Lone Star Father. Marin Thomas

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СКАЧАТЬ a catch back in the day.”

      “You’ve messed with this town plenty,” Emmett said. “Can’t you leave it and me alone?”

      “You enjoy me fussing over you,” she said.

      Emmett shook his head. “You should know better than to tie yourself to a corpse.”

      Amelia stamped her foot. “If you’re so determined to die, hand over your shotgun and I’ll put you out of your misery.”

      “You’d like that, wouldn’t you,” he said. “With me out of the way you’d turn Stampede into a three-ring circus.”

      “I better intervene before one of them gives the other a heart attack.” Scarlett approached the couple. “Isn’t it past your bedtimes?”

      “We’re too excited about the baby to sleep,” Amelia said.

      Emmett handed Scarlett a cell phone. “Gunner called and said he emailed photos of the baby, but I can’t get into my phone.”

      Reid pulled his iPhone from his pocket and checked his text messages. Nothing—not that he’d expected his brother to share the happy news with him. He put the phone away and waited for the right moment to step out of the shadows.

      “Emmett’s phone is password protected and he forgot the password,” Amelia said. “He thinks Gunner wrote it down on a sticky note and put in the office desk.”

      “He did,” Scarlett said. “I saw the note. It said ‘password.’”

      Emmett nodded. “Good. Tell me what the password is.”

      “Password,” Scarlett said.

      “That’s what I’m asking you.” Emmett looked at Amelia. “Is your niece hard of hearing?”

      Amelia shoved her elbow into Emmett’s side. “The password is ‘password,’ you old fool.”

      “‘Password’?” His grandfather harrumphed. “That’s a stupid word for a password.”

      “Gunner assumed it would be easy for you to remember.” Amelia spoke to her niece. “Lowercase?”

      “Capital P and the rest is lowercase,” Scarlett said.

      Amelia’s gaze landed on Reid. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were helping a guest.”

      Like a man walking across wet cement, Reid dragged his feet forward. “Hey, Gramps.”

      The old man’s eyes widened. “Reid?”

      He smiled. “In the flesh.”

      “Reid Hardell?” Amelia narrowed her eyes. “Young man, it’s about time you came home to visit your family.”

      “Yes, ma’am.” His grandfather didn’t crack a smile or offer a hug. Reid should have called before showing up out of the blue.

      A shrill bark startled the group. Fang raced across the parking lot, his leash trailing behind him as Jessie tried to catch up. As soon as the dog saw Reid, he switched directions and ran over to him. Reid scooped the mutt into his arms.

      “I wanted to try out the swings.” Jessie stopped next to Reid and gasped for air. “But Fang took off.” Her gaze zeroed in on Emmett’s grumpy face. “Don’t you like dogs?” When Emmett didn’t answer her question, she said, “What’s going on?”

      “Jessie.” Reid cleared his throat. “I’d like you to meet your great-grandfather.”

      Emmett’s mouth sagged open. “This young’un is your daughter?”

      Amelia smiled. “Emmett, you never told me that Reid had gotten married.”

      Reid handed Fang over to Jessie, then said, “I’m not married, Ms. Amelia.”

      “Jessie, come inside. Your dog looks like he needs a drink of water.” Scarlett and his daughter entered the office, leaving Reid alone to face his grandfather.

      “I should have warned you that I was coming,” he said.

      “You should have done a lot of things, young man.” Emmett walked back to his truck and climbed behind the wheel, then stuck his head out the window. “Get in, Amelia. We’re leaving.”

      The older woman clutched Reid’s arm. “Don’t mind his grumpiness. You just caught him by surprise. Come by my house tomorrow and talk to him.”

      “He’s not living at the ranch?”

      “Scarlett is staying in Emmett’s room at the ranch and helping Sadie look after the twins until she finds an apartment.” Amelia hopped into the pickup and waved out the window as his grandfather drove off.

      Reid tore his gaze from the clunker and stared longingly at his own pickup. The temptation to leave Stampede was strong, but he’d stay and deal with the consequences of leaving the family fold.

      He’d do it for Jessie.

      And because he had nobody else to turn to.

      * * *

      REID’S DAUGHTER FILLED the plastic bowl with water from the cooler in the lobby, then set it on the floor for the dog. Once the little yapper drank his fill, she put him on a chair where he curled into a ball and closed his eyes.

      “I like his Superman T-shirt,” Scarlett said.

      “Fang’s always cold.”

      “Fang?”

      “He lost one of his canine teeth.” Jessie picked up a brochure advertising the petting zoo at Paradise Ranch. The young girl was slender with pretty blue eyes—like her father’s.

      Reid Hardell... Scarlett’s thoughts skipped back to the day she’d attended her great-uncle’s funeral in Stampede and had walked past the corner of the church and plowed into Reid, much the same way she had a few minutes ago. Only back then Reid had kissed her after he’d helped her up off the ground. Every summer when she and her cousins had visited Aunt Amelia, they’d been warned to stay away from those wild Hardell boys and now Lydia and Sadie were each married to one of them.

      “How old are you?” Scarlett asked.

      “Twelve.” Jessie’s gaze narrowed. “How old are you?”

      “Twenty-eight.” Wait until her cousins learned the middle brother was the father of a preteen daughter. “You and your dad arrived at an exciting time,” she said. “My cousin Lydia is married to your uncle Gunner and she gave birth to a baby girl earlier this evening.”

      Jessie didn’t comment, her pensive gaze shifting between the dog and her father in the parking lot. Scarlett’s experience as a social worker insisted there was something off about the father-daughter relationship. “You and your dad will be staying in the High Noon room.” She entered the code into the machine Gunner had taught her to use when she’d moved to town a few months СКАЧАТЬ