Weddings Collection. Кэрол Мортимер

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      She dragged her fingers through her hair, untangling it. “What does strength have to do with it?” she challenged.

      Strength had everything to do with it. When she got older, she’d understand. “It takes a great deal of strength to stay, to make a life for not just yourself but your family.”

      It wasn’t as if her father had accidentally made her mother pregnant and moved on. He’d married her, had three children with her. He knew what he was up against, what he was doing. And she hated him for it. For not loving any of them enough to stay.

      “Well, if you can’t do it,” she snapped, “you shouldn’t have a family.”

      She was about to storm out of the room. He placed his hands on her shoulders, turning her around to face him. “Hindsight, June.”

      Where was he going with this? “What do you want me to do, just forgive him?”

      “Yes.”

      Her mouth dropped open. Though she’d thrown the words at him, she hadn’t expected him to actually agree. It took the wind out of her sails. “You really want me to forgive him?”

      “Yes.”

      Anger filled her. Kevin was supposed to be on her side, not her father’s. He didn’t even know her father. “He doesn’t deserve forgiving.”

      That was beside the point. “Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t, but you deserve not to have to live with this anger consuming you this way.”

      Where the hell did he get off making judgments like that? Shrugging him away, she squared her shoulders. “You don’t even know me—beyond the obvious.”

      “Yes, I do,” he contradicted quietly. “Because what you feel, I’ve felt. My father didn’t have to withdraw the way he did, didn’t have to leave me with the responsibility of doing what he couldn’t do. We needed him, my brother, my sisters and me, and he just copped out.” She opened her mouth and he knew what she was going to say, that it wasn’t the same thing. But it was. “He didn’t go off whistling with a backpack slung over his shoulder, but he went just the same. And he took most of the dreams I had at the time with him.”

      She wanted to know about those dreams. But all June could say was, “Then you do understand what I’m feeling.”

      “Yes. But I also forgave my father. Because not to forgive him made me bitter.” He touched her cheek, making her look up at him, trying to make her see. “And bitter is a terrible way to be.”

      Frustrated, June sighed. “I’ll think about it.”

      “Good.” He followed her into the hall. She hurried across the floor like a woman with a purpose. “Where are you going?”

      “I’ve got to go into town.” She saw Kevin looking over toward the telephone. “This isn’t the kind of thing you do on the phone.”

      She probably had a point. “All right, I’ll go with you.”

      She didn’t need a guardian or a protector. “No, you don’t have to.”

      “Yes,” he said quietly, “I do.”

      Irritated without fully knowing why, she stood her ground. “Just because we made love doesn’t mean you own me.”

      “That has nothing to do with it. You look like you need a friend.”

      She was going to answer that she didn’t need anyone, but that was a lie and they both knew it. Everyone could always use a friend. Her heart warmed. She threw open the front door, then looked at him over her shoulder. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

      He followed her across the threshold. “Not a thing.”

Chapter Twelve

      “You know?”

      June stared at her grandmother, dumbfounded. It had taken her several minutes just to work up to the subject of her father’s reappearance, afraid that the shock might be too much for the woman. Despite her rigorous protests to the contrary, Ursula’s heart was not as rock solid as it had once been.

      But instead of shocking her grandmother, the woman had wound up stunning her.

      Ursula Hatcher sat complacently behind her desk, presiding over the small government domain that had been hers all these many long years. Her eyes were kind as she looked at her youngest grandchild.

      “He was already here.”

      Obviously all her worrying about the state of her grandmother’s heart had been pointless. The woman appeared to be taking this far better than she was.

      “And?” Impatience surrounded the single word.

      With a great amount of care, Ursula began to reorganize the first-class stamps filed away in her drawer. She kept her eyes on her work. “He said his piece and left—after I put him to work for a while.”

      The sigh that escaped her granddaughter’s lips was just short of being classified as a gale. “Grandma—”

      She glanced up as she continued refiling the stamps by age. “I don’t throw stones, June.” She closed the drawer with finality. “And everybody deserves a second chance, especially if they’re sincere.”

      Was her grandmother getting naive, or had she always been that way? “He’s not sincere.”

      “Oh, I think he is.”

      Ursula prided herself on not having wool pulled over her eyes. She’d seen through Wayne Yearling when he’d first come calling on her daughter. And saw him for what he was now. A broken man looking to right at least one wrong before he died. She judged by the way June was carrying on that she didn’t know about her father’s limited status on this earth.

      “Doesn’t hurt anything to give it some time.” She sat back and looked at the two young people before her. She sensed that Kevin knew what she was talking about. “I couldn’t find it in my heart to throw him out. Maybe I could have once,” she allowed, “but not now. I don’t think Max will either.” Ursula paused to think for a moment. “I’m not a hundred percent sure about April.” Her words were addressed to Kevin. “She was the oldest and thought she was his favorite.”

      June laughed shortly, dismissing her grandmother’s words. “He was his own favorite.”

      Ursula’s voice was calm, considerate. “Don’t think that’s true now, June-bug.”

      Kevin raised his eyebrows in amusement as he looked at June. “June-bug?” Somehow, it fit.

      Ursula nodded. “Nickname we gave her when she was a little bit of a thing.” She shifted her chair to better face him. “June was always exploring, crawling into things and getting stuck.”

      The grin was so wide it nearly split Kevin’s face. “June-bug, huh?”

      Her grandmother СКАЧАТЬ