Fuck.

I’d planned to keep my distance. I’d planned to pretend nothing ever happened between us last night.

But she’d been standing there, her green eyes sparkling with joy and mischief, a little curve to her lips, her long hair toying with the wind as she watched me with a silent challenge in her eyes.

She’s fucking beautiful. Inside and out. I’d hurt her last night, yet here she is, whole and happy with a sweet smile on her face. She’d hugged Olivia back, had given her a task that made Olivia light up with a self-importance that caught my breath. I see my daughter blossoming before me, and I’d worked so hard for that. Yet Emma does it without even seeming to try.

Emma looks past me, down the driveway, a look of worry in her eyes that makes me look over my shoulder to find what she’s looking at, but I see nothing. Still, the concern in her eyes leaves my heart sinking. I missed something. Something major.

Fuck; I didn’t bring trouble to her doorstep, did I?

Uneasy, I meet her gaze and find she’s carefully hidden away her worry.

“I have a deal for you,” she says, her eyes sparkling as we turn and work our way toward the barn. Instantly, the thought of talking a deal with her leads me back to last night and my cock pulses painfully.

But I say nothing as we fall into step.

“I’m not going to sell,” she says, looking over at me with more than a hint of amusement in her eyes. “But I wanted to ask you to invest.”

“No.” She doesn’t get it. I’m going to have her ranch, one way or another. Even if it means being the worst kind of bastard.

You’re too weak. Dad’s whisper in the back of my mind sends me into total shut down mode and steels my resolve. I’ve proved I’ll do anything to make sure Olivia and I have a future. A safe, lush future. She’ll grow up happy, never wanting for anything. She’ll have everything I never did, money, love, everything she could ever ask for.

And that, to me, is worth potentially hurting Emma. Because Emma is sweet, she’s amazing, but she’s not family. She’s not my blood. She’s not someone I’d die to protect. Olivia is. Sometimes you have to step on a few people to get out of the pit. And I’ll do anything to keep Olivia out of the pit.

Emma stares up at me, finally seeming a bit unsure. “You don’t even want to hear my thoughts?” she asks, a sharp edge to her voice not hiding the underling hurt.

And I think quickly. “Emma, after last night, the last thing I’m thinking about is your ranch.” The words are smooth as silk, and I see her eyes widen a bit, before a critical light within her begins to shine.

“Okay,” she says simply as we walk up on the barn and step in. Inside, Olivia is mucking out Dreamer’s stall, her face all concentration. She looks up, smiling at Emma.

“I let Jenny out. Her foal was right behind her the whole way.” Olivia seems proud of herself, and Emma thanks her. The exchange makes me pause. Emma is so good with Olivia. I’m making the right choice here. Even if it all ends badly, Olivia will get more good than bad out of it all. I’m sure of it.

Behind us, I hear a voice that stops my heart.

“Knock, knock, knock!”

I turn and see the man behind the voice and my blood runs cold. What the fuck is he doing here?

Emma walks past me toward the barn door and I watch her open it. His eyes meet mine, and I see him freeze, though he manages to keep talking to Emma. I walk over, coldly staring him down.

Emma pauses her conversation about Jenny and her colt and looks back and forth between us. There are so many things I want to say, but none of them come to the surface.

“Kyle?” Emma says, watching us.

He continues to stare me down his blue eyes dark with fury and hatred. I want to hit him. My knuckles itch, and I feel my fist ball up. His jaw ripples and I know he’s clenching his teeth. The tiny motion of him rising to the balls of his feet is not lost on me. He wants a fucking fight? Let’s fucking do it, then.

I’m only aware Olivia has come up behind us when I hear her sweet, bell of a voice speak up from behind me. “Uncle Kyle?”

Suddenly, the tension drains from the room and Kyle looks down at Olivia, a smile on his face that warms even his eyes. “Hey, love! How are you?” he squats down and opens his arms.

“Good!” she says, her face lighting into a smile that belies the hatred and anger in the room. In an instant, she’s in his arms. Emma watches me, her eyes wide, as if she knows what almost happened right here in her barn.

“That’s great!” Kyle says, pulling back from the embrace. “Are you learning to ride horses?” he asks, and Olivia nods, her excitement sparking in her pretty blue eyes.

“Well,” Kyle says, looking up at Emma, “She’s the best teacher around. You better listen to her, bug.”

Olivia giggles and I start. Bug? The last person to call Olivia bug was my father. And that was well over six years ago. That was before.

“Have you seen the colt?” Kyle asks Olivia, who nods.

“I put him out to pasture with Jenny,” she says, sounding very grown up all of a sudden. “Want me to take you to him?” she asks.

“Yep!” Kyle says, “I have to make sure he’s healthy. Em, here, likes to worry,” he says, looking up at Emma, who smiles.

My anger shifts. Who the fuck is he to her? Calling her Em? Saying she likes to worry? How often does she call him? What the fuck is their relationship?

I look at her, but she’s not paying attention to me as Olivia takes Kyle’s hand and he stands up, allowing her to lead him out of the barn.

“I didn’t know he was your brother,” Emma says, but I’ve got nothing to say as I watch my daughter walking off with the brother who’d told me he wished I died instead of dad so many years ago.