Long, Tall Texans--Harden by Diana Palmer

Author:Diana Palmer [Palmer, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488080753
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1991-12-03T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

Evan’s eyebrows shot up and he stopped walking. Harden had never once asked anything about his real father. He hadn’t even wanted to know the man’s name.

“What brought on that question?” he asked.

Harden frowned. “I don’t know. I’m just curious. I’d like to know something about him, that’s all.”

“You’ll have to ask Mother, then,” Evan told him. “Because she’s the only one who can tell you what you want to know.”

He grimaced. “Wouldn’t she love that?” he asked darkly.

Evan turned. “She’ll die one day,” he said shortly. “You’re going to have to live with the way you treat her.”

Harden looked dangerous for a minute, but his eyes calmed. He stared out over the land. “Yes, I know,” he confessed. “But she’s got some things to deal with herself.”

“I have a simpler philosophy than you,” Evan said quietly. “I believe that the day we die is preordained. That being the case, I can accept tragedy a little better than you can. If you think Theodora played God that night, think again. You of all people should know that nobody can interfere if God wants someone to live.”

Harden’s heart jumped. He scowled, but he didn’t speak.

“Hadn’t considered that, had you?” Evan asked. “You’ve been so eaten up with hatred and vengeance that you haven’t even thought about God’s hand in life. You’re the churchgoer, not me. Why don’t you try living what you preach? Let’s see a little forgiveness, or isn’t that what your religion is supposed to be all about?”

He walked ahead of Harden to the house, leaving the other man quiet and thoughtful.

* * *

Supper that evening was boisterous. Donald and Jo Ann were live wires, vying with Evan for wisecracks, and they made up for Harden’s brooding and Theodora’s discomfort.

Donald was shorter and more wiry than his brothers, although he had dark hair and eyes like Evan. Jo Ann was redheaded and blue-eyed, a little doll with a ready smile and a big heart. They took to Miranda at once, and she began to feel more at home by the minute, despite Harden’s lack of enthusiasm for the gathering.

After the meal, Harden excused himself and went outside. He didn’t ask Miranda to join him, but she did.

He glanced back at her, startled. “I thought you were having the time of your life with the family.”

She smiled at his belligerence. It was uncanny, how well she understood him. He was the outsider; he didn’t fit in. He was on his guard and frankly jealous of the attention she was getting from the family he pretended he wasn’t a part of. She couldn’t let on that she knew that, of course.

She moved to join him on the porch swing, where he was lazily smoking a cigarette.

“I like your family very much,” she agreed. “But I came here because of you.”

He was touched. He hadn’t been wrong about her after all. She seemed to know things about him, emotionally, that he couldn’t manage to share with her in words.

Hesitantly he slid

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