Page 40 of Saving Jared

Her head whipped back to his—her gaze burning with anger and hurt and her lips too close to his. "What the hell do you mean, coming from me?"

"Nothing," he groused, pushing himself away from her and the temptation her full lips presented.

"Am I interrupting something?"

Jared stepped further away from Willa and cleared his throat. "No, nothing."

His sister looked between them, her dark blond brow furrowing.

"You’d better get ready," he told her. "We need to leave in a couple of hours." He managed a grin. "And you know how long it takes you to get ready."

She gave him a little snarl he couldn’t help but smile over. "I ought to just go like this."

He eyed her up and down. "No, you want to make a good impression. And just think, at this time tomorrow it’ll be over. You’ll have the grant money and the asshat will no longer be in your life."

"From your mouth to God’s ear," Kinsley said with a laugh, then nodded at a couple of guests walking past, before adding, "Just don’t you go looking too good for Laurel Fremont. We don’t Willa getting jealous."

Willa laughed as she stood. He hoped it didn’t sound as forced to Kinsley as it did to him. "Oh, I don’t think I have to worry about that. Right, Jared?" she said, giving him a pointed look and slight shake of her head.

"No. Not at all."

Before he could say anything else, Willa grabbed Kinsley’s hand and rushed her toward the stairs, then up the steps. He stared after them as they hit the landing and turned right on the balcony. Then just as they were about to disappear down the hall that would take them to the family wing, Willa cast a quick glance at him—one filled with longing. And then she was gone.

He’d expected some kind of confrontation from one or both of them. But Willa must have had her reasons for not telling Kinsley. Come to think of it, she couldn’t have said anything to her brothers either. If she had, they’d have already been here giving him hell. In many ways, he was glad she hadn’t. No matter how she had deceived him, he didn’t want to ruin how her brothers saw her. They would be hurt and truly angry at her.

But did she think this was some temporary thing? That they might still have something between them again? Was that why she was keeping mum about it?

"I should’ve just confronted her."

But he hadn’t wanted to do that. He’d confronted Macy with her infidelity, and it had been a nightmare of denials and crying and threats of self-harm. He doubted Willa would have gone to that extreme, but it still wouldn’t have been pleasant.

So, if she wasn’t going to say anything, then he wasn’t going to either. It was the best course of action to let it die a natural death until everyone forgot about it.

And telling himself he’d forget about anything where Willa Taggert was concerned may have been the biggest lie of all.

* * *

"You do know I’m killing Jude when all this is over, right?"

Jared grinned at Kinsley sitting across from him in the dim light of the limo’s back seat. Jude had suggested they lease one for the evening, since picking up two of the wealthiest people in the state at the home belonging to their father—a senator—in Jared’s deluxe cab truck might not be appropriate. Especially with the amount of news coverage they would receive.

Jared hadn’t seen a problem with it, but he’d gone along with Jude who had been getting the most out of his marketing degree the past few days. His brother had capitalized on the Fremonts attending to bring as much attention to not only the ranch and their summer ranching experience, but to Mending Morgans-Mending Lives as well.

And it seemed to be working. They’d already booked out several weeks for next year, Jude had fielded at least ten calls to Kinsley from interested veterans, and, of all things, a production company had called interested in scouting the ranch as a possible location for one of those made-for-TV romance movies.

Having a bunch of TV types on the ranch for several months didn’t sound too appealing to him. But since Jude had made the case the money for the production company’s use of the ranch would go to Mending Morgans-Mending Lives, he couldn’t really say no.

"Well," he said, peering out the tinted windows at the Fremont’s white mansion sitting about a mile off the road on a slight rise. "At least wait until you get the grant." He glanced back at his sister who had somehow managed to not mention Willa for the whole drive. So, either Willa had asked her not to, or his sister was too nervous to think about it. "Then all bets can be off."

The driver took the turn onto the private drive, while outside their windows pristine white fencing bordering lush pastures sped by.

"You didn’t say how I looked." Kinsley smoothed down her dress. This was a formal dinner and dance held at the main house in the ballroom—complete with appropriate evening attire, a live band, candlelit tables, copious amounts of champagne, and a five-star meal from the ranch’s James Beard award-winning chef who stayed with them during the summer.

It was basically a no expenses spared evening, and one their guests had raved about on the ranch’s website over the years. Several bulbs flashed as they drew closer to the front of the house. And now it looked like it would be getting the celebrity treatment.

"You look beautiful," he told her as he finally took a good look at her and noticed the midnight blue dress with dark, sapphire rhinestones was new. Kinsley wasn’t much for dressing up and had three dresses she rotated in and out for these events. But she seemed to have taken more care this evening with not only the new dress but putting her hair up in some kind of elaborate configuration and wearing more makeup than she normally did. "You always do." He frowned and she touched her hair.

"Is something wrong?"

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