Without success.
Anger joined frustration. He’d never been extraordinarily graceful, but since meeting Kendra he’d experienced more than his fair share of mishaps and unpleasant situations. Case in point, he’d certainly never fallen out of bed before.
“You’ve never slept in a midget bed before, either,” he grumbled, picking himself off the floor.
He made his way into the kitchen for a drink of water. Glass raised, he heard a noise behind him and turned as the lights flicked on.
“Oh.” Kendra slid to a halt in those pajamas of hers. “I didn’t know you were up.”
Colton lowered his glass. “How’s Dad?”
Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say a word as she set about preparing a cup of tea. He took another drink, watching her from under his furrowed brow. She certainly didn’t look like a woman who’d been made love to only a short time ago. She did, however, look like a woman who could be made love to. By him. He’d make sure she looked satisfied after.
He deposited his glass on the counter with a loud thud. From the corner of his eye, he saw her flinch as water sloshed over the rim, onto his hand and all over the counter. He shoved away from the sink with a silent, harsh reminder of the conversation he’d overheard Monday. She was up to something, and he needed to figure it out.
His chance came sooner than expected the very next day. Passing the back door of the guesthouse, he heard the phone ringing and dashed inside to answer. When the caller asked for Ms. Zelner, Colton informed her that Kendra was not available but he’d be glad to take a message. The lady politely declined and hung up.
He waited a few excruciating minutes, then star sixty-nined the call.
“Kabara and Associates, how may I help you?”
“Sorry, wrong number,” he muttered.
Why did that name sound familiar? He was certain he’d heard it before…or seen it? He pulled out the phone book and looked up the name in the business section. Kabara, Michael, Attorney at Law. The same name circled in the yellow pages.
Colton frowned as he replaced the book. He knew she was a liar. He knew she was up to no good. So why did he find it so hard to believe she was serious about the harassment suit she’d threatened?
It weighed on his mind until he made up an errand to run in Boulder. He’d just stepped from his car when he saw the man Kendra met the night before enter the law offices of Kabara and Associates. So, she had met with a lawyer.
“He can’t know…I’m not sure I want to hire you yet…money won’t be an issue when this is all done.”
But it still didn’t make sense. She had to know by now that he didn’t have any money. She’d seen his car, knew he didn’t go out, and he certainly wasn’t grilling steaks every night. Suing him would get her nothing but legal fees. Even if she won, he couldn’t pay her anything.
Was she going after Joel? Was he the one who couldn’t know?
Colton returned to the ranch, plagued by more questions than he’d left with.
Chapter Eleven
Colton stormed out the back door of the guesthouse in time to see Noah and Cody dart inside the barn. Completely focused on catching the boys as he entered the barn, he didn’t realize Kendra was in the hayloft until he heard a smothered laugh.
“What the heck happened to you?”
He scowled up at her. “Your brother.”
“Joel?”
With her grinning gaze fixed on his hair, the deliberate misunderstanding only fueled his anger. “Your other brother. Those snot-nosed little shits—when I get my hands on them…”
He resumed his mission to find said little shits, and Kendra climbed down the ladder to race after him. She caught his arm outside the back door, but he jerked free.
“It’s all in good fun—”
“All in good fun?” he exploded, rounding on her and reaching up to pull at the lock of now-purple hair that fell across his forehead. “Look at this! This is two washings already and it’s not coming out.” He bent slightly so she could get a good look. She lifted a hand and ran her fingers through the strands. His scalp tingled and he jerked back.
“You could shave it.”
He stared at her, dumbfounded. Shave it? The suggestion was as outrageous as the dye bath he’d received less than a half-hour ago. He’d been on his way to talk to Kendra and so preoccupied with his thoughts that he’d forgotten the caution he’d adopted the past week to survive the all-out prank war that’d developed between him and the boys. With school finished for the summer, they now had plenty of time to cook up their hair-brained schemes.