Heartsong. Sara Walter Ellwood

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СКАЧАТЬ biological daughter, but Loretta had been the only mother Frankie had ever known, and Momma loved her as if she’d been her flesh and blood. “I’m sorry, Momma. I didn’t mean...” She shook her head and swallowed. “I like Cash--as a friend. Nothing more.” She bent and picked up a baseball lying on the floor by her chair leg.

      The sound of a vehicle crunching on the gravel of the drive had her turning toward it. She stood and leaned on the railing as the nondescript sedan stopped beside her truck. When a middle-aged woman exited the car, fear snaked around Micki’s gut, and she gripped the white rail. By the look of the woman’s high heels and pinstriped suit, she didn’t get out of her Brownwood office much.

      Jesse came out of the orchard and rounded the car. The woman smiled at him, but he only hurried up the steps to move in close to Micki. Her need to protect him was strong and undeniable as she wrapped her arm around his slender shoulders and pulled him close.

      Momma must have felt the same compulsion because she positioned her wheelchair at the edge of the porch steps between the pillars. “What can we do for you?”

      The woman stopped on the concrete walkway at the bottom of the stairs and glanced at Jesse. He snaked his arm around Micki’s waist and held on.

      The woman smiled and held out an envelope along with a badge.

      “It’ll be okay,” Micki said to Jesse with a gentle squeeze. He didn’t look convinced as she let go of him and made herself descend the three steps. Stopping in front of the woman, she read the identification the lady was holding out.

      With a smile the Department of Family Protective Services agent put her badge away. “Allison Fennel. Are you Michaela or Loretta Finn?” She handed Micki an envelope with the seal of Texas in the corner and her and her mother’s names in the middle of it.

      Micki numbly nodded and met the woman’s eyes. “I’m Michaela. My mother is Loretta. Why are you here?”

      She already knew--Jesse.

      “Jesse, be a good boy and go inside please,” her mother said.

      “I’m not going anywhere.” Jesse stomped down the steps to stop beside Micki. “What do you want, lady?”

      Fennel’s smile dripped sugar as she leaned forward. “I bet you’re Jesse.”

      “So?”

      “Jesse, please go inside--now.” Micki ruffled his hair.

      He squared his shoulders and ran up the stairs. The screen door slammed behind him.

      “I’m his grandmother. What do you want?” Loretta’s voice was as hard as concrete.

      The woman’s eyes shifted from Micki to Loretta. “DFPS was contacted this morning by Judge Lemont Finn regarding the deaths of Samuel and Frances McKenna. It’s my office’s responsibility to make certain the child is taken care of.”

      Son of a bitch. Figured her father would get involved. Micki stuck her hands into her back pockets to keep them from forming fists. “My sister and her husband left him in our care while they were on a business trip. We aren’t stopping now. We’re his only family.”

      Micki’s throat froze shut at Fennel’s slight, lopsided grin. “I’m here at the request of the child’s grandfather. Mrs. Finn, it’s my understanding you were Frances’s stepmother. Lemont Finn’s first wife died in a car accident when she was a year old.”

      “Yes, that’s correct. Before I could adopt her proper, Lemont and I divorced. But Frankie was as much mine as Micki is.” Her mother’s voice quivered. “I loved her as my own child.”

      Dear God, they weren’t seriously thinking of giving Jesse to her father, were they? Neither Frankie nor Sam would have ever wanted that. They despised him as much as she and her mother did.

      Micki heard another vehicle on the drive, but she was too focused on Allison Fennel and her thoughts to heed the sound. A car door slammed.

      “Is it also true you do not own this house? You lived and worked on the ranch, Miss Finn?”

      “Yes, I’m the manager.”

      “You aren’t taking that child anywhere. I’m Jesse’s brother.”

      Fennel turned at the sound of Gabe’s voice. If the situation weren’t so dire, Micki would have smiled at the way her eyes bugged out of her head. She opened her mouth and closed it again. Finally, she sputtered, “Gabe McKenna?”

      The hardness of Gabe’s face never softened.

      “Gabe!” Jesse bounded down the stairs and leapt into his older brother’s arms. “You came!”

      “Of course I’d be here.” Gabe held his brother and kissed the top of his dark head. “I’m so sorry, buddy.”

      At the tenderness in his voice, Micki’s heart did a fast little flutter.

      Gabe set Jesse back on his feet and placed his trademark tan Stetson on the boy’s curls, completely covering the top half of his face.

      “I’m glad you’re here, Gabe. This lady wants to take me away to live with Grandpa Lemont.” The flash of fear in his dark blue eyes filled Micki with a need to keep him away from her father.

      Gabe knelt in front of his baby brother and rested his hands on Jesse’s small shoulders. “That’s not going to happen. So, don’t you worry about it, okay?”

      Jesse gazed at Gabe with hero worship causing Micki’s heart to swell. He’d always been good with Jesse and never held their father’s affair with Frankie against him. A fierce longing for what could have been hit her hard enough to knock the breath out of her. A lot of years had passed since she had thought of Gabe as father material, but even then she’d never considered he’d be so patient and attentive. So loving.

      Gabe tugged the brim of his hat down over Jesse’s forehead. “Now you go inside with your grandma while your aunt Michaela and I talk to the lady. Okay?” He glanced over Jesse’s head to her mother and she nodded. He winked at Micki and shooed Jesse up the steps.

      Momma held out her hand for Jesse to take, and together they entered the house.

      Gabe stood beside Micki and faced the agent. “I think you can leave now. Despite Loretta’s relationship to Frankie or Jesse, Michaela is his aunt by blood and I’m his brother.”

      The woman looked flustered as beads of sweat formed on her brow and upper lip. “I have to deliver the boy into the care of Judge Finn.”

      Gabe put his left hand into the pocket of his faded jeans. “You can explain to Judge Finn he isn’t taking Jesse away from his home at a time as painful as this. The boy doesn’t even know the man.”

      Micki jumped when he put his other arm around her shoulders. The touch was light and more show than anything else, but it sent a zing through her.

      “Now if you will excuse us, we have funeral arrangements to make. Loretta and Micki have been taking care of Jesse for the past week while my father and Michaela’s sister were in Dallas. Our lawyer will be in contact with DFPS as soon as possible.”

      Gabe СКАЧАТЬ