The Dad Next Door. Stephanie Dees
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Название: The Dad Next Door
Автор: Stephanie Dees
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Короткие любовные романы
Серия: Family Blessings
isbn: 9781474067843
isbn:
He studied her face as she talked—animated, alive—and comprehension dawned. He had enough instincts and experience to see trouble brewing. “So when you say you’re ‘kind of’ opening a bed-and-breakfast, what you really mean is you’re turning your inheritance into a foster home, where kids will have a bed and eat breakfast.”
She had the grace to blush. “Yes, something like that.”
“Were you trying to hide the truth?” He wasn’t opposed to giving her the benefit of the doubt, but this new friendship might be short-lived if she had a habit of lying.
“No! Really, I wasn’t. You assumed bed-and-breakfast and I didn’t correct you. I never intended to keep it a secret.”
“A foster home is going to raise some eyebrows in this town.” Not that he cared. He wasn’t planning to be here long enough to witness the fallout.
Claire frowned. “Why? My sister, Jordan, and I were in foster care for a while after the first couple who intended to adopt us changed their mind. Foster kids aren’t delinquents, they just aren’t able to live at home for some reason.”
“That may be true, but it’s not people’s perception. Red Hill Springs is a friendly little town, but people are set in their ways.”
She stared at him, unflinching. Then grinned again. “Then I’ll just have to change their mind.” She leaned over the plate and took another big bite of pancakes as she slid out of the booth. “Gotta run. I have to make sure the fence line will keep my horse in.”
Claire walked up to the register, where she chatted with his mom for a few minutes. She stopped back by the table to say, “Don’t forget to bring Amelia out this afternoon. We can talk about rent then, if you like the cabin.”
His eyebrows drew together. “I still don’t get it. You don’t even know me. And I definitely don’t know you.”
“Maybe I have a soft spot for a daughter who never knew her dad.” She tossed the words over her shoulder as she swung the front door open. “Plus, you’re armed and I don’t have a donkey yet.”
Bertie slid a to-go cup of coffee in front of him as the door swung shut behind Claire. “She’s cute and she seems nice.”
His eyes were on Claire as she walked toward her car. “Yeah, maybe.”
“Hopefully, Amelia will eat with you tomorrow.” His mom smiled as she reached for the dirty dishes on the table.
He laughed softly, shaking his head. “Who knows?”
“Well, don’t give up, bud. She reminds me of someone else I knew once who was pretty bullheaded. Besides, you need her.”
It wasn’t until he was on the street walking back to his mom’s house that he realized his mom had said you need her. That was ridiculous. Daughters needed a father, not the other way around.
But there was something there, some restlessness inside that he couldn’t identify. His mom had said God was preparing him for something big. Something risky.
Like moving-across-the-country-to-start-a-foster-home risky?
He curled his fingers into a fist and stretched them out one by one, refusing to wince at the pain that shot up his arm. Sometimes just getting through every day seemed like a risk.
Claire shoved the pole into the slot on the fence, tested the fit and fell against it, trying to catch her breath. She dusted the gloves on her pants and pulled them off, stretching her fingers. Her whole body ached. She hadn’t expected to have to rebuild the whole corral when she arranged for Freckles to be trailered in today.
A honking horn caught her attention. She smiled, something easing in her chest as her twin sister, Jordan, pulled into the lane in her truck.
Jordan shoved the gear into Park and jumped down, enveloping her in a huge bear hug. “Wow! It’s been too long.”
“Hasn’t even been a week yet.”
Jordan’s reddish-blond hair was twisted into two short braids and she was dressed, as usual, in boots, jeans and a flannel shirt. They were fraternal twins, but people had a hard time even believing they were sisters. She shrugged. “I’m not the only one who thinks so. Freckles went into a depression after you left.”
Claire lifted the latch on the trailer gate, lowering it gently to the ground so as not to spook her horse inside. Freckles turned his head and sniffed, one big brown eye catching sight of her. He snorted.
She laughed as she climbed in and patted his rump. “I get it. You’re mad at me now, buddy, but come January, when you’re not trying to find the one remaining blade of grass under a half foot of ice and snow, you’ll be thanking me.”
He nudged her with his nose and she pulled out half an apple she’d scrounged from her car. After a good scratch and a minute to warm up to her again, she backed him out of the trailer. The second his hooves hit the ground, he lifted his head and sniffed the air.
“It smells different, doesn’t it, boy?” She scratched along his mane and patted him before she turned to Jordan. “I don’t know how to thank you for bringing him.”
“No problem. How is it?”
“Rough. The whole place needs to be renovated.”
Jordan walked a few steps away, taking in the property. “What do you think he was doing, Claire, leaving us this property? He didn’t know us, barely spent two hours with us once he found us. Was it guilt?”
A familiar hollowness settled in Claire’s chest. “I don’t know. Maybe. It’s not like it’s a giant prize. It’s a mess.”
Jordan walked a few steps, her hands on her hips, then turned back with her arms outstretched. “Yeah, but it’s awesome. Just imagine the organic vegetable garden over there to the left, the pond stocked with fish. A load of teenagers doing all the chores and cheerfully learning to be responsible.”
Claire snorted a laugh as she walked her horse in a large circle. “You do have rose-colored glasses. When did you ever know teenagers to be cheerful about chores?”
“Hey, there’s always a chance.” Jordan’s blue-green eyes were shining.
“I’ll call you and let you know how that goes.”
Jordan leaned on the fence to the corral, facing Claire. “Yeah, about that.”
Claire stopped midstride. Behind her, Freckles went still, glanced at her and went to nibbling the green grass around the fence posts. “What?”
“I want to move here and work with you.”
“In a second! But you know I can’t afford to pay you.” She led Freckles through the gate to the corral, where, for the time being, there was still some grass. She unhooked his lead rope and looked, really looked, at her sister. There СКАЧАТЬ