Long Way Home. Gena Dalton

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СКАЧАТЬ the pit of her stomach. Lily Rae was growing up, fast. Someday she, too, would leave her, the way Monte had done.

      No, not the same way. Lily Rae would surely tell her goodbye.

      The hurt stabbed her through to the bone, just as it had done on that day six years ago. She closed her eyes against it.

      Dear Lord, please take this hurt away. Please help me know that what I feel for him now is sympathy and Christian love, not the kind of love I used to have for him. Give me Your strength and help me feel nothing at all when I see him today.

      Jo Lena opened her eyes, shook her head and tried to banish the memories. What had happened to her vow not to give Monte any more power over her? Just because he was back in the Hill Country was no reason to backslide into thinking about him all the time.

      If she’d married Monte, she would’ve only been settling just as she would have been if she’d married any of the other half-dozen men who had asked her over the years. She didn’t need a husband. She had her faith in God, her child, her friends, her home, her work, her horses, and she didn’t need anything else.

      Except Quick Way Annie. She would get that taken care of today and then she would avoid Monte. The Rocking M was a huge place. She could ride Scooter and Lily Rae could ride Annie and sometimes Bobbie Ann would ride with them. Annie would be perfect for Lily Rae. Nothing like a seasoned, settled mount for a child to learn on.

      It took all her self-control not to cross the room and wake the child up. She couldn’t wait for Lily Rae to see her horse.

      Monte had had a lot of nerve, anyhow, to even think of buying that mare. Whatever he intended to do with her.

      Monte woke in a haze of hurting. His right arm lay above his head and a direct line of fiery pain ran from it down into his back. Every other part of his body either ached, agonized or tortured him.

      The pills the doctor had given him in the hospital had worn off long ago and he had no prescription, since he’d snuck away on his own. He would have to tough it out except for the over-the-counter stuff he always carried in his gear bag for the usual aches and pains from bull riding.

      For one long moment, he dreaded moving and creating greater pain, then, without stopping, he lowered his arm and began to try to sit up. He wouldn’t think about it; he wouldn’t let the pain into his mind.

      It flowed in anyway, but he got to his feet in spite of it and staggered to his bag and to the bathroom. Ten minutes later, his face and hair wet by hasty ablutions performed while unable to bend over the sink, he stepped outside. He stood on the stoop and squinted in the sunlight.

      Time to go up to the house. Time to face the music. Time to see his mom. He’d feel guilty at the sight of her, but she’d welcome him anyway.

      Carefully, he stepped down onto the grass.

      “Mommy, Mommy, look at me!”

      The trilling cry of a child’s voice stopped him. It was close, within a stone’s throw. None of his siblings had a child, did they? A wave of disorientation swept through him.

      Did they? How long had he been gone, anyhow?

      He turned around and saw a golden-haired little girl, maybe four or five years old, standing on the bottom railing of the old wooden fence, leaning over, offering a handful of grass to Annie, who was ambling over to investigate it.

      “She likes me already!”

      Probably the child of one of the hired hands.

      “I see you,” a woman said. “Be sure to hold your hand flat and don’t let her get your fingers by mistake.”

      Jo Lena. It wasn’t some woman, it was Jo Lena. The irresistibly husky voice was unmistakable.

      Well. Chalk one up to the Hill Country grapevine. He’d expected word to get around, but not this fast—not Jo Lena Speirs on his doorstep first thing in the morning.

      His breath stopped as she walked into his view.

      Hair the color of honey, hair that felt like silk in his hands, hanging down her back in one thick braid. Hair pulled back from her beautiful face, tanned just a little from the sun. She was too fair to go without a hat, but today she wasn’t wearing one.

      She saw him then. Saw him and stopped dead in her tracks.

      “Monte!”

      Her voice vibrated with his name.

      His heart racketed in his chest. Did she still care for him?

      Cold reality killed that thought as the miserable guilt washed over him.

      How in the world could she? He had left her without a word.

      She remembered that at the same time he did. Her big, blue eyes narrowed and she turned away from him to check on the little girl.

      Mommy. The little girl had called her Mommy.

      The strangest sense of loss came over him.

      No, Jo Lena didn’t still care. She hadn’t cared for a long, long time. This child had to have been born within a year of when he left the Hill Country.

      Now Jo Lena had her arm around the little girl and she was looking at him again.

      “Monte, come and meet Lily Rae,” she called. “We need to talk to you about Annie.”

      He walked toward them.

      “Can you believe she just came through the sale?” he said.

      “No, and I can’t believe you bought her,” she said, in a warm, cordial tone.

      A tone that clearly said they were fine acquaintances and nothing more.

      He walked up to them.

      “Monte, I’d like you to meet Lily Rae,” she said.

      Lily Rae held out her hand like a grown-up and gave him a straight look from her deep blue eyes. The very same shade of blue as Jo Lena’s.

      “Nice to meet you,” she said in her piping little voice.

      Well, her voice wasn’t anything like her mother’s. At least, not yet.

      “Same here,” Monte said.

      Her smile was that of an imp. Her hand was tiny.

      “Are you LydaAnn’s brother?” Lily Rae seriously wanted to know.

      “Yes,” Monte said.

      The little girl looked at him, considering.

      “She already has two brothers.”

      Great. Even this kid who didn’t know him thought he was unnecessary. He was home, all right.

      “You don’t think she can use another one?” he asked the child.

      Lily Rae shook СКАЧАТЬ