The Rancher's Surprise New Family: A Single Dad Romance by Holly Rayner

Author:Holly Rayner [Rayner, Holly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-01-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Dan

He couldn’t believe he was talking about it.

He had never told this story out loud. Not since the night it had happened, when he had answered questions at the hospital. Someone else had contacted Esther’s family—he hadn’t been the one to tell the story to them. And as for Jake—he’d always been too young to hear all the details. He knew his mother was gone. That was enough.

But Caitlin was watching him with wide-eyed sympathy. She didn’t look away once, nor did she interrupt to ask questions. He had the strange feeling that he could tell her anything.

“We had a whirlwind romance,” he said. “We met when I was living in Arizona. I had my own ranch then. Esther was a performer at a historical re-enactment show. I fell for her one night when I went to see the show. She lit up the stage. There was something magical about her.”

“She sounds like she was really something,” Caitlin said.

Dan nodded. “She was. After the performance, I asked her out to dinner. She played hard to get—I found out later that she had men asking her out after almost every show—but eventually she agreed to go for a drink with me.” He paused. “Six months later, we were married.”

“Wow,” Caitlin said. “You must have really loved her.”

“We were crazy about each other,” Dan admitted. “We weren’t very practical. In hindsight, we were just lucky that it worked out. We probably should have spent some more time getting to know each other before diving right in like that.”

“But it did work out,” Caitlin said.

Dan nodded. “For a while, we were very happy. And it helped that she got pregnant almost right away. Having Jake really made our family complete. And she was such a good mother. She was completely devoted to him.”

He closed his eyes. It felt good to remember these things—how happy they had been, how good life had been in the early days. He usually shied away from these memories because they were too difficult to think about. It was nice to revisit them. He hadn’t expected that.

But the hard part was coming.

Caitlin seemed to sense it. She said nothing, just watched him and waited.

“It was an electrical fire,” he said quietly. “It started in our bedroom. Esther never had a chance. By the time the smell of the smoke woke me up, it was already too late. That’s what the fire department told me.”

“How did you get out?” Caitlin asked, her eyes wide.

“I’d fallen asleep on the couch,” he said. “I was watching a football game and I just drifted off. On any other night, I’d have woken up a few hours later and gone to bed, but that night…” He shook his head.

Caitlin reached out and laid a hand on top of his. She didn’t speak.

“I ran upstairs anyway,” Dan said. “I knew I had to try. But I couldn’t get into the bedroom. The house was about to go, and I had to choose…”

He let out a gasp of pain.

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