Page 44 of Kayla's Cowboy

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THE NEXT FEW days were hectic.

Jackson didn’t know the Garrisons well, but he was impressed with their vigor. Unless a particularly strenuous hike was planned, both Hank and Elizabeth kept pace with the rest of them. The fourth day was an exception—they made an excuse to stay in camp so they could prepare a party for DeeDee while the others explored the Upper Geyser Basin.

“It doesn’t look real. It’s almost as if they painted the bottom,” DeeDee suggested when they reached Morning Glory Pool.

Jackson chuckled. The brilliant hue didn’t look real. “Nature does amazing things. Look at abalone shells.”

“Or petrified wood,” Alex said. “I love the Gingko Petrified Forest, though the petroglyphs are my favorite thing there.”

Now he was talking about petroglyphs?

Jackson shook his head, amazed by Alex and DeeDee’s aggressive curiosity. They studied roadside plaques, read guidebooks and acted as if every historical display was a treat. But the best part was seeing Morgan’s blasé attitude being swept away by their enthusiasm.

Still, the trip wasn’t turning out the way he’d envisioned. He’d thought there would be solo hikes with Alex when they could grow closer, along with teaching him to fish and the other things his dad had done with him and his brothers. He’d hoped for alone time with Morgan as well, perhaps getting her to open up about what was wrong. Instead, the kids were practically inseparable.

“Do Alex and DeeDee usually do so much with each other?” he queried softly. “I thought teenage boys treated younger sisters as nuisances. Not that I ever did with Madison or Alaina, of course. I was a very tolerant big brother.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Okay, so I ditched them at every opportunity.”

Kayla snapped a picture. “Sometimes Alex ditches DeeDee, too, but this is an unusual situation, and both of them know family solidarity is important to me.”

“It’s important to me, as well,” Jackson commented.

“That’s nice,” she said, though he wasn’t sure she believed him.

Ironically, he was getting to know Kayla better than Alex. It wasn’t a waste of time—they needed to get along—but it was tricky. Aside from when she got steamed and started arguing, she was pleasant, yet reserved. He admired her intelligence and enjoyed some of their debates, but she clearly had no faith in him, despite acknowledging he’d changed since high school.

Obviously, they both had a problem with trust.

Jackson’s increasing attraction to Kayla was another complication. He’d nearly embarrassed himself a few times when she came back from an early-morning run, flushed with a healthy glow, her damp T-shirt clinging to her body. The main thing saving him was Morgan going running with her.

Kayla must have hypnotized his daughter—Morgan was not a morning person. But it reminded Jackson that he’d speculated whether the two might connect. They seemed to be communicating well enough. After running they went to the camp showers together and returned chatting and laughing.

Hell, he’d only heard his daughter laugh a handful of times in the past year. And then it was with her friends, not with him.

“Drat, my SD card is full,” Kayla said ruefully when she tried to take a photo. “I hope they’ll have some at the next gift shop.”

He dug one from his pocket. “Here.”

She cautiously lifted it from his palm, almost as if she was trying not to touch him. “Thanks. I’ll replace it as soon as possible.”

“No need.”

“Of course there is,” she told him. “If you’re like me, you keep the SD card as backup, even after copying everything onto the computer.”

“I meant that I have plenty.”

“I’ll still replace it.”

Naturally. Kayla Anderson wouldn’t take anything from him. She wasn’t even interested in child support, however determined he was to provide it.

Kayla put the new card into her camera and tucked the full one into a pocket on her shoulder pack. “We’d better catch up with the kids.”

She walked by him and Jackson automatically checked the swing of her hips. The degree to which a woman was attracted to a man could often be gauged by her hip action, but Kayla moved with a feminine grace that told him nothing.

And it didn’t matter anyway.

A brief affair would be impractical under the circumstances, and anything else was out of the question. From what she’d said, Kayla probably felt the same.

He caught up with her on the trail. “I’ve been meaning to ask, how long have you been divorced?”

The question seemed to surprise Kayla. “Er...six and a half years.”