A Winchester Homecoming

Melinda Snodgrass, a girl Kim had never liked, was walking purposefully in her direction. Before Kim could figure out an escape, one of her aunts headed Melinda off. The same thing happened when a young couple from her class approached with a towheaded boy riding on the man’s shoulders. Uncle Travis drew them into a conversation before they reached her.

Slowly Kim realized that the other adults in her family had formed a protective ring with her in the center. Apparently they’d somehow gotten the impression that she was still too fragile to deal with people.

Why would they think that unless her dad had been talking to them about her? She stared at him, still deep in conversation. As if he could feel her gaze, he glanced over and raised his eyebrows.

She ought to be annoyed, but instead she felt as though she were standing on the prairie circled by wagons guarding against a renegade attack. Somehow she didn’t figure the people here would appreciate the comparison, but the image made her want to laugh. Quickly she pressed her fingers to her lips before anyone could notice her grin and wonder about her.

“What’s so funny?”

The question, muttered directly into Kim’s ear, spun her around to see David lurking there. Unlike most of the men present, he was bareheaded, the bright sun bringing out the auburn streaks in his dark hair.

“You missed the service,” she said. “Do you always sneak up on people or just me?” Still feeling embarrassed by her melodramatic collapse two days before, she had breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t join them earlier in the family pew.

“I got caught up in something, but I figured you’d all still be here,” he replied. “Now fill me in on what you were grinning about just now, and don’t try to tell me it was old Mrs. Baker’s new flowered hat.”

For some reason Kim found herself blurting out her impression of the Winchesters circling their wagons against their marauding neighbors. If David thought she was being ridiculous, he managed to hide it behind an attractive grin.

“Oh, yeah?” He lifted his head to glance around with a considering expression while she took the opportunity to study his profile.

He looked nothing like his mom except for his brown eyes. Kim had always thought they were his best feature, set beneath arching brows and framed by dark 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.