Free If You Need Me: The Ashford Legacy, Book 1 by Cassi Carver Page B

help…here and there. But Lina was the best. She’s this serious chef, but she used to make me cookies with chocolate sprinkles on them, then sneak me a napkinful before I went to bed. Sara would get so pissed if one of those napkins didn’t head her way.”
    “Sara?”
    “Yeah… Lina’s daughter. But I guess you could say we’re almost like cousins. We, uh…work together now. But I don’t think she eats cookies anymore…more like tofu and that crap.”
    Something about his posture was a little off, and Rayna couldn’t figure out why he looked so guilty. Was it that he was embarrassed his family had a cook, or that he and this Sara chick were cousins of the kissing variety?
    Rayna shrugged it off. Maybe if she opened up to him, Kyle would tell her more about his family. “My parents had ranch hands during the better years. A couple of them knew how to cook. Our place wasn’t big—not like Tuck Halston’s, the man I told you about who died—but we had enough cattle to make ends meet…back then. That was before the lawyers and the battles over water. Before everything dried up.”
    “Is that why you send your parents money—because they went under?”
    “They found jobs in town at the time, but two years ago — when I was able to send enough money from my writing to get regular deliveries from the water trucks—they reopened a smaller cattle operation. My dad calls me his partner and swears we’re going to turn a profit this year.” She smiled, thinking of her dad with his dusty boots and the sun on his faded Stetson. “My father is a prideful man and won’t let me just gift him the water. No, he’s gonna make me a cattle rancher whether I like it or not.”
    “You don’t miss the ranch?”
    “Heck no. I miss seeing my parents. I miss Carter, though his father was a piece of work. But I needed to live somewhere I could look out my window and see water everywhere. Of course, I can’t see it from this particular apartment, but I am walking distance from the beach.”
    He frowned. “But you’ve never walked there?”
    “No…but the ocean isn’t going anywhere. One day, I’ll make it there.” She said it with more optimism than she felt, because the truth was, she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to make that trip. She saw the pity in Kyle’s eyes—like he could see right through her—and shame settled heavily on her shoulders like an oxen’s yoke.
    “I don’t get it, Ray. Why move to the city if you never leave your apartment?”
    “Where else am I going to get groceries delivered or find a dozen restaurants within a one-mile radius who’ll bring food to my door?” Rayna turned to clean a little yellow splatter from the counter with the corner of a paper towel, avoiding Kyle’s direct gaze. “Besides, living in a vibrant city makes me feel less alone—like the city itself is alive and I’m a cell floating in its body. Small, but not insignificant. I’m a part of it. And having Bratty gives me that little piece of the farm right here in the city. See? The best of both worlds.”
    “But your ranch didn’t have chickens…because your mom was allergic.”
    If she snapped him with a wet towel, would he feel it through those jeans? “Man, I better watch what I say around you. I have a feeling you’re taking mental audiotapes too.”
    He slid his hands over her dress, just above her rump. “You’re important to me. I want to know everything. Especially about this Carter Halston character.”
    “There’s not much to tell you about Carter. I never had a crush on him or anything…but we have some history, I guess you could say.” And that wasn’t a story she was going into this morning. Maybe a part of her had distanced herself from her old friend just so she wouldn’t have to think about what happened all those years ago.
    “You can’t just throw that out there and then leave me hanging.”
    She stepped back and poised her hands on her hips. “Oh come on. You know way