The Rancher's Adopted Family by Barbara Hannay Read Free Book Online

family.’
    ‘Really? No one at all?’
    Amy was surprised he knew so little. ‘She was an only child,’ she told him. ‘Her father has passed away, and her mother’s in an aged care facility, and she’s not at all well. Her parents were in their fifties when she wasborn. Apparently, they’d never expected to have a child, and Rachel was a huge surprise.’
    After a bit, he said quietly, ‘That might explain why Rachel was… different .’
    ‘She was different, wasn’t she?’ Amy’s mouth twisted in a wistful smile as she remembered her friend. ‘She was brilliant, a ton of fun, but—yes—different.’
    Seth nodded and looked away quickly, and she wondered if he’d been deeply in love with Rachel. The thought caused an unhappy pang.
    ‘You’re doing a great job with Bella,’ he said.
    ‘It’s no hardship. I love her.’
    His piercing blue gaze swung back to study her for a heart-stopping stretch of time, and then he rose abruptly.
    ‘Thank you,’ he said simply, and she knew their conversation was over.
    They went back inside the house and Amy shivered as breeze from a ceiling fan chilled her damp skin. She felt miserable as she stood outside her bedroom door.
    ‘Goodnight,’ Seth said. ‘I hope you’ll be comfortable.’
    ‘I’m sure I will.’ Then she remembered. ‘Just a minute, Seth. I have something you might like to see.’ She went into the room and fetched a photo album that she’d brought with her, especially for him. As she gave it to him his hands brushed hers and her breath caught as she felt the heat of his skin.
    ‘Thanks,’ he murmured, gripping the album tightly.
    The house was silent, listening.
    He seemed to remember his manners as a host. ‘Are you sure you wouldn’t like something to drink before you turn in?’
    ‘Could I make myself a cup of tea?’
    ‘I can get it for you.’
    ‘No, it’s OK, honestly. I can find my way around the kitchen.’
    ‘Be my guest,’ he said, gesturing down the hallway to the kitchen, and with a curt nod he left her.
     
    Amy’s sense of anticlimax was overwhelming, and a warm shower and a brisk rub down with a luxuriously thick bath towel didn’t help her to feel any better. Standing in her nightgown between the twin beds, she looked down at Bella, sound asleep and blameless, hugging her plush pink pig, her mouth slightly ajar as she slept.
    She felt an urge to climb into the bed and to cuddle the little girl close, seeking comfort and reassurance from her small, warm weight in her arms.
    Have I done the right thing, baby?
    She padded on bare feet down the darkened hall to the kitchen and found an electric jug and the makings for tea. On her way back, mug in hand, she saw light coming from beneath a door just across the hallway.
    Was it Seth’s room?
    The possibility made her skin flush hot.
    Fool.
    In her room, she piled up her pillows and sat in bed in a small pool of lamplight, nursing a mug of hot, sweet tea.
    She thought about Rachel, and was swamped by a tidal wave of grief. If only she hadn’t invited Rachel to the launch party. For the trillionth time, she wished that she could go back into the past and change that night. Rachel had always been so full of life, so brimming with can-do confidence and charisma. She shouldn’t be dead.
    Their friendship had been so strong, an attraction of opposites. Rachel was brilliant and wild and she’d always claimed that Amy was calming and steadying.
    ‘Amy’s my anchor,’ she used to tell people.
    Guys were forever falling in love with Rachel—so much so that she should have had a warning light, like a lighthouse. Amy’s brother, Ryan, had been smitten, but he’d come to his senses eventually and married his sensible, sweet Jane instead.
    For her part, Rachel had loved the attention of men, always had a boyfriend on tap, but somehow she’d managed to stay immune, never really falling in love.
    Until her trip north.
    ‘You should have been there, Ames,’ she’d said, on