To Win Her Love by Mackenzie Crowne Read Free Book Online Page B

she’ll have to wait a long time to see you. It’s nice your daddy is there to keep her company, don’t you think?”
    Identical heads of inky black curls bobbed in agreement against her chest.
    “Timmy said we’re orphans.”
    “What?” Gracie broke the hug to look down at Angel.
    “Orphans are kids who don’t have mommies and daddies because they went to heaven. Timmy said orphans live in,” she scrunched her nose in concentration, “an orpha… an orphan jij.”
    Of all the…”Oh, baby. Who is Timmy?”
    “We had a sleepover at Hanna’s house,” Charlie supplied. “Timmy is her big brother. He’s nine.”
    “Well, don’t listen to him. You have me and Miss Mary, and you’ll live right here on the farm.”
    “With you?” they asked in tandem.
    Oh, God. She didn’t want to give them false hope when she didn’t know what would happen in the next three hours, much less at the end of three months, but they needed reassurance.
    “Would you like that?”
    “Oh, yes!” A bright smile spread over Charlie’s face.
    Angel’s smile came more slowly and was more wary than bright. “ We have a big brother, too.”
    “His name is Jake,” Charlie added, “and he’s not little like Timmy. He’s big.”
    Very big.
    “Big brothers are supposed to live with their sisters. How come he doesn’t live with us?” Angel’s grumbled question came across as more of a complaint.
    A tricky question Gracie would have a better idea how to answer in—she glanced at the clock—two hours and thirty-eight minutes. She pasted on a smile she didn’t feel. “Well, he’s a grownup. Grownup brothers don’t always live with their sisters.”
    “Can we go visit him?” Charlie jumped to her feet to race to the coffee table in the center of the room. Murphy scrambled after her. Giggling at the dog’s interference, she shoved his nose aside to pull a sheet of paper from the drawer. She returned to hold out a crayon drawing. Primary colors depicted two little girls with a larger boy between them. “I drew him a picture.”
    Gracie pretended to study the drawing with interest, a difficult task with tears threatening. The evidence of Charlie’s fascination with the brother she’d yet to meet didn’t bode well for Gracie’s chances if Jake chose to meet Pete’s demands. As for taking the girls to see him if he didn’t… She wasn’t sure that would be a good idea. Jake hadn’t exactly been thrilled to learn of the existence of his “rugrat” half siblings.
    “We’ll see.”
    A frown wrinkled Charlie’s brow. “We’ll see means no.”
    “No, we’ll see means maybe. He’s a busy man, Charlie.”
    The frown morphed into a scowl and jolted Gracie. A facsimile of that scowl had been on the front page of Sports Daily on Monday morning and again in the formal living room across the hall yesterday. Other than their eyes, so like Sarah’s, the twins were pure Pete, with jet-black hair and warm complexions. Their uncanny resemblance to Jake was unnerving.
    “Maybe we can get him to come here to the farm for a visit sometime.”
    Charlie’s scowl blinked out, replaced with excitement. She skipped from foot to foot. “We can show him our room, Angel, and he can see how fast I ride my bike. I want to take off my training wheels. Miss Mary says I’m ready. So, can I?”
    “If Miss Mary thinks you’re ready, sure.”
    Charlie immediately ran for the closet tucked beneath the staircase.
    “Wait, baby. Not tonight. It’s dark outside.”
    She skidded to a stop and turned. “I’m not afraid of the dark. I don’t even have a night-light anymore.”
    Gracie smiled and rose to her feet. “You’re getting so big, both of you. But your bike’s in the barn and there’s snow on the ground.”
    Charlie cocked her head and pursed her lips. Her eyes brightened. “Then we could go sledding. Miss Mary took us shopping for new snowsuits ’cause our old ones are too small. They’re pink! Do you think he has a