Do Not Forsake Me by Rosanne Bittner Read Free Book Online Page B

stood watching. The doctor went inside, and he could hear a child’s voice yell “Daddy!” as another slightly older child called out, “Uncle Brian! Is my dad back?”
    â€œHe’ll be here tomorrow, Stevie. He stopped at the Donavans’.”
    The lovely silhouette of a young woman graced the doorway, and then the door closed.
    Jeff sighed with frustration. He walked up the street to what he’d been told was Jake Harkner’s house. Across the street was a small stucco home he’d learned belonged to Lloyd. The whole family lived a stone’s throw from each other.
    Jake’s frame house was lovely, painted yellow with white trim. There was a white picket fence around a lawn, and rosebushes that probably took a lot of work to keep green in this unholy, dry, still barely settled country.
    Notorious outlaw lives in a house that totally belies the kind of man who dwells within. He had no doubt all the neatness and frills were due to Miranda Harkner. Jake certainly didn’t seem the type who would care about such things. Right now, the house was dark and quiet. Jeff couldn’t help wondering what went on behind closed doors with a man like Jake Harkner, but from what he’d seen in the street, the man was very attentive to his wife. He hurried back to his hotel room to scribble more notes where there was more light.
    Visited a brothel on his way home. He is a man of confusing contrasts but one who appears to be very much loved by his family…and his wife . I am trying to determine why.

Five
    Lloyd wasn’t quite sure why he felt nervous. He’d been seeing Katie off and on for most of the winter and into spring. If nothing else, they’d become good friends. Still, this was different. This was total commitment. What he wanted to do meant truly moving on from memories of Beth, and those memories were still painful. He watched Katie approach the wooden bench where he sat waiting a few yards beyond the horse barn. He’d told Pat where he’d be and asked him to have Katie come out to talk.
    God, she was pretty. Fact was, Katie Donavan Lamont had pretty much every quality any man could want in a wife. She’d changed into a pink dress, and the color made her red hair look even more beautiful. She reminded him of flowers, all pink and green and red and white and colorful. The dress fit her slender waist in a way that told him the body underneath would feel good next to a man at night, and he’d ached for that kind of companionship for a long time now. He’d been with a couple of the whores at Dixie’s place a time or two, but that was different. That was just physical relief. He longed for the kind of love his parents shared…longed for the total satisfaction of taking a woman because he ached for the woman herself, not just the thrill of sexual pleasure. A man and wife ought to share hopes and dreams and souls.
    Katie stopped a few feet away. “Father told me you were waiting here to talk.”
    Lloyd rose and reached out his hand. “Come sit down by me.” He squeezed her hand gently as she sat beside him on the bench. “You look really pretty in pink.”
    Katie smiled and looked away. “Thank you.”
    Lloyd hesitated, keeping hold of her hand. “I guess you probably know what I want to talk about.”
    Katie put her other hand over his. “Maybe. But I don’t want to make a fool of myself, so you’d better tell me yourself.”
    Lloyd couldn’t help a smile. “Well, I thought a lot on this trip…about how a man is better off with a good woman by his side.” He squeezed her hand. “I see a lot of strength and understanding in you, Katie, and we’ve already grown close, close enough that I…I’d like you to be my wife. I know our whole situation is a little different, both of us being widowed…the danger of what I do. But this job won’t last forever, Katie. And