Heartsong. Sara Walter Ellwood

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СКАЧАТЬ the moisture he saw in her eyes. “Jesse, please help Grandma.”

      He nodded and quickly caught up with her as an older couple stopped to offer their condolences. Jesse held Loretta’s hand and nodded at something Mrs. Owens said to him.

      Michaela cleared her throat and folded her arms in front of her. “I hate all of this.”

      “Yeah.” The tension tightened around Gabe like a belt binding his chest. “It’s got to be hard on you, seeing your momma like this all the time.”

      She took a deep breath raising her shoulders; then she met Gabe’s eyes. “Usually she has a sensation of pins and needles, but recently her trigeminal neuralgia has been worse.”

      He raised a brow. “What’s that?”

      “Facial pain.”

      “Can’t something be done about it?” They moved farther into the room. Although people observed them, quietly sending their sympathy, they kept their distance. They seemed to understand Gabe and Michaela’s need to be alone.

      “There’s a surgery, but it’s expensive and Momma’s Medicare would only pay a very small part of it.” She glanced toward her mother. “I’ll get something worked out.”

      Near a table set up for drinks, Loretta talked to an older woman he recognized as Mary Nelson. The woman poured Loretta a plastic cup of Seven Up, which she took with shaky hands. Jesse helped her hold the drink to her lips.

      Before he had a chance to say anything on the matter, Michaela squared her shoulders and stared at him. “When are you leaving?”

      Michaela had never been anything but direct.

      Gabe shrugged and shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “I’ll be leaving tomorrow after the will reading. I have meetings with my record company and a show in Cheyenne next week.” He nodded an acknowledgement to a guy he’d gone to high school with. “I haven’t told Jesse yet.”

      “He knows you live in Nashville. He’ll be okay with Momma and me.”

      “About that…” He met her eyes again, the sparkling blue hauntingly deep and inviting. And scared. She’d had the same frightened look the day she’d given him the ultimatum--either he chased his dream or he stayed and married her, but he couldn’t have both.

      “You can’t take him with you.” She stepped closer and dropped her arms to her sides, fisting her hands. “Gabe, dear God, he just lost his parents. You can’t rip him from everything he knows.”

      “I know.” A terrible pain twisted his gut. The road wasn’t the place for a kid. There was only one thing to do. He took a deep breath and glanced at Loretta and Jesse. “If you need anything, Michaela, let me know. I could help you out.”

      Her face became a storm cloud ready to burst as she stiffened her back. “We’re fine. And I most certainly don’t need your money to take care of my family. Excuse me.”

      She spun away and shifted through the crowd and around the long tables filling with people. A younger man approached her and sat down beside her at the table in the back. He looked to be in his early twenties and was dressed in a dark Western-cut blazer and slacks. Something about him seemed familiar; then he recognized him. He was Mary and JP Nelson’s youngest son, Cash. He worked part-time on the Lazy M. Hadn’t he become a high school history teacher or something?

      Michaela bit her lip and nodded to whatever he said. Cash pulled her into a one-armed embrace, and she laid her head on his shoulder.

      Gabe wasn’t ready for the sudden jolt of jealousy zipping through him when she snaked her arm around Cash’s waist. Why did he care if they were an item?

      “Aren’t they a handsome pair?”

      Gabe turned to face the man behind him. Lemont watched him with calculating blue eyes, reminding Gabe of a rattlesnake before the strike. Gabe didn’t justify his question with an answer. Straightening his shoulders, he unlocked his back teeth. “I’m sure you aren’t here to offer your condolences. So, what do you want?”

      Lemont’s grin never reached his cold eyes. “You know what I want.”

      “Jesse is not living with you. I believe DFPS made that clear.”

      Lemont chuckled and rested his hand on Gabe’s shoulder. “My dear boy, hadn’t your daddy told you anything about me?”

      Gabe glanced at the big, age-spotted hand on his shoulder. “He told me plenty, and so have Michaela, Frankie, and Loretta.”

      Slowly nodding with a smirk Gabe wanted to knock off the bastard’s face, Lemont said, “Then you should know I usually get what I want.” He patted Gabe’s shoulder. “See you around.”

      He moved away, leaving fear and anger tangling in Gabe’s belly. Lemont wasn’t an enemy anyone wanted. He’d destroyed more than one adversary, including stealing his father’s partnership in Finn Energy, his oil company. Lemont’s ranch was one of the biggest in west central Texas, and his wealth came from a variety of business interests he’d acquired along the way like a person might collect coins. Not to mention, he’d somehow gotten himself elected county judge twenty years back. Despite being out of office, he still held power in the county.

      “Gabe, I’m so sorry for your loss.”

      He took a deep breath and focused on Mary Nelson’s concerned brown eyes and friendly face. With her dyed-blond hair teased high, she reminded him of Dolly Parton, but that’s where the comparison ended. Mary was rail thin. She pulled him into a tight hug.

      “Thanks.” He let her go and glanced over her head to her son and Michaela. “Cash still working at the Lazy M?”

      She smiled and nodded. “When he’s not teaching.” He met her gaze, and she squeezed his upper arm. “You don’t have anything to worry about.”

      “I’m not worried about Lemont Finn,” he lied. He’d be foolish not to be concerned over what the man potentially had planned for Jesse. Lemont was heartless and brutal. While he’d been judge, he swindled his daughters out of their trust funds and doctored evidence to prove Loretta had cheated on him before their divorce; therefore her alimony payments ceased. Not to mention all of the other crooked things he’d done while judge. Even the state attorney general investigated his office. After the AG’s investigator had been found dead in the woods behind the hotel he’d been staying in and the death ruled a suicide, the government never pursued the issue. Lemont walked away without so much as a wrinkle in his Armani suit and a pat on the back by the same Attorney General who’d been gunning for him. Gabe’s father suspected Lemont had something on the state’s top lawyer and had the investigator taken care of.

      She patted his arm. “Micki and Cash are just friends. Oh, my son has been crushing on her since he was a boy, but she doesn’t feel the same.”

      “What?” Her statement caused mental whiplash. She wasn’t talking about Lemont but Cash and Michaela. He didn’t care about what went on between her son and his ex. “I think you’re misreading whatever you think you saw.” The hard edge in his voice surprised him. “Micki and I have a common interest--Jesse.”

      Mary nodded and smiled as if she knew he was talking bullshit, but she didn’t push the СКАЧАТЬ