All Night Long with a Cowboy by Caitlin Crews

Author:Caitlin Crews
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

12

Jensen woke up the next morning in a remarkably good mood.

He was downright jolly during his chores, enough so that both Riley and Connor started muttering about it. He took that as an invitation to ramp it up. By the time he ambled into the ranch house kitchen to get himself some more coffee, he’d turned to whistling—loud enough that both of his parents, going over some papers on the kitchen table, stopped what they were doing to stare at him.

“I’m sorry if I’m not maintaining the typical level of Kittredge doom and gloom around here,” Jensen boomed out. “That must be bracing.”

“You’re usually loud, Jensen,” his mother observed in her cool way. “But you’re typically more interested in being provoking. You seem … genuinely happy.”

As if she’d never used those words before.

“No doubt that parental example,” Jensen drawled, grinning to take the sting out of the words. And because 6:00 a.m. was a little early for full-scale family drama.

His mother had long ago perfected the art of seeming to roll her eyes without actually committing. With four rowdy boys and Amanda in the mix, whatever her relationship was with her husband, it maybe wasn’t surprising that Ellie Kittredge had a cool stare that could stop a man in his tracks. But today, Jensen was paying more attention to his father, who, he was forced to admit, was looking a little older and a little frailer than before his cardiac event earlier this summer. He couldn’t say he liked that.

He wasn’t close to his parents, a situation he liked as it was, but he still didn’t like it.

“Speaking of provoking displays of happiness,” Jensen said, jutting his chin at his father, “how’s that ticker, Dad?”

Donovan Kittredge glowered. “I’m fine.”

Jensen, like Zack, was old enough to remember a little too much about back when his parents’ relationship had been tempestuous at best. Mostly it had been a roller coaster, loud and frightening. Ellie had screamed and cried. Donovan had been a brick wall. Until one day, they’d up and decided to stop. Amanda had come less than a year later.

Riley had advanced the theory, apparently gleaned from his own recalcitrant wife, that maybe it wasn’t that the pair of them had turned into ice sculptures. Maybe it was simply that they’d decided to keep their actual marriage private.

Too bad Jensen remembered far too much of it when it hadn’t been.

“Are you?” he asked now, because he hadn’t agreed to any code of silence. “Because I have to say, you don’t look—”

“I’m not going to perform for you, Jensen,” Donovan said quietly, his dark eyes meeting his son’s and holding fast. “I appreciate that you’ve stepped up this summer. But I’d appreciate it if you’d remember that staying home was your choice. And I’m not beholden to you because of it.”

Boom. There it was. Donovan Kittredge, slapping down any possible attempts his sons made to get closer to him. Or even, just for fun, to interact like family instead of enemies. Riley

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