Mary Connealy by Lassoed in Texas Trilogy Read Free Book Online

close against the man’s side, said, “Yes, he is.”
    “He is?” Beth asked in wonder.
    “I am?” The man pulled his arm out from under Sophie, and her head dropped with a
thud
on the hard, packed hay.
    Sally spoke securely from her little nest of warmth and comfort. “He’s our pa. I’ve thought it over and decided God sent him back to us. Why not? He rosed Lazarus from the dead. Jesus can do anything, and God knows we need a pa.”
    Sophie sat up and looked from Sally to the man to see what he’d have to say about being declared resurrected and gifted with four children and a wife.
    He was no help at all.
    “I’ve been raised from the dead?” He spoke as if he had trouble accepting it but was willing to take Sally at her word. “He’s not raised from the dead, Sally.”
    “Why not?”
    “It just doesn’t happen, honey. Pa’s gone, and that’s that.”
    “It does too happen.” Sally’s voice rose. “What about Lazarus? God can do anything!”
    “Yes,” Sophie said. “God can do anything. But He just—He just—doesn’t…do things like this…very often.”
    Mandy said smugly to Sally, “Why do you think it was a big deal to raise Lazarus up? It’s ’cuz it doesn’t get done very much.”
    “So that means I’m dead?” He rubbed his forehead. “Or I was at one time?”
    Sophie felt kind of sorry for the poor, injured man. “No, you’ve never been dead.” Then she thought of a way to solve the whole problem. “Who are you?”
    All of them froze.
    Sophie waited patiently.
    Sally held her breath, hoped etched on her face.
    Beth and Mandy exchanged wondering glances.
    Laura…well, Laura tried to put her foot in her mouth and look at Hector at the same time.
    “Didn’t you just say my name was Lazarus?”
    Sally patted his chest. “No, that’s someone else who was raised from the dead, like you.”
    The man said uncertainly, “I—I don’t know. I can’t seem to remember anything. Except…except last night I woke up in heaven.”

    The minute he said that, he knew it was the wrong thing to say, because these females were who he’d seen there. So he must not have been in heaven at all. He must have been right here.
    Another reason it was the wrong thing to say was it made the lady mad.
    “You’re not helping a bit.” She crossed her arms and glared.
    He shifted his weight and groaned from the pain, and the lady looked satisfied. No, she was definitely
not
an angel.
    The girl who’d announced breakfast said, “Let’s go eat. We’ll talk this out in the house where it’s warm.”
    The lady stood slowly. He heard her knees cracking. The little girl in his arms seemed content to stay where she was. The lady rounded him, reached down, snagged the little girl, and pulled her gently but firmly to her feet. Then she bent over him and put her arm under his shoulders. “You took quite a fall last night. Let’s see if we can get you up.”
    He leaned on her as he tried to get to his feet. His chest was in agony. His head felt like it was full of angry gold miners, trying to chisel their way out. His knees seemed to have the consistency of apple jelly. He wobbled once, and the lady put her arm around his waist and helped him balance. All three of the girls reached for him. He was surrounded by swirling skirts and gentle hands and the sweet sounds of someone worrying about him. He reveled in it, until he thought his heart might break from the pleasure. Maybe he
was
in heaven. Or maybe the angels had been allowed to come back to earth with him.
    The oldest girl, the one with the baby in her arms, caught him around the waist on the side the lady wasn’t on. The little one—he remembered she’d wept over him in the night, and he wanted to hug her close and thank her for caring so much—she wrapped her arms around his middle and clung to him, as if she’d bear every ounce of his weight if he needed her to. Her head hit him right at his belly. She turned her worried face up and looked