A Man Without a Wife by Beverly Bird

Author:Beverly Bird
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance
Publisher: Harlequin Treasury
Published: 1995-11-17T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

It was late when they finally stood in front of the Isleta mission. Not far away in the darkness the Rio Grande rushed and groaned against the confines of its banks. Night had fallen hard and fast, the way it did in a land close enough to each sunset that a person could almost reach up and touch one. But the western sky still showed faint streaks of orange and purple.

“Are you going all the way back to Flagstaff tonight?” Ellen wondered aloud.

Last night might have threatened him, she realized, but not enough to keep a sudden, wicked gleam from his eyes now. Like a true survivor, he bounced back fast. She watched him grin slowly and felt something hot skip through her.

“We could check into another motel,” he suggested.

“Yeah!” Ricky burst out, then he frowned when he saw Ellen shake her head. “How come?”

“Well, you guys can, but I have to work tomorrow.”

“I’ll call Barbara, tell her that it’s all in the line of continuing duty. I’m not willing to give you up yet.”

Her heart lurched. There was something so intimate about the way he said it.

“That won’t do any good,” she managed. “I volunteer at...at Our Lady, but I work at the Indian health-service clinic on the Res.”

“How come you didn’t know that, Dad?” Ricky demanded.

Because she holds back, Dallas thought. Then again, he’d never actually asked her. He’d just assumed.

Finally he realized that they were probably saying too much in the presence of avid little ears. “What about next weekend?” he asked neutrally.

Ellen hesitated. She was in too deep, just as he had said. But, there was the issue of the wolfman, and it was far too late to back off now, to stay out of these visitations. Nor did she entirely want to any longer, she realized.

Flashes of the day came back to her, flashes of Ricky and of Dallas, of smiles and laughter and a picnic that had somehow descended into a food fight which Ricky had resoundingly won. She scraped a fingernail over a tiny patch of catsup that had dried on the hip of her jeans. She smiled whimsically, then her smile trembled.

She had felt so good inside today, she realized, and the previous night, though that had been in an entirely different way. She wasn’t finished feeling that way yet. She didn’t want to be finished, didn’t want to go back to cold days and empty nights in a trailer built for one.

And there was absolutely no alternative. She couldn’t stay with them after the visitations were over, couldn’t remain in their lives, not being who she was. Sooner or later she would have to go back.

But not yet. Not now.

She began walking to where she had left her car, hugging herself against a chill as the sun’s heat left the air. “Canyon de Chelly, I guess,” she finally answered. “Isn’t that what we decided we would do next? I could meet you guys at the park headquarters in Chinle on Saturday.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.