Uncle Peter laughed. “I never heard it described quite that way, kiddo.”
He’d taken the afternoon off to go fishing with them. He was a lot of fun, joking around and teasing about everything from Grandpa’s waders to DeeDee’s hat, the one she’d gotten at Disneyland the previous year.
If it wasn’t for the birth father mess, Alex knew he’d be enjoying Montana a whole lot more. Grandma and Grandpa were terrific and so was Uncle Peter. Well, he was really Great-Uncle Peter, except that he was pretty young and had said to just call him Pete.
The night before had been kind of weird. Morgan McGregor had sent Alex a friend request on Facebook. He’d stared at it awhile, unsure of what to do. But curiosity had got the best of him, and he accepted then went straight to her page.
The selfie on Morgan’s profile wasn’t much help. She’d spiked her blond hair and had a streak of pink up the right side. He didn’t think they looked alike.
Not that sisters and brothers always had the same nose or anything. Except for her hair, DeeDee looked like Mom, and, well, he looked an awful lot like his birth father. So it wasn’t strange that Morgan was so different. Besides, officially she was his half sister, the same as DeeDee. Not that halves mattered. Mom was big on people sticking together; she said that halves and quarters and that stuff was fine for math, but family was family, no matter what. He just hadn’t known she might be talking about their family.
He baited the fishhook again and cast it into the lake the way Grandpa had shown him. Suddenly DeeDee yelped and started turning her reel.
“I’ve got one,” she gasped, then pouted as a boot came dragging onto the shore.
“You sure do,” Pete said, “but it’ll be tough to cook.”
“I bet it’s from a murder victim,” DeeDee announced. “The mob probably dragged an informer here and tossed him into the drink with chains around his waist. ‘Take that, squealer, goner fer good.’”
“Right,” Pete agreed. “What do you think his name was?”
“Luigi.”
“Poor Luigi,” Grandpa said sadly. “We didn’t know him well, but we’ll miss him.”
DeeDee grinned, baited her hook and threw it back into the water. So far she’d pulled in a branch, some weeds and now Luigi’s boot.
Briefly Alex wondered what his mom was talking about with Jackson McGregor. That had to be what she’d gone off to do, since she didn’t have any friends in Schuyler.
When he got back to the house he’d write about Uncle Peter on Facebook, and also more about Grandma and Grandpa and Montana.
After getting the friend request from Morgan, he’d decided it was best he hadn’t posted something on there about the McGregors. His friends probably thought updates about his great-grandparents were boring, but they weren’t hitting Space Needle heights with their summer reports, either. Most of the guys didn’t share much on Facebook anyhow. Sandy said it was because they were scared it would make them sound dorky. They’d think the stuff about his birth father was interesting, but when he’d started to write something, it had felt as if he was undressing in public.
Sandy knew. She’d been his best friend forever, so he’d emailed to tell her what was happening. He would have phoned, except she was still mad at him for going to Montana and had called him an idiot in her last text. But no matter how angry Sandy was, she wouldn’t blab.
Alex suddenly wondered if Jackson McGregor had a Facebook page. He’d have to check—not because he wanted to be friends with the guy, but to find more out about him.
* * *
WHEN THEY FINISHED, Jackson watched Kayla walk toward her car. She was wearing black jeans that hugged her curves and a deep blue shirt that set off her auburn hair. Her hips swayed gently, making him swallow. If he’d seen an unattached woman with her looks and figure at Ryan’s Roadhouse, he’d have done his best to introduce himself.
Hell.
Jackson crumpled a sheet of foil into a ball and tossed it in the picnic basket. Kayla was opinionated, sharp-tongued and possessed a temper that was quick on the draw, but for a brief liaison, he wouldn’t have minded those qualities. And brief was the only kind of relationship he’d consider. Dating a woman once in a while was fine, as long as he could go home afterward.
He wanted to keep life simple—raise Morgan and develop the best damned cattle-breeding program possible, figuring he’d be one of those guys who dies in the saddle and gets buried on the spot he falls. Except now their lives were getting turned upside down again.
He got up and stretched as Kayla drove away. Hell, she was beautiful. But he was dealing with her as the hostile mother of his son, so he couldn’t let her physical appeal cloud his thinking.