Sleigh Bells in Valentine Valley by Emma Cane Read Free Book Online Page B

been from the beginning. She’d been scared to death on discovering her pregnancy. Rather than backing off or getting angry, he’d stared down at her stomach with the silliest, most tender smile growing wide on his face as he’d touched her. “Our baby?”
    She’d told him it would change everything, that she was scared, that everyone would be upset with them—and weren’t they too young to be parents? But Tony, as usual, had been so calm, so sure it would all work out. He’d been at her side, ready to get married—when she’d been dazed and frightened and worried about how she could be a mom and study at the same time. Though she’d been right in her fears, she’d never regretted the choice, and she loved Ethan more than she’d imagined possible.
    Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward to join Tony and Ethan’s conversation—the three of them together was such a rarity—but Ethan just gave her a quick nod, waved at a cousin, and left, Barney at his heels. She watched them walk away.
    She wasn’t sure what her expression showed, but Tony cleared his throat and said, “The kids are having a pool tournament in the basement. It’s nothing personal.”
    She sighed. “I’m telling myself that a lot lately.”
    She caught Jim’s frown as he passed, and he paused, saying, “Is everything okay?”
    But he was looking pointedly at Tony—as if Tony had been the cause of her bad mood.
    â€œOf course everything’s okay,” she hastened to assure Jim, surprised and touched at his protectiveness.
    Tony lifted his beer toward Jim as if in a toast. Jim nodded, but he wasn’t exactly smiling as he moved away.
    â€œSorry,” Kate said awkwardly.
    Tony shrugged. “Nothing to be sorry about. At least Jim and I speak to each other since the divorce—unlike you and my sister,” he reminded her mildly.
    She winced, but she didn’t want to talk about Lyndsay. “I’d like to hang out with Ethan more while I’m here, but I’m getting the impression he’d rather things didn’t change.”
    â€œI don’t know about that. He’s not rigidly fixed on a schedule.”
    â€œUnlike me?” she countered.
    He sighed. “I didn’t say that.”
    â€œNo, you didn’t,” she said with her own sigh. “Don’t mind me, I’m not feeling like myself.”
    He nodded, dipped a cracker in the artichoke dip, and pointed it at her. “It’s not just you, you know. Ethan’s pulling back from me, too. When we go snowboarding, he usually goes off with friends and leaves his old man to fend for himself.”
    She reluctantly smiled, looking at Tony out of the corner of her eye. Old man? He was self-deprecating, but to her, his looks had only improved with “age.” There was strength, masculinity, and confidence to Tony that always made female heads turn. Even after all these years, she wasn’t immune to it. He had prominent brows and a square jaw that seemed all manly, not to mention a mouth that—
    Enough of that . “Do you remember when Ethan was three, and he wandered away from us at the park?”
    Tony gave an exaggerated shudder. “How could I forget? He wanted to play on the swings but didn’t bother to tell us. Those were the worst five minutes of my life, as we ran around the pond and looked for little footprints at the water’s edge.”
    â€œMine, too.” They’d had other bad moments, like when Ethan had broken his arm snowboarding, but nothing compared to that moment of terror when they’d looked into each other’s frightened eyes and thought they’d lost the heart of their family.
    She’d let her family go not a year later, she thought starkly, sadly. She met Tony’s eyes, and with an unspoken agreement, they moved off in different directions.
    Tony told himself he felt