“She’s terribly sad,” Angelica told Cade, “and I’d bet it has something to do with a man.”
The next morning, after unwrapping the presents under the tree in the library, Eve, Crista and Angelica made seemingly casual exits. Zach, Grant and Cade sat down and faced Kyra.
“Well,” Grant said.
“Well,” Zach said.
Cade cleared his throat.
Kyra sighed. “Okay,” she said, “here it is in a nutshell.” She took a breath. “I hate this house.”
Her brothers looked as if she’d told them she was running off to join a circus.
“Hate it?” Grant shook his head. “Don’t be silly. You love it!”
“I hate it,” she said patiently. “I always have.”
“But—but you never said—”
“Of course I didn’t! I was stuck here. And then, after Father died, I knew you guys had this happy image of me waiting on the hearth like a cocker spaniel.”
Cade frowned. “Okay. Okay, so you don’t like the house, But don’t you think you’re being a little hasty, selling off all the old ma…all Father’s stuff?”
Kyra looked at him. “Why?”
“What do you mean, why? Because—because you’ll regret it, that’s why. Because he loved these things and they’re yours now. Don’t you want them around you for remembrance?”
Kyra walked to the fireplace and poked at the logs blazing on the grate.
“Actually, I’ve got enough bad memories of Father to last a lifetime. I’m hoping that changing this house will make some of them go away so I can begin to remember some of the good ones.”
Her brothers stared at her in silence. “What bad memories?” Zach finally said.
Kyra tossed the poker onto the hearth. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, are you all still so blind? I know how miserably our father treated you guys!”
“But he adored you,” Grant said.
“Yes. He adored me—at the expense of all the rest of you! And he wouldn’t have adored me half so much if I’d ever stood up to him and told him what I really thought.”
“Kyra,” Cade said, moving toward her, “baby—”
“I am not a baby, any more than I was Father’s angel! I just pretended I was his oh-so-sweet girl because it helped keep the peace.” She glared at all three of her brothers. “Well, he’s gone now. I loved him in spite of himself, I suppose. But there’s no need for me to keep pretending anymore, is there?” She put her hands on her hips. “I don’t mind hanging on to the house—every family needs a place to think of as home. But I’m going to bring some light and warmth and happiness into this horrible place and if you guys have a problem with that, to heck with all of you!”
Silence fell across the room. Then, one by one, Kyra’s brothers began to grin.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Cade finally said, and in a second the four Landons were in each other’s arms. When they broke apart, Kyra smiled.
“You know what? I almost feel like a full member of the Deadeye Defenders.”
Zach looked at her. “You remember all that?”
Kyra held up her hand in the secret Deadeye sign. “Deadeye Defenders never lose,” she said, grinning.
The brothers smiled. “Membership it is,” Cade said.
Kyra smiled. “With full voting rights? This country’s into sexual equality, in case you hadn’t heard.”
Her brothers laughed. “Okay,” Grant said, “hold out your right hand.”
Kyra did and the Landons clasped hands in what had once been the brothers’ childhood ritual.
“Cross my heart and hope to die, join the ghosts up in the sky, it’s the truth and not a lie, Deadeye Defenders never cry,” they intoned.
“We hereby declare you a Deadeye,” Zach said solemnly.
“Thank you,” Kyra said just as solemnly.
They all smiled and stepped apart again. Cade cleared his throat.
“Being a full member of the Deadeyes gives you certain obligations,” he said briskly. “For instance, you’ll have to resolve a difference of opinion between my gorgeous wife and me.”
Kyra looked at him. “About what?”
He smiled as if what he was about to say was too ridiculous for words.
“You’ll laugh.”
“Try me.”
“Well, Angelica somehow got it into her head that you’d taken a tumble for some guy and ended up getting your heart broken.”
Kyra gave a snort of indignation. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Yeah. That’s what I told her.”
“I haven’t taken a tumble for anybody.”
“Of course not.”
“And if I had—if I had, I certainly wouldn’t have let him break my heart!”
Cade nodded. “That’s what I told Angelica. I said, hey, my sister’s no jerk. She’d never let some guy do that to her.”
“You’re damned right I wouldn’t. Why—why…”
Kyra’s gaze flew over her brothers’ smiling faces. It was so good to have them here. But no one, not even her wonderful brothers, could fill the hole in her heart that had been there since she’d lost Antonio.
Without warning, a sob burst from her throat.
“Hey,” Zach said, “hey, Sis ..”
She swung away, but not in time. She was weeping, and she couldn’t seem to stop.
Behind her, the Landon brothers threw stunned looks at each other All three of them took a step toward Kyra, then drew back.
After what seemed a long, long while, she took a deep breath and turned to face them.
“Sorry,” she said as she saw their stricken expressions. “I—I didn’t mean that to happen.”
Grant pulled a white linen handkerchief from his jacket pocket and handed it to her. She nodded, wiped her eyes, blew her nose, sank down on the edge of the stone hearth, and gave Cade a smile so wistful it made his throat tighten.
“Angelica was right,” she said. “I did fall in love. It just—it didn’t work out.”
The questions came hard and fast. Who was the man? Where had she met him? What had gone wrong?
Kyra held up her hand. “I won’t go into details. What happened, happened. The bottom line is that I—I fell for a man who—who didn’t really love me.”
Grant’s face grew dark. “What do you mean, he didn’t love you?”
“Just that. He—he was attracted to me, but we—we just couldn’t agree on what we expected from each other.”
“What did he want? Money? Property?” Zach’s hands balled into fists. “Who is this bastard, Kyra?”
“I won’t discuss it, Zach. I appreciate your concern, but this is
my life. I messed it up and I’ll do whatever needs doing to get over it.”
“Yeah.” Cade’s voice was grim. “You really look like you’re getting over it, dammit. No wonder you’ve gotten so skinny.”
Kyra laughed and blew her nose again. “Now you sound like Stella. I haven’t gotten skinny. Really. I’ve just been busy. I’m taking classes, I agreed to run the Art Exhibit—”
“Did this guy take advantage of you?” Grant demanded. When Kyra flushed, he cursed under his breath. “Dammit, tell me who he is, Kyra. I’ll take him apart!”
“I slept with him,” she said, her eyes daring him to object. “But it was my idea as much as his. It was because I loved him. Because I thought I loved him. Because…”
Oh God! She started crying again. Helplessly, Zach and Cade whipped out their handkerchiefs and handed them to her. Kyra nodded, buried her face in them, and waited until she could speak without weeping.
She looked up and gave her brothers a wobbly smile.
“I love you guys,” she said. “And you needn’t worry about me. I’m going to be fine.”
“Yeah,” Cade said.
“Right,” Zach agreed.
“Sure,” Grant added.
Everyone in the room knew it was a lie.
In April, the first signs of spring began to appear. Crocuses poked their heads through patches of snow; the cold wind changed to a soft breeze that bore the faintest scent of green, growing things.
Grant phoned his brothers with news. Landon Enterprises had a buyer.
“How much?” Cade asked. “Not that I really care—from what I’ve seen lately, the Landon balance sheet looks no better than when we took over.”
“Yeah,” Zach said, “how much? We cleaned up the Triad mess and the Gordon oil stuff but now everything else is going bad.”
Grant cleared his throat. “Actually, he hasn’t made an offer yet.”
“What you mean,” Zach said, “is that we have a buyer but we haven’t negotiated a price.”
Grant glanced at the tall, broad-shouldered man standing at his office window, looking out at the street below.
“Well, he says he won’t make an offer unless it’s to all three of us in person. Look, how about if we meet at the Landon offices in Denver 10:00 a.m. next Friday? Can you guys manage that?”