Rumor Has It Read online

  “Grif loaded a Find My Friends app and a map, too, and I marked out all my favorite places.”

  Her heart clenched. God, she loved this kid. “We’re not walking,” she promised, and called Ryan’s cell phone.

  “Five days,” he said.

  Like she didn’t know she had five days left to accept her full-ride scholarship to UCSD. “Not why I’m calling,” she said.

  Luckily, he agreed to step up to the plate, leaving his district meeting early to meet Kate and her class in the school parking lot. The other parent drivers were loading up their cars when he arrived. He ended up with five kids in his truck—including Dustin, who immediately began playing with all the rear control panel buttons of his new car.

  “Stop that,” Ryan told him, and shut the back passenger door. Standing by his driver’s door, he eyed Kate. “You owe me,” he said.

  “What do I owe you?”

  The kids were inside his car with the windows up, but ever vigilant, Ryan pulled out his phone and sent her a text.

  “Seriously?” she asked, lifting her head and meeting his gaze after reading the obscene suggestion. “Is that all men think about?”

  “Yes. And food.”

  “Good. Because that’s what you’re getting. Food.”

  Ryan sighed. “Fine. Pizza. Loaded. And beer.”

  “Done.”

  “That was too easy,” Ryan said. “I should have demanded both.”

  Clearly things hadn’t worked out with the bridesmaid from Holly’s wedding. Probably it was his charm. The drive to the animal center was uneventful. The center was large, and right out front were Brady and Dell, working with a couple of horses in the pens.

  As Kate ushered her class past them and inside, Jade stood up from the front desk and waved. She ran the ship here at Belle View with the same drill sergeant ability with which Holly ran her dad’s ranch. Each kid was given a lanyard with a nametag to wear around his or her neck. Jade walked them through an examination room and taught them about some of the equipment.

  Then they went out back. In the big barn, they got to meet a bovine and her new calf, who were at the center for some special care after tangling with a coyote. And then Lulu the sheep, who’d just given birth to two lambs out of season.

  Back outside, they found Adam in the huge open yard teaching a survival class with Griffin. They’d rigged some sort of climbing wall and were working the ropes. Adam stood at the bottom, belaying Griffin, who was thirty feet above them in the air, clinging to the inverted wall by nothing but his fingertips.

  “Wow,” her class breathed in unison.

  Yeah. Wow . . . Kate watched him swing and then reach for the next tiny little handhold, holding her breath until he pulled himself up with ease. She wondered if he knew she was there, and then he met her gaze, his own sparking a fire inside her.

  Yeah. He knew she was there.

  “I could do that,” Ryan said in her ear.

  Kate turned and met his gaze. “Yeah?”

  “Totally.”

  “Except for your fear of heights,” Kate said.

  “Yeah. Except for that.”

  Dr. Wyatt brought out a big crate of kittens, eight weeks old and ready for adoption. The kids sat around the box and took turns petting and holding them. Dr. Wyatt told them that they could have first dibs, if any of their parents were in agreement.

  Dustin had pushed his way to the front and was cuddling one, a black little girl with bright blue eyes who looked up at him like he was her mama. “I want this one,” he said.

  “Let your parents know,” Dr. Wyatt said. “If they approve, she’s yours.”

  Dustin ducked his face down, but not before Kate saw his expression. He knew his dad would never approve a kitten.

  Tommy looked at Dustin for a long moment and then at Kate. “Dad would let me get one, right?”

  “Shut up, Captain America,” Dustin said, and swiped his arm across his eyes.

  Tommy reached out and stroked the black kitten. “If I adopted her, you could come see her every day. If you wanted.”

  Kate’s heart swelled in her chest, both with love and pride. Dustin buried his face in the kitten’s fur and didn’t say anything for a long moment before giving a barely there nod.

  Kate let out her breath and swallowed the lump in her throat. She thought of her dad and hoped like hell he could handle one more living creature in his house . . .

  After that, Brady’s wife, Lilah, took the kids across the way to Sunshine Kennels to visit the animals there. Kate and the other parent drivers ended up in the employee kitchen with some of the staff. Dell came in and pinned Jade to the fridge for a kiss.

  “Hey,” Adam said. “I’m the newlywed.”

  Dell pulled back from a now dazed-looking Jade and grinned down into her face. “Just saying hi.”

  Jade rolled her eyes, but still gave him a dopey smile.

  Everyone but Ryan and Kate drifted out of the kitchen. Ryan handed her a bottle of water. “Figured you were thirsty. What with all that panting you’re doing over Reid.”

  She snatched the bottle. “I’m not panting.”

  “Drooling, then.”

  She ignored this. Because okay, she might have drooled a little bit over Griffin on the ropes. She was definitely lusting. Every time she thought about Griffin and what he’d done to her last night—what he always did to her—her legs got all watery and she went damp in areas she had no business going damp in during daylight hours. “It’s not a thing.” She lifted a shoulder. “Or it’s not a real thing.”

  Ryan looked at her for a long moment. There was a lot in his gaze. Affection. A touching amount of concern. And then, wariness just as Kate felt a change in her force field.

  She didn’t have to turn around to know who’d come up behind her and now stood at her back. It was utterly unnecessary because her happy nipples told her exactly who it was.

  “Griffin,” Ryan said.

  “Ryan,” Griffin said.

  Kate sipped her water like her life depended on it.

  “Kate,” Griffin finally said.

  Slurp . . . She couldn’t speak, not when she’d just realized that she was standing between the only two men she’d ever slept with. Ryan had been a good lover, fun and easy to be with.

  But Griffin . . . Griffin was magic.

  And she was sandwiched between them. A virtual hot guy sandwich. Her hands trembled a little bit, but before she could put down her bottle of water, it was taken out of her fingers by a big, callused hand and set on the counter for her.

  She met Griffin’s gaze and straightened, lust immediately taking a backseat to concern.

  He had a headache.

  She saw it in the tight lines of his mouth, in the shadows of his eyes, and in every movement that he didn’t make.

  “Well,” Ryan said. “This is a whole heck of a lot of fun, standing here awkwardly staring at each other and all, but I really should . . . something.” And then he left.

  “You have another migraine,” Kate said, pushing Grif to a chair.

  “Little bit.”

  She moved to the freezer and found a bag of peas. She dimmed the lights. Griffin had sprawled himself out in the chair, long legs in front of him, head back, eyes closed. Stepping between his legs, she gently pressed the cold bag to his temple.

  His hands went to her hips, and he leaned forward and pressed his face to her stomach.

  She closed her eyes and ran her hands over his shoulders. She heard the smile in his voice when he said, “Your tummy’s rumbling.”

  “It’s working at producing a new layer of mucus,” she said. “It has to do that every two weeks to avoid digesting itself.” She paused. “Everyone’s stomach has to. Not just mine.” Shut up, Kate . . .

  He laughed softly as his hands slid beneath her sweater now. His rough palms brought goose bumps to her body as he headed north, stopping just short of her breasts.

  “Really?” she asked, her calm voice belying her