Yesterday's Embers by Deborah Raney

Author:Deborah Raney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2009-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

Doug pulled into the garage and turned off the engine. Barking orders to the kids, he opened his door and got out, then slammed it, hoping it would wake up Kayeleigh. She’d scared him half to death disappearing like that. He and Mickey had searched for her for ten minutes before he’d thought to look in the Suburban. He hadn’t chewed her out because he knew why she’d gone into hiding.

She crawled out of the backseat now, shooting him a look of contempt as she swept past. He sighed. He’d have to talk to her about what happened…what she’d seen. Well, of course. He’d have to talk to all the kids. He was engaged. They needed to know that. And the sooner the better since he’d pretty much given Mickey permission to tell the world. Oh brother…that meant he’d have to call Harriet, too. Well, fine. Now she had a legitimate reason for running off to Florida.

Engaged. It had sounded like such a good idea when Mickey was in his arms and they were making plans. But now, in the dim light of the messy garage, with Kayeleigh glaring at him, it didn’t fit quite so comfortably.

A sinking feeling gathered in his gut, and he yanked Harley’s seatbelt harder than necessary. She jammed a thumb in her mouth and looked at him from beneath a rutted brow.

“Come on, punkin, let’s get you to bed.” He tried to make amends with his voice. It wasn’t Harley’s fault he was out of sorts.

Forty-five minutes later, with all the kids in bed, he sank down on the sofa. He kicked off his boots and, with one stockinged toe, nudged a stack of dirty dishes to one corner of the coffee table before propping his feet on its sticky surface. He needed to regroup. He’d set something in motion with Mickey tonight that would change his life forever. And not only his, but his kids’. And Mickey’s.

There were a million questions to be answered. Would she come here to live? Her house wasn’t big enough for all of them, but he couldn’t imagine her giving up the garden she’d worked so hard to create. Looking around their house…his house. He had to quit thinking in terms of they and we, meaning him and Kaye.

Trying to see this house through Mickey’s eyes, he cringed inwardly. The place was in shambles. Kaye never would have earned any “world’s tidiest housekeeper” awards. With six kids and a part-time job, he’d never expected her to. But without her to do even a modicum of housekeeping, things had gone beyond “cluttered” and straight to “filthy.” With the crazy schedule he was keeping between the farmwork and the pressroom, he’d let things go.

He would have to do something drastic—and soon—if he didn’t want Mickey to run screaming from the house next time she was here. She’d only been to the house that one time she brought the kids home. Looking back, he thought that was the night he’d first started thinking of her that way.

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