The Cowboy's Family Christmas

All she could do was stare at him. “Deserted you? How... Where...” She shook her head, trying to settle her confusion. “You were the one who did the leaving. I sent you text after text and all I got from you was rejection.” The old hurt spiraled up and she had to fight down the pain and, to her humiliation, the tears.

“Rejection? Texts? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The puzzlement on his face was almost her undoing. He seemed genuinely disconcerted.

“I feel like there’s this gap between us I don’t know how to bridge,” he said.

Then, to her dismay, he took that one step separating them and fingered a strand of hair away from her face. She closed her eyes, her own emotions in flux. Her hand twitched at her side, longing to come up and cover his. To reconnect with someone she couldn’t forget.

But then she heard Austin cry out and she was doused with icy reality.

“I should go check on him,” she said, moving away from him.

“Can I come with you? I haven’t seen him yet today.”

His casual request was like an arrow in her heart. How could he act this way around Austin? How could he simply relegate him to one corner of his life? Like he didn’t matter?

Her indignation and frustrated fury with him rose up. But behind that came a quiet question.

Maybe if he saw Austin face-to-face again he might relent. Maybe seeing him again would make a difference.

Really? If seeing him yesterday hadn’t, why would it now?

Her mind did battle with herself as she recalled his coldhearted texts of rejection. The replies she typed out with trembling fingers on her cell phone, alone, pregnant and uncertain of her future.

“Please?” he asked, the pleading note in his voice easing away her resistance.

“Of course you can,” she said, determined to be an adult about this, tossing out one last-ditch effort to make him own up to his responsibilities. “He’s your son after all.”

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.