The Rancher Meets His Match (The Millers of Morgan Valley #4) - Kate Pearce Page 0,24

at the screen. “How do I make it all big like that?”

“You don’t.” Julia showed him how to use the keyboard. “Ask him what time he’s expecting us, and I’ll go and get ready.”

She went into her old bedroom and thought about what to wear. She’d need pants and boots because it was another ranch, but they didn’t have to be jeans. She opened her closet, appreciating the order she’d brought to it the previous day, and considered her options.

Her gaze caught on a box of old school stuff she’d sorted through the previous day and she took it off the shelf. Sitting on the side of the narrow bed, she sifted through the contents until she reached the diaries at the bottom. She extracted the one from her junior year and flipped through the pages until she reached February. Tucked into the crease of the page was a much-folded piece of pink paper cut in the shape of a heart.

She carefully opened the Valentine and tried to decipher the faded handwriting. She’d snatched it back out of Kaiden’s hand after he’d mockingly read it out loud, and everyone had laughed. She’d read it several times later that same evening, wondering who had written it, never guessing that it had been her tormentor. Had he really thought she would make fun of it? She stared at the words.

Would she have laughed if she’d known it was from Kaiden? She hoped not, but she certainly would’ve been shocked he’d written it. No one had taken Valentine’s Day very seriously at their small school. They’d all been friends and hung out together most of the time, and everyone had enjoyed guessing who’d written what to whom.

She replaced the Valentine in the page and shut the book. How strange that something she’d held against Kaiden had turned out to be so wrong. Who would ever have imagined that underneath his teasing exterior, Kaiden Miller had a sweet side?

But there was also the rift with Miguel, which had never properly been explained to her. . . . Suddenly aware of time slipping away in more ways than one, Julia shot to her feet. She’d put the box away, get changed as quickly as possible, and try and compose herself to meet her annoying friend again for lunch. The friend who had kissed her and she’d kissed back.

* * *

“You did what?” Kaiden stared at his father, who was sitting at the table drinking coffee. He’d stabled his horse, taken a quick shower, and come into the kitchen to find Adam cooking up a storm.

“I invited the Garcias to lunch,” Jeff repeated. “What about it?”

“You never ask anyone over. You hate guests.” Kaiden went to help himself to coffee.

“I don’t hate guests. I just prefer to feed my own family and not hangers-on.” Jeff shrugged. “But seeing as you’re spending so much time over there, I guess I need to step in and make sure Juan doesn’t get any funny ideas about poaching you to run his place, or anything. Look what happened with Ben!”

Danny, who was helping Adam in the kitchen, laughed. “I don’t think it’s Juan Kaiden is keen to see at the Garcia place.”

Kaiden shot him a glare. “Thanks for nothing.”

Danny just grinned and held up his hands.

“Are you after Julia again?” Jeff demanded.

“Again? What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Kaiden faced his dad.

“You always had a thing for her.” Jeff studied him intently. “I think that’s the only reason you continued to hang out with Miguel.”

“That’s not true.” Kaiden had to defend herself. “And I’d hardly have been successful with Julia if I was hanging around with her brother, would I? He wouldn’t have appreciated that at all.”

“I bet he didn’t.”

Kaiden sipped his coffee. Sometimes his dad saw way too much. He’d hung around with Miguel to stop him even thinking of Julia as anything other than his best friend’s sister. He found a smile somewhere. “If you’d told me you intended to invite them over, I could’ve asked them myself this morning.”

“I didn’t think about it until you’d left me in the lurch again.” Jeff stood up. “Now, go help your brother.”

“Will do.” Kaiden sauntered over to Adam as if he didn’t have a care in the world that Julia Garcia, whom he’d just kissed, would shortly be joining them for lunch. “What can I help you with?”

He was kept busy enough to stop him jumping every time the door opened, which seemed to be about every five