Hometown Hearts. Jillian Hart

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      Chapter Two

      Somehow his feet carried him to the door as if he were in a daze. Maybe it was the heat wave sucking the moisture from his body and dehydrating his brain. That had to be it. His sweaty palms gripped the door handle with a slight slide. Embarrassing. Maybe he could attribute that to dehydration, too.

       “Uh-oh. Dad’s here.”

       He recognized the dour tone in his oldest’s voice. She was, after all, practicing to be a teenager.

       Air-conditioning breezed over him as he released hold of the door. It swooshed shut behind him and an angry yowling protest rose from a cat carrier on the floor nearby. A dog bounced up from his sprawl on the floor to bark a ringing welcome while a frizzy-haired woman tried to gently shush him, to no avail. His gaze shot to Cheyenne against his will like an arrow to a target.

       He’d never seen her up close. Even more striking. She had a sloping nose, a wide smile that would make movie actresses envious. With her high cheekbones, golden sunny complexion and a willowy grace, she made a breathtaking picture as she rose from kneeling before Julianna’s chair. The vet’s white jacket might make her look professional, but she glowed with a cheerful joy that had a beauty all its own.

       He wasn’t captivated, really. He could look away if he wanted to, except his eyes didn’t seem to be cooperating.

       “Daddy!” Julianna bopped to her feet, bounded across the tile and wrapped her arms around his waist. The four dogs in the waiting room barked in excitement, eager to join in. The cacophony was deafening. His daughter’s big brown eyes peered up at him, fringed by long dark lashes and her thick, flyaway bangs. “Please don’t be mad anymore. I’ll stay in my room every evening after supper with no toys. I p-promise.”

       His heart caved. “I don’t see the use in sending you to your room if it doesn’t change your behavior.” He tweaked her nose, at a loss what to do with the girl. “I’ll have to think of something more effective.”

       “I could give up desserts?”

       Hard to stay mad at that little face. He steeled his resolve, trying not to be too lenient and also not to give in to his anger from the worry she’d caused him.

       “She shouldn’t be deciding her own punishment, Dad.” Jenny sauntered up. Her dark eyes hadn’t lost the look of pain and anger at her mother, but the stay in Wyoming had helped to ease it. She gave an I-so-don’t-care scowl and flipped a lock of her hair. “I don’t get to decide my punishments.”

       “I’ll think of something fair.” It was all he could promise. His neurotransmitters weren’t firing correctly because of the woman walking toward him. She had the power to suck the oxygen from the atmosphere and all rational thought from his brain. It only got worse with each step she took closer.

       He couldn’t tear his attention away from her. He noticed things about her he’d tried not to see before. Her hair was lighter than he’d thought, full of russets and golds and strawberry-blond shades as it fell in soft tendrils from her French braid. Gently swooping bangs framed the bluest eyes he’d ever seen. From a distance, she’d been beautiful. Up close, she was stunning in a gentle, natural girl-next-door way.

       “Dr. Stone.” She plunged her hands into her jacket pockets and offered him a professional smile. “At last we meet.”

       “There was no way to avoid it.” He heard his voice boom low as if with dislike and internally he winced. He wasn’t proud of the tone. After his divorce, he had put up so many walls, and he didn’t like that about himself. He automatically wanted women to keep their distance so he wouldn’t be duped like that again.

       She didn’t seem to know what to say. She opened her mouth, hesitated, bit her bottom lip for a moment. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. You have the most wonderful girls.”

       “You don’t know them like I do.” Those words had sounded lighter in his head, but on his voice they seemed to weigh down like iron. Unlikable, remote, unfeeling iron.

       “Daddy, Tomasina’s better.” Julianna bounced away to hold out her hand to one of the nearby dogs. “Cheyenne says she has a good chance. If she lives, we can put her back in her nest.”

       “Her mother won’t take her now,” he blurted out, realizing too late what he’d said. He prayed his comment wouldn’t remind the girls of what they’d lost. A mother who had only part-time interest in them.

       “Actually, that’s not true.” Cheyenne Granger looked all too happy to correct him. “Julianna knows where the nest is, so we should be able to return the baby to her home. Once Tomasina is back with her siblings, she should be just fine. They are probably looking around the nest wondering where she is.”

       “Or saying she shouldn’t have misbehaved, which made her fall out of the nest in the first place,” Jenny supplied with a faint grin. “I have a lot of experience with siblings.”

       He ruffled Jenny’s hair. “That’s a relief. Under no circumstances are we keeping a bird in the house.”

       “It wouldn’t be right to keep her locked up,” Julianna informed him. “God meant for her to fly in the sky. She would be sad in a cage.”

       “That’s right.” Cheyenne’s gentleness drew his attention.

       There was something luminous about her and he had noticed it before. When he’d seen her last, she had been wearing a bridesmaid’s dress at the family wedding he’d attended a while ago. He couldn’t forget the way she’d stood out to him above all the other women in the room. He was not so good with words, which had been one of Stacy’s greatest complaints about him. His lack of words became a problem again as silence settled in, but the beautiful veterinarian didn’t seem bothered by it. She knelt to catch Julianna’s chin with both of her slender, gentle hands, a show of affection that surprised him.

       “You keep right on helping animals. You call me anytime, got it?” She was at ease with his daughters, sharing a smile with Julianna and then with Jenny.

       “Okay, I will. Animals just find me.”

       “More like you find them,” Jenny corrected and shared an understanding smile with Cheyenne. He appreciated her kindness to his girls.

       “Adam, this visit is entirely on me. You won’t be billed.” She opened and held the door for them. “Julianna and Jenny did a great job of rescuing Tomasina and getting her here safely. They СКАЧАТЬ