The Devil and Miss Julia Jackson by Cheryl Pierson

Author:Cheryl Pierson [Pierson, Cheryl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Prairie Rose Publications
Published: 2017-10-25T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Julia breathed a sigh of relief as Dev rode out. Maybe this could be the beginning of a new relationship between him and his brother. If only Dev had seen that defeated wistfulness in Alex’s eyes—but no. He wouldn’t have recognized it for what it was.

Dev had locked his emotions away for a very long time…she suspected from the time he was a child.

Then, when little Heather had died…and Annella… She shook her head. The pain of those losses so close together would have been unimaginable. He’d had to close himself off to be able to put one foot in front of the other, just getting through one day to the next. To merely survive. There could be no joy in his life. If he allowed happiness in, he must allow the hurt—and that, he couldn’t do. Not alone, as he had been for so long.

But things were about to change.

She opened his office door and went inside, looking for a piece of paper and a pencil. It was time to make her list. Maybe when they took the prisoners into town, some of the other men could bring a bag of the things she needed to make this the best Christmas ever—and she had set her mind to it.

They all needed a healthy dose of happiness in this house! That would be the best remedy for everything.

• ♥ •

On the short ride to town, Dev turned the conversations he’d had with Julie over in his mind. What did he know about her? She could be anyone, with any kind of a past…for all he knew, Lauralee could be Julie’s own daughter, not her niece, as she claimed. But it didn’t matter.

Throughout all their interactions, she’d been thoughtful and caring of others before herself—even making excuses for Annella!

Forgiving…even of someone who’d chosen to leave him and their baby…But Julie had made him consider the possibility that Annella’s death had not been by choice, as he’d wanted to believe in his all-consuming bitterness.

And, of course, she asked for caring in the way he treated Alex. But…he supposed, he’d always seen the dark side of having a younger brother…unfairly, he knew, even as a rebellious youngster himself, and now, as an adult.

He’d been alone, all his life. Even when he and Annella had married, there was a part of himself he held separate from her. Why? Was he so damaged by his father that he could never overcome this—this terrible distancing from everyone? Even from the younger brother who’d asked for nothing more than acceptance?

With a sudden fierce cracking in his soul, the ice around his heart began to crumble, then fall, laying his emotions painfully bare.

He didn’t deserve someone like Julie.

It wasn’t that he was afraid he couldn’t love again that gave him pause—it was the realization he’d never understood what love even meant. At least, not the true love of a woman and a man—the sharing…the give and take of everyday routines that made life sweet.

And now…now, he knew.

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