A Family to Come Home To (Saddle Falls) by Sharon De Vita Read Free Book Online Page A

no way anyone could understand what I’m feeling because, to tell you the truth, darlin’, I sure as hell don’t understand it myself.”
    The impact of his words had Hannah rethinking what she was going to say. “Jesse, I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “It’s just, Tommy has spent twenty years looking for you, grieving for you, and I don’t want to see him hurt.”
    Jesse nodded. “I understand that, Hannah, and I’m not here to hurt the man. Truly.” He shrugged. “But you’ve got to understand, it wasn’t me he was grieving for, it was the boy who was his grandson, a little boy named Jesse who disappeared twenty years ago. And from the moment he disappeared, that boy was gone. He became someone else. Grew up to be someone else. That someone else is me, Hannah, Jesse Garland. Try as I might, I can’t change the past nor can I change who and what I am.”
    “Jesse, please, just promise me you won’t hurt him.” The pleading in her eyes tugged at something deep inside Jesse and made him reach out and gently lay his hand against her cheek.
    “Darlin’, I wish I could promise that, I truly do,” he said quietly, his gaze firmly on hers. “But I’m not a man who makes a promise he isn’t certain he can keep.”
    Her eyes flashed like the fires of hell and her fists balled at her hips. “Jesse, I’m warning you, watch your step. I’ll not stand by and watch you deliberately hurt Tommy.” She took another step closer, her eyes gleaming with intensity. “I mean it.”
    He merely stared at her, surprised by the depth of her fierceness, the loyalty and love he saw shimmering off her in waves. He admired a woman who knew the value of loyalty and honesty, as well as a woman who could love that deeply, freely, intensely.
    Unconsciously, he glanced at her hands, saw they were ringless and wondered about Riley’s father. Again. This was a woman who wouldn’t take love, loyalty or honesty lightly. For some reason he found it warmed something within his scarred heart.
    After his mother’s deception, he’d feared that all women were dishonest about love, loyalty and family. Hell, if he hadn’t been able to trust his own mother, how could he ever trust any other woman?
    Maybe this woman was a woman worth trusting.
    It was a shame he wasn’t going to be around long enough to find out.
    “Well then, Hannah,” he said softly, never taking his gaze off hers as he settled his Stetson more comfortably on his head. “I guess I’ll consider myself properly warned.”

Chapter Three
     
    T ommy Ryan was nervous.
    He hadn’t paced this much since the impending birth of his last great-grandchild, but then again, he thought as he paused on the front porch and cocked his head to see if he’d heard a car, it wasn’t every day a man was reunited with a grandson missing for twenty years.
    With a sigh of impatience, Tommy shook his head as he continued to pace the long front porch of the main ranch house he’d built nearly fifty years ago. He’d waited twenty years for this day; he supposed he could wait a bit longer. But it was hard, he realized with a self-indulgent chuckle. Very hard. He felt like one of the little lads waiting for Christmas morning to come.
    Lifting his head, he glanced around at all that was his and he couldn’t help but smile, a smile of pride and accomplishment.
    He’d arrived in this country from Ireland with little more than the clothes on his back and a fierce determination to build something of his own. An empire, of course, but more importantly, a family.
    A man’s wealth and his true worth would always be his family, he thought, glancing at the empty road again and resisting the urge to sigh impatiently.
    He’d accomplished everything he’d ever dreamed of, needed. He had more wealth than any man had a want for, and more possessions than any one man could crave, but through it all, he’d lost one of the most important parts of his life: his youngest grandson, Jesse.
    Cursing his