Once a Father by Kathleen Eagle Read Free Book Online Page A

“…probably did time somewhere else.”
    â€œWhat about women?”
    â€œSome. Not as many. It’s more like a man thing.”
    â€œReally.”
    He smiled. “Really.”
    Drop it, Mary. Back away quietly.
    Not a chance.
    â€œYou wouldn’t want your daughter to be a soldier?”
    â€œNever thought about it.” He sipped his coffee—which must have been cold by now—pressed his full lips together, apparently mulling it over now that she’d mentioned it. “If I had a daughter, I guess it would be up to her. You want to protect your women and children, seems like.”
    â€œProtect, or control?”
    â€œMy older son never enlisted. The younger one….” He lifted one shoulder. “Didn’t suit him. He went AWOL and got himself booted out.”
    â€œWhere are they?”
    â€œNot too sure,” he said dismissively as he nodded toward her plate and the canned pork and beans she hadn’t touched. “Sorry about the meal. I’m not much of a cook.”
    â€œNo, it’s fine.” She reached out, tipped her plate sideways over the fire and let the beans slide off and sizzle in the low flame. “It’s just that my motherhasn’t given me a chance to get hungry. I’ve been trying to get her to rest, but whenever I turn my back on her, she sneaks into the kitchen and starts rattling those pots and pans.”
    â€œI like that tune. It’s been a while since I heard it.”
    â€œMe, too.”
    â€œWhatever’s handy.”
    â€œI know what you mean. And I’ll get the next round.” She set the blue enamelware plate aside. “It’s not about eating or sleeping here—I’d be fine here—it’s about my mother. I really should…” Tell the truth, Mary. “I’d much rather be here. I’m such a selfish person. I came to be with her for…” The partial truth and nothing but the-tip-of-the-iceberg truth. “Well, for a little while. Ignore everything else and give her the kind of attention she never…”
    She sighed and shook her head, exactly the way he had done a moment ago. He had his stuff, too. Stuff he clearly didn’t want popping out all over the place, which said a lot about him. No doubt in her mind he’d been a good soldier, which was something she still aspired to be, all scrubbed and polished, crisply pressed and neatly buttoned up.
    â€œBut I can’t stay there twenty-four seven,” she said. “I’ll go crazy. I’ll say things, and I’ll…” She glanced toward the round pen. Their mustang stood quietly, his pale ears cocked in their direction as though their conversation mattered to him, too. Mary smiled.“This is good. This will really be good. I’m excited about it, and I know she understands. I’ll be able to stay out of his way if I’m involved in something else. Else where .”
    â€œThat’s good, because I want to start our boy in his territory. No distractions except us. Between us, one or the other should be here.” She turned to him, and he nodded. “Twenty-four seven, just about.”
    â€œThat sounds like the makings of a schedule.”
    â€œI have a meeting tomorrow afternoon.”
    â€œI could be here early if I had a way to get here,” she said cheerfully. “I’m good with schedules.”
    â€œThat makes one of us.”
    Â 
    Logan didn’t mind picking her up, but there seemed to be no shortage of vehicles at the Tutan place—a brand new shortbox pickup sitting in the driveway and an older three-quarter ton backed up to a side door down at the barn—and he wondered why she couldn’t use one of them while she was home. He parked his pickup, knocked on the front door, and remembered the reason.
    â€œI’m here for Mary,” Logan said through the screen in the top of the storm door.
    â€œShe’s