Page 59 of Kayla's Cowboy
“You never talked about your mom, or about your life before Schuyler.”
Kayla cocked her head. “It wasn’t something I enjoyed discussing. We lived on welfare in the worst sections of town. It usually wasn’t that safe. Mom drank and slept around to forget the past, and sometimes resented having a kid hanging like a millstone around her neck—those are her words, by the way, not mine.”
“Then, why did she bring you back to Schuyler and take you with her when she left?” Jackson still remembered the day he’d learned Kayla was gone. He’d broken up with her because of Marcy being pregnant, which had sucked, but then Kayla had made him really mad by claiming she was pregnant.
“Mom can’t stay anywhere for long,” Kayla told him. “She has a host of personal demons, starting with my dad dying so young and leaving her alone. She still loves him, but hates him, too, for the way it turned out.”
“That still doesn’t explain why she didn’t leave you in Schuyler. Surely it would have been better for you both.”
“My grandparents asked Mom to let me stay, but I didn’t want her to be alone. Besides, I couldn’t stay.”
It wasn’t logical, but an intense dislike for Carolyn Garrison went through Jackson. Whatever excuses Kayla might make, her mother was a nightmare, too weak and selfish to think of anyone but herself.
Hypocrite, an inner voice taunted.
Kayla might have remained in Schuyler if she hadn’t been pregnant; she might have even stayed if he hadn’t accused her of sleeping around. But he had, and then she’d learned he was marrying Marcy without knowing the whole story—the news about Marcy’s impending motherhood hadn’t come out until after the wedding.
God, no wonder Kayla disliked him. And it was true that his parents hadn’t been happy he was dating her. So even if they’d known about Alex and supported her financially, she might have resented taking the money. On the other hand, she might have felt it was owed to her.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
“I did okay.”
“You did better than okay,” he told her.
They fell silent again, but it was more comfortable this time. After exactly sixty minutes, DeeDee came running downstairs. “Can we swim now?” she pleaded. “There’s a neat pool house where we can change.”
“Sure,” Kayla told her. “I’ll go with you.”
Jackson went to his bedroom to put on his swim trunks, then headed outside.
Kayla stood next to the pool in her bathing suit, chatting with Morgan. She looked like a model in one of those vacation-paradise magazine ads—long legs, hair fiery in the sun and a body that made him want to howl.
He was in deep trouble.
CHAPTER TWELVE
KAYLA FOUND IT hard to concentrate as she helped Morgan apply sunblock to her back. The barely concealed heat in Jackson’s gaze made her want to wrap a towel around herself. There was nothing provocative about her swimsuit, but it exposed more of her skin than he’d seen since they were teenagers.
“Thanks, Kayla,” Morgan said, almost shyly as she turned around. The teenager looked at Kayla’s black Lycra one-piece. “I wish I had that kind of suit.”
“I’m sure you can find something similar. But yours is awfully cute.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Absolutely.”
The teen wore a swimsuit that reminded Kayla of the 1960s pop song “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini,” though Morgan’s blue suit had white polka dots instead of yellow, and it wasn’t itsy-bitsy. It looked sweet...though Kayla could well imagine Jackson’s reaction the first time he’d seen his little girl in a bikini.
“I went running this morning,” Morgan told her eagerly. “At least four miles.”
“Running is terrific exercise.”
“Yeah. Um, I wanted to say I’m sorry about your... That is, Alex told me about how his dad keeps getting married... Uh, I mean, his other dad, the one who adopted...” Morgan stopped, obviously unsure how to word everything.
“Don’t worry about it,” Kayla advised. “Families are so complicated now, we need new names to describe relationships.”
“Yeah. It’s weird.”
“Of course it is. But we can handle weird, can’t we?”
With a grin, Morgan said, “I guess so.”
“Hey, Morgan,” Alex yelled. “Aren’t you coming in?”
“What do you think, bozo?” She cannonballed into the deep end near Alex and DeeDee and a three-sided water fight quickly started.
Steps extended across the shallow end of the long pool, and Kayla slid into the water to sit down. It was refreshing in the sultry afternoon air and she leaned against the edge, watching the kids play. Jackson dived in and swam laps with a ferocious speed. After a long time he finally stopped.