Heartland. Sara Walter Ellwood

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СКАЧАТЬ they’d voiced their worry and disapproval of her marriage to Fabian, they had never pushed her away. If anything, at first, her dad had tried to keep her close. But after he’d found her unconscious on her tour bus and had her admitted into Fernwood, she refused to speak to her mother or father again. Fabian had fueled her anger by accusing her parents of wanting to control her life.

      Oh, how wrong she had been.

      With a sigh, she stared into the distance at the large white house with its dark green shutters and gingerbread trim, then turned the key in the ignition. “Well, baby girl, let’s go and admit they were right.”

      She parked the car to the side of the three-car semi-detached garage and got out. As she stretched her back, she looked around at the old familiar buildings. The barn across the lane from the house must have been recently painted and a new stable and training facility had been built in the middle of a pasture she used to ride through. Her mother had mentioned a few years ago she’d like to try her hand at raising and training horses. She must have decided to go for it.

      With a deep breath, Emily headed toward the house.

      “Emily?”

      At the sound of her father’s deep voice, she turned toward the man standing at the open barn door. “Hi, Daddy.”

      Her childhood idol stared back at her as if she was a mirage. Wearing a beat-up tan Stetson, faded jeans, scuffed boots, and a plaid western shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, he looked more like a ranch hand then a famous superstar country singer. Her heart stuttered over a few beats as both love and admiration filled her. She may not have known Seth Kendall was her father as a little girl, but he’d more than stepped up to fill the job during her teenage years, even making her dreams come true.

      Dreams she destroyed with drugs and hard living.

      She swallowed as the silence stretched. Maybe she shouldn’t have come home. “I hope you don’t mind me being here.”

      He ran across the wide driveway, and before Emily could process what was happening, he wrapped her up in a tight bear hug which she returned with equal fervor.

      “This is your home.” He placed a kiss on her forehead and held her far enough away to meet her gaze. She was shocked to see a tear form at the corner of one of his bright green eyes, the same shape and color as her own. “You’re always welcome here, sunshine.”

      At the use of the nickname he’d given her when they’d first met, she wrapped her arms around him and let the relief flood over her as she rested her cheek on his chest. The spiced sandalwood scent of him surrounded her, comforting and forgiving, and she closed her eyes as tears stung her sinuses. She feared if she started crying, she wouldn’t ever stop. “I’m sorry, Daddy. For everything. I’ve made such a mess of my life.”

      He rubbed her back and rested his chin on her head, like he’d done since they’d first met eight years ago. At times like this, she wished she’d known him all her life. Mike Ritter--the man she’d believed to be her father until she met Seth--and she had been close, but they’d never had the relationship she and Seth shared.

      “The important thing is you’re here now.” His deep voice trembled as if he was holding in a massive wave of emotion. He swallowed and slowly stepped back, but didn’t completely let her go as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “C’mon. Let’s go find your mother.”

      She sniffed and wiped at the stray tears on her cheeks with the back of her hand. “Is Johnny home?”

      He squeezed her shoulders and his smile beamed as bright as the morning sun. “You just missed him. Your momma took him to preschool. He’ll be home in a few hours.” He stopped at the steps leading to the wraparound porch. “You’re going to make the kid’s day when he gets home. He idolizes you.”

      She shook her head. “He shouldn’t. I’m one messed up woman these days.”

      Dad brushed at a stray strand of her hair lying on her forehead. “No. You’re a strong woman trying to get her life back on track. I knew you were on your way to healing when I heard about the divorce and that you were in rehab for longer than a week.”

      She glanced away. The hope in his voice nearly broke down the damn holding back her tears.

      Chapter 3

      EJ was logging into his computer when the office door he’d left ajar opened. He looked up and swallowed a curse. Dealing with his brother-in-law today wasn’t at the top of his to-do list.

      Trevor Marshall stood in the middle of his office. Dressed in a pair of black designer slacks and a pale pink dress shirt that matched the wine, pink, and black tie, the metrosexual law student looked as out of place in the ranch town of McAllister as a pile of cow shit on Fifth Avenue.

      “Mama wanted to know if you were coming over to dinner tonight. She’d like to see Austin,” Trevor said, referring to EJ’s two year old son.

      EJ sat back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. He didn’t understand Glenda’s insistence of having a memorial dinner for Raquel every year to remember her life. None of them needed reminding she was dead. He’d made the mistake of attending last year and had to leave early. His memories made the day depressing enough; he didn’t need to sit around looking at photo albums and telling stories of what an angel Raquel had been. He’d loved his wife--once--but she had never worn a halo. “Tell her I have other plans.”

      Trevor narrowed his brown eyes. “What about Austin?”

      EJ shrugged. “I’ll bring him over this weekend. But tonight, we have plans.”

      If eating the leftover pot roast his brother’s wife had given him, watching the Rangers game, and drinking a beer or two after he put the baby to bed at eight o’clock justified as plans.

      “What’s more important than family?”

      His brother-in-law’s tenacity matched that of the Marshall’s bulldog when he was on one of his mother’s errands. Glenda had babied her only son as if he was a crown prince, and although, Trevor was twenty-three years old, he’d never let go of his mother’s skirt. “I never said family wasn’t important, but frankly, I’m not interested in revisiting the picture-perfect life your mother insists on painting for Raquel.”

      Trevor’s eyes widened as he gasped. “How dare you say such a thing today?”

      EJ had enough. He stood and leaned over his desk. “Look. I loved your sister, but life with her had never been perfect for me. She thought she was a princess, and I’ll admit at first I treated her like one, but she was lazy, demanding and at times a down-right bitch on wheels.” This time Trevor’s face paled and he thinned his lips. EJ didn’t care that everything he said would, no doubt, be relayed to the queen of bitchdom, his mother-in-law. He was on a roll. “The last straw for me was when we brought our baby home from the hospital and she refused to even look at him.”

      “She was depressed!”

      “I get that.” And he did, kind of. The doctor explained her postpartum depression was caused by her hormones returning to normal more quickly than she could become accustomed to and a predisposition to depression. But he knew it went deeper. She’d hated being pregnant, despite having a trouble-free time and an easy delivery. He’d caught her staring in their bedroom mirror when she was about eight СКАЧАТЬ