Redheaded Stranger: A Cowboy Love Story (Bluebonnet, Texas) by Amie Stuart Read Free Book Online Page B

been a long day, he was tired, and stuck in the last place he wanted to be.
    "You are home."
    "This isn’t my home anymore," he snapped.
    "A shame you feel that way," she sighed, adjusting her position. "I don't think I’ve ever felt more like a part of a family than I have since I married your brother. And your sister is a sweet girl."
    He cringed at the word sister .
    "She reminds me of Angi."
    "I thought you said she was sweet?"
    Betti chuckled. "She is. Rene follows her around like a puppy and begs to go with her constantly, and Delaney never complains. Ever." She stopped and studied him until he was ready to squirm. "She’s the closest Rene will ever have to a big sister. Maybe even the closest she’ll ever have to a sibling at all."
    He stayed silent still, not willing to talk about Delaney when all he’d come here to do was apologize.
    "I know your brother and I haven’t been married for very long, so I haven’t been around for very long, but I do know this hasn’t been easy for your family. Hell, your mother is Maggie Kendall, honey. Her grandfather was the mayor. So was her father. She’s practically royalty in these parts."
    Always had been. He hadn’t missed that part of living in Bluebonnet anymore than he’d missed the smell of cow shit.
    "And you know how people are."
    He did. Social media had nothing on small towns for spreading gossip.
    "It hasn’t been easy for any of them. Of course, you wouldn’t know about any of this since you haven’t been here."

Chapter Six: Keilana
    M aggie had given us the largest empty bedroom, saying it had once been Zander and Zack’s and that it came with a connecting bathroom. Delaney was across the hall in Ty’s old room.
    I’d also gotten to meet her and found her to be a wonderful, sweet young woman whose seriousness was balanced by a quirky sense of humor. She’d shown up in time for dinner, shocked, flustered and obviously dismayed at my presence and the knowledge that her archenemy was on his way. I couldn’t say I blamed her after the hateful things he’d said about her and her mother.
    I groaned inwardly, wondering what sort of first Christmas Darrach might have, then chuckled to myself at how totally spoiled rotten he’d be by the time I eventually took him home. After five hours in the car, his afternoon nap had lasted all of forty-five minutes. Then he’d spend the afternoon with his grandfather—who’d promised me no riding horses yet—while exploring the barn. Jerrod said he’d squealed and patted the horses noses like a real trooper. Plus there were puppies. Just in time for dinner, he'd handed a hungry Darrach back to me complete with dirt on the knees of his little jeans. And then Alex had shown up.
    By the time I'd finished chewing Alex out, pried Darrach from his grandfather’s clutches, got him bathed and stretched out on the quilt-covered bed for his final feeding of the night, I was exhausted. So exhausted I barely moved when Alex moved Darrach to his crib and climbed in next to me, damp and warm from his shower.
    So exhausted, we didn’t even talk. Not that we had much to talk about at this point.
    I didn’t move again until Darrach’s five a.m. feeding, when I gathered him close and propped a pillow behind him, then dozed while he nursed. He squawked, demanding more, waking me, and I rolled over, taking him with me, and dozed off again.
    I watched through drowsy eyes as Alex curled up against Darrach’s back and draped an arm across us both. Curling up in bed together to feed the baby was a weekend ritual we’d practiced from day one. Alex had insisted on it from the minute we brought Darrach home. He'd also done the majority of the burping and diaper changing.
    I was still too tired to ask him how things had gone with Betti. Unfortunately, once Darrach finished nursing, he decided it was time to play, rolling over and beating a fist on his father.
    "Darrach, no," I murmured, pulling his hand back.
    "He’s alright. I got