Hometown Hearts. Jillian Hart
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calling. It’s the best way to spend your life, in my humble opinion. Taking care of animals all day, every day. Complete and total heaven.” She flashed him a smile because he looked as if he needed one. Maybe he didn’t realize his wounds were showing; then again, she had a knack for sensing them.
“Guess I will see you all at home.” She tossed him an encouraging smile. “Mrs. G. has been cooking and baking up a storm. Her sons were all too busy for her to visit, so she’s spending the holiday with us, and can she cook! It will be a treat, I promise.”
“Dad.” The window rolled down, and Jenny poked out her head. “How much longer? Can we go yet?”
“Patience, Jennifer.”
He would have sounded gruff except for the faint twinkle in the doctor’s eyes—really amazing brown eyes.
Not that she should be noticing. Adam Stone wasn’t as dour as he wanted everyone to think as he turned those dazzling eyes on her.
“Thanks for clearing the road.” He held his hand up to shade his eyes. “You may have saved my car from serious damage.”
“No problem. I noticed just a little spittle, nothing to worry about.” She backed away, long locks bouncing. “If this ever happens again, and in this part of the country it probably will, don’t let them near your car. They can be quite enthusiastic.”
“I noticed.”
“Get out and lead them off the road. It helps if you have something for them to eat. Oh, and call the sheriff. Ford Sherman knows how to deal with them. He was a city boy and he learned. I imagine you can be taught, too.”
“Me, taught? That is one rumor never proven to be true,” he quipped, surprised by the flutter of lightheartedness behind his sternum.
“I have faith in you, Adam.” She climbed into her dark green truck and the tinted windshield hid all but the faintest silhouette of her behind the wheel, lovely and brilliant and amazing.
Not that he thought so on a personal level. It was merely an observation.
“Dad! We’re waiting,” Jenny called out the window. “It’s getting hot sitting here.”
“Yeah, Dad,” Julianna chimed in. “Aunt Cady said we were going on a horse ride. She promised they wouldn’t leave without us. It’s gonna be a real trail ride!”
The green pickup passed in the oncoming lane with a toot of the horn and a wave of one slender hand. He couldn’t move or respond as he watched Cheyenne’s truck go by, engine rumbling, equipment in the bed rattling, the trailer hitch glinting as it caught on a ray of sun.
He was in shadow. Life had become incredibly serious and the wounds from living had cut deep. He felt darker as Cheyenne’s pickup pulled into the lane ahead of him and rolled farther away. Over the past few years, he’d been consumed with the demands of running a household, raising his kids and meeting the challenges of his career. He hadn’t stopped to think about the man he had become.
He didn’t like who he was turning out to be. He’d lost hope, he’d lost touch with his soul, he’d forgotten what living was for.
Sunshine tumbled merrily across brilliant green pastures dotted with daisies. The cows across the road chorused a string of pleading moos in one last-ditch effort for attention. Life was big and his spirit had become so small. He wasn’t quite sure when that had happened.
How did I get off track, Lord?
Sorry for it, he folded his six-foot-plus frame behind the wheel, closed the door and followed the ribbon of winding country road, fearing the answers he would get to that question.
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