Cassidy stood in the kitchen the next morning, sipping her coffee, contemplating the crazy fact that her dead fiancé and her father were out riding. The previous night felt like a blur, and she couldn’t get her mind wrapped around it. The shock from Kyle actually not being dead had caused her to toss and turn all night. The pain on Anthony’s face had haunted her too.

She watched Kyle and her father, wondering if they were getting along. She couldn’t tell from their expressions, and she didn’t know whether to care or not.

The sun shone on Kyle’s ultra-blond hair and she thought about her intense feelings for him before he’d left. Kyle was alive. A tear fell down her cheek. He was here. She swallowed, unable to believe the timing of her life.

Abruptly she burst out laughing, nearly burning herself on the hot liquid in her cup. Moving to the counter, she put the cup down and she stared closer at him through the window.

He’d told her the whole story last night, but she seriously had felt like she was in shock. His team had been captured, tortured, and then held hostage. They’d escaped, but they’d been stuck in some jungle the past six months. With the political situation, they hadn’t been able to get out. He’d been debriefed last week and immediately come here. He’d laughed and told her he felt like he’d been brain swiped.

She watched Kyle waver at the barn. Her father moved to the house.

“Hey.” Her father came in and lifted a brow at her.

“Hey.”

Her father hesitated, then nodded to the barn. “I told Kyle there’s a stable in the barn and I’m in need of some help around here. So he can stay for free and we’ll work out a wage later.”

Mystified, she let out a breath. “I thought you didn’t need help.”

Her father took a cup and poured himself some coffee. “We all need help sometimes, sugar box.”

Confused, she stared at the barn. Sure, it was fine her father said he could stay, but … “I don’t know what to do, Daddy.” She hated the vulnerability in her words.

He took a sip of coffee and both of them stared at Kyle, who had brought Sunshine out of the barn and was combing her down. At that moment, Kyle turned and lifted a hand at them.

Both of them returned the gesture.

Her father sighed. “Wish I could help you, sugar box.”

She stared at Kyle. “He’s really here.”

Her father shook his head and exhaled, putting his arm around her. “Yep. Take some time, sweetie. It’ll all work out.”

Wishing she could believe that, she leaned into him, thinking she was supposed to go to the stadium and do one more interview with Kade. “I have to get ready.”

Her father squeezed her. “Listen. I don’t like to get involved, and I know I haven’t always been the father you needed. I moved you all the time and I was consumed with my horses.”

Her heart raced. She’d longed for a conversation like this with her father for so long, but now she felt bad because they’d gotten so close the past couple of months. “Daddy, it’s fine.”

“No, sugar box, it’s not. It’s not fine. I haven’t been good at expressing the way I felt but I want to be different. I want to be the kind of father you know appreciates you. I want to be the kind of father you know loves you. I got a second chance, and I want you to know I would do anything for you, baby.”

She turned and looked up at his dark blue eyes.

Tears were running down his cheeks and he smiled at her. “I’m a big old crybaby now. And I don’t care.”

She wiped at her own tears and melted into him—his embrace, his warmth, his love. She pressed her tearstained face into his chest. “Thank you, I want that, too.”

He sniffed. “I do have to tell you something.”

“Yeah?” she said. His tone made her uncertain.

“John Kincaid has been visiting me during my cancer treatments.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “He told me that Anthony was the one who insisted that you were the only reporter who could do the exclusive on him.”

Her heart raced and she wondered, feeling more than a little hurt, why no one had told her this. “But I thought it was just the paper wanting to utilize my experience.”

He shook his head. “Nope, I guess Anthony threatened to quit if you weren’t the one doing the article.”

The information spun in circles in her head, leaving her confused.