Page 7 of Tempted at Thoroughbred Lake

That rid Ruby of the last of the heat from the kiss, and she sighed again. Something she was certain she’d be doing a lot in the coming days.

“No, I won’t stop you,” Ruby said. “But I would like for us to have a calm discussion about what you’re doing.”

Brennan must have taken that as his cue to leave, maybe to attempt his own discussion with his son. He turned, then stopped and locked gazes with Ruby. She was pretty sure he was having a debate as to what to say.

However, she was wrong about that.

No debate. Nope. Brennan dropped another kiss on her mouth, drawled an “I’ll see you later,” and he strolled out.

Ruby stood there and watched him go. Well, she watched his backside. Along with being a supreme kisser, the man had a great butt that was well showcased in his great-fitting jeans.

“Well, I’m glad my marriage has made you see the light about Brennan,” Vivian declared, and she went into her room.

Ruby yanked herself out of her gawking, out of the effects of that gawking, too, and she followed Vivian into the bedroom. “I haven’t seen the light,” Ruby insisted. “It was just a kiss.”

All right, it was two kisses and a whole boatload of feelings that went with them. Ruby decided to keep that to herself, though.

Vivian gave her the flattest look humanly possible and went to her closet to haul out her big suitcase. “I don’t know why you won’t just move on with your life,” she said, putting the suitcase on the bed.

“I have moved on,” Ruby insisted.

Hadn’t she?

She had her own real estate business. Owned her house. Had no debt. And had a daughter. A defiant one who obviously sucked at packing.

Doling out another of those sighs, Ruby went closer and refolded the jeans that Vivian had tossed into the suitcase.

“You haven’t moved on after Dad,” Vivian continued, dragging out more clothes from her dresser drawer.

“But I have,” Ruby insisted.

And on this, Ruby was certain. She’d moved on mainly because her feelings for Carson Dayton just hadn’t been that deep. At times that made her sad. Other times, she was just glad she hadn’t had to go through an extreme heartbreak when their relationship had ended.

Vivian rolled her eyes as only a riled teenager could. “You’re too afraid to trust your heart again.” The willy-nilly packing continued with her tossing panties and bras into the suitcase. “Brennan hurt you when you were my age, and you’ve never gotten over that.” She put a pause on the willy-nilly and turned to look at Ruby. “Except that maybe you finally have. The kissing is a good start.”

Well, the kiss itself was certainly good. Better than good. But Ruby wasn’t sure it was the start of anything. Despite what Brennan had told her about not regretting it, that might be exactly what he was doing right now.

“I know you must hate Seth’s mom for what she did,” Vivian went on. “But that was the past. You need to let it go.” She paused again. “Can you let it go, or will this research you’re going to have to do just make it all worse again?”

That fell into the “to be determined” category, but Ruby was certain the research wasn’t going to be fun.

“When you’re eighteen, the hurt seems like a deeper cut,” Ruby admitted.

Vivian tossed a pair of flip-flops into the suitcase and looked at her again. “It was a deep cut no matter what age,” she said, sounding much older and wiser than her years. “FYI, Seth’s mom was sorry for what she did.”

That got Ruby’s attention. “How do you know?”

With a lift of her shoulder, Vivian returned to her packing. “She talked to Seth about it right before she died. She told him she was thinking about asking you to come to see her so she could try to apologize.”

Everything inside Ruby went as still as glass. She hadn’t known that. Maybe didn’t want to know it. But then she stopped and silently cursed. Of course she wanted to know it. Maybe it was those two kisses or the amazing fit of Brennan’s jeans, but she suddenly wanted to accept that mistakes had been made, hearts had been broken and the past was the past.

“I’m sure you’ll hear other things about Seth’s mom when you’re doing the research,” Vivian continued. “But she was hurt by all the gossip of being pregnant at eighteen. She was hurt that she’d done something to lose her best friend. Added to that, she never really believed Brennan loved her. Not the forever kind of love like Seth and me have.”

Ruby had been listening to all of that, but she mentally stopped on that last part. That was because she recalled just how it felt to be madly in love at eighteen. And it had been love for Brennan. Maybe that love wouldn’t have been able to give them a happily-ever-after, but it’d been strong and certain.

Just as Vivian’s was for Seth.

Ruby went with another sigh and took hold of her daughter’s shoulders so she could look her straight in the eyes. “I love you, and while I don’t approve of what Seth and you did, I will always love you.”

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