The Heart of a Cowboy. Trish Milburn

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      Despite the anger and horror nearly choking her, the pure, unadulterated pain and sorrow she heard in his voice made her feel a sliver of compassion for him. This then was the reason he drank so much more after they moved to Kansas, to try to forget that he’d ended someone’s life. To drown the guilt.

      She wanted to set fire to every alcoholic beverage in the world and wipe the knowledge of how to make them from the memories of mankind.

      “I want to make it right, but I need you to help me do that,” he said.

      Suddenly so weak she felt as if she might collapse in a heap, she righted the overturned chair with a shaking hand and sank onto the seat again. “There’s no way to make this right, Dad. What’s done is done.”

      Even if they told the cops now, most likely they wouldn’t even arrive until after her father had passed from this earth. Honestly, by the look of him, she was stunned he’d found the strength to voice his confession.

      “I need for you to tell the Brodys the truth, tell them how very sorry I am. Your mother can’t do it because they might come after her for knowing.”

      She shook her head, unable to believe what he was asking her to do. “I can’t. It’ll just reopen all the old wounds. It won’t bring Karen back.”

      “But they’ll have the answer to the question they’ve never been able to find.”

      But would that be worse than never knowing?

      Natalie dropped her head into her hands, feeling as if the entirety of her insides were being scalded raw. Gradually, the fact that her dad’s breathing was becoming even more labored registered, and she looked up to see tears still streaking out of his tired eyes. Though it was impossible, he seemed even smaller than when she’d walked into the room.

      Yes, she was angrier than she ever remembered being, but could she let her dad die without promising him that she’d fulfill his dying wish? She knew it wasn’t fair of him to ask it of her, and he likely knew it, too. But he’d carried the guilt with him for so long, and it had obviously eaten away at him every bit as much as the alcohol, probably more.

      Though she had no idea how she would be able to face the Brodys with such a horrible truth, she found herself unable to let her father slip from the world with his heart so unbearably heavy.

      “I’ll tell them.” She’d figure out the how later.

      The relief came off her father like a wave, and something felt profoundly right about what she’d just given him. In her entire life, she’d never witnessed such a deep desire to make amends.

      Evidently no longer able to lift his hand, he pointed only one finger toward his nightstand. “There’s a letter for them.”

      Natalie opened the drawer to find an envelope addressed to the Brody family in his distinctive scrawl. She didn’t have to look inside to know that it was his confession, the cleansing of his conscience before he died. She wondered how long the letter had occupied the drawer. He would have had to pen it some time ago since there was no way he could have managed it in recent days.

      Though the envelope and the paper inside were no heavier than any other, she felt as if she held a terrible weight in her hand. She took a moment to inhale slowly then let the breath back out, fighting the dizziness that had decided to arrive to keep her nausea company. She tried to imagine what it must have been like to keep such a horrible secret for more than two decades, and the very idea threatened to make her even more ill. But at least her father hadn’t taken the truth to his grave.

      “I think it’s...” Her words faded away as she looked up at her dad. His last tears were still drying on his grizzled cheeks as the first of hers fell.

      No matter what he’d done, he was her dad and she loved him.

      And now he was gone.

      The sadness of his loss joined with the terrible weight of his confession, and she suddenly and desperately needed a breath of fresh air that didn’t smell like death and regret. She stood and walked slowly from the room, only dimly aware of her mother and sisters speaking to her as she headed for the front door.

      As soon as she stepped outside and the clean air enveloped her, she stumbled, reminding her yet again of the colt’s shaky legs. The universe had a strange way of ensuring balance, constantly bringing a new life into the world at the same time it took another out.

      As she looked up at the sky, she realized the clouds had given way to a blanket of stars. She gripped one of the porch supports as she thought about how the Brodys could be looking up at those same stars totally unaware that she’d just promised to bring them an answer they might no longer want.

       Chapter Two

      Garrett Brody still thought there was a high likelihood he would wake up any minute and realize he’d been dreaming. After all, the fact that he was at his younger brother’s wedding didn’t compute. Owen was not the getting-hitched-and-settling-down type. At least he hadn’t been until Linnea Holland had arrived at their family’s ranch with a heart broken in the worst possible way when she discovered her fiancé was already married. Somehow, his baby brother had helped Linnea heal, and her presence had convinced Owen that settling down with one woman was what he’d been searching for all along.

      As Garrett watched the newlyweds dance with huge smiles on their faces, he had to admit he’d never seen his brother look so genuinely happy.

      “Pretty sure hell has finally frozen over.”

      Garrett glanced over to where Greg Bozeman, the ace mechanic of Blue Falls, was standing with a cup of punch. “No, that’s reserved for when you tie the knot.”

      “Bite your tongue, man.”

      Garrett chuckled as he watched Greg scan the room full of wedding guests, no doubt scoping out the single ladies. Speaking of, Garrett spotted Jenna Marks looking his direction. Before she got it in her head to walk his way, he nudged Greg and indicated he should go ask Jenna to dance.

      “Sure you don’t want to reserve her for yourself?”

      “Yep.” And to add a little extra buffer, he headed toward where his sister and her husband, Wyatt, were spinning around the dance floor to a Luke Bryan song.

      He tapped Wyatt’s shoulder. “Mind if I cut in?”

      “Be my guest. Let your sister step on your toes for a bit.”

      Chloe huffed and swatted her husband’s arm. “It was only once and I was trying to avoid bumping into Verona.”

      “Sure,” Wyatt said before planting a quick kiss on his wife’s cheek.

      She playfully pushed him away. “Don’t be surprised when I make you sleep on the porch.”

      Wyatt just grinned as he took a step back, well aware that Chloe’s threat was empty. Those two were every bit as in love as Owen and Linnea.

      A sense of being the odd man out settled on Garrett. Blue Falls residents of the betting persuasion would have likely given him the best odds of settling down and starting a family first among his siblings, but things just hadn’t СКАЧАТЬ