Cowboy's Love by Victoria Pade

Author:Victoria Pade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-06-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

For Savannah, being back in the house where she’d grown up was strange. It was less strange when Ivey or someone else was there. But she was alone the next afternoon as she tried to work on her master’s thesis.

Her sister was baby-sitting Amy and Randa Culhane for the day and had taken them out for a long walk. None of the Culhane brothers were tending to anything in or around the barn. Neither the clock radio nor the small portable television was on. And in the silence that was left, memories kept visiting at odd moments for no real reason Savannah could put her finger on.

No matter where in the house she moved to, the sense of her father’s presence kept following her. From her bedroom to the desk in the alcove off the living room, and even now where she sat at the kitchen table.

It was almost as if the ghost of Silas Heller had come to haunt her—that’s how vivid was her sense of him. She’d write a sentence or two, and then her mind wouldn’t be anywhere near sixteenth-century poets. Instead she’d be listening for sounds of her father the way she had as a kid when she’d tried to avoid him if she could.

That had been easier said than done. The man seemed to have been everywhere, like some demon in a horror movie, showing up just when she thought she’d dodged him, in the unlikeliest places.

Or lurking outside a door to eavesdrop and then bringing down his wrath upon her when he didn’t like what he heard....

Not that his wrath had ever involved hitting either her or Ivey until that fateful day fifteen years ago. But Clint had been right in saying that previously Silas had abused them verbally and psychologically by working them like dogs and doling out punishments that didn’t fit their minor infractions.

But it was that fateful day fifteen years ago that kept replaying itself in her mind when she was trying to write.

The events.

The outcome.

The “if onlys”...

If only she hadn’t gone home after that doctor’s appointment.

If only she hadn’t told Ivey when they were anywhere near the house or Silas.

If only she’d gone straight to Clint.

If only she’d kept herself out of her father’s reach....

“We’re back.”

Savannah jumped a foot off her chair at the sound of Ivey’s voice calling from the dining room. She’d been so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn’t heard the front door open or anyone come in.

Her heart was still racing when Ivey stepped into the kitchen with Amy and Randa following right behind. Randa skipped into the room, to the chair across from Savannah to sit down while Amy took a more leisurely stroll.

“We’re gonna have a tea party,” Randa announced.

“I thought you were working upstairs,” Ivey said as if it went with the little girl’s statement.

“I couldn’t concentrate.”

“We can go have our tea party at the Culhanes’ house if our being here will bother you.”

“No, that’s okay. I’m not getting anything done and a tea party sounds nice.

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