Lonestar Secrets by Colleen Coble Read Free Book Online

kid. By the time Faith was born, the physician had been ancient.
    "Don't you think I should have been the one to make the decision about what was best for me and my daughters?" Shannon demanded. She swiped at an errant tear that trickled down her cheek.
    "I was just trying to help," Verna whispered.

    "What was so important about making sure Blair and Jack had a baby?" Shannon asked, her voice trembling. "What gave you the right to play God?"
    "Blair had tried for four years to have a baby," Jack said. "It was a miracle she carried Faith. Er, our baby. She suffered five miscarriages in those four years, and the doctor didn't think she could carry a child." He winced, remembering the trauma of that time. The tears, the sullen anger and despair he'd tried to coax Blair through.
    "I'm sorry," Shannon said. "For Blair, for all of us." She sounded as though she really meant it.
    "I meant no harm,"Verna whispered.
    "How are we going to sort this mess out?" Shannon muttered, more to herself than to Jack.
    Jack glanced at her. "You want to go somewhere and talk?" he asked.
    Her head came up and she stared at him. "What will talk accom- plish?You don't want to give up Faith, and I'm not giving her up either." She blinked at the moisture in her eyes. "I was cheated of her first five years. From the time Kylie could talk, she's spoken of an imaginary friend her sister. She hurts when Faith has hurt. The girls have been cheated of their time too. Last night was just one time of many that Kylie has told me something about her sister being sick or hurt."
    He'd heard of the twin connection. Faith had an imaginary friend, too, and he had indulged her fantasy, never suspecting it was real. He sighed and took off his cowboy hat, then ran his hand through his hair and put it back on. What could they do? He saw no way out of this.
    "We have to fix this," Shannon said. "But I don't know how."
    Fix it? Jack didn't like the sound of those words. "Do you want to put the girls through a custody battle? Let's talk about it."
    "We both know what kind of man you are, Jack MacGowan."

    He winced. "I was a kid, Shannon."
    "You were eighteen. Hardly a kid anymore."
    "Look, I've apologized. You want me to do it again?" But they both knew a simple apology would never wipe away his guilt.
    Her fingers curled around the strap on her purse. "Where do you want to go talk?"
    "How about the drugstore cafe in town? I'll buy you breakfast."
    She glanced at her watch. "We both have to be out at the mustang training in forty-five minutes."
    "The camp is only a five-minute drive from town. We'd have a spell to talk." He needed time to think this out, figure out a solution that let him keep his daughter. "Wait, I've got a better idea. You think about your solution, and I'll do the same. We'll meet at the cafe for dinner."
    "I have a daughter to get home to," she pointed out.
    So do I hovered on his tongue, but they both knew his claim to his daughter was as flimsy as butterfly wings. "I don't like to train longer than a couple of hours at a time. How about we take a break for lunch?"
    "I packed my lunch."
    "Enrica packed me one too. We could find a place to eat where we won't be disturbed."
    "Fine." She rushed for the door.
    Jack wanted to feel sorry for her, but she stood poised to strip him of his daughter, and he couldn't find the grace not to blame her. He peered out the window and heard the door to her jeep slam. Couldn't she just be happy Faith was being raised by a doting father? She had another daughter. The tires spit dirt when she took off.
    "Am I in trouble?" Verna asked in a weak voice.
    He saw no sign of remorse in her. She'd said she was sorry, but he knew she was only sorry to be caught. "If lawyers get involved, there may be a lawsuit."

    "Will I go to jail?"
    "It's possible. It was a criminal thing to do." Pain began to pulse behind his eyes, and he pressed the bridge of his nose.
    She twisted her hands in her lap. "It seemed right at the time."
    There