A Family for His Boys by M. K. Stelmack

Author:M. K. Stelmack
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2024-02-05T16:26:17+00:00

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HAWK RUBBED WILDROSE’S neck two days later as they took the east exit out of the barn. “Happy Mother’s Day.” She had last foaled three years ago, and he had kept her open since then for working on the ranch. He’d already given Paintbrush an apple by way of recognition of the day. Across the wide Eden Valley, the early morning sun spread down the hills and across the valley floor, spreading up to the Blackstone Ranch.

He often came here to set his day right along with the rising sun, and today, he would start with the most awkward part. He took out his phone and called his ex-wife.

Eva answered on the sixth ring, her voice low and groggy.

“Sorry to wake you,” he said, though calling at a more reasonable hour didn’t always guarantee her wakefulness, either. She never kept a regular schedule.

“That’s fine,” she said. He could hear the rustle of sheets as she moved about. “Are the babies okay?”

Eva still called them that, even to their faces. Amos would scowl and Eva would look hurt. Neither understood the other.

“They’re fine. Only, it’s Mother’s Day.”

Eva moaned. “And what would you like me to do about that?”

“I could bring them into the city for a quick visit, I was thinking. We could go out for a burger or an ice cream. I could stay with them, if that makes it easier.”

“Oh, Hawk. To what end? To remind them their mom is absent every other day of their lives?”

“You are still their mom. That hasn’t changed.”

“No, but I wish for all of our sakes, it would.”

That cut. He would never forgive himself for pressuring her into a choice she didn’t want. She had loved him, and he used her love to persuade her to give him a family. Because then they would all be happy. “There’s no chance, then?”

“No chance of what? That some future Mother’s Day I will be bright and cheery, or that someday I will wake up and have the strength to be a mother? I want that more than anything else, and I’m getting help now. I’m seeing a counsellor and on medication. But I don’t know how long it will take.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll let it go. You doing okay?”

“Meaning, do I have enough money? Yes, I’m doing fine. I even have a part-time job now, so you can cut back on your payments next month.”

A reduction in payments required courts and lawyers, and then, what if she relapsed? “Let’s see how things go, Eva.”

“You’re probably right. I could slip off the edge at any moment, right?”

She had read his mind, and maybe her own.

“Listen,” she said, “the best thing you can do for our boys—for all of us—is find them a mother. A real mother. And get yourself the wife I couldn’t be.”

His gaze sailed over the slight ridge separating his place from The Home Place. “I want the best for you, too.”

“I know,” she said softly, but with a hint of strength he hadn’t heard before, “but I am responsible for making that happen.

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