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lashes as thick as a girl’s. He topped six feet, and the reason he’d been able to carry her up the stairs so easily was evident in the way his shoulders filled out the white dress shirt he wore tucked into snug black jeans.

      “Are you feeling better today?” he asked her.

      She blinked, disconcerted that he’d turned and caught her staring, but at least she hadn’t been checking out his butt as she’d been tempted to do.

      “Yes, thanks. I just needed some rest.”

      He raised his brows skeptically as though he might wonder how someone who didn’t even have a job could be so tired, but he didn’t challenge her reply. Not that the state of her health was any of his business.

      A burst of laughter from two couples standing nearby gave Kim the excuse to look away from David’s probing stare.

      “How did you scratch your face?” he asked.

      Realizing that her habit of touching her scar must have drawn his attention to it, she immediately dropped her hand to her side.

      “I got cut by flying glass from a broken window,” she responded automatically.

      Most people were too polite to mention the scar in the first place, but those who did usually accepted her explanation.

      Not David, of course. He leaned closer and peered at her cheek. “You were lucky your eye wasn’t injured.”

      “Yes, I was.” Refusing to elaborate, she took a step back, wishing that someone, anyone, would come along and interrupt them. Of course no one did.

      There was a real downside to a protective circle.

      “How come you missed church?” she asked bluntly. If he could be nosy, so could she. “Did you oversleep? Late date last night?”

      When she’d been back before, he was seeing Joey Parker, but that was a long time ago and Kim had heard that Joey got married. Perhaps she had gotten tired of waiting for David to make a commitment, or maybe they hadn’t been serious.

      David hooked his thumbs into his wide black belt and stuck out his chin. “I’ve been doing some remodeling on my house and I guess I lost track of the time.”

      His comment didn’t give her a clue as to whether he was seeing someone, but his love life was of no interest to her anyway.

      “What are you remodeling?” She’d only been in the house once or twice and didn’t remember much about it, but she was just trying to be polite.

      “I’m redoing the master bath, and I put in a jetted tub.”

      “Really?” She managed to lace her tone with innuendo as she let her gaze slide over him. “Sounds like you’ve turned into quite the party animal.”

      If someone had threatened David with a hot branding iron, he wouldn’t have admitted to Kim that his main intention in adding a bigger tub was to soak away the aches from a long winter day in the saddle chasing strays. If she wanted to picture him surrounded by women in bikinis, he wasn’t about to disillusion her.

      Let her think he had an active love life. Someone in the family was bound to let it slip sooner or later that he hadn’t been on a date in months. He’d look like even more of a chump if he tried to explain that his current celibacy was voluntary.

      The loose circle of family members that had surrounded Kim when he first arrived was beginning to break up, as though her overprotective relatives expected David to watch out for her. The idea that he could be trusted with Adam’s precious princess, even now, carried with it a certain amount of irony. At one point, Adam’s overprotective attitude had nearly derailed his own romance with David’s mother.

      David was about to ask Kim why her husband hadn’t come with her this time, but someone crashed into him from behind and distracted him.

      “David, David, save me!” shrilled Cheyenne as she ducked between him and Kim.

      “Hey, take it easy.” He grabbed Cheyenne before she could knock Kim over. “Why don’t you take your game over by the swings where there aren’t so many people.”

      “Okay.” She darted a subdued look at both of them. “Sorry.”

      “That’s okay,” David admonished her gently. “Just be a little more careful.”

      Kim remained silent until after Cheyenne had run off again. “She’s gotten so big, and so has Jake,” she murmured. “Your mom sent pictures, but I still wouldn’t have recognized either of them.”

      “Kids grow in five years,” David replied dryly. As soon as the words were out, he wanted to suck them back in.

      Kim’s expression grew mocking, and she cocked her head to the side. “Been keeping track?”

      “No,” he snapped, annoyed with himself. “But I’ll bet Adam has.” Although the older man had never shared his feelings, at least not with David, he must have been devastated by her choice to go and live with the mother who had walked out on both of them. What a slap in the face that had to be to the father who had raised her by himself.

      Now Kim’s eyes flashed with the first spark of real emotion David had noticed since she’d come home. “You don’t know anything, so don’t judge me.”

      Anger surged through him and he leaned closer, gratified when her eyes widened. “I wouldn’t waste my time.”

      Leaving her gaping, he turned on his boot heel. He didn’t want their exchange to turn into a full-blown argument. Before he could stalk away, his mother touched his arm, her concerned expression making him wonder how much she might have overheard.

      “We’re leaving now,” she said with a glance over at Adam, who glared back. “Iron man needs to rest his leg. We’re all getting together for dinner at our house later. You’re coming, aren’t you?”

      David shot a look at Kim, who was studiously ignoring him as she examined her nails. Knowing she didn’t want him around, and feeling perverse, he grinned back at his mom. Making her happy and annoying Kim at the same time was too good an opportunity to pass up.

      “I wouldn’t miss it. What can I bring?”

      Kim couldn’t help but overhear his reply. She had been hoping he would be too busy ripping up his house to accept, but of course he considered himself one of the family now. After his last dig about how long Kim had been away, it was clear he figured he had more right to be here than she did.

      He was probably correct. One bad choice had led to another and then another, until she’d ended up feeling trapped and powerless. She wasn’t about to tell David, who obviously had no use for her, how much she had longed to come back sooner.

      About six months after she’d first left, if her mother hadn’t begged her so hard to stay with her. And if Kim’s father hadn’t already been married to David’s mother by then.

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