Shadows from the Past by Lindsay McKenna

Author:Lindsay McKenna [McKenna, Lindsay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781426844300
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-07-12T03:53:05+00:00

RUDD SAT with the results of the DNA test outside the doctor’s office. Overhead, a cold front pushed through over the valley, threatening rain. The wind blew in powerful gusts, sometimes rocking the truck. Mouth grim, he stared at the results.

Kam Trayhern was his daughter.

His one night with Tracy Elizabeth Fielding had produced a child. Looking up, Rudd stared sightlessly across the parking lot. Plenty of tourists came to Jackson, which was the gateway to two national parks north of the cow town. People dotted the parking lot like colorfully painted birds in their summer apparel. He watched them smiling and laughing.

My God, what have I done?

His conscience was raw with guilt. Rudd placed the results back into the manila envelope. What was he going to do? Without a doubt, Allison would fly into a royal rage. Not that he could blame her. To have a child out of wedlock, well, he just never saw that one coming. Rudd dreaded the confrontation.

Pushing the hat back on his head, he gazed up at the pregnant dark gray clouds drifting across the town. A few splatters of rain hit the windshield. What would his son and daughter think of him? That ate more at Rudd than anything. Oh, he knew today’s generation thought nothing of having a child out of wedlock, but he came from a different time where that was frowned upon. Rudd had always presented himself as an upstanding citizen. He’d constantly told his children to aspire to keep their moral compass even with today’s degraded values. Integrity was everything.

Where was his integrity now? How could he face his children with this new truth about his early life? It hurt. He hurt. Rubbing his aching gut, Rudd closed his eyes for a moment. This was a day when he wished he wasn’t alive. That thought came and went quickly. Rudd knew he had to do the right thing and take the heat that was coming.

What about Kam? Rudd had been adopted and knew how terrible it felt not to know one’s parents. He had known his mother. Kam had never had the opportunity to know Elizabeth because she’d died when her daughter was only three months old. Kam had never known him, her biological father, either. Rudd saw that Kam’s life had been a lot harder than his. Like her, he’d lost his mother at birth. The only difference was that Rudd’s father didn’t want to be a parent. His father had foisted him off to the state to take care of him. Kam had never known anything about her father so she had never felt the pain of a father’s rejection.

Rubbing his brow, Rudd thought about the last couple of months while Kam had been at the ranch. Clearly, his mother doted upon her and now Rudd understood why. There was a silent connection between him, his mother and Kam. Iris had instinctively embraced Kam as a granddaughter more than as an employee. These results explained why. Somehow, unconsciously, Iris sensed that Kam was kin.

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