Made in Texas!

“Right… Savannah.”

Donna bit her lip before giving a real answer. Last night, the Byrd children had discussed James’s mom, too, after they had called their dads and then met in the living room again. That’s when Donna had told them what she’d left out during their first gathering—news about Savannah Jeffries that just hadn’t seemed as important as the more urgent revelation of James; facts such as how Savannah was a very successful interior designer with her own business and how she was going by her late husband’s last name and how it seemed that she had gotten married long after James Bowie Jeffries had come of legal age, hence the reason he used his mom’s maiden name.

So much information. And so much conflict, because after Donna had filled in the family, they’d been just as divided as ever—this time about including Savannah in a reunion.

Donna sighed. No turning back now. “If you could go ahead and contact Savannah, we want to invite her to meet us, as well.”

It would be a smash-up family reunion, emphasis on the smash-up.

After she took care of particulars with Roland, then hung up, she stayed on the swing.

Dammit, she only wished she had zero interest in Savannah. But she had voted yes both times last night, and part of the reason was because the idea of the woman just wouldn’t leave Donna alone. She was everything Donna had ever looked for in her role models—obviously ambitious, based on her business skills. Donna also liked that she knew how to decorate a room—a hobby that she, herself, had recently turned into somewhat of a vocation with the B and B.

Most of all, though, Donna respected that, from what she knew, Savannah had raised James by herself.

An independent woman in every way, she thought. And even though she hadn’t planned on ever having a family herself…

Well, there was an empty place in Donna that actually perked up at the thought, now that she finally did have a family she was starting to feel closer and closer to.

But really? Her? The überprofessional Donna Byrd?

A mom?

It would’ve been laughable if there wasn’t a string of yearning tying her up because of the lingering notion.

The wind stirred and, from the side of the porch, she could hear some chimes tinkling. The sound reminded her of a soothing song that a baby mobile might make above a crib. Someday.

Maybe.

The porch swing was creaking back and forth in a lazy rhythm when Donna saw someone coming around the side of the house.

And guess who?

But instead of groaning with exasperation, her heart gave a jaunty flip.

Oddly, though, Caleb Granger’s grin wasn’t as dimply as usual. And she could’ve used one of his sexy grins right about now.

She spoke first, just as he began to mount the porch steps, coming into the light from the caged lantern near the door.

“Are you here to say a good evening to me?”

He stopped near the top, his hands planted on his hips. “I heard some talk, so I thought I’d come over to let you confirm or deny the rumors.”

Whatever kind of peaceful bubble she’d just created for herself busted like a balloon.

“Rumors?” she asked tightly.

“About the new Byrd. About all the arguing you and your family were doing about him.”

“Maybe the next time we Byrds have a conversation,” she said, “we can broadcast it to the entire ranch. Do you know anything about installing closed-circuit television?”

He ignored her sarcasm. “Just listen to me on this. For years, this ranch has been what you might call ‘harmonious.’ Tex made sure everyone was happy, inside and outside the main house. He even went the extra mile at the end of his life to guarantee that his family made amends with each other, and it’s a damned shame that all his hard work seems to be for naught.”

Donna couldn’t say a word. Not one. Anger was roiling in her… and maybe even something else. She’d never had a man presume to talk to her like this. She’d never stood for someone to so boldly nose into her business.

But… damn whatever it was weaving around all that anger in her. It was something that had her utterly confused, and she struck out in an effort to erase it.

“Is your lecture over now?” she asked. “Because I’m already bored.”

“Bored?”

He narrowed his gaze, and she did the same right back at him.

“Yes,” she said. “Bored. You know why? Because I have a hundred other issues all poking at me from every side, and yours don’t even begin to compete with them.”

He took a moment, looking down at the porch, as if to compose himself. Then he let out a curt laugh.

She didn’t know what to make of that.

“Believe it or not,” he said, “I’m only looking out for Tex’s interests. Do you know what it would’ve done to him if he’d heard y’all arguing?”

“There’s more going on than even Tex knew.”

Caleb locked gazes with her, reading her, and she stiffened. But she also melted ever so slightly, deep in her core, where she never melted.

He cared. She could see that. But she didn’t want his care, didn’t want anyone to meddle because she and Jenna and their cousins would have this under control soon.

She rested her hands flat on the swing, leaning forward. “I told you before—I know how close you were to Tex, but that doesn’t mean—”

“Sometimes I wonder if you Byrds have any idea what Tex gave to you, what he did for you.”

Donna felt her face go pale, and she knew that he knew he was wrong.

He gentled his tone. “What I’m trying to ask you to do is to stop battling with each other and appreciate what you have. That’s all he would’ve wanted.”

He said it with such longing that her heart bumped against her ribs.

But her anger had been fully roused, and her voice was torn when she answered.

“I know what I have now, believe me, because I didn’t have much of it before.”

Before now, her life had been defined by a father who was all business, plus a mom who hadn’t been alive for years and whom Donna had missed so much that she had told herself to never put her heart out there again, where it could be stomped all over.

When Caleb took a step onto the porch, one booted foot still on the stair behind him, Donna didn’t move. Was he coming up here to get his point across even more emphatically?

But he didn’t advance. Instead, he slipped his thumbs into his belt loops, a sheepish look on his face.

“Sorry for laying into you like that,” he said. “I didn’t realize how seriously you were taking this.”