“You’d be surprised.”

“You’re here! You’re here!” Erin ran over and hugged Lexi, then grinned at Kendra. “Hi. We’re going riding. I picked you a really good horse. Oliver. He’s not too big and he’s very sweet. He’s got a bit of a sensitive mouth, so you’ll have to be careful.”

“I’ll have to be careful?” Kendra asked, taking a step back. “He’s the one who’s going to hurt me.”

“No, he won’t. He’ll like you.” Erin grabbed her hand.

Kendra resisted. “Kids bore me.”

“How tragic,” Lexi said. “You can walk or you can be dragged.”

“She’s too little.”

“I’m not.”

Kendra went off with Erin to meet Oliver. Lexi walked next to Skye.

“Do I have all that attitude to look forward to?” her sister asked. “I really don’t want Erin changing.”

“I don’t know how much of this is age and hormones and how much is how she was raised. You might want to start reading up on avoiding having a mouthy, difficult teenager.”

“I will.” Skye looked around, then lowered her voice. “I’ve been trying to trace back to the beginning of the investigation of the foundation. There were anonymous tips and papers sent to the district attorney. Now I’m hearing everything looks manufactured, so the case might be falling apart.”

“That’s good.”

“Maybe. But the D.A. wants to be sure, so he’s getting an expert to go through our books.”

“Is that a problem?” Lexi couldn’t imagine Skye doing anything illegal.

“Not as in ‘he’s going to find something.’ But what bothers me is the complete waste of time and resources. I’m having to hire a lawyer to represent the foundation in this. Our in-house counsel specializes in non-profit law, not litigation. The waste of money and time is taking away from our central mission. I’m really pissed off that someone could be doing this on purpose. If it is Garth, doesn’t he realize he’s taking food out of the mouths of hungry children with his actions?”

“I’m going to guess that isn’t high on his list of motivations. He probably views it as just a happy byproduct.”

“No one is that much of a bastard.”

“We don’t know that.”

Skye didn’t look happy. “I’m having the complaints traced, as much as we can. I’ll find out something and then we’ll know more. I just can’t believe Garth is our half brother and that if he is, he would do something like this to us. Why not simply confront us?”

Lexi had wondered that, too. “It feels like he wants us all punished,” she said slowly. “I just wish I knew what we’d done wrong.”

The girls returned, leading the horses. Erin had three and Kendra stood as far away from her mount as the reins let her.

“This is stupid,” she said as she approached. “Only little kids ride horses.”

“I ride,” Skye told her.

“Great. Little kids and old people.”

“So you’ve got the rude thing working for you,” Skye said, apparently not upset about the crack. “The only problem is it’s such an obvious defense mechanism that anyone hearing you doesn’t feel insulted. Maybe you just need some hand-holding?”

Kendra shifted to the side. “No.”

Lexi did her best not to laugh. She always thought of her sister as the nice one in the family, but there were depths to Skye that were damned impressive.

Erin handed them the reins and then motioned for Kendra to follow her.

“You’ll need help getting on your horse,” the seven-year-old said. “You lead him here to the mounting block, then go around and climb the stairs.”

Kendra didn’t move. “What if he walks away and I fall?”

“Oliver would never do that, but if you fall, you get up and do it again. It shows the world who you are.” Erin spoke earnestly, repeating a lesson she’d been told since birth. After all, she was a Titan, too. Skye might have married Ray and possibly loved him, but she’d never taken his name.

“The world isn’t going to care that I’m lying in the dirt with a couple of broken bones,” Kendra muttered. “This is stupid.”

Erin looked uncomfortable.

Lexi handed over her reins and walked to Kendra. “I’ll keep Oliver steady. Come on. I thought you wanted to go riding.”

“You wanted me to go riding. There’s a difference.”

Erin glanced between them. “You don’t have to be scared,” she said kindly.

Kendra opened her mouth, then closed it, apparently thinking better of snapping at the kid with both her mother and her aunt standing nearby. She walked over to the stairs and climbed them while Lexi got Oliver into position.

The gelding was small and good-natured. He seemed to sense Kendra’s fear because he moved closer and stayed perfectly still when she tentatively swung a leg across the saddle.

“Good,” Lexi said. “Now push off and settle into the saddle.”

Kendra did as instructed, then shrieked. “I’m up too high. I’m going to fall.” She grabbed at the pommel and hung on as if she were permanently attached. “I don’t want to do this.”

“Sure you do,” Erin told her. “You’ve done the hard part.”

Skye walked over and gave her a leg up. Erin slid into place like the expert she was. Skye and Lexi each got their left foot into a stirrup, pushed off the ground and swung into the saddle. Kendra’s eyes were wide and her skin pale, but she didn’t say anything as Erin handed her the reins.

“Don’t pull or you’ll hurt his mouth and that would be mean. Just kind of think about where you want to go and he’ll take you there.”

“There’s no way this stupid horse reads minds,” Kendra muttered. “Do you know how high up we are? Do you know what could happen? We could fall off and be trampled.”

“Oliver wouldn’t step on you,” Erin told her. “My horse might because he’s got a temper.”

Lexi and Skye looked at each other and tried not to laugh. Lexi leaned close. “I have to tell you-your daughter is the best.”

“I know.”

Erin led the way out to the trail. Kendra, or rather Oliver, followed her. When they’d left the house behind, the girls rode next to each other. Skye eased up beside Lexi.

“Did you know Cruz had a daughter?” she asked. “You never said anything.”

“He never said a word. I got home and she was there. He and Kendra don’t seem to have much of a relationship. They barely see each other. I think a lot of her attitude is about protecting herself.” How much of that did she get from Cruz?

“Poor kid.”

“I know. I’ve told him he needs to have a relationship with her, but he’s not listening.” She remembered what he’d told her about his father and wondered if he deliberately ignored Kendra, or, because of his past, couldn’t allow himself to believe that he could matter to his daughter.

“I feel bad for them both,” she continued. “Despite all her attitude and big mouth, Kendra seems like a good kid. She’s smart and funny. I keep thinking that if he would just reach out a little, their relationship would improve.”

“Do they see each other regularly at all?”

“No. Just whenever there’s a scheduling problem.” Lexi knew how it felt to have a father ignore her. Kendra deserved better than that. They all did.

“Once you and Cruz are married, you can change that. You can suggest Kendra comes over on weekends or for dinner.”

Not likely, Lexi thought. She and Cruz weren’t getting married. Would it be better for everyone if she just stayed out of things, what with her engagement being a fake?

“What was Cruz’s relationship with his dad like?” Skye asked.

“Not good. He was physically abusive and Cruz had to throw him out of the house.”

“Maybe being like his father scares him.”

“No. He’s not the least bit angry.” She might not know Cruz very well, but there wasn’t that kind of darkness in him. She thought about how they’d flown to Louisiana so he could change a kid’s life forever. “He’s one of the good guys.”

“You know that, but does he?”

Something Lexi had never considered. “How do you know all this?” she asked. “Is it a mom thing? A part of the brain activates during delivery?”

Skye laughed. “I’ve always been the nurturing one. While you were busy being successful in college and in business, I was learning about people and taking care of things around here.”

Taking care of Jed and doing what he said, Lexi thought. Giving up herself to be his surrogate hostess. Or was that fair? Lexi knew she couldn’t have done it, but she and her sister were different people. Maybe Skye was content with her choices.

“Don’t you ever wonder what would have happened if you’d married Mitch instead of Ray?”

“No.” Skye glanced at Erin, as if making sure the girls couldn’t hear them. “That was over a long time ago. Mitch is gone.”

“Because you refused to marry him.”

“It wouldn’t have worked.”

“Why not?”

“It just wouldn’t, okay? I married Ray. I loved Ray and now I have his daughter.”

“I’m not trying to fight with you, I’ve just been thinking about things lately.”

Skye sighed. “I know. I’m sorry. You’re madly in love and you want everyone else to be, too. It’s okay. Maybe someday, when Erin is older, I’ll find someone. But it won’t be Mitch.”

Because of how things had ended? Because he wasn’t the kind of man who could forgive what Skye had done? Lexi knew better than to ask. Besides, she was more caught up in her sister’s assumption that she was in love with Cruz. Although thinking a woman was in love with the man she was going to marry wasn’t totally crazy thinking.

What would it be like to be in love? Really in love? She’d wanted to love Andrew, but some instinct had caused her to hold back. Before him there had been a few boyfriends but no one who made her heart beat faster. No one who made her dream and wish and ache…Except Cruz.

Not that she loved him. He wouldn’t be interested and she wasn’t that much of a fool.

“How did you know that you were in love with Ray?” Lexi asked. “You didn’t love him when you got married.”