Billionaire Boss by Meagan McKinney Page B

was so insanely protective of them.
    â€œDid you know my parents died when I was in college? Car pileup on the autobahn in Germany.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” she said, watching him.
    He gave a wry smile. “Maybe we could have been a version of a family, but it would have required getting to know one another, and that wasn’t something either of them wanted. In the end, I suppose it made it easier for me to adjustto not having parents anymore, since we weren’t close.”
    Silence permeated the car for a long moment.
    Finally he added, “You know, I always thought you couldn’t miss what you never had. But lately I don’t think that’s true. I don’t think it at all.”
    She agreed, her voice soft with empathy. “That kind of emptiness is far and wide. But when you’ve had something and it gets taken away, well, I’ve got to tell you, that emptiness goes pretty deep.”
    Her thoughts spun to her father, and then to Carrie. The girl would get so worked up every time her father called that Kirsten and her mother had begun to wish he’d just stop calling.
    Just the thought of it now made Kirsten realize she couldn’t allow Carrie to get attached to Seth.
    â€œSo I guess if I sell the ranch back to Hazel, that’d be worse than never having had a ranch at all.” His words seemed to come out of nowhere.
    â€œWhy would you sell the ranch back to Hazel? You just built it,” she blurted out, confused.
    â€œHazel didn’t sell me the land without attachments, Kirsten. There’s always the provision thatI’ll have to sell back to her if I don’t meet the contract.”
    â€œWhat do you have to do to meet it?”
    He slid his gaze to her, then back again to the night road. “It’s complicated. Something the lawyers drew up. I just don’t know if I want to meet the provisions.”
    â€œI see.” She turned her focus to the road. The ranch gates lay ahead, an artful crossing and weaving of twisted pine.
    The impermanence rattled her. Having moved so much as a child, having had her parents break up, she’d always longed for something she could count on. Now, when she worried about whether or not she and Seth Morgan should be lovers, she should have been more worried about what she didn’t know, like his contract with Hazel.
    Releasing a dark little laugh, she commented, “Life is so ironic. Just when you think you have everything by the horns, something comes up behind you.”
    â€œWhat do you think you have by the horns? Me?” he growled, suddenly becoming the confrontational Wall Street financier.
    She shook her head, still smiling. “I’ll never have you by the horns, Mr. Morgan, thank you very much.”
    â€œWhat’s that supposed to mean?” he demanded.
    â€œNothing. Nothing at all,” she said, still laughing at herself and her pathetic little hopes that kept springing up despite how severely they were crushed.
    The car stopped in the front driveway, and she got out. Walking toward the stables, she paused when he grabbed her arm.
    â€œWhere are you going? Not out for a midnight ride, I hope?”
    Freeing her arm, she said, “I just thought I’d go for a short walk. Just some thinking time. Do you need me for something back at the house?”
    â€œNo,” he answered.
    â€œThen I guess I’m off. So I’ll see you later.”
    She left him in the driveway, wondering if she had been a little harsh, but she was getting overwhelmed. If he sold the ranch, she’d have no more job. No house. No retired mom. No stability for Carrie.
    It all weighed on her like Atlas holding up the earth.
    She walked behind the stable to one of the short trails that led to a nearby meadow. There was a full moon, and the path was lit as if by electric lights. Once in the meadow, she satalong the hillside and watched the moon slide behind the mountains.
    â€œIt