He might have made a deal with the girl’s mother, but he hadn’t made a deal with her kid. Every child wanted a father-how was Kendra handling having one who obviously didn’t care?

LEXI OPENED THE freezer and poked around at the various containers. “It looks like we’ve got some shrimp. I could make rice.”

“No, thanks,” Kendra said from her place on the counter.

“There are a couple of frozen dinners, or we could have leftovers.”

“Oh, so appealing, but no.”

Lexi closed the freezer and did her best not to stomp her foot. The situation was awkward and the teen wasn’t doing anything to make it better. Worse, Cruz hadn’t mentioned his daughter’s arrival to the housekeeping service so they hadn’t brought in any extra food.

“You have to eat something,” Lexi told her.

Kendra flicked a long curl over her shoulder. “You’re not like the others. You know where the kitchen is and that kids should eat. Interesting. Does my dad know you think and everything?”

Lexi leaned against the counter. She wasn’t going to be baited. Not when she knew the girl had to be hurting because her father had in no way prepared for her visit.

Cruz walked into the kitchen. Kendra looked at him.

“She has a brain. Did you know? You can’t like it very much. None of the others could think for themselves.”

“You might want to hold back on the sarcasm card,” Lexi said. “You’re a little young to be playing it now and it just looks like you’re trying too hard.”

Kendra’s expression tightened. “I don’t have to try at all.” She jumped off the counter, onto the floor. “Look, I can make this easy. I’ll order a pizza. Dad, got a twenty?”

Cruz handed over a couple of bills.

“Great. See you two lovebirds later.” Kendra turned to leave.

“Wait a minute,” Lexi said. “You’re not going off just like that.”

Both Cruz and Kendra looked at her as if she were crazy.

“Why not?” Cruz asked. “She’s fine.”

“She’s a kid. What about homework? What about her plans for the week.”

Kendra rolled her eyes. “I’m okay. Seriously, I can run my own life.”

“You’re only fifteen.”

“Kids are more mature these days. Dad, tell her.”

“She takes care of herself,” Cruz said. “I don’t get in her way and she doesn’t get in mine.”

“That can’t be it,” Lexi said. “She’s still a child. She needs rules and boundaries.” She was sure there was more, but that was all she could think of at the moment.

“I’m so not following any stupid rules,” Kendra snapped. “Who died and left you in charge? You’re just one of many. Like I said before, we don’t even have to bond because you won’t be here next time.”

Kendra had a point. Lexi was temporary, on many levels. But this wasn’t about Lexi.

“This is more than a hotel,” she said. “This is your dad’s house.”

Kendra leaned forward and lowered her voice to a mock whisper. “He’s not my dad. He’s just sperm. I call him Dad because it’s easier for all of us to pretend, but there’s nothing between us. You’re really sweet to worry, but don’t. We’re fine.”

Lexi felt all the pain the teen hid behind her attitude. “Kendra, I know this is hard for you,” she began, only to have Kendra open the fridge, grab a soda and head for the door.

“What’s hard is that this isn’t a hotel and you’re not staff. If you were, I could fire your ass. Leave me alone.” With that, Kendra left.

Lexi turned to Cruz.

“That’s it?” she asked him. “That’s the end of the conversation?”

“I told you not to get involved. We’ve done this before.”

“Obviously badly.” Why didn’t he get it? “Cruz, she’s a child. Your child. You have a responsibility.”

“Which my accountant takes care of every month. Kendra has everything she needs.”

“Except a father.”

He barely flinched. “I didn’t need my dad around and she doesn’t, either. She’s doing fine.”

“She’s feeling like crap. You didn’t tell me about her, you didn’t tell anyone. There’s no food in the house. How does she get to and from school?”

“I don’t know. Her mother takes care of that.”

“You need to be involved.” She couldn’t comprehend his lack of connection. “Don’t you feel anything when she’s around?”

“Other than a burning need to be anywhere but here?” Now he was the one leaving. He paused in the doorway. “You’re putting way too much energy into this. She’s here for a couple of weeks, then she’ll be gone. Don’t worry about it.”

“She’s your daughter,” she murmured, knowing she wasn’t going to get through to him.

“Why do you keep saying that?”

“Because she’s a person. Why are you so determined to be a total asshole?”

His eyes darkened. “I guess it just comes naturally to me.”

He left and she was alone in the kitchen. Alone and feeling as if she’d made the situation worse at every possible turn. She leaned her elbows against the counter and covered her face with her hands.

What kind of man wrote a check and walked away? And even if she could understand a teenage boy not wanting the responsibility, Cruz was now a man. He didn’t have any excuses.

Lexi remembered growing up being ignored by her father. Jed had always been so busy. Any time he gave her was precious. She’d lived for those moments. Parents mattered, even when a child was old enough to know better. Lexi battled to prove herself to Jed. Skye had given up the love of her life to marry a man her father preferred. Izzy risked her life to prove something to herself and to Jed.

Why couldn’t Cruz see how he was hurting Kendra?

She straightened, then walked toward his study. He sat behind his desk, staring out a dark window.

“Cruz,” she began.

He looked at her. “What’s the big deal? She’s not your kid.”

“She’s a child, not a plant. You can’t just throw her a pizza and expect her to be all right.”

“She always has been in the past.” He stood. “Look, every couple of years she comes to stay here. When she was younger, I’d hire someone to stay with her, but she doesn’t need that now. She told me herself a few years ago. She does great. She comes and goes as she likes, we stay out of each other’s way. It’s enough.”

“It’s nothing. Doesn’t it occur to you that she wants more? She wants a connection. You’re her father. She needs you to love her and be there for her.”

“This is about me and Kendra, not you and Jed.”

“What a child needs is universal.”

“I didn’t need my father. Life was better when he was gone.”

“You’re not beating Kendra.” But was his father the point? Did Cruz want to make sure Kendra never thought of him the same way he’d thought of his dad? “She wants you to love her.”

“I barely know her and you don’t know her at all. Get off both of us.”

“I can’t.”

“You won’t. You’re the one who wants things to be different. But this isn’t your house, your kid or your business. So get the hell out of it.”

If he’d yelled, she could have yelled back. Instead his voice was quiet, almost scary with intensity.

She wasn’t going to win. Not tonight. And right now Kendra mattered more than him.

She left his study and went upstairs. Kendra was in the last bedroom on the left. The space was small but cheerful, with a full-size bed and desk by the window. Kendra sat at the desk, typing on a laptop while listening to her iPod. C.C. lay asleep on the bed.

Lexi knocked on the half-open door. “Hey. You getting settled?”

“Uh-huh.” Kendra didn’t bother looking up.

“I thought we could go into town and get something to eat. I know a great burger place.”

Kendra sighed heavily, then pulled the earbuds out. Her smile was placating at best.

“It’s really nice of you to try. I appreciate it. Seriously. But I’m good. I don’t need to bond with anyone, especially one of my dad’s girlfriends. It’s not like you’ll be here next time, right? I mean, is this permanent?”

Lexi thought about the deal, then shook her head.

“I thought so. Now you go run and play with my dad. I’ll stay out of your way and then I’ll be gone. In a few weeks, we can all forget this happened. Won’t that be great?”

Kendra reached for her iPod, then looked up again. “Oh, I ordered a pizza. Would you let the guy in when he rings the bell? Thanks. Bye.”

BY NINE-THIRTY Cruz was on his third glass of Scotch. He had no plans to get drunk, but he wanted to take the edge off.

The past crowded into the room, making it difficult for him to think about anything else. He didn’t even have to close his eyes to see his father beating his mother. Juanita was a small woman, and her husband had enjoyed hitting her until she collapsed to the ground and begged him to stop. For as long as he lived, Cruz would never forget the sound of fists on flesh and the shrill cries of pain.

“Tell me you love me,” his father would demand. “Say it. Say it!”

Eventually she would give in. She would speak the words, then say them louder, as he insisted. When she promised to love him forever, he would walk away.

Cruz remembered the silence. His mother made no noise as they both waited for the sound of the car engine, proof that the storm had passed and they were safe again.

Cruz would wait in the hallway, huddled and scared, until she dragged herself to her feet. She would tell him she was okay, even as she washed away the blood. His father had not only broken bones; he’d shattered her heart and her will, time and time again.

The last beating had seemed to go on forever. He’d been twelve-old enough to want to protect her. When he’d gone after his father, the old man had hit him hard across the face. So hard, Cruz had fallen, his ears ringing and his vision swimming.

“Do that again, boy,” his father had growled, “and I’ll kill her.”

In that moment, with his mother begging for both of them, with the steady thud of fists making her scream, Cruz had vowed everything would be different. He’d earned the money to buy a gun from a kid down the street, and he’d used it to make his father go away.