“I’d feel the same in their place. What if we all go to Riverside Park for a picnic?” Elizabeth sighed. “Oh, well, not that we have to be there.”
“Alex will want you,” Kayla assured her.
Later in bed, Kayla considered what the next day might be like. Back in high school she’d been certain the McGregors didn’t approve of her, and a small part of her hadn’t blamed them for thinking she wasn’t respectable enough for Jackson. After all, how could she fit in with people who’d never lived in apartments with cardboard plugging broken windows and Social Services knocking on the door?
It was different now.
She was proud of the life she’d made, and of the children she was raising. She wouldn’t even undo her marriage, because her bright, funny, word-inventing daughter had come from it. As for her ex-husband? Kayla just wished she could have been enough for him. She no longer loved Curtis, but she still cared enough to be sorry he wasn’t truly happy. Worse, he was a poor role model for the children.
Thoughts of Jackson intruded. He’d grown up with loving, long-married parents and grandparents, yet he still distrusted women and marriage.
Terrific.
Alex’s fatherly role models didn’t seem to be improving.
* * *
AT NOON, JACKSON pulled into the lot at Riverside Park. It was a beautiful summer day, but he was already out of sorts because Morgan had gone out riding and he hadn’t been able to reach her all morning.
“Looks as if everyone is here,” he said.
“It’s not my fault we’re the last ones,” Morgan muttered. “I didn’t know about your big plan until I got back.”
“Because you forgot to bring the satellite phone,” he reminded her.
“So sorry,” she muttered.
Morgan slid from the truck and joined the group in the covered picnic area. Jackson sat watching to see how Alex was responding to his McGregor grandparents. From a distance he seemed to be relaxed and comfortable. With one outburst of laughter, Jackson’s father even playfully arm wrestled with him, and Alex laughed some more.
Jackson was glad Alex was getting along with his parents, but being a pariah to his own children was a bitter pill.
Kayla glanced toward the truck and walked in his direction. Today she was wearing black cargo pants and a loose, flowered blouse that should have hidden her figure but somehow made him more aware of the enticements underneath.
Leaning her arm on the open window on the passenger side, she raised an eyebrow. “Are you just dropping Morgan off, or are you planning on joining us?”
“Joining you. It’s going well, from what I can see.”
“Yeah.” Her face turned pensive. “The absence of extended family for the kids has always been one of my concerns. Now suddenly there’s plenty of it, especially for Alex. Maybe it’ll balance other things out.”
“There’s still more family for him to meet,” Jackson reminded, deciding not to question her cryptic remark—it likely had something to do with her ex-husband. “Aunts and uncles, cousins... The McGregors are quite a clan. And there’s also the Nelson side. They’re anxious to get in on the act, as well.”
“It’s nice you’ve learned to appreciate them.”
Her comment was a reminder that he’d once bemoaned having too many relatives to witness his rebellious behavior and report it to his folks.
“I’ve grown up since then,” he said mildly. “But that’s an odd thing to recall about me.”
“Not really. I grew up without family—I was barely even aware I had grandparents until I was fifteen. To me, you were complaining about something I would have given anything to have. How could I forget?”
Regret went through Jackson. The things he remembered about Kayla were mostly trivial—the rumors concerning her mother, her streetwise talk, her clothing that seemed racier than the other girls’. As a teenager Kayla had projected a wayward audacity that had appealed to him, but he hadn’t bothered looking much under the surface.
“You never scolded me for saying those things,” he finally said.
A rueful expression crossed her face. “I was a girl with her first crush. I wasn’t going to risk turning you off.”
“I was a teenage boy. You couldn’t have turned me off with a two-by-four.”
She chuckled the way he’d intended. Setting the emergency brake, he got out of the truck, trying to ignore the way his body had responded to the allure of her face, alive with humor. Maybe he should make a date with one of his occasional feminine companions to take his mind off Kayla.
“How is everything at the ranch after your absence?” she asked as they walked toward the picnic tables.