The Family Feud: The Family Feud / Stop The Wedding?!. Carol Finch
Diane said dutifully.
Jan closed her eyes against the glaring sunlight that aggravated her headache and gave Diane the step-by-step procedure to follow, in hopes of pacifying the staff. When she finally convinced Diane that she could handle the situation, Jan disconnected and then slumped against the seat. Between her family and her assistant she felt emotionally and physically drained.
“So, maybe going back to Tulsa isn’t such a hot idea,” Morgan said.
Jan didn’t open her eyes. It took too much effort. “I’ve decided to fly off to a deserted island in the South Pacific. No forwarding address. No phone connection,” she whispered. “Nothing but uninterrupted silence.”
“I’ll help you pack.”
“I haven’t unpacked,” she reminded him, then pried open one eye to glance at him. “Now, if you’ll agree to marry my sister and adopt my parents, I’ll be indebted to you for life.”
Morgan gave his raven head a shake, then smiled. “Sorry, but Kendra isn’t my type and I already have an uncontrollable mother to deal with.”
“Not your type?” Jan scoffed. “Kendra is every man’s fantasy.”
“I’m not every man,” he clarified as he hung a left and drove down the graveled road. “I’ve gotten attached to a flame-haired fireball female who tells everybody else to calm down while she tries to take her sister’s unfaithful fiancé apart with her bare hands.”
“I wasn’t going to take Richard apart,” she corrected, lips twitching. “I was only going to jerk out his eyeballs and castrate him on the spot.”
“Oh, pardon me. My mistake…Janna?”
“Yes?” She sighed tiredly and squirmed to find a more comfortable position on the seat.
“About last night’s kiss, I—”
“I liked it,” she broke in. “It was the only good thing in an otherwise hellish day.” She glanced his way, wondering how he’d reacted to her honesty. Maybe she shouldn’t have admitted any such thing, but she was suddenly wishing there was one person in Oz that she could be truthful and open with. She was tired of playing mediator for her parents, watching what she said and how she said it. She just wanted to be herself for a few minutes before she had to psych herself up to deal with Kendra’s latest shenanigan.
“So, we’re square then?” Morgan asked. “No hard feelings—except on my part, obviously. No regrets on either side of that kiss?”
Jan chuckled at his off-color play on words. “No regrets, except that I didn’t listen when you warned me not to stay at Kendra’s because I wouldn’t get any sleep.”
He waited a beat and then, without taking his eyes off the road, he said so quietly that she had to strain her ears to hear him. “You probably wouldn’t have gotten much sleep at my place, either, despite your current status.”
Jan pondered the quiet comment during the drive to Evan Gray’s ranch. Why, she wondered, was he suggesting that she could experiment with sex at his place? Because she was convenient? Because she was a challenge to him? Because one-night flings were the norm for him?
She closed her eyes, massaged her aching temples and decided this wasn’t the time to puzzle out the answer to that question. She had a killer headache and a gone-wild sister to rescue—again. No sense borrowing trouble when she already had a truckload of it.
5
MORGAN WATCHED in admiration as Janna drew herself up to full stature, cut a quick glance toward Kendra’s car, and then strode determinedly toward the two-story farmhouse. Despite the apparent exhaustion and emotional turmoil swirling around her, Janna was intent on dragging her sister from Evan’s clutches and saving Kendra from a critical mistake.
What Janna didn’t know was that Evan Gray was probably the one man in Oz who could handle Kendra and who loved her still, despite her engagement to slick Richard, the ladies’ man. Morgan well remembered Evan’s drunken binge after he’d lost Kendra to the smooth-talking lawyer. What Morgan didn’t know was whether Kendra had lingering feelings for Evan or if she was just looking for vindication. Whatever her true agenda, Morgan didn’t want to see Evan hurt again.
Morgan bit back a chuckle when Janna pounded both fists on the door, then grabbed her aching head. One look at her ashen face indicated she was operating on sheer will. When no one answered the insistent knock, Janna invited herself inside.
“That might not be a good idea,” Morgan cautioned, then sighed when she flagrantly ignored him. The woman was hell on wheels, he decided.
Morgan grimaced when he heard country music and slumberous laughter wafting down the hallway. He snagged Janna’s arm, but she shook loose and darted ahead of him. “No,” he muttered as he clamped his hands over her eyes as she rounded the corner to the bedroom.
Sure enough, Evan and Kendra were exactly where Morgan predicted they’d be and they’d done exactly what he presumed they’d done. In between a raft of four-letter words, Evan more or less told them to leave. Not that the command had any effect on Janna. She clawed Morgan’s fingers from her eyes and gasped in dismay.
“Kendra!” Janna yelped as her face turned a dozen shades of red.
To Evan’s credit, he protectively shielded Kendra with his brawny body. As Morgan suspected, this was far more than a reckless tryst to Evan. The man was in it for the love, not just for the lust. Morgan had no way of knowing Kendra’s motives, but he hoped like hell she didn’t bring this rugged rancher to his knees, leaving him holding his heart in his hands and triggering another monthlong binge.
“I said get the hell out of here!” Evan roared furiously.
“Go away!” Kendra wailed, covering her head with the sheet.
“No. If you aren’t in the living room in five minutes I’m coming back for you,” Janna insisted, her face still pulsing beet-red, her back ramrod stiff. “I don’t care if I have to go through Evan to get to you. Got it, sis?”
“Yes,” Kendra simpered, still cowering under the sheet.
When Janna wheeled around and stalked off, Morgan tarried in the hall. After Kendra dashed past him, her blouse inside out, her jeans sagging on her hips, Morgan stepped into the bedroom to meet Evan’s menacing scowl. “Sorry about that. I tried to stop her, I really did.”
Evan zipped his jeans and snatched up his work shirt. “Right, you couldn’t manhandle that shrimp of a female,” he bit off sarcastically.
“Right, just like you couldn’t tell a rebounding blonde no and you couldn’t fight her off when she had her way with you,” Morgan retaliated with equal sarcasm.
Evan’s hands stalled over the buttons of his shirt, and then he smiled wryly when Morgan arched a challenging brow. Evan’s smile evaporated as he fastened his shirt. “I never got over her,” he confided. “I’ll take her back any way I can get her—in a red-hot minute.”
“Obviously,” Morgan murmured. “But what if she’s only using you, Evan? What if she’s here today and gone tomorrow?”
Evan crammed his shirttail in his jeans, refusing to meet Morgan’s steady gaze. “Doesn’t matter. I love her. Always have. Always will. You know that. Hell, who in town doesn’t know it?”
“Fine, it’s public knowledge,” Morgan agreed. “But, damn it, I consider you a friend and I don’t want to see you hurt again.”
Evan smiled faintly. “Thanks, Morgan. I appreciate your concern. But Kendra needs me. She may be too distraught to realize it yet, but today was a milestone.” He sent Morgan a meaningful glance. “Ever been in love so deep that you couldn’t let a day go by without driving by her place, catching sight of her on the street and wishing she was still yours?”