A Baby on the Ranch. Marie Ferrarella

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СКАЧАТЬ her confidence. I’m trying to make her understand that she doesn’t have to face any of this alone.”

      “How about the part that she’s so much better off without him?” Alma asked.

      “That’ll come later. Right now, we’re still gluing the pieces together.”

      And he felt as if he was making some serious headway. Kasey seemed more cheerful these days than when she’d first arrived.

      “You’re doing more than that,” Alma pointed out. “You took her in.”

      He waited to answer his sister until Alice Meriwether passed them. Anything that went into the woman’s ear instantly came out of her mouth. He nodded at Alice and then moved on.

      “Yeah, well,” he finally said, lowering his voice, “she didn’t have any place to go and even though it’s summer right now, she can’t exactly sleep on the street.”

      “She wouldn’t have,” Alma assured him. “I’m sure Miss Joan would have happily put her and the baby up in her old house. She still hasn’t gotten rid of it even though she moved in with Cash’s grandfather.”

      Just saying Cash’s name brought a wide smile to her lips. He’d come back for his grandfather’s wedding and wound up staying in Forever for her. They were getting married in a little more than a month. And even though there was now a growing squadron of butterflies in the pit of her stomach, the fact that she and Cash were finally getting married was enough to make a person believe that happy endings did exist.

      Which was, ultimately, what she was hoping that Eli would come to discover. His own personal happy ending with a young woman he obviously loved.

      Alma crossed her fingers.

      Her brother shrugged, doubting that moving into Miss Joan’s house would have been a viable solution for Kasey. “Kasey would have felt like she was on the receiving end of charity. She really wouldn’t have been comfortable accepting Miss Joan’s offer,” he told her.

      Miss Joan was like everyone’s slightly sharp-tongued fairy godmother—just as quick to help as she was to offer “constructive criticism.”

      “But she’s comfortable accepting yours?” Alma asked so that her brother didn’t suspect that she knew how he felt about Kasey.

      “We’ve been friends since elementary school,” Eli said. “That makes my letting her stay with me an act of friendship, not charity.”

      Alma congratulated herself on keeping a straight face as she asked, “So this is just like one great big sleepover, huh?”

      Eli stopped short of coming up to the checkout counter. He pinned his sister with a deliberate look. “Something on your mind, Alma?”

      “A lot of things,” she answered blithely. “I’m the sheriff’s deputy, remember? I’m supposed to have a lot on my mind.”

      His patience begun to fray a little around the edges. “Alma—”

      “I saw you through the store window,” she told him. “And I wanted to make sure that you were still going to be at the wedding.” He’d gotten so wrapped up around Kasey, she was afraid that he’d forget that she and Cash were getting married. But before Eli could say anything in response, she deliberately sweetened the pot for him by adding, “You know that Kasey and the baby are invited, too, right?”

      His instincts had prevented him from bringing up the subject of Alma’s upcoming wedding and Kasey hadn’t asked him about it. “She didn’t say anything to me.”

      “That’s because when the invitations went out, she was still Hollis’s wife and he kept her on a very tight leash. Most likely, he got rid of the invitation before she ever saw it,” Alma ventured.

      “She still is Hollis’s wife,” he pointed out, even though just saying it seemed to burn a hole in his gut.

      “Which reminds me, Kasey can go see either Rick’s wife, Olivia, or Cash to have them start to file divorce papers for her.”

      Both Olivia and Cash had had careers as high-powered lawyers in the cities that they’d lived in before coming here to Forever. In effect, they’d traded their six-figure incomes for the feeling of satisfaction in knowing that they were doing something worthwhile for the community.

      “She’s got the perfect grounds for it,” Alma said when her brother made no comment. Didn’t he want Kasey free of that deadbeat? He’d inherited the ranch they’d lived on from his late parents and had all but ruined it. He certainly had let it get run-down. “Abandonment,” Alma said in case her brother wasn’t aware of it.

      But he was.

      “I know that,” Eli responded curtly.

      Well, that certainly wasn’t the reaction she’d expected from him. Alma tried to figure out why her brother seemed so short-tempered. Could it be that Kasey was still in love with that worthless excuse for a human being and had said as much to Eli?

      Alma rather doubted that, not after Kasey had lived with Eli these past few weeks. Living with Eli gave the new mother something positive to measure against the poor excuse for a human being she’d been shackled to. For her part, she might tease her brother mercilessly, but she knew that the difference between Eli and Hollis was the proverbial difference between night and day.

      “I never said you didn’t,” Alma assured him gently, then explained, “I was just trying to make myself clear, that’s all. It’s a habit I picked up from Cash.” Her tone changed to an assertive one. “By the way, you’re coming to the wedding.” It was no longer a question but a command. “I’ve decided that I’m not accepting any excuses,” she added. “Now, is there anything I can do for you or Kasey?” she asked. “I mean, other than shooting Hollis if he tries to creep back into town?”

      Having reached the checkout counter, Eli had unloaded most of the items he’d picked up. He’d gotten everything on Kasey’s list, plus a candy bar he recalled she’d been particularly fond of when they went to high school. Finished, he fished out his wallet to pay the clerk. That was when Alma had said what she had about Hollis.

      The thought hit him right between the eyes. He’d all but convinced himself that Hollis was gone for good. “Do you think that he actually might…?”

      There was really no telling what someone with Hollis’s mentality and temperament would do. “I’ve found that it’s really hard to second-guess a lowlife,” she told her brother. “No matter how low your expectations, they can still surprise you and go lower. But in general, I’d say no, probably not.” She knew that was what he wanted to hear and for once, she decided to accommodate him. Besides, there was a fifty-fifty chance she was right. If she was wrong, worrying about it ahead of time wouldn’t help, and if she was right, then hours would have been wasted in anticipation of a nonevent.

      Alma moved closer to him so that none of the customers nearby could overhear. She knew how much Eli’s privacy meant to him.

      “So then it’s going well?” she asked for a third time.

      He wasn’t sure what she meant by well and he wasn’t about to answer her in case Alma was too curious about whether something had blossomed between Kasey and him in these past few weeks. He knew СКАЧАТЬ