Hard Lovin' Man. Peggy Moreland

now.”

      Lucas was dead? Lacey raked her fingers through her hair, trying to get a grip on her spinning emotions. She’d waited two years for the opportunity to tell the man who had sired her what a low-crawling snake she thought he was for refusing to acknowledge her as his daughter. She supposed she should be glad he was dead…but for some reason, all she felt was a huge gaping hole in her chest. She backed up a step. “I—I’m sorry,” she stammered, then, unable to think of anything else to say, turned and ran down the steps.

      She’d almost made it to her truck when she heard footsteps running behind her.

      “Lacey! Wait!”

      She stopped, drawing in a deep breath before turning. The distress she saw on the woman’s face shamed her. She didn’t know what kind of memories her request to see Lucas had stirred, but obviously they weren’t pleasant ones. “Listen…Mandy, isn’t it?” At the woman’s nod, she hurried on. “Look, Mandy, I’m sorry I bothered you. I didn’t know.”

      “You said you were Lucas’s daughter.”

      “Yeah,” she mumbled, and dropped her gaze to hide the unwanted tears that swelled again.

      “So am I.”

      Lacey’s head shot up. “What did you say?”

      Mandy drew in a shuddery breath. “I’m Lucas’s daughter. I have two younger sisters, Merideth and Sam.”

      Lucas had daughters? Then that meant Lacey had half sisters. Numbed by the realization, she stared, speechless.

      Mandy seemed at a loss for words, too, because she clasped her hands together and squeezed until her knuckles looked like a string of pearls wrapped around her fists, before she lifted her hands in a helpless shrug. “I—I don’t know what to say to you.”

      Lacey clamped her lips together in a frown. “You don’t have to say anything. Like I said, I’m sorry.” She turned away again, but Mandy grabbed her arm, stopping her.

      “Please don’t go,” she begged. She glanced toward the house, catching her lower lip between her teeth. “We’ve got this wedding,” she began hesitantly, then turned to Lacey again. “But it shouldn’t last too long, and I really would like to talk to you. We all would.”

      Lacey eased from the woman’s grasp, regretting that she’d ever stepped foot on the Double-Cross. “Sorry, but I came to talk to Lucas. Since he’s dead, there’s no reason for me to hang around.”

      “But Sam and Merideth will want to meet you.”

      Lacey snorted a laugh. “I doubt that.”

      Mandy scowled, obviously irritated by Lacey’s sarcasm. “Well, I don’t, and I think I would know their preferences better than you.”

      Lacey moved her shoulder in a shrug. “Can’t argue that, since I didn’t even know they existed, or you, either, for that matter, until a couple of minutes ago.”

      Mandy lifted her chin defensively. “Well, we didn’t know you existed, either, until you showed up on our doorstep.”

      Aware that the conversation was going nowhere fast, Lacey tried to think of a way to end it. “Look,” she said, fighting for patience. “Just pretend I was never here, and that this conversation never took place. Okay?”

      “No way.” Pursing her lips, Mandy grabbed Lacey’s hand and dragged her toward the house. “You can’t expect to drop a bomb like that and just drive away, leaving us with a thousand unanswered questions.”

      Lacey dug in her boot heels, trying to wrench free, but was surprised to discover that, though the woman appeared delicate, her strength equaled Lacey’s own. “Hey! I said I was sorry. Okay? It was a mistake. I should never have come here.”

      “Too late,” Mandy muttered.

      “But you’re getting ready for a wedding,” Lacey reminded her, grasping at straws, anything to escape.

      “Your cousin Alayna’s wedding. You’ll want to meet her, too.”

      Lacey jerked to a stop and succeeded in dragging Mandy to a stop, as well. Half sisters and cousins? She’d never thought about Lucas having a family. He’d been just a name to her, not a real person…and she wanted no part of his family. “My horse is in the trailer,” she said on sudden inspiration. “I can’t leave him there in this heat.”

      Mandy gave Lacey’s hand another jerk, hauling her up the steps behind her. “Don’t worry. I’ll have my son Jaime take care of him for you.”

      She opened the door and all but shoved Lacey inside ahead of her. “Merideth! Sam!” she called. “Come here. I’ve got someone I want you to meet.”

      Lacey stood at the back of the cavernous living room, trying her best to melt into the wall. The room was crowded with members of the McCloud family—all of them strangers to her. Half sisters. Brothers-in-law. Cousins. Nieces and nephews. Before the wedding had started, Mandy had insisted on introducing her to every last one.

      She drew in a shaky breath. She still wasn’t sure how Mandy had managed to rope her into staying for the ceremony. She didn’t want to be here. She wanted to be on the road, headed for Missouri, and as far away from the Double-Cross Heart Ranch as she could get.

      But she wasn’t. And it didn’t look as if she was going to be able to leave any time soon.

      The hair on the back of her neck prickled, and she angled her head slightly to find Merideth staring at her, a slight frown curving her lips. Lacey frowned right back. With a haughty lift of her chin, Merideth turned away, centering her attention on the preacher and the bride and groom who stood in front of the massive fireplace.

      To heck with you, Lacey fumed silently, forcing her gaze to the ceremony. She wasn’t here to win any friends. Heck, she didn’t even know why she was here!

      Well, she did know, she reflected morosely as the preacher’s voice droned on and on as he read a long passage from the Bible. It was all Mandy’s doing. There had only been enough time for quick introductions before the wedding had started, and Mandy had insisted that Lacey stay until after the ceremony when they would have more time to talk. Lacey had finally agreed, just to get the spotlight off her for a while. Being introduced as Lucas’s illegitimate daughter and having all those people staring at her had been a little disconcerting.

      She had to give it to them, though, she thought with a sigh. To their credit, not a one of them had questioned her claim as Lucas’s daughter, and all had treated her civilly.

      Other than Merideth, of course.

      Lacey glanced Merideth’s way again, frowning at the back of her blond head. It wasn’t that Merideth had been rude exactly. She just kept watching Lacey as if she expected to catch her slipping off with the family silver or something.

      Lacey pursed her mouth in irritation and turned her gaze back to the front of the room. Discovering one of her half sisters was a movie star had come as a shock, but hadn’t changed Lacey’s feelings toward Meredith. She didn’t care for Meredith any more than Meredith cared for her, movie star or not. And as soon as this hitching was over, she told herself, she was getting out of here, promise or not. She didn’t owe the McClouds any explanations, and as far as she was concerned, they didn’t owe her any, either.

      She heard the front door open behind her and glanced over her shoulder to see who was arriving late. She choked back a laugh when she realized the futility in that gesture. She didn’t know the bride and groom, much less any of their wedding guests. With a shake of her head, she turned her attention back to the ceremony, silently praying that the long-winded preacher would speed things up.

      She felt a shoulder bump hers and glanced over to find a man had slipped into the room and was standing beside her. When she got a good look at his face, she did a quick double take, snapping her gaze to the front of the room and the groom, then back to the man at her side, sure that she was hallucinating.