The Cowboy's Little Girl. Kat Brookes

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СКАЧАТЬ my uncles mad at my daddy?” Tucker heard Blue ask as Autumn led her away. Any answer her aunt might have given was lost as the two scurried toward the entryway.

      Garrett waited a moment and then turned to face him. “I can’t believe you kept this from us.”

      Tucker hated the censure he saw in his brother’s eyes.

      Jackson crossed the room to grab a couple of coffee cups from the cupboard. “I wouldn’t have expected this from you,” he muttered as he placed them onto the counter and then reached for the coffeepot. “Momma raised us better than that.”

      This was going to be even harder than he’d imagined it would be, not that he’d had much time to think about how everything was going to play out. Just one sleepless night in the barn. He took a seat at the table and dragged a hand down over his face, feeling the stubble of his unshaven jaw. “I didn’t know about Blue,” he said, the admission stoking the flames of his resentment toward Summer for keeping his daughter from him. “Not until last evening when Autumn showed up on my doorstep to tell me about Summer’s...passing.” The word caught in his throat.

      “I’m sorry,” Garrett said solemnly. “I know how much she meant to you at one time.”

      Enough to marry, Tucker thought, his jaw tightening.

      Jackson walked over and handed Garrett a steaming mug and then both men settled themselves into the empty chairs across the table from Tucker, disapproval etched into their tanned faces.

      “I know what you’re both thinking,” Tucker grumbled. “And you’re wrong.”

      “You just told us that Blue is your daughter,” their oldest brother said, pinning Tucker with his gaze.

      “She is. Only I didn’t know Summer was carrying my child when she walked away from our marriage.”

      Jackson nearly choked on the sip of coffee he’d just taken. “Marriage?”

      “You both know I fell pretty hard for her when we met. By the time rodeo season came to an end, I couldn’t imagine leaving her. She felt the same.” At least, he’d thought she had. But if she had, she would have told him about the baby. Would have given him the chance to think about giving up the rodeo life, instead of making the decision herself to end something they had started together. “We both decided to put down roots in Cheyenne, the place where we’d first met. So I bought her a ring and got married at the courthouse.”

      “You have something against church weddings?” Garrett asked with a disapproving frown.

      “We wanted a quick, small, private wedding.”

      “Can’t get more private than a courthouse wedding,” Jackson muttered angrily as he brought his coffee cup to his lips. “You might have at least included your immediate family in something as sacred as the exchanging of your wedding vows.”

      Garrett’s downturned mouth pulled tighter. “And to think we all believed you had stayed behind when rodeo season ended to work a job until the next year’s circuit began anew.”

      He had found filler work in Cheyenne to help pay the bills. That much was true.

      “Did your rushed marriage have something to do with Summer having your baby?”

      Tucker pinned his oldest brother with his gaze. “Blue came after the fact. I rushed into a hasty marriage with Summer because I was young and thought love was something it turned out not to be,” he replied, feeling the need to clarify things.

      “We all knew you were always one to jump feetfirst into the fire,” Garrett said crossly, “but marriage, Tucker? Never mind the not including us when the nuptials took place, because you and I both know I would have done my best to talk you out of it with you being only twenty-four at the time. But why not tell us about your marriage afterward?”

      “Summer and I agreed to take a little time to settle into marriage before telling our families. My family actually,” he amended, “as my wife led me to believe she had none. But things changed. My wife changed.” He went on to tell his brothers everything he knew, but there were still so many unanswered questions he might never get answers to now that she was gone.

      Empathy replaced the hurt and anger he’d seen in Garrett’s eyes. His brother released a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. It certainly explains why you’ve avoided any real relationship since that summer. I put it off to your not wanting the distraction while competitively riding. Then after we started up our rodeo stock company I thought it had something to do with your delving hard into that. Never in a million years would I have guessed the truth having anything to do with you being married.”

      Jackson sat back against the kitchen chair and shoved a splayed hand back through his thick hair. “I still can’t process the fact that my baby brother is a married man.”

      “Widowed,” Tucker said flatly. Then, fighting back the emotion that had been roiling around in his gut all morning, he said, “And it was my forgiveness she should have been seeking at the end.”

      “There’s no denying that Summer did you wrong,” Jackson acknowledged with a frown. “But she did right by asking the Lord for forgiveness. If you were there, then maybe—”

      “But I wasn’t,” Tucker ground out, cutting his brother off. “I didn’t even know where there was. She left without so much as a goodbye and never made any attempt to contact me, or let me know where she was. At some point, she came back to Cheyenne, but I must have already moved back home.”

      “It’s possible she tried to find you at some point, but you were already gone,” Garrett said hopefully.

      “Summer knew I was born and raised in Bent Creek. She could have found me easy enough. But my wife chose to keep my little girl from me.” A myriad of emotions filled him at that moment, feelings he didn’t know how to deal with.

      His brothers exchanged worried glances and then Garrett said, “It’s going to be okay.”

      “How?” Tucker demanded. “I’ve missed so much. My daughter’s first smile. Her first steps. Her first birthday.” Shoving away from the table, he crossed the room to stand at the sink, staring out the bay window that looked out over the back pasture. “I’m her father,” he said, his voice breaking, “and I don’t even know when my daughter’s birthday is.”

      Chairs scooted back from the kitchen table and then heavy-booted footsteps crossed the wood planks that made up the kitchen floor. A second later, he was bookended by his older brothers.

      Garrett clasped a hand over his shoulder. “I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re feeling right now, but I do know that the Lord has seen fit to bless our family with your little girl. And while we can’t change the past, and the time we’ve lost with her, we can set our sights on the time we’re going to have with Blue in the years to come.”

      Jackson nodded. “Garrett’s right. What really matters is seeing to it that Blue is happy. We’ve got the rest of her life to celebrate her birthdays and holidays, and worship together.”

      If only it were that simple. “I pray that’s how it goes,” he replied. “First, I have to prove myself capable of caring for Blue to her aunt. Autumn has custody of my daughter, and, while she’s here honoring her sister’s СКАЧАТЬ