Jared Boone by Diana Palmer

Author:Diana Palmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-04-07T16:54:15+00:00

* * *

“I TOLD YOU it was a mistake to tell her that,” Carly said plaintively. “You’ll be sorry tomorrow when you sober up.”

“Mistake to tell her what?” Ella muttered. “I need another drink.”

“No. You need to go to bed and sleep it off. Come on.” Carly led her down the hall to her own bedroom, pushed her inside and closed the door behind them. “How could you tell her that, Ella?” she asked softly as she helped her friend down onto the big double bed with its expensive pink comforter.

“I don’t care,” Ella said defiantly. “She’s in my way. I don’t want her here. I never did.”

“She does all the housework and all the cooking,” Carly said in one of her rare moments of compassion. “She works all day and sometimes half the night for her boss, and then she comes home and works like a housekeeper. You don’t appreciate how much she does for you.”

“I could hire somebody to do all that.” Ella waved the idea away.

“Could you afford to pay them?” Carly retorted.

Ella frowned. She was hard put just to pay utilities and buy groceries. But she didn’t reply.

Carly eyed her quietly. “If you push her, she’ll leave. Then what will you do?”

“I’ll do my own housework and cooking,” Ella said grandly.

Carly shook her head. “Okay. It’s your life. But you’re missing out.”

“On what?” Ella muttered.

“On the only family you have,” Carly replied in a subdued tone. “I don’t have anybody,” she added. “My parents are dead. I had no siblings. I was married, but I was never able to have a child. My husband is dead, too. You have a child, and you don’t want her. I’d have given anything to have a child of my own.”

“You can have Keely,” Ella said, laughing. “I’ll give her to you.”

Carly moved toward the door. “You can’t give people away, Ella.” She looked back. “You don’t really have anybody, either.”

“I have men.” Ella laughed coldly. “I can have any man I want.”

“For a night,” her friend agreed. “Old age is coming up fast, for both of us. Do you really want to drive your only child away? She’ll marry someday and have children of her own. You won’t even be allowed to see your grandchildren.”

“I’m not having grandchildren,” Ella shot back. “I’m not going to be old. I’m only in my late thirties!”

Carly laughed. “You’re heading toward fifty, Ella,” she reminded her friend. “All the beauty treatments in the world aren’t going to change that.”

“I’ll have a face-lift,” the other woman returned. “I’ll sell more land to pay for it.”

That was unwise. Ella had already sold most of the land her family had left her. If she sold the rest, she was going to be hard-pressed just to pay bills. But Carly could see that it did no good to argue with her.

“Good night,” she told Ella.

Ella made a face at her, collapsed on the pillow and was asleep in seconds. Carly didn’t say anything else. She just closed the door.

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