Outback Roads by Annie Seaton

Author:Annie Seaton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Annie Seaton
Published: 2022-05-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Braden settled Rory and Petie in front of the TV with a sandwich and withstood the angry glare from Nigel as he took him to his room after he’d been to the bathroom.

‘You can read a book while you eat your sandwich, and then when I’ve had my shower, we’re going to have a chat in the office.’

‘Whatever,’ Nigel said sullenly.

Braden put the plate with the sandwich on the chair and held his temper as he closed the door. The last thing Nigel needed was temper, and Braden’s temper had been on a knife edge since the boys had come home. He loved his sons and he loved having them home—he knew it was where they should be—but he carried so much guilt he worried he wouldn’t be enough for them. His anger was at himself for abandoning his boys. Since they had come home—or since Sophie had insisted they come to him—Braden’s mind and heart had been forced out of that dark place where he had hidden any feelings for the past two years. He had handled his grief so badly; the boys had suffered more because of his actions.

Before Sophie had taken the boys to their place and on the too few occasions he’d seen them when she’d brought them back to the station, Braden had known that Nigel was the child who had struggled most with Julia’s death.

A surge of fresh guilt rose from his chest as he sat on the side of his bed and dropped his head into his hands uncaring of the red mud on his trousers. He’d thought that his middle son had improved, and Sophie had told him that Nigel’s night terrors had stopped over the past year, but his son’s behaviour today told him differently.

Maybe he should have taken the boys to grief counselling like Sophie told him he should.

But he’d thought they were too young.

Shit, he hadn’t even gone to the one appointment he’d made in town with the visiting counsellor. Damn it all, he had enough problems dealing with the situation himself. What was the good of talking to someone you didn’t even know? Braden carried his own guilt close to his heart and couldn’t see the point of sharing it. It wasn’t going to bring Julia back.

Nothing would ever bring back his wife and the mother of his children. If he’d known what that day was going to bring he would have stopped her going out to that bloody horse. The first thing Braden had done when he’d come back from the hospital was ring Kent and ask him to take Taffee away.

At least with his boys back home with him he could make sure they were safe. Keep them safe and then work on their happiness, and Nigel’s behaviour. Show them how much he loved them and make up for being an absent father.

Braden stood slowly and rubbed his hands over his face, before he headed for the shower.

##

Ten minutes later, scrubbed clean of red mud

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