. “You think you can do the job but then stick me with one hundred percent of the headaches around here? Think again, little brother.”
He gazed at her in wonder. “Are you sure about that? You’ll be fifty percent poorer?”
“Only if you screw up.”
With his head tilted to one side, he looked as puzzled as a K-9 given an unfamiliar command. “Honest to God, you’d do that for me? After everything?”
“I’ll call my lawyer today.”