Reunited Hearts. Ruth Logan Herne

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СКАЧАТЬ fine,” he snapped, waving off their hands. “The doc said I need to walk, need to move around. Stop fussing. So…” He turned his attention back to Alyssa, his gaze taut, his color high. “He’s back?”

      Forget turning the clock back minutes or hours. Right now Alyssa wished she could spiral the hands back to her senior year, erase Trent Michaels from the picture once and for all, and see what her life would have been like if she hadn’t fallen head over heels in love at seventeen. She sighed. “Working for Walker Electronics it seems.”

      “And he knows about Jaden,” added Susan.

      Her father scowled, eyes narrowed. “Good. High time he started paying his share.”

      “Trent would have helped all along. You know that, Dad.”

      “I know he didn’t.” Gary lowered himself into a chair, his face a study of pain until he’d settled into position. The chair support allowed him to breathe easier. “Now’s as good a time as any to prove he would.”

      A typical Gary response.

      True to form, her father jumped to what had always been the number-one priority in his life.

      Money.

      “Gary.” Susan sat in a chair opposite him and surprised Alyssa with her next words. “You can’t blame a man for not taking care of something he didn’t know existed. Trent wasn’t a bad kid at all. I expect he’s turned into a good man.”

      “Right. A guy who slept with the boss’s daughter and got her pregnant. I have a hard time finding the good in that.”

      “Really?” Susan’s arched-brow look deepened his scowl. “Shall we discuss our courtship in front of our daughter?” Please don’t. Alyssa hid a cringe at the thought of her parents being teenagers in love. Some things a girl just didn’t need to know.

      Gary’s frown deepened. “Of course not.”

      “Then I suggest a little humility,” Susan told him. She lowered her chin but held his gaze. “There are a multitude of tender hearts in this house right now, Gary. Not just yours.”

      Susan’s reference to the kids softened Gary’s features as she rose to get him a cup of coffee. “Does Jaden know?”

      Alyssa shook her head. “No. And he’s not going to either. Not till he’s ready.”

      “The size of Jamison?” Gary’s expression underscored the unlikelihood of that. Worse, he was right.

      “I’ll talk to Trent,” Alyssa continued. “Explain that Jaden needs time…”

      “Or you do.”

      Alyssa fought the surge of guilt. What would Jaden think of her, to suddenly find out he had a father who had no knowledge of his existence. What kind of liar did that make her? And why did something that seemed noble and necessary twelve years before become such a dark smudge on her soul now?

      Trent’s face came back to her, that look of betrayal. The shock. The pain. The anger.

      But he hadn’t tried to hurt her, and that put him one up on Vaughn.

      “Mommy?”

      Cory’s sweet preschool voice squelched the discussion. Alyssa scooped the little girl into her arms, planting kisses along her face and neck.

      Cory giggled. “That tickles.”

      “I know.” Alyssa touched her forehead to Cory’s. “Your fever’s gone.”

      “Can I still have medicine?”

      Cory loved the grape-flavored fever reducer, enough so that Alyssa kept it high and out of sight. “If the fever comes back. Are you hungry?”

      “No.”

      Alyssa tipped her head. “Not at all?”

      Cory shrugged. “Maybe for ice cream. ’Cause I’m sick,” she added with a solemn nod to her grandmother.

      Susan melted on the spot. “Ice cream helps sore throats. I think it’s a good choice this morning. But not every morning,” she added.

      Her attempt to be stern came up short. Cory’s smile had a way of negating the firmest intentions. “Thank you, Grammy. I love you. Can I sit with you, Grampa?”

      Gary’s stoicism couldn’t resist the three-year-old’s charms either. “Soon,” he promised. “But I bet Mommy can pull up a chair and have you sit right next to me, okay?”

      “Okay.” She beamed at his suggestion, always ready to compromise, a Pollyanna child seeking good in all things. Thinking of herself and Vaughn, Alyssa had no idea where the sweet, gentle nature sprang from, but Cory’s good behavior had been a blessing in an otherwise-tumultuous life.

      Alyssa drew a chair alongside Gary’s. Her father’s size dwarfed Cory, but he grinned at the petite girl and graced Alyssa with a genuine smile for the first time in over a decade. “She’s a special little thing.”

      Alyssa met his smile and matched it. “She is. And smart as a whip.”

      “She looks like you, Susan.”

      Susan nodded as she scooped ice cream into a princess-decorated bowl. “I think so, too. I look at Cory and I see the face I saw in the mirror when I was a little girl.”

      Alyssa smiled at the thought. “I wondered. It’s clear she doesn’t look like me, and I don’t see an ounce of Vaughn in her.”

      “Was he a good man, Alyssa?”

      The unexpected question choked her. Her parents had met Vaughn once when they’d traveled west after she’d announced her marriage. They’d stayed at a local motel for three days, got acquainted with Jaden and met Vaughn during his best-behavior stint.

      “Alyssa? Was he?”

      Oops. Waited too long. Susan Langley had a way of reading between the lines and timing was everything. “Good points and bad points, Mom. Like most.”

      Her father shrugged acceptance, but her mother’s look said too much. But then, she’d never been able to hide things from her mother. That was part of the reason she stayed away so long. Her mother’s warmth and strong Christian spirit were a lot to live up to when you know you’ve messed up repeatedly.

      She faked a smile and nodded toward Cory. “And she got your eyes.”

      Susan’s look of appraisal said the discussion wasn’t over, not by a long shot, but she let the change of subject slide. “A gift from my mother. And since she got my name as a middle name, I may just start calling her Cory Sue.”

      Alyssa laughed. “I think that’s darling. Sounds like a Cabbage Patch name.”

      “It does.” Susan laid her hand against Cory’s forehead, looked comforted by the lack of heat, and jutted her chin toward Jaden. “He’s practicing with Coach Russo tonight, right?”

      “Yes.” СКАЧАТЬ