Her Sister's Keeper by Julia Penney

Author:Julia Penney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2006-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE REST OF THE MEAL was like a dream. Kent never once mentioned anything further about the investigation. He asked her a multitude of questions about her childhood and her job as a location scout. He seemed genuinely interested in getting to know her on a personal level, though she cautioned herself that he was probably just making polite conversation. She asked him an equal number of questions about his own childhood growing up here in the Sierras. He spoke with warmth and affection of his deceased parents, of the seven years that Julio had been living at Chimeya, and at the arrival of Julio’s younger twin brothers. The only person he never mentioned was Susan, his dead wife. Throughout the dinner, Stannie made infrequent appearances, mostly to clear dishes and to bring a second bottle of wine, which Kent opened and poured.

Perhaps it was the influence of the wine, but Melanie began to feel as if the night was becoming more perfect by the moment. Kent’s attentiveness, humor and sensitivity all conspired to completely destroy the protective wall she’d built around herself after Mitch’s betrayal. When Kent related the fight he’d made to get legal custody of Tito and Miguel, she felt herself beginning to melt, and when he told her he was in the midst of adoption procedures of all three boys, she felt her eyes fill with tears.

“I think that’s wonderful,” she said.

“They don’t know anything about it.” Kent pushed back in his chair and stood, taking his glass of wine with him. “I thought if I failed, it was better they didn’t know.”

“How could you possibly fail?”

“They sent someone to the ranch to inspect the living conditions here. A woman in her fifties. She thought the place was remote and primitive, too isolated to socialize the boys properly. She didn’t like the idea of home schooling, even though the boys all tested way above normal in every subject. I received a letter from my lawyer a week ago saying that the department of social services was reviewing the adoption application and the agency would be contacting me. All in all, it didn’t sound too promising.”

“They’d be crazy to take those boys away from you, Kent,” Melanie said. “They love it here, they love you, and they’re perfectly well-socialized. What more could they possibly need?”

“A mother, maybe,” he said. “Maybe that’s what the agency is looking for. A two-parent home.”

Melanie watched him standing by the fireplace, gazing into the fire as if visualizing a long lost face in the golden light. “Stannie told me about your wife. I’m sorry, Kent.”

He turned his head to look at her. “As bad as it was, I was lucky to have Chimeya to come back to,” he said softly, and then slowly, haltingly, began to tell Melanie of those first awful years following Susan’s murder.

Kent was welcomed home with open arms, and amid the trees, hills and streams of the Sierras and under the attention of his parents, he began to heal.

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.