Which only proved that Kyle’s gut instinct had been right this time. Someone should have talked to the boy after his father’s appearance, rather than letting him struggle alone with his fears. “Shane didn’t know you saw them,” he tried to explain. “He thought it would upset you if you found out. He was trying to protect you.”
“I know. But Shane doesn’t know my dad like I do. Shane’s too nice to everyone—too easygoing, you know? I’m—” He stopped short of admitting that he was afraid.
Kyle didn’t allow that evasion. “You’re afraid your father will hurt Shane. Or yourself. Or someone else here on the ranch.”
Jacob nodded miserably, his knuckles white around his lemonade glass. “Maybe you could warn them to be careful? I mean, you were, like, a marine and you went to war. Even if you got blown up and now you limp and all, you know about things like not underestimating your enemy and being prepared and stuff, right?”
Suddenly feeling much older than twenty-nine, Kyle pushed a hand through his hair with a deep sigh. What he had learned was that no one could ever be fully prepared for everything life could throw at you. That the most carefully mapped-out plans could disintegrate in an instant. And that people you had come to rely on and care about could be taken away in a heartbeat.
Torn between offering reassurance and telling the kid the hard truth, he said merely, “I’ll tell them you want them to be careful.”
Jacob nodded, apparently settling for what he could get. “So, how long are you staying here?”
“Until Sunday. I’ll be here for the party Saturday, but after that I have to get back home.”
“Where’s home?”
“East Tennessee.” Funny how quickly it had come to be home to him, Kyle mused.
“You got family there?”
“I have friends.”
“So you’re not, like, married or anything?”
“No.”
“Oh. So maybe you and Molly…?”
Kyle raised an eyebrow in the young, would-be matchmaker’s direction. “That’s not likely. I like my life there, and she’s happy here.”
Not to mention all the more significant differences between them, he thought. But the kid didn’t need to hear about that.
Still young enough to be satisfied with relatively simple answers when it came to male-female relationships, Jacob nodded. “I don’t think Molly would like living anywhere else. She and her family are pretty tight.”
“I know.” And because he knew, he wondered why hearing it confirmed by someone else made his gut tighten. It wasn’t as if he’d have asked Molly to go back with him even without that obstacle, he reminded himself, thinking of all the other differences he had just mentally listed.
“Besides,” Jacob added around the last mouthful of cookie, “I guess I—I mean, the guys and me—wouldn’t really want you to take her away, anyway.”
“Even if she is a homework tyrant?” Kyle teased, forcing a smile.
Jacob shrugged and scuffed a sneaker toe against the patio bricks. “At least she cares about us,” he muttered.
“Yeah,” Kyle said, letting out a slow breath. “She cares very much.”
Jacob set his empty glass on a table and jumped to his feet. “Speaking of Molly, I’d better go. I’m supposed to have an essay written before she comes in to tutor later, and I’m only half-finished.”
“Better get with it, then.”
“Okay. See you, Kyle.”
“See you, Jacob.”
Kyle found himself oddly drained after the boy left. Funny how a relatively brief conversation with a gawky kid was more wearying—at least mentally—than a couple of hours of hard manual labor.
Kyle was sitting in the den, reading one of Jared’s ranching magazines, when Molly entered the room later that evening. They’d had dinner earlier, and then she had gone back to the dormitory to work with Emilio. That had been more than an hour ago.
Kyle glanced up when she came in. “Hi.”