Kinkaid's Heir

Chapter One:

         Damn it will the woman never understand? Dean Kinkaid found himself, for the first time in his thirty six years, unable to make his thoughts completely clear to someone. Abruptly and brutally honest with people to the point of rudeness his thoughts on any given subject were usually very clear to everyone around him. At least they always had been until now.

         “Look Lydia, I don’t know how to make this any clearer. I do not want to see you again and I don’t want you to be calling my family or friends anymore either.” The harshness in his voice making Allen, the foreman of the ranch,  wince even as he tried to look like he couldn’t hear perfectly well what was going on not fifteen feet away where he was grooming one of the mares. Without a way to gracefully exit all he could do was continue to try and at least give the illusion of privacy to the arguing couple.

         Dean scrubbed a hand over his face scratching at the itchy stubble on his chin and sighing in frustration.

         “Lydia, we’ve talked about this. It was only ever going to be light and fun. There was never going to be anything more between us. I thought that was what you wanted too. You said that you weren’t looking for anything heavy and neither was I. We never would have gone out if that hadn’t been that case. I did NOT lead you on.”

         The blonds blue eyes widened even more and filled with tears at his words. Dean hadn’t thought her eyes could get any bigger or the situation any worse than it already was. He had been wrong on both counts. Oh god she’s gonna start crying damn it!

         Dean looked at the slim blond woman and couldn’t think what had attracted him to her in the first place. He often spent time with various ladies but he would not normally have chosen this woman. She was not even close to his usual type. She was too thin for one and the teased blond hair that floated around her narrow face only detracted from her appeal. He admitted that she would be pretty enough if she would stop trying so hard to look so stereotypically crass and cheap. But, more than that it was her personality that turned him off. She was, for lack of a better term, tawdry in both personality and outward appearance. 

         Dean prided himself on his ability to keep his relationships with women casual and short term. He was still on friendly terms with almost every woman he had been with. He never promised more than he was willing to give and was always very upfront about his needs and intentions. If a woman wanted more he just didn’t get involved with her. He was usually very good at telling which ones really did want a fun fling and which ones wanted something more. Lydia, he knew, had been a huge mistake. Dean was usually very careful and selective of the woman he chose to become involved with. He wasn’t sure exactly why he had gone with the cheap looking blond. He couldn’t blame it on the alcohol either, not completely. As drunk as he had been that night he had never made such a mistake before.

         “Here.” Dean thrust his handkerchief into the sobbing woman’s hand. She fell forward and clutched at his shirt and began blubbering incoherently about love and promises and making love.

         Try as he might Dean couldn’t seem to get away from her grasping fingers. The woman was worse than an octopus! He looked pleadingly to Allen still standing nearby caring for the horse. Allen shrugged and grimaced letting Dean know he was on his own where hysterical woman were concerned, and went back to his task.  Dean knew only too well how Allen viewed his relationships with his lady friends.

         Trying to be soothing his gruff voice grated out what he hoped were comforting words and assured her that she was too good for him and that she could do much better as he steered her back to the beat up blue Pontiac sitting in front of the barn where she had left it. When she had finally gone he drew a deep cleansing breathe and stomped back into the barn.

         “What the hell was that shrug for? I coulda used some help there you know.” he barked at Allen.

         Allen, to his credit, did not respond except to give him a long measured look before he left the barn.

         “Damn it!” Kicking the wooden post he fumed about what Lydia had been doing to make his life miserable for the past week. She had called him at home and his cell practically every hour. When that proved ineffective she had taken to calling his parents, and all the family and friends she could reach, harassing them in an attempt to get to him. Running over everything he had said to her and her responses he knew he had not lead her on and in fact he was extremely upfront with all woman so this kind of thing didn’t happen to him. We only spent the one evening together and that was it!

         His tall six foot three inch frame slouched in frustration. Yanking off his shirt he grabbed up a pair of bailing hooks and headed to the truck parked outside the barn and began loading the hay bails into the truck bed. Before long the grueling physical labor cleared his head and he was lost in the rhythm of the work.