A Cowgirl's Secret

Chapter Six

“What a nice surprise.” Luke opened his door to find Daisy and Kolt on his porch. “I’ve missed you,” he said to his son. As for Daisy, the jury was still out on what he felt for her. Most days, his opinion changed hourly.

“Yeah,” Kolt said, shifting his weight from one leg to the other, refusing to make eye contact. One hand was shoved in the pocket of cargo shorts, the other held a black PSP.

“I’ve given up working on my new office and just picked up Kolt from camp. Anyway,” Daisy said with forced brightness, “I thought we’d stop by.”

“I’m glad.” He flattened himself to the door while both she and his son brushed by. Even the other afternoon when she’d worn shorts, they’d been dressy. Today, in dirt-smudged jeans and an equally filthy T-shirt with her hair a fingered-through mess, she looked as hot as usual, but more approachable. “Can I get you anything to eat or drink?”

“No, thanks.” Kolt didn’t bother looking up to respond.

Though Luke wasn’t happy to see he had his work cut out for him in getting to know his son, he was somewhat encouraged by the fact that Daisy had been telling the truth about Kolt’s skittish behavior, rather than just thinking his son had been avoiding him.

Glancing at the half-loaded bins on the kitchen pass-through bar, Daisy asked, “Going somewhere?”

“A job in south Texas. Mare got caught in a lightning storm. Been spooked ever since.” He added a can of spaghetti to the nearest bin. “I’ve got an old Airstream trailer I usually stock and take with me to stay in. More comfortable than a motel and keeps me on the horse’s property.”

Nodding, she rummaged through the rest of his canned goods. “You should eat better.”

He frowned. “I get by okay.”

Kolt perched on the sofa arm to play his game.

“Yeah, but baked beans and Vienna sausages? Your arteries are going to solidify.”

“Kind of you to care.” He nudged her aside before placing the lid on top of the tub, snapping it tight.

“I do care. We’ve been friends a long time.”

“Have we?” He hefted the box off the counter and added it to the pile he had by the back door. “Because, silly me, not hearing from you for a decade had me wondering.”

“He’s right, Mom.” Kolt looked up, for an instant meeting Luke’s gaze before darting his attention back to his game. “You could’ve at least called.”

Sitting on one of the counter stools, ignoring their son, she set her keys jingling against the tile. “I’ve been busy. And anyway, Luke, you were the one who went and got married months after I left.”

On that blast from the past, he had to chuckle. “Really? Ten years later you’re holding a grudge? How’d you even find out?”

Glancing away, she sighed. “Clearly, we shouldn’t have come.”

“Why? Because I’m so impossible to deal with? I’m not as civilized as you?”

“Stop.” Heels of her hands to her forehead, she asked, “Can we just start over? The last thing I wanted was for us to fight.”

“Me, neither,” Kolt mumbled.

“Who’s fighting?” Luke asked, taking an ice cream sandwich from the freezer. Daisy used to love them. His mom would buy them and whenever Daisy came over to watch movies or play video games, his dad had teased her about having to guard them from her. “Want one?” he asked his son.

“Sure,” Kolt said with a shrug.

After handing one to his boy, Luke offered a treat to Daisy.

“Why would I want ice cream at a time like this? We’re right in the middle of—”

“A time like what?” Luke licked the melting parts around the chocolate edges. “We having a crisis?”

After making a sexy little growling noise, she hopped up from her stool, not only helping herself to his freezer, but granting him a tempting backside view. “I’ve blocked what a nightmare it is dealing with you.”

“Whoa,” he said while she unwrapped her snack. “Lest you’ve forgotten, you’re the one who showed up on my doorstep. Right after that, you attacked my diet, then raided my freezer. From where I’m standing, I’m not the one with the problem.” Especially since he wasn’t counting his sudden and ridiculous fascination with the speck of chocolate clinging to her lower lip.

“Never mind.” Ice cream sandwich in one hand, she maneuvered her free hand through her purse handle, then grabbed her keys. “Kolt, you ready to go?”

“Geez, Mom.” He crammed the last of his ice cream into his mouth. “You need to chill.”

Luke grinned. “Kolt, I think the two of us finally found something we can agree on.”

BY THE TIME DAISY REACHED the main road, she was a trembling mess. She’d been stupid to even have gone to Luke’s. Especially with Kolt. More than anything, she wanted Luke to know what had happened with Henry. Judging by her irrational behavior, she suspected she was more to blame than Kolt for his inability to get to know his father.

“What’s wrong with you?” her son asked as they pulled up the ranch’s main drive.

“I’m tired,” she said.

“Yeah, well, you’re acting weird. Like, I thought we went over to Luke’s house for us to all, like, sit around and talk and stuff, but then we just left.” He licked chocolate from his right pinkie. “I wasn’t really wanting to do all that, but Uncle Cash said Luke has a cool horse, so that might’ve been fun to see.”

And as usual, Daisy had botched things up between Kolt and his father. “I’m sorry. Why didn’t you say you wanted to stick around? You could’ve done something besides play your game.”

“What was I supposed to say? You act like I should instantly like all of these people because they’re family, but I’ve never had family besides you, so I’m never sure what to do.”

Putting the car in Park, Daisy killed the engine and pulled her son into a hug. “Sweetie, I love you. Please know you can talk to me about anything you’re feeling.”

For too short a time, he returned her hug, but then quickly squirmed free. “Stop. Uncle Wyatt’s here, and I don’t want him to see me all hugging and stuff.”

Kolt bounded out of the car, and Daisy was on her own to take her purse and the few legal briefs she’d brought home for scintillating late-night reading from the backseat.

“Hey,” Wyatt said, crossing the lot to her. “This kid of yours tells me he’s never seen an oil well. Mind if we grab the twins and head out to the ridge?”

“Can I, Mom? Please?” For all of Kolt’s complaints about how tough it was getting to know family, when it came to his uncles and cousins, he was fitting right in.

“Go on,” she said.

“I’ll bring him back in one piece,” Wyatt promised.

“Never doubted you wouldn’t,” Daisy truthfully replied.

Inside, instead of finding her mother and a nice, long conversation, as she’d hoped, she found Josie, who conveyed that chef’s salad waited for her in the fridge, that Georgina was at a church meeting, and that, with their newfound freedom, she and Dallas were off to a neighboring town to see the latest action-adventure flick.

Restless, antsy, Daisy figured what better way to work off nervous energy than by returning to her office for more unpacking? Before setting out, she called Wyatt’s cell. He and the kids were in his open-air Jeep and judging by the laughing shrieks, no one was in a hurry to get home.

At quarter past seven, traffic in town was nearly nonexistent and her building’s lot was empty. After hours, office suites were accessible through the back entrance and had been wired to a separate security system than the bank. Upon entering a simple code, she was in.

Movers had stashed kitchen, dining room, bathroom and bedroom items in the spare office, meaning all Daisy had to contend with were living room and den furniture and boxes.

She’d hoped the work of arranging and sorting and repacking would keep her mind from straying to Luke. Unfortunately the man wouldn’t leave her in peace.

Luke hadn’t just been her boyfriend, but her world. In retrospect, leaving him, knowing she was carrying his child, had been beyond stupid. It had been selfish.

But why couldn’t she just spill the whole truth and get on with her life?

How come every time she locked gazes with Luke’s powerful blue stare, her insides turned to mush and memories of better times consumed her? Even an act as seemingly benign as sharing ice cream sandwiches recalled a lazy summer afternoon when they’d lounged on his bed, feeding them to each other.

Luke’s mother, Peggy, had been out of town at a church conference and for a change of scenery, his dad had gone along. Her parents had believed she’d spent the weekend with a Tulsa friend.

Home alone, Daisy and Luke had played house. Cooking together, cleaning together, making love and bathing together… Best of all had been waking up together. Being held safe in his strong arms.

That weekend had been but a teasing glimpse into the life they might have shared if it hadn’t been for the fear Henry had made a permanent fixture in her. She was pretty sure Kolt had been conceived that long weekend. Just as she was sure that if she’d told Luke of her pregnancy, she would never have left. Daisy had been so afraid of carrying a girl that all she could focus on at that time had been her escape.

Her office door creaked open and in walked the source of her current dilemma. Luke, in all of his handsome glory. “Henry said I might find you here.”

“He’s back? He knows I leased office space?”

“Yeah. You know Dallas gossips like an old woman. Besides me, Henry’s one of his best friends.”

Panic swelled in Daisy’s chest, making it hard to breathe. She’d long since told herself she wasn’t that scared girl anymore. But the mere knowledge that her nightmare was back on the ranch left her pulse racing and her mouth dry.

Sighing, Luke perched on the arm of the sofa he’d last occupied in her loft. Rubbing his whisker-stubbled jaw, he mused, “I honestly don’t know what to make of you.”

“Did I hire you to psychoanalyze my every move?” Turning her back on him, she returned to her task of unwrapping framed photos, only to stop. Kolt grinned in every shot. Kolt as a chubby baby. His first day of kindergarten. Hamming it up with his friends on his riotous seventh birthday. Stacking the images, she carefully placed them upside down before returning them to the box. The last thing she needed was for Luke to be reminded of how many precious moments he’d missed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap.”

“That’s my point,” he said. “Even though we’ve been apart for years, I like to think I knew you better than just about anyone. But this version of you—flighty, always on edge—makes me worry.”

“Thanks,” she said with a sad laugh, “but I’m good.”

Are you?

If Daisy didn’t tell Luke—her mom, Dallas, everyone—soon, the weight of her secret would eat her alive. She wasn’t sleeping. Rarely ate. Her heart constantly raced as if she’d spent hours running in hot sun.

“If you say so…” Glancing at their surroundings, he noted, “The stuff from your loft doesn’t exactly match this building’s turn-of-the-century ambiance.”

“I probably should’ve sold it before moving out here.” She sat on one of a matching pair of designer lounge chairs upholstered in a black-and-white pinto-patterned leather that had reminded her of home. But since she’d been here, could she really say Weed Gulch was where she belonged? She felt in limbo. Never more so than when she and Luke shared the same air.

“What had you in such an all-fired hurry to leave this afternoon?” The faded denim shirt he wore rolled up at the sleeves worked magic with his blue eyes. The same color looked equally as impressive on his son. Luke had given her the perfect opening to tell him about Henry, so why was her tongue refusing to work?

“I, um, guess I was preoccupied with getting back here to work.”

“Which has me wondering…” He rose and crossed the room to sit on the box of books alongside her. “Why so many treks to my house, acting as if there’s something pressing on your mind, yet you never say a damned meaningful thing.”

“Please, stop,” she begged, sliding her hands into the hair at her temples. “It’s complicated—my reasoning.”

Leaning in, close enough for her to have sworn she caught a hint of sweet ice cream still on his breath, he said, “I’m a big boy. You’d be surprised how much I might understand.” His nearness transported her back to a time before Kolt. Before fear had gotten in the way of love. Back to when she’d wanted nothing more from life than to spend her every waking moment in Luke’s arms. To when she’d believed a life with him protecting her would forever keep her from harm.

“You can admit it,” he said, still too close for her mind to function properly.

“Wh-what?”

“You’re flustered about being close to me.” Cupping her cheeks, he kissed her.

Yes! the teen girl in her cried.

No! warned the world-weary professional she’d become.

“I am, too—about being around you, but see? We kissed and nothing happened. No sparks. Not a single firework or marching band. So now that we have that established, we can get down to the business of setting up a formal visitation schedule for Kolt.”

“Whoa. Time out.” She pushed him from her in a frantic search for air. Standing, hands on her hips, she paced. How dare he toy with her this way. As if he knew how flustered he made her and wanted her to squirm. “What the hell was that?”

“I told you. Just clearing the air.”

“HELLO, THERE.”

Kolt looked out the window of the awesome fort that used to belong to his uncles to see Henry. Uncle Dallas had introduced them and told Kolt what a cool guy he was. Adjusting his pirate eye patch, Kolt said, “Hi, Henry!”

“Permission to climb aboard, Cap’n?”

Kolt laughed. “Yeah! I didn’t know you knew how to play pirates.”

“I play all kinds of fun games,” Henry said, climbing the fort’s ladder. Once he’d made it to the top, he sat on a wooden crate, and then pulled a Snickers bar out from under his cowboy hat. “Like candy?”

“You bet. Thanks!” While Kolt chewed, Henry took a pocket knife and a small block of wood from his back pocket.

“Uncle Cash said he’s gonna get me a knife, but I have to ask my mom first.”

The old guy nodded. “Always a good thing to ask your mom. When she was little, we used to play all the time. Now that you’re here, I’m sure she’d want me to be great friends with you.”

“That’s cool.” Kolt handed Henry his favorite sword. “Do you want to be the good guy or the bad guy?”

Henry took a long time to answer, but then smiled. “I want to be the good guy, you naughty little pirate. That way I can teach you the proper way to treat a gentleman.”

“Argh!” Kolt said in his best pirate voice. “You’ll never tame me.”

FIVE DAYS LATER AND Daisy still couldn’t stop thinking of Luke’s kiss. Clearing the air? Of what? Sexual tension? Had that indeed been his plan, it hadn’t worked—at least not for her.

More than ever, Luke was on her mind, but then so was Henry. So many old, frightening feelings coursed through her. Part of her wanted to work toward earning Luke’s forgiveness and possibly forging a family with their son. Another part knew that fairy tale would never happen. Henry wasn’t just in her nightmares, but living a couple of hundred yards from her bedroom in his tidy little house.

She had never needed Luke more.

But she also knew if he were one day to forgive her for hiding his son, as soiled as Henry had made her, she didn’t deserve to be with a man as good as Luke.

With Luke out of town, Daisy had managed to get her office cleared of clutter and mostly functioning, as well as getting Kolt enrolled for his upcoming year at Weed Gulch Elementary. School documents had never been an issue at his private academy. Here, however, Daisy had received more than a few weighty stares from one old crone in the office whom she was pretty sure had been working as a lunch lady when she had started kindergarten.

Most days Daisy felt as if the whole town were judging her. Condemning her for keeping Kolt from Luke. If they only knew her other dark secret, gossipy tongues would really be wagging. Everyone loved Henry. Would her family and Luke even believe her when she told them what the kindly man had done?

“Ready?” Kolt, dressed in brand-spanking-new Western wear purchased for him by his Uncle Cash, practically danced in front of the sofa where Daisy had been flipping through a real-estate magazine.

“Grandma’s still on the phone.” Patting the empty spot next to her, Daisy asked, “Do your boots feel okay? Nothing ruins a rodeo faster than tight or rubbing boots.”

“They’re good,” he said, demonstrating by wiggling his feet in front of him. “Wonder what my old friends would think?”

“’Bout what?” She smoothed the cowlick in his dark hair. For a moment, she felt as if her breath had been knocked out of her. How had she never before noticed the way Kolt’s hair stuck out at the same crazy angles as his father’s?

“My cowboy boots and hat and jeans. No one wears stuff like this at home.”

“This is your home now, and I promise, if you showed up at the summer rodeo wearing expensive high-tops, shorts and a T-shirt, you’d look like an alien from another planet.” She tickled his stomach. His laugh never failed to brighten her spirits.

“Sorry about that,” Georgina said, slipping on a silver-and-turquoise bracelet on her way into the living room. “Unavoidable damage control with loose-lipped Frieda Hilliard.”

“What’s that mean?” Kolt asked.

“None of your nosy beeswax.” Kolt’s grandmother clamped her hands over his ears while kissing the top of his head. Daisy guessed her mother had been handling more fallout in regard to her. “Did your brother and Josie already leave?”

Daisy nodded. “The girls were bouncing off the walls.”

“They are a handful,” her mother noted.

“More like crazy,” Kolt said, on his feet and practicing quick draws with his plastic revolver. In San Francisco, he’d been all about video games and not much else. Daisy loved how he’d once again started using his imagination since coming to the ranch. “Bonnie tried piercing my ears. Her mom caught her just before I died from that psycho girl stabbing me to death with a safety pin.”

“That’s awful.” His grandmother pulled him into a hug.

“I know,” Kolt said, aiming for the stuffed moose head mounted above the fireplace. “That’s why I wanted to ride with you and Mom and Aunt Wren and Robin. That baby bites, but usually I’m fast enough to get away.”

“Excellent decision.” Daisy grabbed her purse and keys. She’d dressed in a long, full skirt made of lightweight crinkled brown cotton. Her white cotton tank top was ultra-feminine with lacing at the neckline. She wore it over the skirt, topped with a concho belt hanging low at her hips. Her alligator boots were the ones her father had bought her for middle-school graduation. In deference to the inevitable heat, she’d braided her long hair, securing it at the tips with beaded ponytail holders she’d borrowed from the twins. “Cash put Robin’s carrier in my car before he left this morning, so as soon as we grab her and Wren, we’re good to go.”

They drove the short distance to Cash and Wren’s house.

“Thanks for the ride,” Wren said once they’d reached the main road. “After finally getting a Sunday off, the last thing I felt like doing was driving—even if it is only a short way.”

“I understand,” Daisy said, adjusting the air conditioning to make it cooler.

“Trying to freeze us out?” her mother complained.

“Sorry.” Fanning her face, Daisy said, “It’s been a while since I’ve been in this kind of heat.”

From the backseat Kolt asked, “I like the hot weather. Why haven’t you brought me here, like, ever, Mom?”

Judging by Georgina’s pressed thin lips and Wren’s sudden fascination with the buttons on Robin’s overalls, Daisy wasn’t the only one feeling awkward about the question. Trouble was, as much thought as she’d given the subject, she still didn’t have a reasonable, justifiable answer. She couldn’t tell her ten-year-old that essentially Mommy had been afraid that if he’d been a girl, the bogeyman might return. Then, by the time she’d discovered she was having a boy, she’d been too ashamed of what she’d let Henry do to return.

“Mom?” Kolt prodded.

Swallowing the knot at the back of her throat and ignoring her mother’s silent tears, Daisy said, “For the longest time, I lost the way home, but now that I found it again, we’ll be here a nice long while, okay?”

He nodded. “Will there be food at the rodeo? I’m hungry.”

“Do you like funnel cake?” Georgina asked with forced cheer.

“I dunno,” Kolt said. “Never had it.”

That inconceivable fact earned Daisy another glare. The fried, powdered-sugared treat was a rodeo staple.

“Well,” her mother said with an extra serving of guilt, “that means we’ll have to get you lots of them to make up for all the ones you’ve missed.”

EXHAUSTED FROM THE LONG DRIVE, Luke knew better than to get back out on the road for a rodeo. But it was Weed Gulch’s annual fundraiser for “Town Beautification,” and since his mother was this year’s Beautification Chairwoman, she’d have his hide if he didn’t at least show up long enough to hand over his money.

Plus, he wanted to be there for his son’s first rodeo.

On the downside, the Buckhorn family was always in attendance. Luke hadn’t seen Daisy since that kiss. A good thing, since he’d lied like a dog about his not having a reaction. Every time he thought about it, he grew rock hard and grouchy. He hated her for what she’d done. It was high time his body got the message.

This would be the first year since before Duke Buckhorn had died that all four of his children were in attendance with their mother—at least Luke assumed all of them would be there. Aside from Christmas, this event was the pinnacle of the Weed Gulch social season.

Upon reaching the rodeo grounds, Luke parked in what felt like the next county and then zigzagged through screaming kids, rodeo queens and horses. He was just thinking he’d be better off back at his cabin when he caught sight of Daisy, all dolled up in her prettiest country wear.

Kolt stood alongside her, looking as if he’d spent his whole life doing just this thing. Decked out in head-to-toe cowboy, he was handsome as could be. Throat knotted with pride, Luke couldn’t wait to show off his son.

As for Kolt’s mother, Lord, but she was a beauty. Long legs and an easy smile.

She stood in front of the funnel-cake wagon, waiting her turn in line with Dallas’s evil twins, Wren and her baby.

Luke strode up to the group.

“Bonnie,” he said, tugging the girl’s crooked pigtails, “you buying me a funnel cake?”

“Nooo,” she said with a look as offended as if he’d asked her to give him her pony. “I don’t have any money. Aunt Daisy’s buying mine and Betsy’s.”

“Then maybe she’ll pay for me?” he said with a wink in Daisy’s direction.

Bonnie shrugged.

“How was your week?” he asked Kolt after obligatory greetings to Wren and Bonnie. Was it wrong that part of him damn near feared talking to Daisy? She made him hot and bothered and took his mind from the most important thing on the day’s agenda—sharing quality time with Kolt.

Not Kolt’s sexy-as-hell mom.

“Thought you couldn’t come,” Daisy said, hating the way her pulse raced at the mere sight of Luke. She felt the way she had back in high school. Save for the ten years she’d been gone, they’d attended this event together literally every year of their lives.

“Hey,” Wren said, waving Robin’s chubby hand at Luke.

Luke playfully snatched the baby’s hand, pretending to chew.

Robin shrieked with laughter.

Watching him interact with the infant hurt Daisy to her core. Worse yet was the look on her son’s face as he saw his father interact more easily with a child who wasn’t even his.

“You’re looking mighty spiffy,” Luke finally said to their son. “I like those cowboy duds.”

“Thanks,” Kolt said almost pensively. “I didn’t know if other kids wore this stuff, but since they do, I like it.”

“What events have you seen so far?” Luke asked as they stepped up in line.

“Barrel racing. It’s pretty cool. But I’m mostly excited for bull riding. That’s what my uncle Cash does.”

As a professional bull rider, Cash was ineligible to compete, so he typically hung around back, helping with the chutes.

Wren shook her head. “To my eternal dismay. As if it’s not bad enough I have to worry about him smashing his head in wrestling with a bull, he’s got so many groupies he could form his own girls’ school.”

Laughing, Luke said, “And knowing the size of your husband’s ego, he loves every minute of it.”

Kolt said, “Uncle Cash told me he loves Aunt Wren best, ’cause she kisses like—”

“Whoa there, bud.” Cash sauntered up to them, blasting them with his thousand-watt smile. “Don’t be spilling all my secrets. You can’t let the ladies know how much you like ’em, otherwise that gives ’em leverage to break your heart.”

“Oh, stop,” Wren said, pummeling her husband with her free hand.

Daisy glanced Luke’s way and their gazes locked. For a heady second, hot summer sun melting the sense from her head, everything was back the way it had once been. She was with Luke. Then she remembered he could hardly stand the sight of her. He’d only kissed her to prove all that had once simmered between them was now dead. Only, for her, it should be, but sadly, wasn’t.

Moving up in line, Daisy was relieved to have finally placed their funnel-cake order. Maybe once they’d eaten, Luke would trail off to find his family, and stop distracting her.

“What do you think?” Daisy asked Kolt after he’d taken his first bite of the funnel cake.

All smiles, with his nose and chin white, he said, “This is amazing!”

“Told you so,” Betsy sassed. “You’re dumb for never eating this stuff.”

“Yeah, well, you’re dumb and ugly for being a girl.”

“Hey!” Daisy warned. “Knock it off.”

“It’s okay,” Bonnie said. “’Cause he’s dumb and ugly for being a boy.”

While nodding in agreement, Betsy stuck out her white, sugar-coated tongue.

While the rest of the party laughed over the kid antics, for Daisy, the moment had lost its sparkle. Standing not ten feet from her was Henry. Sneaking up behind the girls, he made a mock pounce for them, then tugged their matching ponytails.

“All of you ladies are looking as pretty as the flowers in Georgina’s garden.” Henry rested his hands on the twins’ backs, smiling a clear challenge in Daisy’s direction.

Nausea struck clear and hard—stunning in its unexpected blow. She was no longer a strong, confident woman, but a little girl being fondled by a dirty old man.

Lurching to action, Daisy snagged the twins by their arms with enough force to jostle their plates to the packed-dirt ground.

“Get away from him!” Daisy shouted on instinct.

Betsy started to cry.

Bonnie snapped, “Are you crazy? Betsy loves funnel cake!”

“I’m sure it was an accident, right, Daisy?” Henry had his filthy hands back on the twins, chuckling as if they were all one, big happy family. “Funny thing about accidents…” With the twins firmly against him, he clamped his hand over Kolt’s head. “Never can tell when or where they might strike.”

Daisy wanted to hit out in rage, but couldn’t. Henry’s smile, his voice, paralyzed her with fear. Please don’t touch me.

“You all right?” Wren asked Daisy. “You’ve turned white as a sheet.”

“Kolt, girls,” Daisy said, “it’s time to go home.”

“What?” Kolt complained. “We just got here.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Bonnie declared. “You’re crazy. Come on, Henry.” The girl took the man’s hand. “Let’s go ride the merry-go-round.”

“No!” Daisy managed to choke out.

“Mom, stop!” Kolt said when she tugged him to her, hugging him for all she was worth. “I hate you! You’re being weird!”

He wriggled free to run off toward the bull chutes.

“I—I have to go after him,” she said on autopilot, determined to save her son.

“Let him go,” Luke urged. “Cash is there. He’ll watch over him. Right now, I’m concerned about you.”

“As am I,” Henry said, rubbing his leathery hand along her bare forearm. “Poor girl. What you need is a nice big hug.”

It was too much. The heat. The children being in danger. Henry’s awful touch. Daisy’s knees buckled as her world faded to black.