Between Strangers by Linda Conrad Read Free Book Online Page A

question had been asked with a naive stupidity she would soon regret.
    He blew out a breath, but went right into his explanation. “It took my mother’s people a long time to hear of her death. She had only distant relatives left living on the Navajo reservation in northeast Arizona. When they learned she was gone and that my father had abandoned me to his mother, they made an appeal to the tribal authorities to have me returned tomy ancestors’ homeland for instruction in the way of the clan.
    â€œSeems they had both tribal and federal law on their side,” he continued with a sour look on his face. “It took them a few years, but at the age of thirteen I was sent to live in Arizona and learn the way of the Dine.”
    â€œMy goodness. You were sent there? It sounds like you went to a prison.”
    The corners of his mouth curled up, and Marcy wasn’t sure whether the movement was meant as a snarl or a smile. She wished back the words but knew it was too late.
    â€œIt was no worse than the boarding schools had been,” he confessed. “At least I knew they wanted me.”
    â€œOh. Well, that’s good, right?”
    Lance rolled his shoulders and she could see the tension in his muscles. “It was good that I learned Navajo culture. About how the land and the family are important and must be protected. I’m glad I know now about the ceremonies—and the Navajo view of life.
    â€œAnd I never would’ve become an expert horseman if I hadn’t gone there,” he went on. “Those lessons gave me the rodeo, and believe me, that was one of the best things that ever happened to me.”
    The words ripped out of him, making Marcy think that what he hadn’t said was more important. He hadn’t said that he’d found the home he’d been yearning for, and she suddenly realized he’d said absolutely nothing about friendship or love.
    In a flash of insight, she realized that he had never belonged anywhere. Not in his father’s world of travel, books and manners. And not in his mother’s world of land, ancient culture and ceremony.
    Her heart ached for him, but she didn’t know how to let him know what she felt. Marcy was sure it hadn’t been sympathy he had wanted when he told her all this. Hoping with all her might that what he’d really wanted from her was friendship, she sat back in her seat and closed her eyes. She’d finally figured out that there were times when it would be best to just keep her mouth shut.
    Â 
    Lance fiddled with the radio, but all he was getting was static. That pretty much summed up the bulk of his life so far.
    He slid a glance over his shoulder to check on Angie. Her woolly hat had slipped down over one eye as she snoozed peacefully in her car seat. His heart thumped at the sight of the precious little darlin’.
    He’d recently come to the conclusion that children were a big part of what he wanted out of marriage and making a home. He wanted his own baby girl who would look up at him in awe the same way that Angie had done last night.
    The powerful ache of wanting a home and family of his own suddenly became so overwhelming that he was forced to find something else to think about. He turned his head to check on Angie’s mother, who’d fallen asleep in the front passenger seat.
    But the pain of wanting most certainly did not dimwith a look in that direction. It just changed in intensity.
    She looked all soft and warm…and sexy as hell. Her fine, blond hair was tousled and curled around her face. Her mouth was in a smug, sleepy little pout, with the rosy bottom lip puffed out. The picture she made was of a beautiful sleeping woman who’d been recently and thoroughly loved.
    A flash of the same desire he’d felt when he’d told her that he’d take her and the baby to Cheyenne tugged at his gut and sent his mind spiraling down the wrong path. The expression on her face