Okay, Molly thought. That was it. No more questions. Questions only led to answers she didn’t necessarily want to hear.
Kyle considered their kiss an ill-advised impulse? Not very flattering.
But he hadn’t said no when she’d asked if he wanted to kiss her again.
No more questions, she promised herself. She would just continue to sit quietly, listen to the music, watch the passing scenery….
“Kyle?”
“Yeah?”
“If we don’t mention the kiss, is it okay if we talk about something else?”
“Talk about whatever you want,” he said in surrender. “Just give me the right to decline to comment if I choose.”
“Permission granted,” she said with a smile and a wave of relief. Maybe if they were talking—it didn’t matter about what—she would be able to finally stop thinking about the kiss. Maybe.
“So, what do you want to know this time?” he asked in that same resigned tone. “My blood type? My bank balance?”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “Did you actually make a joke?”
“No. Just an educated guess.”
“Well, as a matter of fact, I don’t care about your blood type or your bank balance. I was just going to ask if you have any family left in Texas.”
“No.”
“No aunts, uncles? Cousins?”
“Not as far as I know.”
She couldn’t even imagine having no relatives.
“Were your parents orphans?”
“If my father ever had any family, they ran him off long before I came along. He had a talent for getting thrown out of all the best places-jobs, apartments, marriages.”
There was no anger in his voice that she could hear. Only a cool dispassion that didn’t quite mask a lifetime of disappointment.
“What about your mother?”
“Let’s just say she never baked me cookies.”
There was the anger. Whatever his mother had done to him, he still hadn’t forgiven her.
“When’s the last time you were on a horse?” she asked, making a quick decision to guide the conversation into less treacherous territory.
He looked a bit startled, but relieved. “Almost three years ago, I guess.”
Something in his answer told her there might be a story involved. “Tell me about it.”
A
fter only a momentary hesitation, he did. “Several of the guys in my unit were invited to a party at a ranch near Camp Pendleton, where we were waiting to be deployed to Iraq. One of the other guests was a pretty brunette Tommy wanted to, um, get to know better. He had never been on a horse in his life, so he asked me for a few pointers that would help him impress her. I gave him a few.”
Delighted by the nuances of his tale, Molly followed along easily. “And what were the results of your advice?”
Kyle grinned, making him look—just for a moment—young and amused. “The horse went left, and Tom went right. He hit the dirt face-first.”