Always a McBride by Linda Turner Read Free Book Online Page B

Gus didn’t know why. The man had never loved her or he wouldn’t have walked away from her. As far as Taylor was concerned, the jackass hadn’trespected her, either, or he wouldn’t have had sex with her without protecting her.
    He should have had to answer for that, if nothing else, Taylor thought grimly. It was no more than he deserved. But, no! In this, too, he’d somehow managed to escape the repercussions of his behavior. Taylor knew he was being unreasonable—Gus hadn’t died deliberately so he wouldn’t have to face his illegitimate son—but that’s what it felt like. And it infuriated him that Gus had that much control over his emotions, that this man that he had resented for as long as he could remember could tie him in knots from the grave and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
    What the hell was he going to do now?
    Fuming, unsure what his next move would be, he almost walked right past the library. There was, he thought grimly, no longer any reason to keep up the charade that he was a writer. He might as well go back to the Mountain View Inn, pack his bags, and head back to San Diego. There was nothing he could do here.
    But instead of returning to the inn, he found himself walking up the front steps to the library, after all. This was, he thought bitterly, his one and only chance to find out everything he could about Gus McBride and try to understand what his mother had possibly seen in such a worthless man. Then he planned to go home and forget the man he should have grown up calling Dad ever existed.
    His chiseled face set in grim lines, he stepped inside the library and wasn’t surprised to find it practically deserted. After all, it wasn’t even nine o’clock in the morning. An old woman sat at a desk in the genealogy area, obviously working on a family tree, and a thin man with bottle-thick glasses was comfortably ensconced in an old leather chair in the periodical section, reading the Denver paper. Other than the librarian, who was busy dusting the shelves, they had the place to themselves.
    Which was just the way he wanted it, Taylor thought as he found the local history section and the newspaper archives. He wanted to be left in peace to satisfy his curiosity about Gus, then he was getting the hell out of Liberty Hill.
    Deciding to start with the end of his father’s life and work backwards, he pulled out the newspaper archives and began searching for his obituary. A computer would have made the job go much faster, but the Liberty Hill library was obviously caught in a time warp. There wasn’t a computer anywhere in sight.
    Not that that was a problem, he soon discovered. Even though Gus had died years ago, searching for his obituary wasn’t nearly as difficult as it would have been in a city. Liberty Hill was a small community, and there were only a few deaths recorded in the local paper each week. Finding the obits from twenty years ago only took a matter of minutes.
    GUS MCBRIDE DIES!
    The all-cap headlines of the obituary seemed to jump right off the page and slap him in the face. Taylor stiffened, and just that easily, found himself reading about his father’s life.
    Gus McBride died October 3, 1983, at his ranch in Liberty Hill, at the age of 44. He is survived by his loving wife, Sara J. McBride, children: JosephMcBride, Jane McBride, Zeke McBride, and Merry McBride, and numerous nephews and nieces.
    A member of one of the founding families of Liberty Hill, Gus was president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association from 1979 to 1983, a Boy Scout leader for the last fifteen years of his life, and a deacon in his church. A loving father and husband, he will be sorely missed.
    Visitation will be Tuesday night, October 5, between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., at Liberty Hill Funeral Chapel. Funeral services will be at 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, October 6, at the funeral home, with interment following at the McBride family