The Texan's Promise by Jolene Navarro

Author:Jolene Navarro
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-12-05T20:22:32+00:00

* * *

Belle studied Quinn. She should hate him, but now she wanted to get lost in his arms and hide. What if she reached up and kissed him?

She was off balance, and it was all Celia’s fault. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be seeing the strength in Quinn. He was in town for one reason, and getting to know her was just one part of it.

But now he was suddenly her only support. Quinn was the only one who was standing next to her as she faced the woman who’d given birth to her and then abandoned her. The woman she never wanted to see again was in her house, threatening everything she held dear, but pretending she was doing it for her family.

Glancing down, she studied the details of the sun-kissed skin of the man who should be her enemy but was standing with her.

Earlier, he had wanted to block the future for her children, to interfere with her ranch and life for different reasons. Now he was fighting for her.

Could she trust him, or was it all part of the act to get what he wanted? He might be more dangerous to her heart than her mother.

She heard her name and looked across the room at Celia. Her lips were moving. “That should have never happened. I never would have left you if I had known. He was always grumpy and disagreeable. But he wasn’t violent like our father.”

She approached Belle with her hands out. “I thought about you every day. The image of you and Elijah on the ranch playing, being free and going to school with friends at Port Del Mar made me happy. I wanted you to have roots in a place that you could call home. Is that so bad?”

Stepping away from Quinn, she made sure to stand on her own as she addressed her mother. “One call. One short trip home and you would have seen the truth. But you didn’t want the truth, did you? It was easier to pretend we were having a great time, so you could... I don’t even know what you were doing.”

“I was born to be a singer. I won state competitions. I had dreams that my father didn’t support. Frank laughed at me. Told me that I’d be begging for his help, but he wasn’t gonna give it. But when he married Mari, I had an ally for the first time. You can’t tell me Mari didn’t love you. She loved you and Eli like you were her very own. She wanted you and loved you better than I could.”

Her gut tightened. There had been a mother in her life, a woman she never told how much she loved her. “Yes. She was the only mother we ever had, and then she died.” Tears burned her eyes. No, she would not cry in front of this woman. Celia didn’t deserve any part of her, even the sad, messed-up parts. Mari deserved all her grief. Not this woman.

With a sudden realization, she looked at the old drugstore milkshake machine that had been Mari’s.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.