How To Steal The Lawman's Heart. Kathy Douglass

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      Her father, however, looked at her for barely a second before turning and stalking to the limousine idling several yards away.

      “Daddy, please,” she cried in anguish. “Please talk to me.” She grabbed the nearest headstone and leaned against it, her strength suddenly gone in the face of his total rejection. He hadn’t even hesitated. He’d simply looked at her—no, through her—and turned and walked away. Like she was a stranger.

      Charmaine started toward Carmen, but Charlotte stopped her with a hand on her arm. Charlotte’s cold eyes drilled into Carmen, enlarging the hole in her soul. “This isn’t the time or the place. Daddy is grieving. He doesn’t need this drama now.”

      “Drama? I don’t want to cause a scene or upset him. I just want to talk to him.” To have him wrap her in his arms the way he’d done when she’d fallen off her bike and scraped her knee so many years ago.

      When she was a little girl, her daddy had been her hero. She’d worshipped him until she discovered his love was conditional. As long as she dressed the way he wanted and associated with the people he chose, his love was hers. When she’d rebelled and begun making her own choices, his love evaporated like dew in the sun. Still, a part of her always hoped he’d regret turning her away, and that once his anger cooled, he would welcome her back. But his anger and disappointment burned just as hotly now as they did seven years ago. He really had stopped loving her.

      Charmaine pulled away from their older sister and came to stand before Carmen. Charmaine made no attempt to touch her, so she kept her own arms by her sides, despite how badly she needed a hug. “Carmen, please try to understand. Daddy’s hurting. He and Mama were married for thirty-five years. He’s still in shock over losing her so suddenly. Seeing you is another shock to him.”

      “And I lost my mother,” Carmen added, hoping Charmaine could see how hurt and lost she felt. How alone.

      “Isn’t that just like you?” Charlotte snarled. “After everything you put us through, you’re thinking only of yourself.”

      “That’s not true,” Carmen protested, stepping closer to Charlotte. “I know you’re hurting as much as I am. I thought we could help each other through the grief.”

      Charlotte drew herself up to her full height, and in that moment she so resembled their father in all her self-righteous glory that Carmen could only stare. “Really? You expect to just waltz back into town and act like you didn’t bring shame upon our family?”

      Charlotte had always been a female version of their father, hard and unforgiving, with pride to spare. Despite that, they had been close when Carmen was a little girl. When she began getting into trouble and angering Charles, Charlotte had turned off her love as easily as she might have switched off a light.

      Charles had demanded Carmen live up to his impossibly high standards of behavior. When she realized that nothing short of robotic obedience would satisfy him, she’d stopped trying. She’d started skipping school and running with a bunch of troublemakers. Although the phase hadn’t lasted long, it had a devastating effect on her life. Her father had been on the verge of launching a campaign for Congress when the accident occurred, quashing his dream. Apparently, he had yet to forgive her.

      Carmen realized now the hope she harbored that her sisters would welcome her back was completely irrational. That was never going to happen. Charlotte needed Charles’s approval and would never defy him. Charmaine was too afraid to go against her sister and father. More mouse than woman, she was happiest when invisible. She might love Carmen and might even be glad to see her, but she’d never act on those feelings as long as Charles forbade it.

      Carmen watched as her sisters joined their father in the limousine before it sped away. Once more she was alone, separated from a family that didn’t want her. Only this time, instead of being banished from her home by an angry father, she was left standing alone in a cemetery. The heartbreak, though, was no different.

      Forcing her legs to stop wobbling, Carmen strode closer to her mother’s grave. Her family had placed white roses on the casket before it was lowered into the ground. There were still several roses left in a tall vase beside the grave, so she removed the most beautiful one. Bringing it to her nose, she inhaled its sweet fragrance and then kissed it. She closed her eyes, prayed for strength she would need now more than ever and dropped the flower into the grave.

      “Goodbye, Mama. I loved you even when you stopped loving me.”

      Carmen stood there a moment longer, before finally turning and trudging to her rental car. She had just sat down when her cell phone vibrated. She reached for it gratefully, relieved that she had been saved from sinking into despair, or worse, self-pity.

      “Hello.”

      “How are you, Carmen?”

      Damon’s warm voice wrapped around her, providing her with the comfort her family had refused to give, and some of the tension slipped from her shoulders. He was more than her best friend. He was the supportive father figure she’d needed. She wouldn’t have survived these past years without him.

      She’d been homeless, desperate and alone in New York when he’d found her. He’d given her a job as a clerk in his plastics company and found her a place to live, paying six months’ rent in advance for her. He’d also paid for her education. In short, he’d saved her life. Later she’d learned that he’d helped many other girls, giving them what he hadn’t been able to give his own daughter.

      “I’m okay,” she replied automatically, and then sniffed, fighting back the tears.

      There was only silence over the line, and Carmen knew he didn’t believe her. He had the uncanny knack of knowing when she wasn’t being honest with him or herself. In the seven years she’d known him, he’d never used that ability to take advantage of her, though.

      “Well, maybe okay is stretching the truth a bit,” she admitted, and gave a watery laugh.

      “Did you see your father?” Damon’s question, though quietly asked, blasted through the emotions she’d been trying to keep under control. Fresh tears filled her eyes.

      “Yes. And he made it clear he wants nothing to do with me. He truly meant what he said when he threw me out of the house. I’m not his daughter anymore.” The last words were swallowed up by sobs. She’d lost her family years ago. So why was the pain still so fresh?

      She dragged her arm across her eyes, using the sleeve of her jacket to mop up her tears.

      “Did he say that?”

      Swallowing hard, she dug a tissue from her purse and wiped her nose. “No. He didn’t say anything.” She tossed the damp tissue back into her purse and grabbed another one. “And don’t tell me he’s hurting because he lost his wife. I lost my mother and I’m hurting, too.”

      “I wasn’t going to say that. I’m not going to make excuses for someone I haven’t met and don’t think I would like.”

      “Good.” She sniffed again. “Are you back in the States?”

      “Yes. I arrived home early this morning. I only wish I could have been there with you so you wouldn’t have to face this alone.”

      Carmen wished so, too. But when he’d offered to return home early from his business trip abroad to accompany her to Sweet Briar, she’d СКАЧАТЬ